Spain

Spain is a country of strong regions held loosely together, and the traveller who plans it as one destination misses the point of it. The languages change, the cooking changes, the landscape changes — Galicia's green Atlantic coast has almost nothing in common with the Andalusian south.

Madrid and Barcelona do the headline work, and each rewards a slow few days. But the deeper Spain is regional: Andalusia's Moorish inheritance in the Alhambra, the Mezquita and Seville; the Basque Country's coast and its serious, generous food culture around San Sebastián; the wine country of La Rioja and Ribera del Duero; the Balearic and Canary islands; and the long pilgrim road of the Camino de Santiago. The Costa del Sol holds the country's most established luxury coastline.

April through June and September into October are the country at its most temperate — warm enough for the coast, mild enough for the inland cities, and clear of the high-summer heat that settles over the centre and south.