The Rough Guide to Spain (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

• Editorial: Rough Guides
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781789196948
• Edición: 17
• Categoría: Desarrollo personal
• Categoría: Viajes

Practical travel guide to Spain featuring points-of-interest structured lists of all sights and off-the-beaten-track treasures, with detailed colour-coded maps, practical details about what to see and to do in Spain, how to get there and around, pre-departure information, as well as top time-saving tips, like a visual list of things not to miss in Spain, expert author picks and itineraries to help you plan your trip. The Rough Guide to Spain covers: Madrid, around Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura, Andalucía, Castilla y León and La Rioja, Euskal Herria: the País Vasco and Navarra, Cantabria and Asturias, Galicia, Aragón, Barcelona, Catalunya, Valencia and Murcia, the Balearic Islands.Inside this travel guide you'll find: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Experiences selection for every kind of trip to Spain, from off-the-beaten-track adventures in Las Alpujarras to family activities in child-friendly places, like Parque Nacional Coto de Doñana or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Segovia. PRACTICAL TRAVEL TIPS
Essential pre-departure information including Spain entry requirements, getting around, health information, travelling with children, sports and outdoor activities, food and drink, festivals, culture and etiquette, shopping, tips for travellers with disabilities and more. TIME-SAVING ITINERARIES
Carefully planned routes covering the best of Spain give a taste of the richness and diversity of the destination, and have been created for different time frames or types of trip. DETAILED REGIONAL COVERAGE
Clear structure within each sightseeing chapter includes regional highlights, brief history, detailed sights and places ordered geographically, recommended restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and major shops or entertainment options. INSIGHTS INTO GETTING AROUND LIKE A LOCAL
Tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money and find the best local spots for hiking, African-style safari, visiting art museums, bar-hopping and clubbing or sherry tasting. HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS NOT TO MISS
Rough Guides' rundown of Barcelona, Madrid, Andalucía and Castilla y León's best sights and top experiences help to make the most of each trip to Spain, even in a short time. HONEST AND INDEPENDENT REVIEWS:
Written by Rough Guides' expert authors with a trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, to help to find the best places in Spain, matching different needs. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Comprehensive ' Contexts' chapter features fascinating insights into Spain, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary. FABULOUS FULL COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Camino de Santiago and the spectacular Cala d'Hort. COLOUR-CODED MAPPING
Practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys for quick orientation in Segovia, Toledo and many more locations in Spain, reduce need to go online. USER-FRIENDLY LAYOUT
With helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhood to help you pick the best spots to spend your time.

Andalucía

Highlights

Highlights are marked on the map on page 184

1 Semana Santa Andalucía’s major Holy Week festival is memorably celebrated in Seville, Málaga, Córdoba and Granada. See page 186

2 Seville The region’s pulsating capital city is a treasure house of churches, palaces and museums. See page 207

3 Flamenco The passionate dance, song and music of the Spanish south. See page 219

4 Sipping sherry in Jerez Andalucía’s classic wine is made in Jerez and makes the perfect partner for tapas. See page 232

5 Coto de Doñana Explore Spain’s largest and most important wildlife sanctuary. See page 234

6 Mezquita, Córdoba This 1200-year-old Moorish mosque is one of the most beautiful ever built. See page 240

7 Alhambra Granada’s Moorish palace is the pinnacle of Moorish architectural splendour in Spain. See page 250

8 Las Alpujarras A wildly picturesque region dotted with traditional mountain villages. See page 260

Alhambra, Granada

Shutterstock

Andalucía

The popular image of Spain as a land of bullfights, flamenco, sherry and ruined castles derives from Andalucía, the southernmost territory and the most quintessentially Spanish part of the Iberian Peninsula. Above all, it’s the great Moorish monuments that compete for your attention here. The Moors, a mixed race of Berbers and Arabs who crossed into Spain from Morocco and North Africa, occupied al-Andalus for over seven centuries. Their first forces landed at Tarifa in 710 AD, and within four years they had conquered virtually the entire country; their last kingdom, Granada, fell to the Christian Reconquest in 1492. Between these dates, they developed the most sophisticated civilization of the Middle Ages, centred in turn on the three major cities of Córdoba, Seville and Granada.

