Best places to visit in Spain?

I have been trying to explore Spain a little this year and have so far been to Granada and Malaga.

Malaga I felt was a lovely city. However, I was alarmed at how many times I was asked for money  on the streets, every five minutes someone else was approaching us. I think they have the highest unemployment rate at 30% and it showed with the number of 'artists' performing. A sad sight indeed.

I wondered what Madrid is like, if anyone has been and would like to comment. 

Or anyone who has been to northern Spain?

Thanks

I have heard that Northern spain is worth visiting , especialy Leon and San Sebastian. 

I am going to Madrid next week and hope to visit El Escorrial and the Valley of the Fallen which I hear is very interesting. If we have time we will go to Toledo too.

A couple of years ago we went to Salamanca where my daughter was a student, this is a beautiful,historical city with lots of lovely old buildings. While we were there we went to Valladolid and Segovia. ( the castle at Segovia was the model for Disney's fairytale castle and it has a spectacular Roman viaduct )

We have also been to the Costa de la Luz area too. Jerez is one of my favourite places, you must do one of the sherry tours at a bodega. Cadiz is near too .

Seville is an interesting city and again plenty of sights to see (we were aware of lots of beggars around the tourist areas )

Like you we enjoyed Malaga and Granada . One of the beggars on the street in Granada made us smile , his placard next to his money bowl read 'for a big red Ferrari ' !

Cordoba is also worth a visit with it's Moorish heritage and narrow streets, a nice place to wander around.

Barcelona is of course a tourist hotspot and it is the only place I have felt wary about safety and theft. Plenty to see and easy to get around and some very good restaurants. The food market is worth seeing too.

Valencia is a lively city and has so many different areas. There is the city centre, arts and sciences area and the beach. We wished we could have had longer there and plan to go back.

As a family we love visiting the Spanish cities and it makes me cross when British people say they have no desire to visit Spain. They tend to associate Spain with the Costas and can be quite snobbish about Spain. On the coast there are lots of nice places such as Ronda and even if you do go into the coastal towns there are some lovely old parts.

Niclavida:

Madrid most definitely! 

Patricia

RHONDA

Awesome --- wonderful ----- delightful !!!!!

Jon

Rick Stein had a cookery programme on Spain recently and he visited the province of Extremadura and I am definately visiting there as it looks really interesting  - the real Spain .   I believe it is near Seville and is above Andalucia .  The food looked wonderful and you get the best Spanish ham from the region , Did  not look very touristy ( at least not UK tourists )

http://www.extremaduraguide.com/index.htm

This year we are visiting Jerez .  Last year it was Cordoba ( but beware of the heat , we went in September and it was boiling ) . We make a point of visiting one Spanish city every year.

Seville is another lovely Spanish town .

Happy holiday .

Agreed, Tamsin! 

There is such variety in Spain, you could spend months getting around it all.

But the late Autumn/Winter is the best time to visit, as the Summer heat is unbearable.

Patricia

 Hi Patricia

I am on best behaviour again, having been led a little astray.

AS long as your car has air-con, you wear a hat and walk on the shady side ofn the street I dont find it too bad but we do find we walk very slowly.

It's certainly better than the icy, rainy, windy wastland AKA uk where we rarely went out. Now its every day and with the diet here we are so much fitter too.

Hello, Janie!

Funny thing.  On T.V. the other day there was a U.K. farmer (vegetable grower for wholesale) who was in trouble because his crops had had no rain for Three months!  In fact he was having to buy in water for his  fields or the crops would ie..  So, I often wonder if there are two U.K.s.  Different regions different rainfalls maybe.

Patricia

 Maybe just another example of the country where nothing ever works.

It is interesting to note that there floods in the north at about that time.

So it seems whatever you wish for you get the opposite.

Granada & surrounding country is also awesome !!!

Cheers,

Jon

While we are on the subject of places to visit in Spain...can anyone tell me where the warmest place in Spain is during the winter months (1st November to 31st March)?  We spent 5 months on the Costa Blanca during the winter of 2009/20010 and we were freezing! Yes, if was one of the coldest winters they have had for years AND the 7-year-old villa we stayed in (Almoradi) was as badly insulated as Spanish houses can be...but we hadn't expected to be sitting in front of the gas fire at night watching telly with a duvet wrapped around us! 

