Travel Stories

5 min read • Nov 11, 2016

La Palma locals like to call their island 'La Isla Bonita' (the Pretty Island), and the minute you get that first glimpse of its pine-clad peaks, you…

5 min read • Oct 17, 2016

Play a game of word association with any British person, and chances are that the minute you say “Benidorm”, the responses won’t be very flattering. High…

6 min read • Jun 1, 2016

One of the great football powerhouses of today, FC Barcelona has always been ‘més que un club’ (‘more than a club’). This motto, coined back in 1968, does…

5 min read • May 10, 2016

Often overlooked and underrated Extremadura is, in fact, one of Spain’s most fascinating regions, a mix of world-changing history and contemporary…

7 min read • Jan 29, 2016

The bar counter groans with a smorgasbord of finger-friendly food art; the room is thick with chatter from the hungry patrons; the txakolí (local white…

5 min read • Jun 30, 2015

Girona may play second-fiddle to its better known Catalan counterpart, Barcelona, but this walkable city makes a perfect weekend destination in its own…

3 min read • May 7, 2015

One of the great things about Barcelona is the local habit of including children in many seemingly adult activities. Going out to eat or sipping a beer at…

5 min read • Apr 21, 2015

Barcelona perhaps finally achieved peak hipster with the recent opening of Urban Outfitters, a massive statement of a shop in a central and symbolic…

2 min read • Feb 18, 2015

When you consider Barcelona's undeniably camera-friendly looks and irresistible charisma, it comes as quite a surprise to find that so few good films have…

4 min read • Feb 17, 2015

The seductive seaside city of Barcelona is a hard-working place with a strong hedonistic streak.

3 min read • Feb 11, 2015

Barcelona rarely pauses for breath. Year round the city rushes from one party to the next, from international music festivals to traditional street…

5 min read • Feb 3, 2015

Sure, Barcelona has become a cauldron of culinary kookiness, with the foams and froths of master chef Ferran Adrià and his disciples. But you can still…

5 min read • Jan 28, 2015

Barcelona is a great city for bar-hopping. Should you feel like sipping a beer in an enchanted forest surrounded by wood-nymphs; if mid-week karaoke…

5 min read • Dec 19, 2014

Not quite a snack, not quite a meal, the tapa is all about sociability, whether that involves ordering a parade of little dishes to share over a bottle of…

4 min read • Dec 19, 2014

The wassailing of Christmas and New Year is over, but in Spain the best is yet to come, with the advent (or – more precisely – Epiphany) of the Three…

5 min read • Dec 8, 2014

There are few places on earth as festive-feeling as Barcelona's chocolate-box medieval heart over the Christmas period (which here runs until Epiphany, or…

4 min read • Dec 1, 2014

The run up to Christmas is one of the most charming times to visit Barcelona, its streets hung with twinkling lights and lined with craft and food markets…

3 min read • Jun 24, 2014

 Granada is a paradoxical city where grit and grandiosity often sit side by side. Most people come here to see the Alhambra, but the city also hides a…

6 min read • Jun 24, 2014

The audience in Seville’s Casa de la Guitarra is crammed in like a football crowd at a Barcelona-Real Madrid game, but it doesn’t seem to matter. All eyes…

5 min read • Mar 12, 2014

Barcelona has long been the city success story for Spanish tourism, drawing record numbers of international visitors every year. While the influence of…

8 min read • Oct 10, 2013

Mallorca has been saying adiós to the cheap-as-chips package holiday cliché over the past few years to focus on its year-round outdoor appeal.

3 min read • Jul 11, 2013

Eat out in Madrid and you will be faced with a variety of regional and international cuisines that is unparalleled anywhere else in Spain. Everything is…