Our 10 Best Spain Itineraries

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Raquel, a Spain travel specialist, built Magical Highlights of Spain: Culture, Cuisine, Countrysides for travelers who want Spain's marquee cities without skipping the countryside that explains them. The route treats Madrid and Barcelona as bookends rather than the whole trip.

In Madrid, the itinerary centers on the Prado, home to roughly 8,000 paintings, including Velázquez's Las Meninas and Goya's Black Paintings, though only a fraction is on display at any time. From there, the route moves to Toledo, the former Spanish capital where a Gothic cathedral built between 1226 and 1493 sits within a few blocks of surviving synagogues and mosques from the city's centuries as a meeting point of three religions.

The itinerary then turns to Ribera del Duero, a wine region along the Duero river where vineyards planted at 2,300 to 3,000 feet of elevation produce the sharp day-to-night temperature swings that give Tempranillo grapes here their concentration, before finishing on the northern coast in San Sebastián, Bilbao (home to Frank Gehry's titanium-clad Guggenheim, completed in 1997), and Barcelona.

• Pairs Madrid and Barcelona, with the Toledo and Ribera del Duero countryside in between
• Includes a tasting in Ribera del Duero, a high-altitude Tempranillo region
• Visits Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum and Toledo's three-religion old town
• Finishes with Gaudí's architecture in Barcelona

Length: 13 days

Places Visited:

• Madrid
• Toledo
• Ribera del Duero
• San Sebastian
• Bilbao
• Barcelona

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Unrivaled Luxuries of Spain Tour was designed for travelers whose idea of Spanish wine begins and ends with Rioja. Spain travel specialist Elena opens the itinerary in Barcelona and Penedès, Catalonia's cava region, where producers age sparkling wine in underground cellars using the same traditional method as Champagne.

From there, the route climbs to Montserrat, a Benedictine monastery built into jagged rock formations at 4,050 feet, home to the medieval carved statue known as the Black Madonna. Then it continues south to Granada for a visit to the Alhambra, the Nasrid dynasty's 13th- and 14th-century palace complex, and its adjoining Generalife gardens.

The trip closes through Seville, where the cathedral (the largest Gothic church in the world by volume) and the Real Alcázar palace anchor the old city, then Ronda, split by the 390-foot-deep El Tajo gorge and crossed by the 1793 Puente Nuevo bridge, before ending with dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Madrid, the Spanish city with the most Michelin stars.

• Cava tasting in an underground Penedès cellar
• Visit to the Nasrid palaces and Generalife gardens at the Alhambra
• Crossing of Ronda's Puente Nuevo bridge over the 390-foot El Tajo gorge
• Dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Madrid

Length: 12 days

Places Visited:

• Barcelona
• Penedès
• Montserrat
• Granada
• Seville
• Ronda
• Marbella
• Madrid

Learn more: Luxury Spain Tours

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Spain travel specialist Rosa built Spain's Culinary Heritage Tour around the oak woodland ecosystem of the dehesa that produces the country's Iberian ham rather than around Spain's cathedrals and museums. The trip opens in Salamanca, home to a university founded in 1218, then continues to La Alberca, the first rural village in Spain designated a national historic monument, in 1940, and Hervás, whose medieval Judería quarter of half-timbered houses survives largely intact.

The itinerary then reaches Jabugo, in Huelva province, where black Iberian pigs graze freely on acorns during the autumn montanera season before the ham is cured for up to three years under the region's Denominación de Origen. Nearby Aracena adds the Gruta de las Maravillas, a limestone cave system, before the route continues into the Montilla hills for tastings at family-run wineries.

From there, the trip visits Córdoba's Mezquita, a mosque begun in 785 AD whose prayer hall holds more than 850 columns, and Granada's Alhambra, before ending in Madrid.

• Visit to Jabugo during the acorn-feeding montanera season
• Tastings at family-run wineries in the Montilla hills
• Tour of Córdoba's Mezquita and its forest of over 850 columns
• Stop in La Alberca, Spain's first village named a national historic monument

Length: 15 days

Places Visited:

• Salamanca
• La Alberca
• Hervás
• Cáceres
• Mérida
• Seville
• Jabugo
• Aracena
• Córdoba
• Granada
• Madrid

Learn more: Food and Wine Tours in Spain • Best Time to Visit Spain for a Wine Tour • 7 Best Places for Food and Wine in Spain

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Travelers who want three cities done properly rather than five cities done quickly can look to Spain travel specialist Ana’s Highlights of Northern Spain. The itinerary reserves time at the Prado and the Reina Sofía, home to Picasso's Guernica, before moving north to San Sebastián.

