Spanien

Formentera är partyön Ibizas beskedliga granne. Här råder skötsamhet, lugn och ro. Dessutom bjuder ön på några av Medelhavets finaste stränder. Och välklädda italienare.

Den minsta och hemligaste av de sju Kanarieöarna är trots sina vassa klippor vänlig och välkomnande. El Hierro bjuder på storslagna vandringar i omväxlande natur.

Ön förknippas ofta med ett nattliv som aldrig sover, men partyryktet är starkt överdrivet – söker man sinnesro, vacker natur och lugna stränder så finns det i överflöd på Ibiza!

Rocky headlands, winding inlets, small fishing towns, plunging cliffs, wide sweeping bays and many a remote, sandy beach – this is the eerily beautiful 'Coast of Death', the most westerly outpost of mainland Spain, where mysteries and legends abound. One of the most enchanting parts of Galicia, this remote, thinly populated and, for the most part, unspoilt shore runs from Muros, at the mouth of the Ría de Muros y Noia, round to Caión, just before A Coruña. Inland, narrow lanes weave through woodlands between tiny stone hamlets clustered around ancient churches in the folds of undulating hills. The treacherous coast has seen a lot of shipwrecks, and the idyllic landscape can undergo a rapid transformation when ocean mists blow in. Then it's time to settle into a local bar for some of the top-class local seafood and good Galician wines.

Dangling off the south coast of Ibiza, a mere half-hour away by fast ferry, the 20km-long island of Formentera (population 12,120) is a beautifully pure, get-away-from-it-all escape. Formentera's pace of life is blissfully languid, designed for lazy days spent lounging on some of Europe's (dare we say the world's?) most exquisite beaches.

The elegant, if traffic-filled, district of L'Eixample (pronounced 'lay-sham-pluh') is a showcase for Modernista architecture, including Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Família. L'Eixample also has a celebrated dining scene, along with high-end boutiques and wildly diverse nightlife: university party spots, gilded cocktail lounges and the buzzing gay club scene of 'Gaixample' are all part of the mix.

Whether floodlit by night or bathed in late-afternoon light, there's something magical about Salamanca. This is a city of rare beauty, awash with golden sandstone overlaid with ochre-tinted Latin inscriptions – an extraordinary virtuosity of plateresque and Renaissance styles. The monumental highlights are many and the exceptional Plaza Mayor (illuminated to stunning effect at night) is unforgettable. This is also Castilla's liveliest city, home to a massive Spanish and international student population that throngs the streets at night and provides the city with so much vitality.

L'Eixample, or El Ensanche, means the 'expansion' and was developed once Valencia got too big for its old walled town. Laid out in the 19th century, it's a zone of elegant streets and wide avenues, replete with upmarket shopping and eating options. In the south of this zone, in the dry Turia riverbed, are the otherworldly buildings of the fabulous Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, one of Valencia's major highlights.

If you had to pick just one region to attempt to explain Andalucía in its full, complex beauty, it'd probably be Cádiz province. Lying in wait across Spain's southernmost province are craggy mountains, oceans of olive trees, thrillingly sited white towns (Arcos, Vejer, Zahara de la Sierra), fortified sherry, festivals galore, flamenco in its purest incarnation, the font of Andalucian horse culture, and a dreamy blonde-sand coastline, the uncommercial Costa de la Luz, sprinkled with surfer-cool towns like Tarifa.

Barcelona är en av världens bästa städer när det kommer till småätande. Här är våra favoriter bland stadens tapasställen!