1027 Best Sights in Spain

This is many madrileños' favorite park for its pristine yet un-mobbed paths and well-pruned lawns and flower beds. From dawn to dusk, expect to see dogs cavorting off-leash, couples sprawled out beneath the trees, and groups of friends playing frisbee and fútbol. From Paseo del Pintor Rosales, meander downhill toward Avenida de Valladolid, crossing the train tracks, and you'll hit Madrid Río; walk southwest and you'll find Temple of Debod and, beyond, the newly pedestrianized Plaza de España. This park also contains the city's only cable car (see "Teleférico") and, 100 yards beneath it, a rose garden ("Rosaleda"; free entry) containing some 20,000 specimens of more than 650 rose varieties that reach their peak in May. In the quieter northern section of the park (along Avenida de Séneca), you'll happen upon Civil War–era bunkers interspersed among plane-tree-lined promenades, a sobering reminder that Parque del Oeste was the western front of Madrid's resistance against Franco's armies.

Formerly the garden of the Palacio de San Telmo, this park blends formal design and wild vegetation. In the burst of development that gripped Seville in the 1920s, it was redesigned for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition world's fair, and the impressive villas you see now are the fair's remaining pavilions, many of them consulates or schools. The old casino holds the Teatro Lope de Vega, which puts on mainly musicals. Note the Anna Huntington statue of El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, 1043–99), who fought both for and against the Muslim rulers during the Reconquest. The statue was presented to Seville by the Massachusetts-born sculptor for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition.

Popularly known as the \"Fire Mountains,\" this national park of barren volcanic landscapes, which rang in its 50th anniversary in 2025, takes up much of southern Lanzarote. The terrain is a violent yet starkly beautiful jumble of exploded craters, cinder cones, lava formations, and heat fissures. The park is protected, and you can't drive or hike through it yourself (leave your car in the lot beside the overhyped volcano-top restaurant, El Diablo); the only way to see the central volcanic area is on a 14-km (9-mile) bus circuit called the Ruta de los Volcanes, designed to have minimal environmental impact. (Photographers will be bummed that the only pics you can take on tour are through smudged windows.)

A taped English commentary explains how the parish priest of Yaiza took notes during the 1730 eruption that buried two villages. He had plenty of time—the eruption lasted six years, making it the longest known eruption in volcanic history. By the time it was over, more than 75% of Lanzarote was covered in lava. Throughout the park, on signs and road markers, you'll see a little devil with a pitchfork; this diablito was designed by Manrique. As you enter, you'll see the staging area for camel rides, which we recommend skipping due to recent animal cruelty complaints.

This park includes the volcano itself and the Cañadas del Teide, a jumble of volcanic leftovers from El Teide and the neighboring Pico Viejo. The last eruption here was in 1909. Within the park you can find blue-tinged hills (the result of a process called hydrothermal alteration); spiky knobby rock protrusions; and lava in varied colors and textures. The bizarre photogenic rock formations known as Los Roques de García are especially memorable; a two-hour trail around these rocks—one of 30 well-marked hikes inside the park—is a highlight. Visit in late May or early June to see the crimson horn-shaped tajinaste (bugloss) flowers in bloom, a dramatic sight. Due to global heating, 2024 was the first winter in 108 years in which the mountain received no snowfall whatsoever.

Enter the Parque Nacional del Teide at El Portillo. Exhibits at the visitor center explain the region's natural history; a garden outside labels the flora found within the park. The center also offers trail maps, video presentations, guided hikes, and bus tours. A second park information center is located near Los Roques de García beside the Parador Nacional Cañadas del Teide.

At the junction of the Tiétar and Tajo rivers, 20 km (12 miles) south of Plasencia on the EX208 and 60 km (37 miles) southwest of La Vera via the EX203, lies Extremadura's only national park. This rocky, mountainous wilderness is known for its diverse plant and animal life including lynx, boars, deer, foxes, black storks, imperial eagles, and the world's largest colony of black vultures, attracting bird-watchers from around the world. Bring binoculars and head for the lookout point called Salto del Gitano (Gypsy's Leap), on the EX208 just south of the Tajo River—vultures can often be spotted wheeling in the dozens at close range. The park's central visitor center and main entrance is in the village of Villareal de San Carlos.

Well-marked walking trails (stay on them) guide you at this park, where you can walk among eerie pillars of pink limestone sculpted by eons of wind and rain. Guided hikes (in Spanish only) can be arranged, as well as stargazing in July and August. The visitor center has a small museum.

