Aragón

This is where the Spanish Pyrenees really take your breath away. The park extends south from a dragon's back of limestone peaks along the French border: a southeastward spur from this includes Monte Perdido (3355m), the third-highest peak in the Pyrenees. Deep valleys slice down from the high ground. Most were carved by glaciers and at their heads lie bowl-like glacial circos (cirques) backed by spectacular curtain walls of rock. Chief among the valleys are Ordesa (west), Añisclo (south), Escuaín (southeast) and Pineta (east).

The wonderful scenery of plunging canyons, towering cliffs, thick forests, rivers, waterfalls, snow peaks, mountain lakes and high-level glaciers makes this arguably the place to head for if you can manage only one destination in the Spanish Pyrenees.

The pink-hued medieval houses of Albarracín are like nowhere else in Spain. So authentic are the twisting, narrow streets with their overhanging wooden balconies that one half expects Don Quixote and Sancho Panza to appear from around a blind corner. You can argue all day about Spain’s prettiest village, but Albarracín, with its picturesque fortifications, churches and houses on a high rocky promontory carved out by a loop of the Río Guadalaviar, is definitely a contender. Its unique medieval history as an independent mini-state, and the story of its resurrection from near-abandonment over the past 60 years, add to the fascination. The town is 38km west of Teruel and well worth a stay of a night or two.

The pink colour, by the way, comes from the unusual hue of the local gypsum, an important construction material hereabouts.

The ethereal image of the multi-domed Basílica del Pilar reflected in the Río Ebro is a potent symbol of Zaragoza, one of Spain’s most underrated regional capitals. There's plenty more fine architecture here too, including a turreted castle with an interior like a mini-Alhambra, and some very creatively displayed underground Roman remains, but Zaragoza's appeal goes well beyond its monuments. Spain’s fifth-largest city (and home to more than half of Aragón's 1.3 million residents), it has one the best tapas and bar scenes in the country and is well stocked with the epoch-defining art of local lad Francisco de Goya, the genius painter who was born a short horse ride away in 1746.

The historic centre (between the Río Ebro, Calle del Coso and Avenida César Augusto) is refreshingly almost traffic-free, including the vast, 400m-long Plaza del Pilar alongside the famous basilica.

These enchanting parallel valleys, tucked away in Aragón's far northwest corner, run up through dense mixed woodlands, punctuated by a few ancient stone-built villages, between crags of increasing height and drama, where raptors circle high above, to end at the main Pyrenean ridge along the French border. Flowing south from these mountains, the Río Aragón Subordán and, a few kilometres to its west, the Río Veral have carved out the Hecho (Echo) and Ansó valleys. Little known to non-Spaniards, the valleys and their surrounding mountains are a paradise for walkers, with rivers, lakes, gorges and waterfalls, as well as spectacular mountain scenery and plentiful accommodation. The upper parts of the valleys are part of the 270-sq-km Parque Natural de los Valles Occidentales.

The town of Teruel is synonymous with Mudéjar architecture. Nowhere else, with the possible exception of Seville, is this glamorous amalgamation of Islamic craft and Christian taste in such evidence. Its hallmarks – patterns of terracotta bricks and glazed tiles, ornate wooden ceilings – are crafted skilfully into the town’s towers and churches, four of which are Unesco-listed.

Teruel is Spain's smallest provincial capital, but a surprisingly bustling and lively place, with some good restaurants. A Moorish fort existed here from the 10th century onwards, but the city itself was founded in 1171 by a conquering Christian king, Alfonso II. In subsequent centuries, Teruel floundered as a forgotten outpost in Aragón’s isolated southern highlands. Its most famous historical moment was also its most tragic. The battle of Teruel in the bitter winter of 1937–38 was one of the bloodiest in the Spanish Civil War, claiming an estimated 140,000 casualties.

Like so many Aragonese villages, Alquézar jumps out at you unexpectedly. You’ll barely guess its magnificence until you’re virtually inside its tight labyrinth of streets above the steep cliffs of the plunging Río Vero gorge. Beauty aside, Alquézar is Spain’s capital of canyoning, with several companies offering to take you jumping, sliding and abseiling down the numerous dramatic canyons carved into the surrounding Sierra de Guara, a sparsely populated limestone massif in the Pyrenees foothills.

Aragón's northeastern corner is crammed with the highest and arguably the shapeliest peaks in the Pyrenees, and the likeable little town of Benasque is a perfectly sited gateway to the high valleys. Even in high summer, these epic mountains are fringed with ice. Much of the region is protected as the Parque Natural Posets-Maladeta.

Benasque's neat, alpine-style, stone-and-slate architecture appears fairly modern, but the town goes back a long way: its church has Romanesque origins and the Palacio de los Condes de Ribagorza on Calle Mayor dates from the 16th century.

A gateway to the western valleys of the Aragonese Pyrenees, Jaca has a compact and attractive old town, dotted with remnants of its past as the 11th-century capital of the nascent Aragón kingdom and a strongpoint in Spain's 16th-century lines of defence against possible French invasion.

Summer tourism in July and August, and après-ski funsters on winter weekends, keep a lively atmosphere going well into the night.