Passion is the word which most comes to mind when asked to describe Spain. Hence most of the must-do activities in Spain are passionate – moving tours around great works of art, running with the bulls in Pamplona and seeing, or participating in, the flamenco dance. Here’s a list of 15 things that everyone should do in this unique country.
1. Go see Pablo Picasso’s Guernica painting
Pablo Picasso’s Guernica - Photo: Carlos V
Modern day Spain is still very much defined by the civil war which tore it apart in the 1930s. Picasso’s huge and troubling artwork captures the anguish of that time when Spanish Nationalist Forces asked the Germans and Italians to bomb Guernica. If you ever wonder why the enmity between Madrid and Barcelona is so strong, it is all summed up in the writhing faces and tortured animals that Picasso has painted in his Cubist style.
2. Visit the Golden Triangle of Art
Madrid's Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía - Photo: raelala
Guernica is housed in the Museo Reina Sofia in the Madrid city centre, part of the Golden Triangle of art galleries and museums. Take time to visit them all as they contain some of the world’s foremost artworks.
3. Have fun at La Tomatina
La Tomatina in Buñol - Photo: manuesco1946
Never was a food fight so much fun. This annual festival is held in Buñol near Valencia and celebrates the ripening of the tomato harvest. Thousands of revellers get together in their worst clothes to throw tomatoes at each other. There is also music, fireworks and a paella cooking contest.
4. Attend the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona
Running of the Bulls in Pamplona - Photo: int_aus
You would have to be crazy to want to participate, but equally crazy to miss the chance of seeing it. Brave Spanish men queue in the streets for a glorious chance to outrun huge wild bulls. The ‘encierro’ lasts nine days and with many injuries this is not for the weak of stomach.
5. Dance at the Sonar Music Festival
Sonar Music Festival in Barcelona - Photo: Fabio Mergulhao
Barcelona is one of the hippest cities in the world and the Sonar music festival is at the forefront of modern day electronic music production.
6. Explore Barcelona
Casa Batlló in Barcelona - Photo: MorBCN
When you are not getting down to the beats, take the time to wander around this incredible city. From the skeletal buildings of Art Nouveau architect Gaudí to the massive Camp Nou football stadium, Barcelona is unbelievably impressive.
7. Experience the Flamenco in Andalusia
A Spanish flamenco dancer - Photo: flamenco_cs
Probably the most hypnotic dance form in Spain, the Flamenco is comprised of the Cante (song), Toque (guitar) and Baile (dance). The singing is melancholy with a lot of wailing, foot stamping and clacking of castanets.
8. Party in the Balearic Island of Ibiza
Sunset at San Antonio, Ibiza - Photo: ST33VO
Pivotal in the creation of dance music over the last two decades, Ibiza puts on a show like nowhere else. Not only are their incredible clubs like Manumission, Space and Pacha but Ibiza has amazing beach-side scenery where you can watch the sunset with a glass of sangria.
9. Visit the Alhambra in Granada
The Alhambra in Granada - Photo: La Vieja Sirena
Spain retains many beautiful buildings from the period of Moorish occupation and Alhambra is perhaps the finest of them. This old fortress has exquisite decoration, courtyards and gardens.
10. Enjoy the Costa Brava
Cliffs near Aigua Blava - Photo: SBA73
Who could resist visiting the Rugged Coast? The Costa Brava gives an alternative to the crowded beaches in the south. This is a place for walking rather than sunbathing and is an area of outstanding natural beauty.
11. Walk the Way of St. James
One of the many routes of the Way of St. James - Photo: Nós da Montanha
After Italy, Spain has the second highest number of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Among them is the Way of St. James pilgrim route in Santiago de Compostela. Among the most meaningful walks you will ever take.
12. Experience Cadiz
The beautiful city of Cadiz - Photo: Portiman!
Cadiz in the south west is the oldest city in Western Europe. The best time to go is for their world famous carnival in the spring when the streets are alive with all sorts of costumed groups.
13. Go to the Semana Santa Festival
A man wearing a capirote for the Semana Santa - Photo: ggmackem
The Semana Santa festival at Easter is also worth seeing with incredible candlelit processions. Málaga is one of the most exciting places to watch the festivities.
14. See Mount Teide
Mount Teide is the third largest volcano in the world - Photo: Axel
This towering volcano is Spain’s highest peak and is part of a large national park in Tenerife. At over 3,000 metres high you can even see the other Canary Islands in the distance.
