Spain

Spain runs deeper than its beach-holiday reputation suggests. Madrid and Barcelona are obvious and still worth it, but Andalusia is the real prize — Granada, Seville, Córdoba, and Moorish history layered into living cities. The food culture rivals anywhere in Europe, the coast is long and varied, and your money goes further than in France or Italy. Inland summers are brutal; aim for spring or autumn.

A first trip splits between one big city and Andalusia. Fly into Madrid, do the Prado and a late tapas crawl in La Latina, then take the AVE south — Seville in around two and a half hours. From there it's short hops: Córdoba's Mezquita, Granada's Alhambra (book weeks ahead), white villages in between. Eating sets the daily structure: menú del día lunches, dinner no earlier than nine. Trains and food are cheap; city-centre hotels in high season are not.

The crowds are the tax. Barcelona is saturated, the Alhambra sells out, and Seville in August hits temperatures that empty its own streets. Coastal strips like Benidorm exist for a market that probably isn't you, and August shuts down chunks of the cities as locals flee. Dinner at ten takes adjusting. But Spain absorbs tourism better than most places — step two streets off any main drag and the country still belongs to the people who live there.