For a break from man-made sights, drink in the scenery or watch for wildlife in this park, a carefully protected patch of mountain wilderness 80 km (50 miles) long and 30 km (19 miles) wide. Deer, wild boars, and mountain goats roam its slopes, and hawks, eagles, and vultures soar over the 6,000-foot peaks. Within the park, at Cañada de las Fuentes (Fountains' Ravine), is the source of Andalusia's great river, the Guadalquivir. The road through the park follows the river to the shores of Lago Tranco de Beas. Alpine meadows, pine forests, springs, waterfalls, and gorges make Cazorla a perfect place to hike. Past Lago Tranco and the village of Hornos, a road goes to the Sierra de Segura mountain range, the park's least crowded area. At 3,600 feet, the spectacular village of Segura de la Sierra, on top of the mountain, is crowned by an almost perfect castle with impressive defense walls, a Moorish bath, and a nearly rectangular bullring. Nearby are a botanical garden and a game reserve.

Early spring is the ideal time to visit; try to avoid the summer and late-spring months, when the park teems with tourists and locals. It's often difficult, though by no means impossible, to find accommodations in fall, especially on weekends during hunting season (September through February). Between June and October, the park maintains four well-equipped campgrounds. For information on hiking, camping, canoeing, horseback riding, or guided excursions, contact the Agencia de Medio Ambiente (Calle Martínez Falero 11, Cazorla, 953/720125), or the park visitor center. For hunting or fishing permits, apply to the Jaén office well in advance.

Thanks to its ornery terrain, Anaga Nature Park has managed to keep the tour-bus crowd (mostly) at bay—their loss. This magical oasis takes in misty laurel forests (aka laurisilva) with numerous endemic species, bizarre rock formations that jut above the trees, and hidden mountain villages like Taganana, founded in 1501. Explore the area by car, stopping to take a dip at Playa de Benijo, where you can catch a hiking trail into the surrounding countryside, and to snap a few postcard-worthy pics at the Pico de Inglés viewpoint.

Take a breathtaking riverside hike (1½-2 hours) on the Ruta de las Pasarelas loop, which hugs near-sheer cliffs that plunge into rushing turquoise waters. There's a waterfall, a cave, and plenty of placards with information on the surrounding nature and historical buildings. Be sure to bring plenty of water and to arrive early, since parking (follow the signs) is limited. Certain stretches are on metal pathways with steep drops, so those with limited mobility or a fear of heights should skip this one. The trail starts at Plaza de Rafael Ayerbe beside the ayuntamiento (town hall). No bikes or pets are allowed.

A focal point of Sitges life, this 1½-mile-long esplanade is an iconic pedestrianized beachfront promenade that sweeps along the bay of Sitges. It's backed by upmarket villas, boutique hotels, restaurants, and bars.

Directly opposite Costa Teguise on the north coast of Lanzarote is perhaps the island's most breathtaking beach. Set in a natural cove, its 6 km (4 miles) of sand are flanked by spectacularly high cliffs. The riptide here makes for excellent surfing and windsurfing, and Playa de Famara is regularly used for world championships for those sports. That said, the strong currents mean swimming can be dangerous (a surfer died here in 2022). Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: sunset; surfing; walking; windsurfing.

One of the best urban beaches in Spain is found at the northwest end of the city. Its yellow sands are flanked by a pleasant promenade that stretches more than 3 km (nearly 2 miles) from the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in the south, where surfers congregate, to the Playa del Confital in the north. The beach is protected by a natural volcanic reef, La Barra, which runs parallel to the shore and makes for safe swimming. Lounge chairs and sunshades can be rented year-round. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: sunset; surfing; swimming; walking.

This small placid cove situated 12 km (7 miles) from Playa de las Américas is dwarfed by Los Gigantes, the towering cliffs nearby. Its natural black sand, striking in appearance, can be hot on the toes, so be sure to strap on some sandals. A nearby marina provides boat trips along the coast to take in the full beauty of the cliffs. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: sunset; swimming.

The island's most emblematic beach and one of the most beautiful, Maspalomas has golden sand that stretches for 2¾ km (1¾ miles) along the southern tip of Gran Canaria. Behind this beach are the famous Maspalomas dunes as well as palm groves and a saltwater lagoon, which lend an air of isolation and refuge to the beach. Bathing is safe everywhere except at La Punta de Maspalomas, where currents converge. Topless bathing is acceptable, and there's a nudist area at La Cañada de la Penca. This beach is busy year-round. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets. Best for: nudists; sunrise; sunset; walking.

The rugged coastline east of Playa Blanca has several stunning beaches, but Playa de Papagayo is considered to be the area's—if not the island's—most picturesque. This small bay with fine white sand is perfect for sunbathing as it's protected from the wind by cliffs at both ends. You have to walk along a dirt path to get here, so take suitable footwear and bottled water. Despite its remoteness, Papagayo is a busy beach, particularly in summer. Amenities: none. Best for: snorkeling; sunrise; swimming.

