Spain

The most visited monument in Spain and one of the finest examples of Islamic architecture in the world, the Alhambra was built by the Nasrid sultans between the 13th and 14th centuries on a red sandstone hill above Granada — a palace complex of extraordinary geometric beauty, its intricate plasterwork, muqarnas ceilings, and reflecting pools a physical expression of Islamic Paradise. Private dawn access to the Nazrid Palaces — before any other visitors arrive — is the correct way to experience a building that deserves that quality of attention.

The capital of Catalonia and one of the most architecturally extraordinary cities in Europe, Barcelona is shaped by the Modernisme movement of the early 20th century — above all by Antoni Gaudí, whose Sagrada Família (still under construction after 140 years), Park Güell, Casa Batlló, and Casa Milà are entirely without precedent in European architecture. Beyond Gaudí, the Gothic Quarter, the Picasso Museum, the MACBA contemporary art museum, and the food market of La Boqueria make Barcelona one of the most culturally dense cities on the continent.

Seville is the capital of Andalucía and the heart of the culture — flamenco, Semana Santa, the Feria de Abril — that most people mean when they say Spain. The cathedral (the third largest in the world), the Royal Alcázar palace, and the Barrio Santa Cruz combine in a historic centre of extraordinary richness. The surrounding region — Córdoba's mosque-cathedral, the hill villages of the Sierra de Grazalema, the sherry bodegas of Jerez de la Frontera, and the wetlands of the Doñana National Park — form one of Europe's most rewarding regional journeys.

The highest concentration of Michelin stars per capita in the world outside Tokyo, San Sebastián's food culture — from the pintxos bars of the Old Part to the 3-starred restaurants on the outskirts — has made it the pilgrimage destination for serious food travellers worldwide. The old city's Belle Époque architecture, the Zurriola surf beach, and the Basque landscape of green hills and fishing harbours complete a destination that stands entirely apart from the rest of Spain.

Spain's most famous wine region, Rioja produces the Tempranillo-based reds and whites that define Spanish viticulture at the international level, in a landscape of medieval villages, hilltop monasteries, and wineries designed by some of the world's leading architects — Frank Gehry's Marqués de Riscal, Zaha Hadid's López de Heredia, Santiago Calatrava's Ysios. Private visits to traditional bodegas producing wines aged in American and French oak barrels over decades represent the authentic core of the region.

A fortified city rising above a bend in the Tagus River, Toledo was the imperial capital of Spain under Charles V and a city where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived in relative coexistence for centuries — producing the extraordinary mix of Visigothic, Moorish, Jewish, and Gothic Christian architecture that makes it unlike any other city in Europe. El Greco spent the most important years of his career here, and his paintings fill the city's churches and museum in a concentration available nowhere else.