Spain is enormous and most foreign visitors see four cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Granada. Spanish people see hundreds. Here’s where they go.
1. Cudillero, Asturias
A fishing village painted in pastel colors, terraced down a steep cove on the north coast. The seafood is the best in Spain and nobody outside Spain has heard of it. Sleep in a pension run by a 70-year-old woman who’ll feed you breakfast at 9am sharp.
2. Albarracin, Aragon
Pink medieval town built into a horseshoe bend of a river. Walking through it feels like being inside a painting. Most guidebooks ignore this whole region.
3. Ronda’s neighbor towns
Everyone goes to Ronda. Half an hour away: Setenil de las Bodegas (houses built into rock overhangs) and Olvera (a perfect Andalusian white village with no tourists). Both better than Ronda.
4. Trujillo, Extremadura
Birthplace of the conquistadores. Massive medieval plaza, a castle on a granite outcrop, jamon iberico that costs $30 a kilo less than in Madrid. Stay in the Parador.
5. Vejer de la Frontera
A whitewashed Moorish town an hour south of Cadiz. Cliffs above the Strait of Gibraltar. You can see Africa from the rooftops. The best tapas bar in southern Spain is here (La Castilleria).
6. Cangas de Onis
The Picos de Europa national park starts here. Stone bridge from 1300. Cave cheese (Cabrales) that smells like death and tastes like heaven. Two hours from anywhere.
7. La Alberca, Sierra de Francia
Salamanca province, an hour into the hills. Half-timbered houses, geese living in the main square (long story), pork the way it was made 400 years ago.
8. Ribadeo + the Playa de las Catedrales
Galicia coast. The beach is only visible at low tide – rock arches that look like cathedral naves rise out of the ocean. Time it right. The town itself is mostly Galician fishermen and very good seafood.
9. Almagro, Castilla-La Mancha
The most beautiful main square in Spain, lined with green-and-white timber. A theater festival happens here every July – locally famous, globally unknown.
10. Comillas, Cantabria
Gaudi built a house here that almost nobody visits. The town is on a cliff, the beach is right below, the food is the best in northern Spain (which means the best in Spain).
11. Belmonte, Cuenca province
A fairy-tale castle, restored, walkable inside, almost zero tourists. Drive there from Madrid in two hours.
12. Mojacar
The whitewashed Andalusian village that gives nothing away from the road. Climb the hill, find the views, eat at a place where the menu’s only in Spanish and Catalan.
The route I’d actually take
Madrid – Trujillo – Vejer – Olvera/Setenil – Mojacar – Albarracin – Cangas de Onis – Cudillero. Ten days, rental car, you’ll feel like you’re the only foreigner in Spain.