Spain can fill your travel days with world-class art treasures, folk life, exotic foods, sunshine, friendly people, and castles where the winds of the past still howl. This book covers the big cities, and also Rick's favorite "back door" experiences. Along with seeing the Prado, some flamenco, and maybe a bullfight, you'll buy cookies from cloistered nuns in a sun-parched Andalusian town and scramble along the ramparts of an ancient Moorish castle.

In Rick Steves' Spain, you'll find in-depth Rick-tested information on trip planning, the best sights, hotels, restaurants, tourist offices, transportation, telephones, festivals and holidays, mail and email, weather, survival phrases, easy-to-follow maps, and great self-guided neighborhood walks and museum tours

• Catalunya: Barcelona, Figueres, Cadaques, Sitges, and Montserrat
• Basque Country: San Sebastián, Bay of Biscay, Guernica, Bilbao, Hondarribia — plus nearby French towns of St. Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne and Biarritz
• Camino de Santiago: St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, Pamplona, Burgos, León, Galicia, O Cebreiro, Lugo, and Santiago de Compostela
• Cantabria: Santillana del Mar, Altamira Caves, Comillas, and Picos de Europa
• Castile: Madrid, El Escorial, Valley of the Fallen, Segovia, Salamanca, Ávila and Toledo
• Andalucía: Granada, Sevilla, Córdoba, Andalucía's White Hill Towns (Arcos de la Frontera, Ronda, Zahara, Grazalema, and Jerez)
• Costa del Sol: Nerja, Gibraltar and Tarifa — with a side-trip to Tangier in Morocco

NEW! Full-color fold-out Planning Map:This handy 14 1/2"x19 1/2" map includes all of Spain and Portugal and key driving distances on the front; city close-ups (with major sights) of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Toledo and Lisbon on the back.

Published: December 2012

Planning to drive in Spain? Take along a great road atlas. We recommend the Michelin Spain & Portugal Motoring Atlas. It is spiral-bound so it always lies flat for easy carefree driving.