Spain travel guide: choosing regions and city bases

The short answer

Plan Spain by city, not by region. XTOUR's reading is that the sites a trip is built around are in particular towns, and that a region is too large to serve as a base. XTOUR organises its Spain coverage around city destinations: Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Córdoba, Valencia, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Santiago de Compostela, Palma and Málaga.

Start from what you want to see and work back to the base. Where two or more bases sit in one region, as in Andalusia and the Basque Country, a separate XTOUR guide compares them; elsewhere, the guides below are built around a monument or group of monuments and the body that runs or sells it. XTOUR has no routing provider, so it gives no travel times between any of these places.

Regions are a layer of government, cities are bases

Spain's regions are autonomous communities, a level of government. According to La Moncloa, the Spanish government's site, Statutes of Autonomy approved between December 1979 and February 1983 created the current 17 autonomous communities, and those of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla followed in 1995.[1] The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory says Title VIII of the Constitution sets out three levels of territorial organisation: the State, the autonomous communities and local entities.[2]

Each base city is a municipality, and the list of municipalities of 1 January 2026 published by INE, Spain's national statistics institute, files each one under its autonomous community: Seville, Granada, Córdoba and Málaga in Andalusia, Madrid in the Community of Madrid, Barcelona in Catalonia, València in the Valencian Community, Bilbao and Donostia/San Sebastián in the Basque Country, Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and Palma in the Balearic Islands.[14][13]

For a traveller the communities matter in two ways. They run some of the monuments: the Alhambra and the Generalife are administered by the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, which the 1986 decree approving its statutes describes as an autonomous administrative body of the Junta de Andalucía, the Andalusian regional government.[4][5] And they shape language: Article 3 of the Constitution says the other Spanish languages shall also be official, alongside Castilian, in their respective communities.[3] XTOUR's reading is that a sign showing two forms of a place name is not an error; the article on co-official languages and place names explains which form each region's law makes official.

XTOUR has no region pages. A site that a city is only a base for is described as reached from that city, never as inside it.

Andalusia: Seville, Granada, Córdoba or Málaga

Four of XTOUR's bases are in Andalusia, so the choice between them has its own guide: Granada, Córdoba, Seville or Málaga sets out what Andalusia's official tourism site places in each city, who runs each anchor monument, and which sites lie outside the city centres.

Each anchor monument also has its own guide. For Granada, the Alhambra ticket guide explains the timed slot for the Nasrid Palaces. For Seville, the guide to the Real Alcázar and the cathedral sets out what each visit is. For Córdoba, the guide to visiting the Mosque-Cathedral covers tickets and worship, and the explainer on its two histories covers how one building became both. For Málaga, the guide to the Museo Picasso Málaga and the Alcazaba sorts out who runs which.

The Caminito del Rey is not in the city of Málaga: its booking platform places it in the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes Natural Park, in the centre of the province of Málaga.[15] The Caminito del Rey guide covers its access and booking rules.

Madrid

Madrid is the base for the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid's tourism website describes the Prado's walls as lined with masterpieces of the Spanish, Italian and Flemish schools, including Velázquez's Las Meninas and Goya's Third of May, 1808.[10] The comparison of Madrid's art museums explains what each collects.

It is also the base for the Royal Palace, which Patrimonio Nacional says is still the official residence of the King of Spain.[16] The guide to visiting the Royal Palace sets out the visits Patrimonio Nacional sells.

Toledo, Segovia and El Escorial are separate places outside the city of Madrid, not parts of it. The guide to Toledo, Segovia and El Escorial covers who runs their main sites and how each sells tickets.

Barcelona

Barcelona is the base for Gaudí's buildings. UNESCO's listing began in 1984 with Park Güell, Palau Güell and Casa Milà in Barcelona.[11] In 2005 it was extended, as the Works of Antoni Gaudí, to the Nativity façade and crypt of the Sagrada Família, Casa Vicens, Casa Batlló and the crypt at the Colònia Güell.[12] The guide to Barcelona's Gaudí sites sorts out which is a basilica, which a park and which a house, and where each sells its tickets.

Two other XTOUR pages cover the rest of Barcelona's modernisme: the guide to the Palau de la Música Catalana and Sant Pau sets out those two visits, and the explainer on Catalan modernisme covers the movement and its architects.

The Basque Country: Bilbao or San Sebastián

Bilbao and San Sebastián are both in the Basque Country, and the choice between them has its own guide: Bilbao or San Sebastián sets out what is in each city and what lies outside it. The Basque Country's official tourism site calls the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao the icon of Bilbao's transformation.[17] The guide to the Guggenheim and the Fine Arts Museum compares those two museums.

Valencia, Santiago de Compostela and Palma

Valencia. The guide to the City of Arts and Sciences explains which of the complex's buildings is a museum, which an aquarium and which a venue, and who sells tickets for each.

Santiago de Compostela. According to the cathedral's visits page, entry to the cathedral itself is free, through the Puerta de Platerías.[18] The cathedral visit guide explains which parts are ticketed, and the article on the Camino de Santiago explains what the pilgrimage is and how XTOUR handles it.

Palma. Palma's tourism foundation describes the city as a launch pad for return trips to the rest of Mallorca.[19] The guide to Palma and Mallorca separates what is in the city from what is elsewhere on the island.

Beyond the bases

Some XTOUR guides are not tied to one base. The guide to Teide's summit permits covers Teide National Park, which is not one of the cities listed above. Roman Spain compares Mérida, Segovia and Tarragona. Gibraltar and Spain explains why XTOUR lists no Gibraltar places under Spain. For culture across several cities, see the explainers on Spanish heritage words, Mudéjar and Moorish architecture, flamenco, Semana Santa in Seville and Málaga, the Spanish food guide and tapas customs.

The bases at a glance

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish travel times, train or road routes between these cities, because it has no routing provider. It does not publish opening hours, prices or booking windows on this page; each site publishes those, and the guides linked above say where. It does not rank the bases. Which one suits a trip depends on which sites matter to you.