Spain,
Your Way.

Madrid is where Spain begins to make sense. The city moves at its own rhythm — late breakfasts, long lunches, an afternoon quietness, and then an evening that begins properly at nine o'clock and doesn't end before midnight. This isn't affectation; it's simply how life is organised here, and surrendering to it is one of the genuine pleasures of a Madrid visit. The Prado is essential — one of the world's great art collections, with Velázquez and Goya at its core. The Reina Sofía, home to Picasso's Guernica, can follow the next morning. The afternoons belong to the tapas bars of La Latina: small glasses of wine, plates of jamón and croquetas, moving between bars as the evening warms up. Mercado de San Miguel for a mid-morning vermouth. A proper sit-down dinner at ten, in a neighbourhood restaurant where no one is in a hurry. Three days barely scratches the surface — but it leaves you understanding why people come back to Madrid again and again.

Granada sits at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, its old Moorish quarter climbing the hillside opposite the Alhambra — a palace complex that has survived seven centuries and still manages to feel intimate rather than monumental. The Nasrid Palaces inside are extraordinary: intricately carved plasterwork, geometric tilework, and reflecting pools that create a silence in the middle of the city. Book early — entry is timed and slots sell out weeks in advance. The afternoon belongs to the Albaicín: narrow lanes, whitewashed walls, and at the top of the neighbourhood, a viewpoint looking back across at the Alhambra in the late afternoon light. Dinner anywhere in Granada comes with the extraordinary custom of free tapas with every drink order — a glass of wine, a small plate of food, unrequested and included in the price. It remains one of the most charming traditions in Spanish food culture and makes two days of eating in Granada feel almost absurdly good value.

Mallorca is larger and more varied than most people realise, and the right itinerary barely encounters the overdeveloped south. Arriving into Palma, the city immediately impresses: the Gothic cathedral that rises directly from the seafront is one of the most striking buildings in Spain, and the old town behind it — the Casc Antic — has enough character to absorb an entire afternoon. The second day heads north into the Serra de Tramuntana, a mountain range that runs along the northwest coast and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its cultural landscape. The road through Valldemossa and Deià and down to the sea at Sóller passes through olive groves and terraced hillsides that have barely changed in centuries. Lunch in a village restaurant, wine from a local bodega, and a swim in one of the coves on the way back. The third day is for the water: the northeast coast has some of the clearest and least crowded beaches on the island, accessible by a short walk and usually no more than a third full even in summer. Mallorca at its best has nothing to do with its reputation.

A short flight from Palma and the pace drops completely. Menorca is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve — deliberately protected from the kind of development that changed much of the Mediterranean coast — and it shows. The island feels unhurried in a way that is increasingly rare: small roads, modest towns, beaches that require a twenty-minute walk through pine and scrubland to reach, and the particular quiet of a place that hasn't decided tourism is its main purpose. Cala Macarella and Cala Turqueta on the south coast are among the finest beaches in the Mediterranean — white sand, turquoise water, and enough of a walk to keep the crowds thin. Ciutadella in the west is a beautiful small city with a harbour lined with restaurants and an old town that rewards an evening wander. Two nights is the minimum; it's consistently the stop that people wish they'd given more time to.

The trip closes in Barcelona — and it's a worthy finish. Two days is not enough to see all of it, but it's enough to see the best of it. The Sagrada Família is the obvious starting point and should be: Gaudí's unfinished basilica has been under construction since 1882 and is unlike any other building on earth — the exterior a forest of organic stone towers, the interior a cathedral of light filtered through stained glass in colours that shift through the day. Book entry and a time slot in advance; the queues without one are hours long. The Gothic Quarter adjacent to the Ramblas is best explored in the morning before the crowds arrive — the Plaça de Sant Felip Neri and the Plaça del Pi are both extraordinary. The Boqueria market is worth a visit early for context and colour, even if the stalls themselves are now mostly tourist-facing. For lunch, walk five minutes to the Mercat de Santa Caterina, which remains an actual working market with a food counter that serves excellent Catalan cooking to locals. The final evening in Barcelona deserves a proper sit-down dinner — the city has some of the finest restaurants in Europe across every price point, from neighbourhood Catalan cooking to internationally celebrated tasting menus. End well.