There, the trip centers on Parte Vieja, the old town where pintxo bars line narrow streets and locals move from counter to counter rather than sitting for a single meal. A stop in Toledo en route takes in the 12th-century Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca and the Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, two surviving structures from the city's centuries as home to Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities.

The trip ends in Barcelona with visits to the Picasso Museum, which holds an unusually large collection of the artist's early work, and Gaudí's Park Güell.

• Pintxo bar-hopping through San Sebastián's Parte Vieja old town
• Visit to Madrid's Reina Sofía to see Picasso's Guernica
• Tour of Toledo's surviving synagogue and mosque
• Time at the Picasso Museum's collection of the artist's early work

Length: 10 days

Places Visited:

• Madrid
• San Sebastian
• Toledo
• Barcelona

Learn more: Northern Spain Tours and Vacations • Top 7 Things to Do in San Sebastián

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Manlio, a Zicasso Spain travel specialist, built this One-Week Spain Tour for Couples for those who want two cities at a walking pace rather than a checklist of five. In Seville, the trip includes a flamenco performance in Triana, the neighborhood where the art form developed among the city's Roma community in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In Madrid, the itinerary sets aside dedicated time at the Prado to see Velázquez's Las Meninas and Goya's Black Paintings rather than treating the museum as a single afternoon stop among many. A day trip to Ronda breaks up the week, taking in the 1793 Puente Nuevo bridge suspended above the 390-foot El Tajo gorge.

The pace throughout stays deliberately light: two base cities, one day trip, and enough unscheduled time for the couple to return to a favorite tapas bar rather than see something new every hour.

• Flamenco performance in Triana, the neighborhood where the art form originated
• Dedicated time at the Prado for Velázquez's Las Meninas and Goya's Black Paintings
• Day trip to Ronda and the Puente Nuevo bridge
• A deliberately light pace with only two base cities

Length: 7 days

Places Visited:

• Seville
• Ronda
• Madrid
• Toledo

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

The Coasts of Spain was created to challenge the assumption that Spain's coastline means the Mediterranean and to showcase the Atlantic side, too. Spain travel specialist Ana opens the trip in San Sebastián's La Concha Bay, before it continues through the Basque fishing towns of Zumaia, where 60 million years of rock layers are exposed in the flysch cliffs at Itzurun beach, and Getaria, birthplace of Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.

The route briefly crosses into France at Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the fishing port where Louis XIV married in 1660, before returning to Spain at Hondarribia, a fortified border town on the Bidasoa River.

From there, the trip shifts entirely to the Mediterranean side, with time in Barcelona followed by the beaches and coves of Minorca, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that draws fewer visitors than neighboring Mallorca or Ibiza.

• Walk along the exposed flysch cliffs at Zumaia's Itzurun beach
• Stop in Getaria, birthplace of the first navigator to circle the globe
• Cross into France at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where Louis XIV married
• Beach time on Minorca, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Length: 11 days

Places Visited:

• San Sebastian
• Loyola
• Zumaia
• Getaria
• Biarritz
• Saint Jean de Luz
• Hondarribia
• Barcelona
• Minorca

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Ana designed another concept tour to experience the diversity of Spain, Canary Islands Honeymoon Tour, specifically because most first-time visitors to Spain never make it there. In Tenerife, the trip includes time in Teide National Park, home to Mount Teide, the highest peak in Spain at 12,198 feet.

On Lanzarote, the itinerary includes a tasting at a vineyard in La Geria, where growers dig individual pits into black volcanic ash left by eruptions in the 1730s and plant a single vine in each one to trap overnight moisture. The trip also visits sites shaped by architect César Manrique, who built much of the island's public architecture around its volcanic landscape rather than against it.

The honeymoon closes with a boat crossing to La Graciosa, which was only formally designated Spain's eighth Canary Island in 2018 and still has no paved roads across its roughly 11 square miles.

