The Canaries without the crowds
It is easy to avoid big resorts in the Canaries – the smaller islands have a handful of little towns with rural hotels dotted around. Hikers love lush La Gomera, with walks through the laurel forests in the Garajonay national park and along dramatic terraced hillsides overlooking the Atlantic.
Headwater has a new self-guided walking holiday that goes across the island and explores gorges, valleys, palm groves and seaside villages. For independent travellers, the new Bancal hotel (doubles from £161, bancalhotel.com) in San Sebastián de La Gomera is built into the hillside with views across the ocean. The hotel is partly solar powered and grows its own produce (with vegan options in the restaurant).
Headwater’s seven-night self-guided walking holiday costs from £1,239pp, based on two sharing, including breakfast and staying in small hotels and La Gomera’s parador, headwater.com
Horses and sherry in Jerez
To see the elegant city of Jerez at its glorious best, go when the horse fair is on (17-24 May, turismojerez.com). Women in their finest flamenco dresses and men in Cordovan hats parade in carriages around González Hontoria park, where the broad paths are lined with marquees decorated with flowers and paper lanterns, and packed with partying jerezanos.
You do not need an invitation to go into the tents, unlike at the feria in Seville. Make a loose plan to visit a few bodegas and the sherry bars or tabancos in the town centre, where you will be clapping and tapping along with the flamenco performers before you know it.
Stay at Hotel Palacio Garvey (doubles from £75 room-only), a grand 19th-century residence tucked away on a little square
A foodie walk in Catalonia
Anyone who has been to Barcelona knows how good the food is, but there are specialities to discover all over Catalonia, which has been selected as the World Region of Gastronomy 2025. A new holiday with Inntravel, A Stroll in the Pyrenees, combines walking with traditional Catalan cuisine. Stay in a smart rural hotel with a pool and spa near Ribes de Freser for a week, walking along mountain paths at your own pace and taking the rack railway up to Vall de Núria.
From £1,050pp for seven nights, including some meals, inntravel.co.uk
A new parador near Madrid
Toledo, Segovia, El Escorial … there is no shortage of monument-jammed places to visit on a day trip from Madrid. The trouble is that this means other areas get overlooked, despite their many charms. This is certainly true of Guadalajara province, north-east of the capital, which is very popular with weekending Madrileños. This may change with the opening in May of a parador in the small town of Molina de Aragón, which has the second biggest castle in Spain. The parador is a new building, designed to blend into the landscape, with glass walls to give panoramic views of the 12th-century fortress.
Room rates not yet released, paradores.es
Warhol and Pollock in Madrid
Warhol, Pollock and Other American Spaces is showing at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum from 21 October to 25 January 2026. The exhibition explores the connections between these two leading figures of 20th-century art, showing work that goes beyond the more obvious styles and techniques associated with them. Across the road at the Prado, temporary exhibitions include sculptures from Juan Muñoz (18 November to 8 March 2026) and Anton Raphael Mengs, the “German Raphael” (25 November to 3 January 2026).
Stay at Room Mate Alba, handy for museums, tapas bars and independent shops, doubles from £139, room-only, room-matehotels.com
Hiking in Ibiza
Experience a quieter side of Ibiza in spring and autumn by basing a trip on the seven new hiking routes in the north of the island. The walks follow the beautiful coast and go through the countryside, with a soundtrack of soothing birdsong rather than throbbing basslines. The Benirrás hike goes from Port de Sant Miquel to Can Marçà cove and along a path to Benirrás beach, before looping back to the starting point, a distance of 8 miles (13km). All the routes are under 13 miles, and some can be done by bike, with plenty of stops in villages and beach bars.
Stay at Can Fuster, an agroturismo with a pool just outside Sant Joan de Labritja, doubles from £147, including breakfast, booking.com
Gastronomy in Alicante
Although Alicante has been a hugely successful beach destination for decades, it is perhaps less well known as an area with some of the best food and wine in Spain. The laid-back Mediterranean city is this year’s Spanish Capital of Gastronomy, providing a perfect excuse for a break eating rice dishes by the beach and tasting wines made in Alicante province. Start by ordering prawns at the bar at Nou Manolín, then move on to Cervecería Carvi (voted best tapas bar in 2024) for fideuà, a local seafood dish made with pasta instead of rice. And finish up at Taberna Alioli with an ensaladilla de alcachofas (artichoke salad). Foodie festivals and competitions will be taking place throughout the year.
Stay at Serawa, a hotel that focuses on sustainability, with a shop and restaurant specialising in local produce and wines, doubles from £86, room-only, serawahotels.com
Galicia for cooler summers
Rising temperatures mean that in summer Spain’s Mediterranean resorts are too hot for many, and they are looking instead at northern Spain, which has a more comfortable climate and some of the country’s best beaches. Vintage Travel has increased its range of villas in the Rías Baixas in Galicia to meet this demand. Bellavista, on the hillside overlooking the traditional seaside village of Raxó on the Ría de Pontevedra, sleeps eight and has a pool. With plenty of beaches and the towns of Combarro and Sanxenxo within a 10-minute drive, it makes a great base.
A week in June costs £2,198, vintagetravel.co.uk
Going solo, but not alone
For a solo adventure around Spain, but in the company of a few like-minded travellers, G Adventures offers a nine-day trip, travelling by train from Barcelona to Seville, and stopping off in Madrid, Córdoba and Granada. There are walking tours, cookery classes and tapas trawls, but with plenty of free time to explore on your own.
From £1,899, including accommodation in shared rooms (private rooms available on request) in small hotels, breakfasts and some meals, train journeys and local buses, gadventures.com
Spain by train
The Spain Rail Pass has been relaunched this year, enabling foreign visitors to take between four and 10 journeys around the country within a month. Long journeys on high-speed services offer the best value for money.
With a 10-journey pass (€450), an epic itinerary for British visitors could be from Barcelona down to Valencia; crossing the country to Córdoba and Seville; heading down to Málaga and visiting Granada; then heading up to Madrid and Segovia; on to Oviedo in Asturias on the north coast, and finishing in Santander, from where you can catch the ferry back to Plymouth or Portsmouth (brittany-ferries.co.uk) if you prefer not to fly.
Article by:Source: Annie Bennett