15. Eat tapas and drink wine
A tapas bar in Barcelona - Photo: A@lbi
After all that you’ll need a breather so try Spain’s special tapas, small dishes of local delicacies like fried calamares, olives and cheeses. Best washed down with a good Spanish wine like Rioja.
Have you ever been to Spain? What would you recommend doing in this beautiful country? Make a comment and let everybody know!
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I suggest Grenada for tapas because for every drink you order, you get a free plate of tapas, sometimes you can even choose what you get! Basic beer or tinto de verano costs 2 euros. I always say that in Granada, you can be drunk and filled for only 10 euros!
I would have added something about Don Quixotte… Toledo, or Consuegra, maybe?
Cheers!
Just like in Granada, in León you get a free tapa with every drink you buy. In these cities, on friday and saturday, many people don’t dinner.
My favorite place to visit in Spain is San Sebastian. It has amazing tapas bars, restaurants, nightclubs and beautiful beaches. Try and visit when the fireworks festival is on. I love Spain!
I love these stupid lists
Can you tell me where is exactly VOLCANO Teide in the picture?
I can’t see it!!!!
In Cordoba there are also tapas ando I want suggest you visit this city, specially The Great Mosque of Cordova (it is spelled Córdoba in Spanish, Cordoue in French and Cordova in English).
I suggest Benasque, a little village in the mountains (Pirinees) in the north of Spain in an area called Aragon. A great place, a hiden valley that you must visit.
That’s the typical… but Spain is more than this, there’s a lot of beutiful places to visit, flamenco and bulls is a small portion of spain’s travel options.
Guggenheim Musem at Bilbao
The Oceanographic at Valencia
Hercules Tower at A Coruña
Las Medula’s Roman Gold Mine at Carucedo
Sepulveda’s Duraton River and National Park
Segovia’s Roman Aqueduct
Naranco de Bulnes Mountain and Covadonga Lakes at Asturias, where you can drink his natural apple cider…
World’s bigger Templar Castle at Ponferrada
Do a favor to yourself, visit this other places in Spain and tell your friends
San Sebastian is the most beautiful city in Spain, Tanborrada is the greatest ‘fiesta’ in this city, in 20th of june.
I forget.
In every place listed in my previous post you can find superb eat & drink, with a lot of specialities in each place.
Like any other country in the whole world, Spain is plenty of different stuff to do. You have highlighted some of the most representative things, but I would like to memeber a few more (link to wikipedia for more information):
- Las Fallas in Valencia.
- UNESCO Heritage towns in Castilla: Segovia, Toledo, Salamanca and Ávila
- Picos de Europa
- Cadiz might be an interesting city to visit, but it’s even more interesting during its Carnival
Apart from these ones, another UNESCO heritage places like Sevilla or Cordoba (in Andalucía), The Basque Country, Lanzarote, La Palma should be taken into account when planning a trip to Spain.
Great post. Stumbled.
Como barre todo el mundo para su casa, hay que ver…
Muy importante visitar Lanzarote, es una isla proclamada en su totalidad reserva de la Biosfera por la UNESCO. Creo que con eso sobran los argumentos
To SoyDelBierzo.
My boyfriend is from El Bierzo too (Ponferrada)
I were there a lot of times and sorry but I´m disagree to recommend World’s bigger Templar Castle at Ponferrada. Personally I get bored and I don´t think you can tell people to visit this!!
Sepulveda’s Duraton River and National Park is AMAZING!
Hi!!!
I wanto to say Spain isn`t only flamenco and bulls. There`re lots of things to do in the North, eg in Galicia. If you want to see wonderful landscapes, both mountain ones and beach ones. Our culture is incredible… and the best thing is the meal. Galicia is the best place in Spain to eat tasty and delicious seafood, specially octopus.
Galicia is a great place to relax, specially Lugo and Orense.
Visit Galicia and you wont be sorry about it!
Picasso’s Gernika is in Museo Reina Sofia, it’s its best work of art. So, #1 is included in #2…
I think Caceres and Baeza are beautiful towns, too. The Roman Museum in Merida is very interesting; the theatre is a must go, as well.
Granada has way more things, the Alhambra is wonderful but it’s not the only interesting thing in a place with such a history…
(etc)
Terrific article, congratulations! I miss Seville, Toledo or San Sebastian, inexcusable to visit if you come to Spain.
