Spain, region by region.
The Alhambra at opening time, Gaudí’s roofs before the queue builds, a tablao that starts at eleven, boat days off Mallorca. All of it priced, timed and written up before you get anywhere near a checkout.
The seven Spain sells out first.
Alhambra tickets that really do include the Nasrid Palaces, a Sagrada Família slot with the tower lift on it, the tablao that runs past midnight. A Spanish week tends to get built around them.
Barcelona: Park Güell Admission Ticket
Skip hassles with a timed Park Güell admission ticket, explore Gaudí’s mosaics and views at your pace, and avoid printing your ticket.
From $25 per person
See how it actually runs →
★ 4.6First to sell outSeville: Royal Alcázar Entry TicketFrom $2328,378 reviews
★ 4.7In before the queueBarcelona: Casa Batlló Entry with Self-Audioguide TourFrom $3425,359 reviews
★ 4.5Everyone books thisSeville: Cathedral and La Giralda Entry TicketFrom $2024,592 reviews
★ 4.5Good first morningMadrid: Tour Bernabéu Entry TicketFrom $4121,573 reviews
★ 4.4Better than it soundsBarcelona: 24 or 48-Hour Hop-On Hop-Off Bus TourFrom $3920,872 reviews
★ 4.7Good for a hot afternoonBarcelona: Park Guell Guided Tour with Skip The Line EntryFrom $3117,563 reviews
Three cities, eight hundred years.
Granada kept the Nasrid palaces. Córdoba kept the forest of red and white arches, still a working cathedral. Seville kept the Alcázar, the orange courtyard and the tower you walk up on ramps rather than stairs. All three sit within two hours of each other, and the tickets are the difficult part, not the trains.
Which Spain are you booking?
One city is never enough here. Settle which half of the country you want, and the day trips arrange themselves around it. Everything behind these three cards is priced and rated already.
Catalonia
Barcelona and its coast
1 day · from $34 · 25,359 reviews
Gaudí in the morning, the Gothic Quarter after lunch, Montserrat or a Costa Brava cove on the third day. It is the easiest first Spain: nearly everything is inside an hour of the city, and the parts worth seeing want a timed ticket you can hold before you fly.
See the Barcelona lists →
Andalusia
Granada, Córdoba, Seville
3 hours · from $64 · 19,801 reviews
The south is the half that pulls people back. Nasrid ceilings, a mosque-cathedral, a hillside of cave rooms above Granada, and flamenco that is a local night out rather than a theatre booking. June to September is genuinely hot; the mornings do the work.
See the Andalusia lists →
The islands
Canaries or Balearics
1.5 hours · from $13 · 15,619 reviews
A different holiday altogether. Tenerife and Lanzarote are volcanoes, whale water and a cable car most of the way up a 3,715 metre peak. Mallorca and Ibiza are boat days, sea caves and one very good mountain road. Both run through the winter, which the mainland does not.
See the island lists →
Flamenco starts late and ends later.
A tablao is a room, not a theatre. Seville keeps the small ones, Madrid keeps the late ones, and Sacromonte keeps the cave rooms cut into the hill above Granada. Most put the first set on around nine and the one worth staying for around eleven.
Spain eats standing up.
Pintxos held down with a cocktail stick on a San Sebastián bar, a market crawl through Triana, paella cooked over wood the way Valencia insists it has to be. Three hours, eight or nine stops, and you will not want dinner afterwards.
The good days happen offshore.
Catamarans out of Palma, pilot whales in the channel off south Tenerife, kayaks under the Costa Brava cliffs and a boat into the Drach caves. People book the islands precisely because the day happens on the water rather than beside it.
The city is still building its cathedral.
The Sagrada Família has been going up since 1882 and the towers are not finished yet. Park Güell was meant to be a housing estate and ended up a terrace with the best seat in Barcelona. Casa Batlló and La Pedrera are ten minutes apart on the same avenue. All four want a timed ticket bought in advance.
Half of Spain runs on timed entry.
The Alhambra sells a fixed half-hour slot for the Nasrid Palaces and will not move it. Turn up late and that part of the ticket is simply gone, whatever the rest of the day cost. The Sagrada Família, Park Güell, the Alcázar in Seville and the Mezquita in Córdoba all work the same way, and a tower or a lift is nearly always a separate line on the ticket rather than something included.
Several of these are working places of worship as well as monuments. The Mezquita-Catedral holds daily Mass and closes to visitors while it does. Santiago de Compostela is the end of a route people walk for weeks, not a viewing platform. Covered shoulders and knees are the rule in all of them rather than a suggestion, and photography is restricted inside the Nasrid Palaces and the Prado.
Pick the region first.
Spain works in regions and each one is a different holiday. Barcelona for Gaudí and the coves. Andalusia for the palaces. The Canaries for sun in February. Madrid for the paintings, and for the walled towns an hour outside it.
Book by the shape of the afternoon.
Twelve shelves, and everything on all of them is priced, rated and bookable. Choose whichever matches the afternoon you actually want.
Most of Spain is a day trip.
Montserrat is an hour from Barcelona on the rack railway. Toledo is thirty-three minutes from Madrid on the fast train. Ronda, Segovia and Girona each fit into a morning out and an evening back, and the return seat is part of the ticket.
Ten days, moving twice.
You cannot do Spain from one city, and you do not need a car to do three. The order below is the one we would give a friend with ten days and a rail ticket.
Base 1
Start in Barcelona
Three nights. The Sagrada Família first thing, while the light still comes through the east windows and the nave is empty. Park Güell after lunch, the Gothic Quarter and the Boqueria the next day, Montserrat or a Costa Brava cove on the third.
Plan the Barcelona days →
Base 2
Two nights in Madrid
The Prado and the Reina Sofía on the same day is too much for anyone. Do one before lunch and the Royal Palace after it. Keep the second day for Toledo or Segovia, both well under an hour out and both worth the whole afternoon.
Plan the Madrid days →
Base 3
Finish in Andalusia
Four nights across Seville, Córdoba and Granada. Book the Alhambra before anything else, because the Nasrid Palaces slot decides which day the rest of the week hangs off. Keep the last night for a tablao and eat beforehand.
Plan the Andalusia days →
The newest tours on the list.
★ 4.9Tossa de Mar: Scuba Diving Experience for BeginnersFrom $91232 reviews
★ 4.9Malaga: Complete City Highlights Segway TourFrom $61232 reviews
★ 4.5Barcelona: Nougat and Chocolate Museum Tour with TastingFrom $14232 reviews
★ 4.7Valencia: Full Tuk Tuk Tour 2HFrom $40233 reviews
★ 4.7Valencia: 2-hour City Highlights Guided Tuk-Tuk TourFrom $46233 reviews
★ 4.8From Valencia: Peniscola Day tour, Game of ThronesFrom $105233 reviews
★ 4.5Royal Palace Guided Tour Small Group with TicketsFrom $43234 reviews
★ 5.0Barcelona Sagrada Familia and Guell Park drink and tapaFrom $465234 reviews