Spain
Eleven distinct regions under one flag — the food, the hours and the accent change every few hundred kilometres.
Spain runs later than most of Europe — lunch after 2pm, dinner after 9 — and the interior swings hotter and colder than the coast. The south is a different country from the north in food, accent and pace; treat it that way rather than trying to do both in one trip.
Places in Spain
Barcelona
Gaudí's city, but the good tapas bars are the ones without a queue, tucked into Gràcia's residential streets.
Carmona
A walled Andalusian hill town twenty minutes from Seville, quiet enough that most visitors still skip it.
Granada
The Alhambra above, the Albaicín's tangled lanes below, and free tapas still arriving with every drink.
Lerma
A ducal town on the Arlanza built almost entirely under one 17th-century duke, still barely on the way to anywhere.
Madrid
A landlocked capital that eats late and lives outdoors, with more tapas bars per block than anywhere else in Spain.
Seville
Andalusia's capital, orange-tree courtyards and flamenco, brutal in July and August, glorious the rest of the year.
Logged in Spain
Bodega de la Ardosa
Madrid, SpainA barrel-stacked Centro tavern open since 1892, known for hot vermouth and a crowd that never seems to change.
Café Gijón
Madrid, SpainAn 1888 café on the Paseo de Recoletos that became the meeting place of Spain's post-war writers, with poets' tertulias at its tables.
Casa Ricardo
Madrid, SpainA Chamberí institution serving a set table and a slow-cooked stew that tastes like old Madrid.
Casa Toni
Madrid, SpainA loud, crowded Centro tapas bar built around offal and tripe, with regulars who've been coming for decades.
El Higo
Granada, SpainA neighbourhood grill tucked into the Albaicín's lanes, smoking meat for a local, unhurried crowd.
Fino Bar
Barcelona, SpainCreative Andalusian tapas and wine on a residential Gràcia street, well away from Barcelona's tourist strips.
Los Diamantes
Granada, SpainUnpolished seafood tapas, fried fish straight off the coast, with Granadinos three-deep at the bar.
Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid
Madrid, SpainThe 1910 Ritz that Alfonso XIII personally commissioned after finding Madrid had nowhere grand enough for his wedding guests.
Mesón El Yunque
Granada, SpainA quiet Albaicín restaurant beside Plaza de San Miguel Bajo, where the locals eat.
Parador de Carmona
Carmona, SpainA 14th-century Moorish fortress converted into a hotel, its vaulted stone courtyards looking out over the Carmona plain.
Parador de Granada
Granada, SpainThe only hotel inside the Alhambra's walls, built into a 15th-century Franciscan monastery raised on the site of a Nasrid palace.
Parador de Lerma
Lerma, SpainThe 17th-century ducal palace built by the Duke of Lerma on Lerma's main square, now a state-run Parador.
Mentioned in
Café Gijón
Madrid, SpainAn 1888 café on the Paseo de Recoletos that became the meeting place of Spain's post-war writers, with poets' tertulias at its tables.
La Canchánchara
Trinidad, CubaA colonial house in Trinidad pouring the canchánchara — rum, honey and lime in a clay pot — often called Cuba's oldest cocktail.
Parador de Carmona
Carmona, SpainA 14th-century Moorish fortress converted into a hotel, its vaulted stone courtyards looking out over the Carmona plain.
Tangier
The strait-side city that drew spies and writers for decades, now a ferry ride from Spain and shaking off its old reputation.