--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Spain (City Guides) Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Spain, Barcelona, San Sebastián, León and more cities, mapped and filmed. When to go, how to get around, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/spain type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-06 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Spain Four distinct kitchens, eight centuries of layered architecture and a rail network that puts most of it within a morning of **Madrid**. Spain rewards going slowly in **one region** rather than fast through five. ## Quick answer A first trip is **Madrid** and **Barcelona** with the AVE between them, then one region chosen properly: **Andalusia** for Seville, Granada and the Moorish south, or the **Basque coast** for San Sebastián and Bilbao. Repeat visitors trade up for **Galicia**, **Asturias** and the Castilian cathedral towns. The best windows are **April to June** and **September to October**, warm enough for the coast and bearable inland. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr · May · Sep - **Ideal length:** 10–14 days - **Budget per day:** $120–190 - **Language:** Spanish, plus Catalan, Basque and Galician - **Getting around:** Renfe AVE & metro - **7** City guides - **49,128,297** People - **3** Video guides Spain travels best by train and by region. The north runs green and Atlantic, from Galicia through Asturias to the Basque coast, with León and Burgos on the pilgrim road between them. The centre holds Madrid and the Castilian cathedral cities, the Mediterranean side carries Barcelona and Valencia, and Andalusia in the south keeps the Moorish palaces and the longest evenings. ## 7 Spain city guides 1. [Barcelona](https://wimup.com/city/barcelona.md): Europe · 10 picks 2. [León](https://wimup.com/city/leon.md): Europe · 10 picks 3. [San Sebastián](https://wimup.com/city/san-sebastian.md): Europe · 10 picks 4. [Madrid](https://wimup.com/city/madrid.md): Europe · 10 picks 5. [Salamanca](https://wimup.com/city/salamanca.md): Europe · 10 picks 6. [Girona](https://wimup.com/city/girona.md): Europe · 10 picks 7. [Ronda](https://wimup.com/city/ronda.md): Europe · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 49,128,297 - **Area:** 505,990 km² - **Density:** 97.1 / km² - **Capital:** Madrid - **Major cities:** Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Euro (EUR) Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including small bars. Keep a little cash for markets, village cafés and the occasional menú del día. - **Language:** Spanish (Castilian) Catalan, Basque and Galician are co-official in their regions and used daily there. English is common in the tourist centres and much thinner outside them. - **Calling code:** +34 - **Power:** 230V · Type C/F - **Emergency:** 112 One free number for police, ambulance and fire, from any phone, with English-speaking operators in the main tourist regions. - **Visa:** Schengen · 90/180 Spain is in the Schengen area, so most Western passports enter for 90 days in any 180 without a visa. Confirm your own nationality on the official consular list before booking. - **Getting around:** Renfe AVE High-speed rail links Madrid to Barcelona, Seville, Málaga, Valencia and Alicante in a few hours each, and competing operators have pushed fares down. Book early for the cheapest seats. - **Tipping:** Round up Service is included and there is no percentage convention. Leaving the coins after a good meal is normal; ten percent is generous. - **Meal times:** Lunch 2, dinner 9 Kitchens open later than almost anywhere else in Europe. Lunch is the main meal and the menú del día is the best value on any menu. ## When to visit - **Jan** - **Feb** - **Mar** (good) - **Apr** (best) - **May** (best) - **Jun** (good) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (peak) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (best) - **Nov** (good) - **Dec** ## Fun fact Spain runs the longest high-speed rail network in Europe, close to 4,000 kilometres of it, and the second longest anywhere after China. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Everyone takes a siesta **Reality:** Shops in small towns still shut through the hottest hours, but a Madrid office worker is not asleep at three. The long midday break exists because the working day runs late, not because the country naps. - **Myth:** Spanish food means paella and sangría **Reality:** Paella is Valencian, eaten at lunch rather than dinner, and sangría is mostly poured for tourists. What Spaniards actually order is vermut before lunch, wine with it, and whatever the region cures, grills or fries. - **Myth:** Flamenco is the national dance **Reality:** Flamenco is Andalusian, grown out of the Roma communities of Seville, Jerez and Cádiz. Galicia has bagpipes, Catalonia has the sardana, and the Basque Country has its own dances entirely. - **Myth:** Spain is one culture speaking one language **Reality:** Castilian is the state language, but Catalan, Basque and Galician are co-official where they are spoken, and Basque is related to no other language in Europe. Regional identity here is the main event, not a footnote. - **Myth:** Bullfighting happens everywhere **Reality:** The Canary Islands outlawed it in 1991 under an animal protection law and no bullfight has been held there since. Interest varies enormously by region, and plenty of Spaniards have never been to one. - Dinner starts late. Kitchens fill from nine, and a restaurant empty at seven is not a bad restaurant. - Lunch is the big meal, roughly two to four, and the menú del día is the best value on any menu. - Tipping is light. Round up or leave the coins; there is no percentage convention to follow. - Learn which language you are standing in. A greeting in Catalan, Basque or Galician lands well in those regions. - In a tapas bar you order at the counter and stand. Waiting to be seated can mean waiting a long time. - Sunday is for the long family lunch. Many shops close, so plan markets in the morning and museums after. ## Famous Spanish faces - **Miguel de Cervantes**: Wrote Don Quixote, widely counted as the first modern novel - **Pablo Picasso**: Málaga-born co-founder of Cubism, and the hand behind Guernica - **Antoni Gaudí**: Architect of the Sagrada Família, under construction since 1882 - **Salvador Dalí**: The Figueres surrealist who made melting clocks a shorthand for the movement - **Santiago Ramón y Cajal**: Shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Medicine and founded modern neuroscience - **Rafael Nadal**: 22 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 of them at Roland-Garros - **Pedro Almodóvar**: The director who took Spanish cinema global, with two Academy Awards - **Penélope Cruz**: First Spanish actress to win an Academy Award - **Diego Velázquez**: Court painter to Philip IV, and the mind behind Las Meninas - **Francisco de Goya**: Court painter who ended up making the Black Paintings on his own walls - **El Greco**: Cretan painter who settled in Toledo and never painted like anyone else - **Joan Miró**: Catalan painter and sculptor of a private alphabet of shapes - **Joaquín Sorolla**: The Valencian who painted Mediterranean light better than anyone - **Santiago Calatrava**: Architect and engineer behind Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences - **Luis Buñuel**: Surrealist filmmaker, from Un Chien Andalou to his late French films - **Javier Bardem**: First Spanish actor to win an Academy Award - **Antonio Banderas**: Málaga actor who runs a theatre in his home city between films - **Carlos Saura**: Director whose flamenco films are the form’s best record on screen - **Paco de Lucía**: The flamenco guitarist who opened the form to jazz - **Andrés Segovia**: Carried the classical guitar out of the salon and into the concert hall - **Montserrat Caballé**: Soprano of extraordinary control, and one unlikely duet with Freddie Mercury - **Manuel de Falla**: Composer of El amor brujo and Nights in the Gardens of Spain - **Rosalía**: Took flamenco’s forms into global pop with El Mal Querer - **Federico García Lorca**: Granada poet and playwright, killed in 1936 at the start of the Civil War - **Lope de Vega**: Golden Age playwright who wrote at a pace nobody has matched since - **Camilo José Cela**: Won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989 - **Antonio Machado**: Poet of the Castilian plain, and of Campos de Castilla - **Andrés Iniesta**: Scored the goal that won Spain the 2010 World Cup - **Miguel Indurain**: Won five consecutive Tours de France, 1991 to 1995 - **Pau Gasol**: Two NBA championships with the Lakers, and his number in their rafters - **Carlos Alcaraz**: The youngest world number one in the history of the ATP rankings - **Garbiñe Muguruza**: Won Roland-Garros in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017 - **Juan Sebastián Elcano**: Brought the Victoria home in 1522 to complete the first circumnavigation - **Severo Ochoa**: Shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Medicine for work on RNA synthesis - **Margarita Salas**: Her phi29 DNA polymerase became the most profitable patent Spain’s CSIC has filed - **Ferran Adrià**: Ran elBulli, the restaurant that rewrote what a tasting menu could be - **Juan Mari Arzak**: Turned a San Sebastián family tavern into the engine of new Basque cooking - **Carme Ruscalleda**: The most decorated woman in Michelin history, seven stars across her career - **José Andrés**: Chef who built World Central Kitchen into a disaster-relief operation ## Must-try Spanish food - **Tortilla española**: Potato and egg omelette, argued over endlessly for whether onion belongs. - **Jamón ibérico**: Acorn-fed ham cured for years and carved by hand into near-translucent sheets. - **Gazpacho**: Cold tomato and cucumber soup, drunk as much as eaten through the summer. - **Cocido madrileño**: Madrid’s chickpea stew, served in courses from broth to meat. - **Croquetas**: Béchamel fried in breadcrumbs, usually with ham or salt cod inside. - **Pisto**: Slow-cooked peppers, tomato and courgette, often with an egg broken over it. - **Fabada asturiana**: Asturian bean stew with chorizo and morcilla, built for a cold day. - **Patatas bravas**: Fried potato under a paprika sauce that should carry real heat. - **Gambas al ajillo**: Prawns in bubbling garlic oil, and bread to finish the oil with. - **Pimientos de Padrón**: Blistered green peppers from