• Time in Teide National Park at the base of Spain's highest peak
• Wine tasting among Lanzarote's volcanic ash vineyards
• Visit to sites shaped by architect César Manrique
• Boat crossing to the car-free island of La Graciosa

Length: 9 days

Places Visited:

• Tenerife
• Lanzarote
• La Graciosa Island

Learn more: Spain Honeymoon Packages

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Intimate Barcelona and Majorca Honeymoon Itinerary pairs Barcelona’s architecture with a slower island stretch rather than ending the trip in a city. Ana once again felt there was much more to see and experience across Spain than couples may expect at first. In Barcelona, the itinerary centers on Gaudí's Sagrada Família, under construction since 1882, and Park Güell.

From there, the trip moves to Mallorca's Serra de Tramuntana, a mountain range recognized as a UNESCO cultural landscape, with a stop in Valldemossa, where composer Frédéric Chopin and writer George Sand spent the winter of 1838 to 1839 at a Carthusian monastery, and Deia, the village where writer Robert Graves lived for much of his life.

The itinerary ends around Soller, reached by a wooden tram that has run to Palma since 1912 through orange groves planted across the valley, with time reserved for the coves along Mallorca's northwest coast.

• Visit to Gaudí's Sagrada Família, under construction since 1882
• Stop at the monastery in Valldemossa where Chopin wintered in 1838
• Ride on the century-old wooden tram between Soller and Palma
• Time reserved for coves along Mallorca's northwest coast

Length: 9 days

Places Visited:

• Barcelona
• Mallorca
• Valldemossa
• Deia
• Soller

Learn more: Spain Tours for Couples • Our 7 Best Sample Romantic Trips to Spain

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Spain travel specialist Joel built this Enchanting Journey Through Spain: History, Heritage, and Cuisine tour around a region most first-time visitors to Spain skip entirely in favor of Madrid and Andalusia. The route passes through Trujillo, the birthplace of Francisco Pizarro, and Cáceres, whose walled old town mixes Roman, Islamic, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture closely enough that a single walk covers all four. Between the towns, the itinerary includes a tasting of Pata Negra ham raised on Extremadura's dehesa, the managed woodland of holm and cork oaks that has shaped the region's land use for centuries.

From there, the trip continues north through Salamanca and Astorga, a stop on the Camino de Santiago with an Episcopal Palace designed by Gaudí, and ends in Santiago de Compostela, where pilgrims following the Camino have arrived on foot since at least the 9th century to visit the cathedral believed to hold the remains of the apostle James.

• Walking tour of Cáceres' Roman, Islamic, Gothic, and Renaissance old town
• Pata Negra ham tasting sourced from Extremadura's dehesa woodland
• Stop at Astorga's Episcopal Palace, designed by Gaudí
• Arrival in Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage destination since the 9th century

Length: 11 days

Places Visited:

• Madrid
• Trujillo
• Extremadura
• Cáceres
• Dehesa
• Salamanca
• Astorga
• Vigo
• Santiago de Compostela

Why we recommend this sample itinerary:

Spain travel specialist Samuel designed the Traditions of Spain 20-Day Tour for travelers who want to see the country in full rather than choose one region and skip the rest. The itinerary runs from Barcelona and Girona, whose El Call quarter is one of the best-preserved medieval Jewish quarters in Europe, down through Tarragona, where a Roman amphitheater built in the 2nd century AD still stands above the Mediterranean, and on to Valencia, the birthplace of paella.

In Andalusia, the trip includes Málaga, Picasso's hometown, along with Seville and Ronda, before continuing to Madrid, where the Royal Palace's 3,418 rooms make it the largest royal palace in Western Europe by floor area.

The route closes through Toledo and Segovia, home to a Roman aqueduct built without the use of mortar roughly 2,000 years ago and still standing.

• Walk through Girona's El Call, one of Europe's best-preserved Jewish quarters
• Visit to Tarragona's 2nd-century Roman amphitheater
• Paella in Valencia, where the dish originated
• Tour of Madrid's 3,418-room Royal Palace and Segovia's mortar-free Roman aqueduct

Length: 20 days

Places Visited:

• Barcelona
• Seville
• Malaga
• Madrid
• Toledo
• Ronda
• Segovia
• Girona
• Tarragona
• Valencia

Spain covers enough ground, coastline, mountains, cities, and islands that no single itinerary fits every traveler. Find inspiration in the traditions, landscapes, and flavors above with our Spain tours and vacations.

To discover more ideas and advice from our Spain travel specialists, from the best places to visit to the top things to do, explore our Spain travel guide when planning your Spain itinerary.