Perfect 8-Day Luxury Spain Itinerary

Cranes still stand over La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s cathedral that is over a century in creation. Ghouls guard its corners, twisted pillars suggest something new from every angle, and there are gasps as visitors enter through a sanctified archway. You will need two to three hours in this enormous basilica, especially when you include access to the tower. Your guide will narrate stories of the construction that are full of conflict as architects argued over the interpretation of a long-dead Antoni Gaudi’s work. La Sagrada Familia is always busy with tourists, so will find a quieter neighborhood to have lunch, away from the bustle and mundane restaurants where the menus come in English.

Head to Park Guell later in the afternoon, perhaps with some shopping beforehand. Sunset is magical in Barcelona, even if the city faces east as buildings glow golden as La Sagrada Familia’s spires compete with other contemporary towers. To watch it all, you will find a seat on a serpent mosaic, just one element of Gaudi’s peaceful park above the city. Post-sunset is when the Catalans come out to play, and there is always a lively atmosphere on the plazas.  To enjoy it all, your guide can direct you to the most beautiful plazas, or to one with a more local feel.

Spain has its architectural wonders, including more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country aside from Italy and China. However, it is more the vernacular where Spain really shows off. Very little is mundane, and certainly nothing constructed more than a century ago. Two of Gaudi’s masterpieces are merely local houses, designed and built for their owners in the late 19thcentury. Blue and white tiles shimmer on stairways, curls and swirls fill the facade, and the rooftops resemble art galleries. Casa Batllo and Casa Mila are where people lived, and although they are now major attractions, they stand on streets of other vernacular architecture, where many buildings come from the hands of a Modernist.

After lunch, you will zoom to Madrid on the AVE, wheat-fields giving way to arid plains before the Spanish capital seems to appear from nowhere. Trains are more comfortable than flying and far quicker, dropping you amid the best of the Castillian vernacular. You will immediately notice a change in building style, especially in the city’s 16thand 17th-century center. More classical but none the less flamboyant in its own way, Madrid’s center is a shimmer of soft hues and lightly sculpted facades. Take it all in on an orientation tour and spend the evening at Plaza Mayor, where you can still imagine a time when horses galloped here, beneath the king’s balcony.

Head out with your guide on a day of significant, and yet somewhat forgotten, sights. Madrid does not quite have the glamour of Paris or even London, but it also has fewer tourists. In light of this, the Palacio Real de Madrid offers a serenity to match its splendor, the Prado Museum does not require jump the queue tickets, and you may be the only visitor in Joaquin Sorolla’s house. The Royal Palace has an extravagance worthy of a time when Spanish monarchs were the richest and most powerful in the world, but it also has quirks along with reception rooms and galleries, such as a pharmacy filled with 18th-century potions.

The Prado is too big to be experienced in its entirety as this national art museum takes you on a journey from 12th-century Christian scenes to those Spanish names synonymous with the early 20thcentury. In a turn of history, the museum is also home to the world’s finest Flemish art collection, a memoir to a time of Spanish dominance in the lowlands. The Museo Sorolla is small and easy to take in, an in-depth look at a mostly forgotten figure in Spanish art, his personal collection of ceramics particularly impressive. For the evening, you can have more of Plaza Mayor, or ask the guide about the city’s fine dining restaurants as like most European capitals, Madrid has a wide range of innovative styles and menus.

Toledo appears like a fairytale and the feeling of mystique grows stronger as you cross Puente de Alcantara to find a warren of lanes and spires, almost everything warped in an atmosphere of centuries past. Toledo provided a haven for persecuted Moors, then persecuted Jews, all the while building its churches and maintaining a glorious Gothic cathedral. The harmony extends an impression of a fairytale with convents alongside synagogues and striking Mudejar ceilings. There are few more complete medieval cities elsewhere in Europe, nor any as easy to get around. You can cross Toledo in 40 minutes while completely on foot, as there are hardly any roads for vehicles. So take it easy, stop as often as you need, and spend the entire day in Toledo.

Your guide will be a local and will know the city inside out, from Campana Gorda to Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes and the best places to drink and dine. Cross the bridges, uncover El Greco’s famous works in tiny churches, and follow a storyline that may will continue the fairytale-like mystique. There are regular trains back to Madrid, so you will have flexibility over what time you return. You can savor the beautiful light of dusk in an old medieval center, or back in the Spanish capital.

The Mezquita, a building so glorious it defies description, is also so magical it demands silence. It is best not to go deep into images of columned halls and gardens, and probably best not even to Google the Mezquita and come with a pre-arranged idea of what you will find. The structure is an artistic ode to the Moors, an artistic civilization that has mostly been forgotten, and certainly marginalized in the annals of history. The area is ideally situated on the railway route south to Seville, so you can ump out in Cordoba, store your luggage at the station, and travel through the Mezquita with your guide.

There will be plenty of time to explore more of this old Moorish capital before continuing through Andalusia, Seville a city best enjoyed in the time between late afternoon and evening. The locals come out to walk the streets, a tradition known as paseo, and the taverns hum with chatter. Andalusia is the region of true tapas and Seville pioneers a contemporary style to meet its tradition. A tapas hop is an idyllic introduction to both the city and its atmosphere, as well as being a journey through tasty treats and morsels. And even if you are feeling tired, it is an activity that breathes life into the bones and can keep you going long into the dark.

There was a time in history when Spain took over the New World, liberating a continent of its riches. All of that wealth traveled through Seville, the port city from which conquistadors set sail. Five centuries later what is left behind is the largest old quarter in Europe, topped by a church only rivaled by the Vatican in size with Columbus and many other famous explorers found in its crypt. A little like Toledo, this old quarter is part fable part historical harmony, especially at Barrio Santa Cruz, Real Alcazar de Sevilla, and Iglesia del Salvador.

Spend most of the day discovering the sights and sounds of this old quarter, particularly the winding streets that are slowly being converted to house boutique stores and wine bars. Spend the evening in Triana, one of the three Andalusian corners where flamenco originates. Dresses twirl, feet stamp, a guitarist plays clearly yet languorously, then a lone voice sails through the room. Lamenting loss and lust the singer improvises a tale, such clarity in the words even if you do not know much more than gracias in Spanish. This will not be flamenco for tourists; rather it is flamenco where it all began in a small club where all the best flamenco artists want to perform.

Seven days and seven nights spent in Spain will bring you now to an early departure as you head to the airport and leave this magical country behind.