But, by the way, I can’t understand #1, when it’s said:
“If you ever wonder why the enmity between Madrid and Barcelona is so strong, it is all summed up in the writhing faces and tortured animals that Picasso has painted in his Cubist style”
Where is the connection with Picasso’s Guernica and the enmity between Madrid and Barcelona? I had never read such a theory, I’m Spaniard but I can’t understand what do you want to mean. Guernica is a town in the Bask Country, in the North, not near from Barcelona at all.
I can’t believe you forgot Toledo or Córdoba… and other historical cities like Merida or Tarragona… Figueres, where Dali was born… every single village in the north, from Basque Country to Galicia… Spain is so amazing that you start, but you never know where or when finish your trip…
I’m from Guernica (the town) and I have read more or less 30 minutes ago the comment about the the enemity between barcelona and madrid, related with the Guernica picture and I am still thinking: WTF!!
Barcelona is in Catalonia, east of iberian peninsula, Gernika (Oficial town’s writting) is in the Basque Country, north of the peninsula. Catalonia has no relation with the bombing of Gernika
- Cabo de Gata Natural Park in Almería Coast: San José, Los Escullos, La Isleta, one of most beautiful places in the Spanish Coast.
- Formentera: A small island near of Ibiza. Formentera from september to april is true relax. Walk, bike, surf, … it’s lovely.
- Sierra de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park in Jaen, the largest protected area in Spain and second in Europe.
- “Old Town of Cáceres”, the third monumental historic area in Europe.
This list only the most typical with all the topics and see many mistakes due to lack of knowledge.
The Guernica is in the museum of the Prado, if you’ve never been to the Museum of El Prado is a must-see this picture and hundreds more.
Say a music festival and a local holiday as something to be visited is glossing over many other places to visit, for it could say a list on music festivals and local festivals that are important (the Fib, film festival Sitges, parties such as the Fallas, the carnival of Cadiz, and more)
You say discovering Barcelona, but you forgot the other cities that have much history and beautiful areas like Madrid, Toledo, San Sebastian, and others. Barcelona is nice, but not the only, is like saying that the U.S. should only be visiting NY ….
La Semana Santa, a problem for many foreigners is the lack of knowledge and respect when they visit the processions, well take a little more information as it is a religious event.
El Teide, a nice place but what about the Picos de Europa, and the park of Ordesa, …?
Tapas and wine (rioja of course) and the photo of a local Barcelona, this city is the worst for tapas, tapas if you have to comment on some specific, good tapas places but you have to pay are Valladolid, Bilbao for example, in Granada are free with the drink, it all depends, as well as indicates that Rioja wine, this shows an ignorance of the wines of Spain, investigates and drink a Ribera del Duero is not only Rioja.
And one thing you should comment are the distances between the various sites and various dates for some events are held.
Poochie and SpanishWalker:
I think that the meaning of that expression refers to the event represented in that painting. That was a bombardment made by the army back in the civil war, where madrid was the capital of the dictatorship and barcelona was the capital of the republic.
Visit Valencia during the Fallas festival (March).
The greatest ever!!!!
Please, don’t go that way. Ok, we can say that the enemity (i prefer rivalry,but ok) between Barcelona and Madrid (Formers Aragon and Castillian Kingdoms) began in times of Jaume I.
But what the author mean here (in my opinion) is that the now days enemity is a consequence of the civil war (and the 40 years dictatorship that follow it) of which Picasso’s Guernica is a poweful symbol.
Lagartija – You need to get a life and also get your facts straight. The Guernica is housed in the Reina Sofia. It was moved from El Prado in 2008
” That was a bombardment made by the army back in the civil war, where madrid was the capital of the dictatorship and barcelona was the capital of the republic.”
WTF??
Both Madrid and Barcelona are amazing places. The two best cities in Spain and among the best in Europe.
People say Barcelona is better cause Madrid got no sea and others say Madrid is better cause Barcelona is too fond of itself.
I sugest you judge this yourself!
Madrid y Barcelona estaban en el mismo bando durante la Guerra Civil.
hey, i am not telling that this is all about what happened back in the civil war, i am just trying to explain this expression: “If you ever wonder why the enmity between Madrid and Barcelona is so strong, it is all summed up in the writhing faces and tortured animals that Picasso has painted in his Cubist style.”
What’s more, i believe that this “enmity” is more related to the soccer teams.
