Semana Santa or Holy Week, the period between Palm Sunday and Easter, brings out all the colour, sight, and sound that make Spain such an irresistible destination. Jerez, a small town in Andalucia most of you have probably never heard of (but you will, as our new Spain trip planner is located here) celebrates the […]

Iberian ham, or jamón iberico, might well be our favourite thing about Spain (beyond the Macarena and Rafael Nadal, obviously). If you count yourself a lover of prosciutto or jambon de Beaujolais, jamón iberico will be right up your alley. Read on to hear about jamón’s inglorious history, current prestige and our favourite tasting tips. Ham wasn’t always such a celebrated item on the […]

Time passes slowly outside of the city in Andalucia. The summer sun hangs endlessly overhead and the bulls appear as leisurely and slow as the burros. Yet, on the coast you can pass the long days with surprising swiftness and ease at one of Spain’s little lauded guilty pleasures, the chiringuito. The coast on the […]

Pop-up restaurants are nothing new in places like New York, London and Paris, but in rural Andalucia the concept is just making its mark on the gastronomic underground. Wild boar and hares beware. When your favourite chef works exclusively on a freelance basis, what else is there to do but gather your best food loving […]

From the White House to UNESCO, the world of Flamenco has had quite a year. Here our Andalucian maestro, Sebastian Lapostol, explains how, where and when to get your fill. 2010 was Flamenco’s big brave year. First the Andalucian art form was nominated by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. […]

There’s a reason Grandma’s been hoarding the sherry. Turns out she’s been keeping the best drink in the cabinet all to herself. It’s time to loosen her bony grip on the Amontillado. Here’s everything you ever needed to know about sherry but were too young to ask. There are five horsemen of the sherry apolcalypse: fino, […]

If like me you groan at the mere thought of another Philippe Stark-designed hipster bar, or über-minimalist white-carpeted trend hotel where you can’t figure out how to turn the bathroom lights off, I bet you’ll love the un-hip un-cool not-at-all-with-it Parador hotels of Spain. King Alfonso XIII may have been the proud owner of the […]

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom for travel in Europe are: food, wine, architecture, art, music, landscape and experimental alcoholic concoctions. Overflowing in all of the above, it’s no wonder that Jerez is my latest crush. After a dalliance with Córdoba and a brief fling with Úbeda, I didn’t expect to be swept off my feet so completely by […]

A montage of doors and gateways from the neighbouring UNESCO World Heritage towns of Úbeda and Baeza in northeast Andalucía. Most people don’t make it up here on trips around Andalucía. The hordes head to the beaches. Hikers head to the sierra around Ronda. History buffs are spoilt for choice in the cities: Granada and […]

“You have destroyed something unique, to create something commonplace,” said Charles V, when his bishops crashed a Gothic cathedral right into the middle of Cordoba’s amazing 8C Mosque. The result was an amazing layer cake of Spanish historical flavour. I’m on a jaunt around Andalucia, getting to grips with the ebb and flow of Christian […]

It’s that time of year when any self-respecting Brit recognises his deep cultural debt to the sun-kissed city of Seville by rolling up his sleeves and sharpening his paring knife: it’s marmalade-making season. And perhaps the best time of year to visit Andalucia. What what?! You’re not British, or—worse still—you don’t make your own marmalade. […]

You’d never know it with a casual stroll through its charming streets, but Jerez de la Frontera, in Cadiz province, is home to perhaps the best flamenco scene in all of Spain, if not the world. If you are unfamiliar with this art form (i.e. if you think the Gypsy Kings or Ottmar Leibert are […]

If you’re keen to explore the pata-negra heartland of Spain’s Extremadura region, make the Monasterio de Rocamador your base. Surrounded by the oak groves typical of Extremadura, which teem with semi-wild pigs munching on acorns and getting tastier by the minute, Rocamador is a weird, wonderful and totally unique hotel, in a quite unlikely part […]