Each one of Andalucia’s major cities preserves extraordinarily brilliant and beautiful monuments, of which the most perfect is Granada’s Alhambra palace, arguably the most sensual building in all of Europe. Seville, not to be outdone, has a fabulously ornamented Alcázar and the grandest of all Gothic Catedrals. Today, Andalucía’s capital and seat of the region’s autonomous parliament is a vibrant contemporary metropolis that’s impossible to resist. Córdoba’s exquisite Mezquita, the grandest and most beautiful mosque constructed by the Moors, is a landmark building in world architecture and is not to be missed.

These three cities have, of course, become major tourist destinations, but it’s also worth leaving the tourist trail and visiting some of the smaller inland towns of Andalucía. Renaissance towns such as Úbeda, Baeza and Osuna, Moorish Carmona and the stark white hill towns around Ronda are all easily accessible by local buses. Travelling for some time here, you’ll get a feel for the landscap e of Andalucía: occasionally spectacularly beautiful but more often impressive on a huge, unyielding scale.

The region also takes in mountains – including the Sierra Nevada, Spain’s highest range. You can often ski here in March, and then drive down to the coast to swim the same day. Perhaps more compelling, though, are the opportunities for walking in the lower slopes, Las Alpujarras. Alternatively, there’s good trekking among the gentler (and much less known) hills of the Sierra Morena, north of Seville.

Pampaneira

Shutterstock

On the coast, it’s easy to despair. Extending to either side of Málaga is the Costa del Sol, Europe’s most heavily developed resort area, with its poor beaches hidden behind a remorseless density of concrete hotels and apartment complexes. However, the region offers two alternatives, much less developed and with some of the best beaches in all Spain. These are the villages between Tarifa and Cádiz on the Atlantic, and those around Almería on the southeast corner of the Mediterranean. The latter allow warm swimming in all but the winter months; those near Cádiz, more easily accessible, are fine from about June to September. Near Cádiz, too, is the Parque Nacional Coto de Doñana, Spain’s largest and most important nature reserve, which is home to a spectacular range of flora and fauna.

The realities of life in contemporary Andalucía can be stark. Unemployment in the region is the highest in Spain – over forty percent in some areas – and a large proportion of the population still scrapes a living from seasonal agricultural work. The andaluz villages, bastions of anarchist and socialist groups before and during the Civil War, saw little economic aid or change during the Franco years, and although much government spending has been channelled into improving infrastructure such as hospitals and road and rail links, the lack of employment opportunities away from the coastal tourist zones persists. For all its poverty, however, Andalucía is also Spain at its most exuberant – those wild and extravagant clichés of the Spanish south really do exist and can be absorbed at one of the hundreds of annual fiestas, ferias and romerías.

Fiestas

February

1: San Cecilio Fiesta in Granada’s traditionally gypsy quarter of Sacromonte.

Week before Lent: Carnaval An extravagant week-long event in all the Andalucian cities. Cádiz, above all, celebrates, with uproarious street parades, fancy dress and satirical music competitions.

March/April

Easter: Semana Santa (Holy Week) You’ll find memorable processions of pasos (floats) and penitents at Seville, Málaga, Granada and Córdoba, and to a lesser extent in smaller towns such as Jerez, Arcos, Baeza and Úbeda. All culminate with dramatic candlelight processions at dawn on Good Friday, with Easter Day itself more of a family occasion.

Last week of April: Feria de Abril Week-long fair at Seville: the largest feria in Spain.

May

First week: Cruces de Mayo Celebrated in Córdoba and includes a “prettiest patio” competition in a town full of prize examples.

Early May (week after Feria de Abril): Feria del Caballo A somewhat aristocratic horse fair is held at Jerez de la Frontera.

Pentecost: Romería del Rocío Horse-drawn carriages and processions converge from all over the south on El Rocío (Huelva).

Last week: Feria de la Manzanilla Prolonged binge in Sanlúcar de Barrameda to celebrate the town’s excellent manzanilla wine, with flamenco and sporting events on the river beach.

June

13: San Antonio Fiesta at Trevélez (Las Alpujarras) with mock battles between Moors and Christians.

Third week The Algeciras Feria Real is another major event of the south.

End June/early July: International Festival of Music and Dance Major dance/flamenco groups and chamber orchestras perform in Granada’s Alhambra palace, Generalife and Carlos V palace.

July

Early July: International Guitar Festival Brings together top international acts from classical, flamenco and Latin American music in Córdob...