Is it only on the Canary Islands that we can expect a reasonably warm winter stay?

 ANY WHERE SOUTH OF MALAGA, LAST WINTER THE COLDEST DAY WAS 15C APPARENTLY SLIGHTLY WARMER THAN NORTH AFRICA WE USED NO HEATING AT ALL. WHICH IS WHY WE LIVE HERE

 Hi i like Cordoba but Midrid is fab and easy to get around Irene

Thanks for that, Janie.  We had a place in Catalunya for a few years and, although the summers were fantastic, the winters were decidedly cold.  Also, the locals speak Catalan to each other and, after spending a couple of years learning Spanish (never got to the fluent stage...yet) I didn't want to start learning another, more difficult, language. We managed to sell our place in 2006 before the prices dropped and it has always been our intention to buy again in a warmer area of Spain. 

We spent some time in Tenerife at the beginning of this year and were amazed at the weather, with temperatures between 20 and 24 degrees C.  I actually said to my husband one day, 'I wonder what the weather's like here in the winter?'.  He laughed at me and said, 'Meggie...it IS winter'.  Doh!  BUT, I am really not keen on flying and I would love to find somewhere on the mainland where the winters aren't TOO bad.  Also, we like to take our car with us when we travel and the ferry prices to Tenerife from the mainland are way out of our budget.  So, where exactly do you live in Spain Janie? It certainly sounds like we should be exploring in the area. I have to say, we prefer to be amongst the Spanish community rather than on a complex where there aren't too many locals.

 I LIVE IN FUENGIROLA IN AN AREA WHERE THERE ARE NO BRITS SO YOU WILL NEED SPANISH. GOOD SPOT BUS STOP 50 YARDS 4 SUPERS WITHIN 200METRE. TRAIN 600 YARDS TAKE TRAIN TO AIRPORT 2 EU HALF AN HOUR.

MAKE SURE YOU STAY ON THE COST THE HILLS CAN GET REALLY COLD IN WINTER AND NO CENTRAL HEATING!!

IF YOU WATCH PLACE IN THE SUN THIS IS WHERE THEY TAKE PEOPLE NO SHOPS NO ENGLISH. BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION.

Yes, I know what you mean about Place in the Sun. Some of the places they take them to look idylic...until you run out of milk, winter sets in and your car breaks down!

I guess you live somewhere in the actual town of Fuengirola in an area that hasn't been developed with holiday homes, as you find closer to the sea?  We stayed in Benalmadena a few times in apartment block built with us 'foreign' buyers in mind and, although we found the roads next to the sea front awash with English-speaking bars and souvenier shops, the town itself is lovely...with a fantastic park and some beautiful old buildings.  Is Fuengirola the same?  Do you live in one of the apartment blocks built with the Spanish in mind?  Do you work there? Sorry if I'm sounding really nosey.  We do want to get it right next time we buy/rent somewhere to spend our winters (or longer!). We want to be somewhere where we can actually get to know the people that live there...something you can't do if you prefer to stay in different places of Spain each winter.

 YES WE LIVE NEAR THE TOWN CENTRE. DONT REALLY LIKE BENALMADENA TOO TOURISTY

WE HAVE A ZOO AQUA PARQUE RACE COURSE AND A BIO PARK. AND JUST IN CASE EMERGENCY HOSPITAL 200 YARDS AWAY

YES WE LIVE IN A SPANISH BLOCK EVERYONE VERY FREINDLY

FORGOT TO SAY HOTTEST DAY IN DECEMBER 29C CANT BE BAD.

Hi Janie,

Any rough idea what difference in winter temp is between where you live on coast & Benahavis (30 mins inland) ??

Thanks,

Jon

 THE ONLY BENHAVIS I KNOW IS NEAR MARBELLA VERY NEAR THE COAST SO WILL BE SAME TEMP AS HERE OR IS THERE ANOTHER ONE?

ODDLY ITS FOGGY THERE TODAY SO TEMP20 HERE 28

Its Benahavis about 30 minutes inland from Marbello on road to Rhonda.

So, I think you are correct. Thought it might be a bit colder inland !!

Thanks,

Jon