Only Teide from Canary Islands??? I am sooo disappointed…
you have forgotten Royal Palace of Madrid, visit to Toledo and El Escorial. Party in Madrid (best in Europe all year, not only in summer), Río Lobos Canyon (between Burgos and Soria) and a lot of place all over Spain… Spain is very large and it isn’t seen in three days, it takes time, long time but you will discover place that you wouldn’t think they could be in Spain… Spain is much more than Toros and Flamenco… in fact, the great majority of spanish people don’t like Toros nor Flamenco, they are only for foreigners peolple, not fo sapnish people… that’s why foreigners think here all we are toreros (bullfighters) and flamenco dancers
I can’t believe it…(helping)
Madrid wasn´t the capital of Fascist Forces but Republican Forces. It was hardly bombed (more than Barcelone) and the capture of Madrid was the beginning of the end of the Republican Spain.
If you like old medieval cities, gothic cathedrals, little romanic churches, gastronomy and wine visit Burgos. A beautiful city in the heart of Castilla (placed in the middle of St. Jacques Way). Taste “Cordero Asado” (Roasted Lamb) with a good Ribera (Ribera del Duero red wine). Visit the Cathedral (one of the most beautiful of gothic style) their nice churches, “Santo Domingo de Silos” (an incredible monastery), “Monasterio de las Huelgas”, etc..
Better to do in summer, because Burgos is a cold place (Spain is not only sun and beaches)
do you know, foreigners, that Barcelona (better all Catalonia) and Basque Country don’ want to be spanish? yes, ETA (Basque Country) kill us because they want to be independients (and they are one of richest regions in Spain) and Catalonia always want independence… cause of that I would like that when you speak about Spain, don’t name this “countries” because they don’t want to be spanish and we don’t want they are spanish…
Never forget the Carnival fest in Gran Canaria!
ah, you have visit León and Burgos’s cathedrals, best in Europe
I should advise you to avoid all that festivals and events, Spain is beautifull and full of culture, if you come here to see Fallas or La tomatina, you’ll get the wrong impression. It’s right to watch it (best on tv, i assure…), but there are a lot of nice places to go and visit!
Hi I’m spanish, I have to say thanks to the post writer because for once in my life I see all the spain parts represented in a travel blog. I recommend you visiting spain, we’ll be glad to receive you! ;D
I agree with “q”, we Basques and Catalans aren’t spanish, so don’t talk about us in a “spanish guide”, please!
“”helping June 24, 2010 at 2:18 am
Poochie and SpanishWalker:
I think that the meaning of that expression refers to the event represented in that painting. That was a bombardment made by the army back in the civil war, where madrid was the capital of the dictatorship and barcelona was the capital of the republic.”"
WTF!!!!
You don’t know nothing of Spanish Civil War only are an ignorant!!
Spain Lover June 24, 2010 at 2:53 am
Lagartija – You need to get a life and also get your facts straight. The Guernica is housed in the Reina Sofia. It was moved from El Prado in 2008
ok, I saw it on 2006 XD
San Sebastian is the most beautiful city in Spain, is in the north of Spain in the Basque Country, it´s amazing!!!
please don´t forget the Burgos cathedral!!
“q and spain doesn’t exist” Pais Vasco y Cataluña are Spain. Lo mires por donde lo mires. Is so boring read us… always the same! Please, move on! When an idea is so minority, mas noise wants to do.
Every corner of españa has something that to see but I recommend Avila, with his perfect medieval wall and his marvellous ones shown restraint and his sweet ” yolks of holy teresa “. Inside the province native of Avila they find important localities, as Arévalo, beautiful example of the Mudejar native of Avila and declared Historical Artistic Set; Madrigal of the High Towers, place of birth of the queen Isabel the Catholic one; The Plain amid mountains of the Marquess, with Magalia’s castle; The Ship of Avila, where they stand out the Gothic church of Our Lady of the Asuncion (s. The XIVth) and Valdecorneja’s Castle.
Dejad mucha propina, que está la cosa muy mala aquí.
MURCIA
not-typical
“madrid was the capital of the dictatorship”
If I recall right, It is not .. Burgos was, as the “dictatorship” wing had not won Madrid yet
Forget all the messages and the list.
visit ALMERIA
While All the people do that things … visit Almeria in the south of spain. A paradise only for you
Excuse me, Picass0′s Gernika is in Queen Sophie’s Museum, I can swear, I’ve seen it with my eyes… me and tons of people, of course…..
no os olvideis de extremadura ni del pais vasco,es de lo mejor ,sobre todo su gente.
there more exciting things to do than go to SanFermin.
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