Galicia. Roughly one in ten is hot. - **Boquerones en vinagre**: White anchovies cured in vinegar and garlic, served cold. - **Ensaladilla rusa**: Potato, tuna and mayonnaise salad, a bar staple judged on its texture. - **Pintxos**: The Basque counter format: single bites on bread, paid for at the end. - **Bocadillo de calamares**: Madrid’s fried squid sandwich, eaten standing near Plaza Mayor. - **Paella valenciana**: The original: rabbit, chicken and beans, not seafood, cooked over wood. - **Arroz negro**: Rice blackened with squid ink and served with alioli. - **Fideuà**: The Valencian coast’s answer to paella, made with short noodles instead of rice. - **Arroz a banda**: Rice cooked in fish stock, with the fish itself brought out separately. - **Arroz con bogavante**: Soupier rice with lobster, a Sunday dish on the northern coast. - **Pulpo a la gallega**: Octopus on potato with paprika and olive oil, cut with scissors at the table. - **Bacalao al pil-pil**: Salt cod emulsified into its own garlic oil by nothing but movement. - **Percebes**: Goose barnacles pulled off Atlantic rocks at some risk, and priced accordingly. - **Almejas a la marinera**: Clams in white wine, garlic and parsley. - **Calamares a la romana**: Squid rings in a light batter, with lemon and nothing else. - **Cochinillo asado**: Segovia’s wood-roasted suckling pig, carved with the edge of a plate. - **Chuletón**: Aged bone-in beef chop, grilled hard outside and left rare within. - **Lechazo**: Milk-fed lamb roasted in a clay oven, the Castilian counterpart to cochinillo. - **Morcilla de Burgos**: Blood sausage bulked with rice, fried until the edges crisp. - **Callos a la madrileña**: Tripe stewed with chorizo and paprika, a winter Madrid classic. - **Marmitako**: Basque tuna and potato stew, born on the fishing boats. - **Bacalao a la vizcaína**: Salt cod in a sauce of dried choricero peppers, not tomato. - **Txangurro**: Spider crab baked in its own shell, a San Sebastián fixture. - **Cachopo**: Asturian breaded veal folded around ham and cheese, sized to share. - **Empanada gallega**: Flat Galician pie, usually tuna or cockles, sold by the slice. - **Salmorejo**: Córdoba’s thicker cousin to gazpacho, topped with ham and egg. - **Pescaíto frito**: Small fish floured and flash-fried, eaten by the paper cone in Málaga. - **Rabo de toro**: Oxtail braised until it falls apart, most associated with Córdoba. - **Espinacas con garbanzos**: Seville’s spinach and chickpeas with cumin, a Moorish inheritance. - **Espetos de sardinas**: Sardines skewered on cane and grilled over a beach fire on the Costa del Sol. - **Churros con chocolate**: Fried dough into thick drinking chocolate, at breakfast or at 4am. - **Crema catalana**: Citrus and cinnamon custard under a burnt sugar crust. - **Tarta de Santiago**: Galician almond cake stencilled with the cross of Saint James. - **Turrón**: Almond nougat from Jijona and Alicante, eaten hard or soft at Christmas. - **Torrijas**: Bread soaked in milk and fried, the Spanish Easter sweet. - **Rioja**: Tempranillo aged in oak, and the reference point for Spanish red. - **Cava**: Traditional-method sparkling wine, most of it made in Penedès. - **Sherry**: Fortified wine from the Jerez triangle, dry fino through sweet Pedro Ximénez. - **Vermut**: The pre-lunch ritual: vermouth on ice with an olive, usually on a Sunday. - **Sidra asturiana**: Still cider poured from height to aerate it, a glassful at a time. - **Horchata**: Valencian tiger nut drink, served cold with fartons to dip. ## By theme - [Michelin cities](https://wimup.com/michelin-cities.md) ## Films - [Barcelona on Foot](https://wimup.com/watch/barcelona.md), 3:14:51 - [Best of León](https://wimup.com/watch/leon.md), 11:23 - [San Sebastián on Foot](https://wimup.com/watch/san-sebastian.md), 25:24 ## FAQs ### How many days do you need in Spain? Ten days covers Madrid, Barcelona and one region properly, with the AVE doing the long legs. Two weeks lets you add Andalusia or the Basque coast without a rushed morning. ### When is the best time to visit Spain? April to June and September to October. The coast is warm, the interior is bearable, and prices sit below the July and August peak. Winter suits the south and the cities, less so the north. ### Is Spain expensive to visit? Less than most of Western Europe. Budget roughly $120 to $190 per person per day mid-range, with Barcelona, Madrid and the Balearics at the top of that band and inland cities well below it. ### Do you need to speak Spanish? No, but a little goes further here than in most of Europe. English is common in the tourist centres and thinner in small towns, and outside Castile you may be answered in Catalan, Basque or Galician. ### Madrid or Barcelona for a first trip? Barcelona if you want architecture and the sea in one city, Madrid if you want the art and the food. They are two and a half hours apart by AVE, which is the honest answer: do both. ## Related countries - [Italy](https://wimup.com/country/italy.md) - [France](https://wimup.com/country/france.md) - [All of Europe](https://wimup.com/europe) Part of [Europe](https://wimup.com/europe.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.spain.info/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.