The closest beach to the port at La Savina is an exquisitely beautiful string of dunes stretching to the tip of the Trucador Peninsula at Es Pau. Ses Illetes are collectively called part of a national park and are consistently voted among the five best beaches in the world. Ibiza clubbers like to take the fast ferry from Eivissa after a long night and chill out here, tapping the sun for the energy to party again. The water is relatively shallow, and the meadows of seagrass shelter colorful varieties of small fish; the relatively constant breezes are suitable for windsurfing. Nude and topless sunbathing raises no eyebrows anywhere along the dunes. There's no shade here, and rented umbrellas fetch premium prices. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: nudists; snorkeling; swimming; windsurfing.

This famous stretch of pure white sand rivals Corralejo for the title of best Fuerteventura beach. It extends for 6½ glorious km (4 miles)—at low tide you can walk over to neighboring beaches for 9 km (5½ miles). A sandbank that runs parallel to the beach creates a shallow lagoon perfect for swimming and getting down the basics of windsurfing. Nude sunning is favored here, except directly in front of hotels—these areas are also the only place where amenities are available. Amenities: food and drink; water sports. Best for: nudists; solitude; sunrise; windsurfing.

Here on one of Jerez's most intimate squares you can find the Mudejar church of San Dionisio (open 10–noon, Monday–Thursday), patron saint of the city, and the ornate cabildo municipal (city hall) with a lovely plateresque facade dating to 1575.

At the top of a hill, on Costanilla de San Andrés, sits the most important square of medieval Madrid. It predates the Plaza Mayor by at least two centuries. The sloped plaza's jewel is the Capilla del Obispo (Bishop's Chapel), built between 1520 and 1530, where peasants deposited their tithes, called diezmas—one-tenth of their crop. Architecturally the chapel traces the transition from the blocky Gothic period, which gave the structure its basic shape, to the Renaissance, the source of its decorations. It houses a polychrome altarpiece with scenes from the New Testament and a carved alabaster cenotaph by Francisco Giralte that art historians fawn over. Seven cloistered nuns live in the building and hold Mass in the chapel on Sundays at 6:30 pm and at several other times during the week (check the schedule on the door or call for details). To visit the chapel it is imperative to reserve in advance; tours are in Spanish only. The chapel is part of the complex of the domed Iglesia de San Andrés (Church of San Andrés), one of Madrid's oldest. Chapel tours Tues. 9:30–12:30 and Thurs. 4–5:30.

A symbol of Spain's imperial grandeur, this public square was finished in 1619 under Felipe III, whose equestrian statue stands in the center. It is one of the largest in Europe, clocking in at 360 by 300 feet, and is one of the city's top sights. The Plaza Mayor has seen it all: autos-da-fé ("trials of faith," or public burnings of heretics); the canonization of saints; criminal executions; royal marriages, such as that of Princess María and the king of Hungary in 1629; bullfights (until 1847); and masked balls. 

The space was initially occupied by a city market, and many of the surrounding streets retain the charming names of the trades and foods once headquartered there. Nearby are Calle de Cuchilleros (Cutlers' Street), Calle de Lechuga (Lettuce Street), and Calle de Botoneros (Button Makers' Street). The plaza's oldest building is the one with the brightly painted murals and gray spires, called Casa de la Panadería (Bakery House) in honor of the bread shop over which it was built; it is now the tourist office. Opposite is the Casa de la Carnicería (Butcher Shop), now a rather underwhelming boutique hotel.

The plaza is closed to motorized traffic, making it a pleasant place for sidewalk sitting and coffee sipping as alfresco artists and street musicians put on impromptu shows. Sunday morning brings a stamp and coin market. Around Christmas the plaza fills with stalls selling trees, ornaments, and Nativity scenes. Whenever you visit, be sure to watch your phone and wallet. 

One of the finest plazas in Spain, this Renaissance gem is dominated by a bronze equestrian statue of Francisco Pizarro—the work of American sculptor Charles Rumsey. Notice the Palacio del Marqués de la Conquista, the most dramatic building on the square with plateresque ornamentation and imaginative busts of the Pizarro family flanking its corner balcony. It was built by Francisco Pizarro's half-brother Hernando.

In the 1730s Alberto and Nicolás Churriguera built Salamanca's Plaza Mayor, one of the largest and most beautiful squares in Spain. The lavishly elegant, pinkish ayuntamiento (town hall) dominates its northern side. The square and its arcades are popular gathering spots for salmantinos of all ages, and its terrazas are the perfect spot for a coffee break. At night, the plaza swarms with students meeting \"under the clock\" on the plaza's north side. Tunas (roving musicians in traditional garb) often meander among the cafés and crowds, playing for smiles, applause, and tips.

