This travel post may be a little different than my other travel content. While it’s not necessarily a guide, it’s more eye candy that will hopefully inspire you to visit Spain.
Let’s rewind back to February 2020 and my epic trip to Spain! It was right before the world essentially shut down and to be honest when we got on that plane on February 14th we weren’t sure if we should even be traveling, but we did and we had the BEST time you could ever imagine exploring Madrid, Seville and Barcelona for 10 days!
While I shared a bunch of posts on Instagram during my trip (here’s a few favs – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) I never got around to creating travel guides because at the time we weren’t sure how long it would be until we could travel again and honestly it was a little depressing to think about. But here we are 3 years later and it’s time to finally share some of the epic photos from this trip!
Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe and the second largest in the European Union. It’s made up of 17 different regions each with it’s own unique geography, culture, food, art and traditions. Spain is most well known for it’s food, Flamenco music and dancing, bullfights, islands, architecture and wine!
Since it’s impossible to visit all of Spain in 2 weeks we picked 3 of it’s most popular cities since it was our first time in the country – Madrid, Seville and Barcelona.
35 Photos to Inspire You to Visit Spain
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and most populated city in Spain and is known for it’s art museums, amazing food, parks and more. It’s home to Europe’s largest palace, the Royal Palace of Madrid, along with many other top sights in Spain like El Retiro Park, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Prado Museum and Gran Via.
All the historical landmarks I listed above are must sees if you’re visiting Spain, but 2 other landmarks I would make sure you add to your itinerary are Restaurant Botin & Chocolateria San Gines! Restaurant Botin is the oldest restaurant in the world, it opened in 1725, and was frequently visited by Ernest Hemingway. Chocolateria San Gines is Madrid’s most famous chocolate shop and serves one of the city’s most popular dishes, chocolate and churros.
Seville
Seville is the capital and largest city of Andalusia and located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It’s home to Royal Alcazar Palace, Plaza de Espana, Catedral de Sevilla (the 3rd largest cathedral in the world), La Giralda, Setas de Sevilla, Casa de Pilatos and much more! Fun fact about Seville, it’s where the art of Flamenco was born.
Seville may be the lesser known of the 3 Spanish cities we visited on our trip, but it was hands down my favorite (by a LOT). I loved that it was on the smaller side, but was still was packed with history, culture and traditions. And while it’s home to some of Spain’s most famous tourist attractions like I mentioned above it still didn’t feel too “touristy”.
It’s up there as one of the most charming European cities I’ve ever been to and I can’t recommend it enough, if you’re visiting Spain you MUST have Seville on your itinerary.
Barcelona
Barcelona is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain, it’s the capital and largest city of Catalonia and most known for it’s art and architecture thanks to the many works of Gaudi around the city. The most famous landmarks include La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, all properties built by the architect Antoni Gaudi are UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Spain and not to be missed.
Barcelona is also home to many beautiful beaches which makes it a great place to both play tourist and relax! A huge part of Barcelona’s appeal is that it’s a city with beaches! Since I visited in February I don’t have any beach photos to inspire you to visit Spain (particularly Barcelona) so you’ll just have to take my word for it!
Not going to lie, these photos inspired me to want to visit Spain AGAIN so I can’t imagine you made it this far and they haven’t inspired you to book a trip! So mark my words that this will definitely not be my last trip to the Iberian Peninsula! Next time I would definitely go back to Seville and then I would continue south and explore Marbella and Malaga. Mallorca and the Canary Islands are also on my list of places I would love to travel to in the near future!
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