This is my personal map of Spain. If you press on the upper-left tab, you can turn on the layers of the different day or weekend trips we have made. I will be making different entries with more detailed description of the trips.  When you link on the city marker you will see the links to the blog posts.

Spain is roughly the size of Texas. Traveling the miles and miles of Spain, are nothing like it; they are filled with castles, churches, towns, restaurants, bars and many more reasons to stop along the way.  You can travel by Planes, Railroad, Buses and cars.  Rather than organizing it by region I suggest you view it as a square, with Madrid and Castilla in its center, Barcelona to the northeast,  The North (Basque Country, Navarra and la Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria), Galicia on the northwest (on top of Portugal), and Andalucia to the South.

People ask me where to go in Spain, and it really depends on time, tastes and travel styles. I have been traveling to Spain yearly for over 20 years, and there are still places that I have yet to explore.

For first time visitors, the obvious are Barcelona, Madrid and Toledo.  Of course the southern part, Andalusia has Córdoba, Sevilla and a “must-see” Granada’s Alhambra.

Here are some tips specifically for Spain, look at Travel Tips for more.

• Shift your daily schedule approximately two hours later and you will be in sync with the Spanish meal schedule.  So if you normally eat lunch at noon, you will now eat at 2pm. Restaurants don’t open for dinner until after 8:00pm (if you are lucky,often is around 9). That does not mean that you will starve. I just suggest you eat your heaviest meal at lunch, taking advantage of the Menu del Dia, which are three course lunches that include wine or beer and you can find them anywhere from 10€ to 20€.  You can eat tapas in any bar at any time before restaurants open.