The much-damaged and oft-restored church of Sant Joan de Gràcia anchors this lovely square where the Palau de la Virreina once stood; it was the summer residence of the same virreina (wife, or in this case, widow of a viceroy) whose 18th-century palace, the Palau de la Virreina, stands on the Rambla. The story of La Virreina, a young noblewoman widowed at an early age by the death of the elderly viceroy of Peru, is symbolized in the bronze sculpture atop the fountain in the center of the square: it portrays Ruth of the Old Testament, represented carrying the sheaves of wheat she was gathering when she learned of the death of her husband, Boaz. Ruth is the Old Testament paradigm of wifely fidelity to her husband's clan, a parallel to La Virreina—who spent her life doing good deeds with her husband's fortune. The rectorial residence at the back of the church is the work of Gaudí's perennial assistant and right-hand man Francesc Berenguer.

This little square is a compact nexus of history. Long held to be the scene of Columbus's triumphal return from his first voyage to the New World—the precise spot where Ferdinand and Isabella received him is purportedly on the stairs fanning out from the corner of the square (though evidence indicates that the Catholic Monarchs were at a summer residence in the Empordá)—the Palau Reial Major (admission included in the €7 entrance fee for the Museu d'Història de Barcelona; closed Monday) was the official royal residence in Barcelona. The main room is the Saló del Tinell, a magnificent banquet hall built in 1362. To the left is the Palau del Lloctinent (Lieutenant's Palace); towering overhead in the corner is the dark 15th-century Torre Mirador del Rei Martí (King Martin's Watchtower). The 14th-century Capella Real de Santa Àgueda (Royal Chapel of St. Agatha) is on the right side of the stairway, and behind and to the right as you face the stairs is the Palau Clariana-Padellàs, moved to this spot stone by stone from Carrer Mercaders in the early 20th century and now the entrance to the Museu d'Història de Barcelona.

Nobel Prize–winning novelist Gabriel García Márquez, architect and urban planner Oriol Bohigas, and Pasqual Maragall, former president of the Catalonian Generalitat, are among the many famous people said to have acquired apartments overlooking this elegant square, a chiaroscuro masterpiece in which neoclassical symmetry clashes with big-city street funk. Plaça Reial is bordered by stately ocher facades with balconies overlooking the wrought-iron Fountain of the Three Graces, and an array of lampposts designed by Gaudí in 1879. Cafés and restaurants line the square. Plaça Reial is most colorful on Sunday morning, when collectors gather to trade stamps and coins; after dark it's a center of downtown nightlife for the jazz-minded, the young, and the adventurous (it's best to be streetwise touring this area in the late hours).

This charming little square and the story of Antoni Rovira i Trias shed much light on the true nature of Barcelona's eternal struggle with Madrid and Spanish central authority. Take a careful look at the map of Barcelona positioned at the feet of the bronze statue of the architect, who is seated on the bench: you'll see a vision of what the city might have looked like if Madrid's (and the Spanish army's) candidate for the design of the Eixample, Ildefons Cerdà, had not been imposed over the plan devised by Rovira i Trias, the legitimate winner of the open competition for the commission. Rovira i Trias's plan shows an astral design radiating out from a central square, while Cerdà's design established the emblematic uniformed blocks and wide boulevards that Eixample is known for.

A tiny square just behind Plaça de Garriga Bachs off the side of the cloister of La Catedral de Barcelona, this was once a burial ground for Barcelona's executed heroes and villains, before all church graveyards were moved to the south side of Montjuïc, the present site of the municipal cemetery. The church of San Felip Neri here is a frequent venue for classical concerts. On January 30th, 1938, one of Franco's bombs fell in the square, taking the lives of 42 people, most of whom were children from the School of Sant Philip Neri. Fragments of a bomb made the pockmarks that are still visible on the walls of the church. These days, the schoolchildren still play in the square, which is cherished by locals for its silence and serenity (at least when the children are indoors), despite its tragic history.

The town's most emblematic feature is this Romanesque 11th-century fortified bridge with crenellated battlements spanning the Riu Fluvià.

If you don't have a fear of heights, cross this narrow 16th-century footbridge to take in the vertiginous view of the river and equally thrilling panorama of the Casas Colgadas. It's by far the best view of the city. If you've read the popular English novel Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom, you'll recognize this bridge from the final scene.

Crowded with locals, tourists, hawkers, and street performers, the Puerta del Sol is the nerve center of Madrid. It was renovated in 2023, and not all madrileños are wild about its new, more austere look. A brass plaque in the sidewalk on the south side of the plaza marks Kilómetro Cero, the point from which all distances in Spain are measured. Across the square are two important statues: El oso y el madroño (a bear climbing a strawberry tree, Madrid's official symbol) and an equestrian statue of King and Mayor Carlos III. Watch your belongings when passing through, as the area is often packed with pedestrians.