Spain
One region done properly, or a route across several.
The Alhambra, Granada
Spain is a country of regions that barely resemble each other: Moorish palaces and white villages in the south, Gaudí and the Costa Brava in the north-east, a green Atlantic coast with the best tables in the country, two archipelagos, and the wine country in between. Avelia, based in Málaga, plans private, tailor-made trips to any of it.
01Where to go
Five regions, each with its cities and coast, and the cities and wine country that stand on their own. Every one opens a page of its own; if the place you have in mind is not here, we plan it just the same.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
The map is the mainland and the Balearic Islands. The Canary Islands lie about 1,000 km to the south-west, off the coast of Africa, and have a map of their own. Each region is pinned at its centre and each city where it stands. The distances are the point: Madrid to Barcelona is about 500 km in a straight line, Seville to Bilbao about 700.
MadridThe Prado, the Royal Palace and the tapas bars
BarcelonaGaudí's city on the sea
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences, and paella
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral at the end of the Camino
La RiojaCentury-old bodegas around Haro and Laguardia
The Duero ValleyRibera del Duero wine and Peñafiel's castle02Inspiration
Each of these is arranged privately for your dates, subject to availability.
Private cooking classes, tables at kitchens that are hard to book, and tastings with the people who make the wine, in La Rioja, the Duero and the Basque Country.
Spain’s great buildings and its museums with a guide who knows them — the Alhambra, Gaudí’s Barcelona, the Prado — and the flamenco, festivals and craft around them.
Trips built around who is travelling: children’s days that hold their attention, and honeymoons and anniversaries planned for the two of you.
03Seasons
The country at its best: highs of 16–22°C (61–72°F) in Madrid and 22–27°C (72–81°F) in Seville, the north green, the islands warming. Everywhere works.
EventsSemana Santa, then Seville's Feria de Abril and Jerez's Feria del Caballo in the weeks after Easter; the Fallas in Valencia in mid-March. We book those weeks a season ahead.
The season for the Basque coast, Galicia and the Costa Brava, with highs of 25–26°C (77–79°F) in Bilbao; the Mediterranean islands run to 31°C (88°F) and the sea is warm.
Hot inland: Seville's July average high is 36°C (97°F) and Madrid's 32°C (90°F). The interior is for early mornings and late nights; take the north, the coast or the islands instead.
The other best season: Seville eases to 26°C (79°F) by October, Madrid to 19°C (66°F), the light softens, and the wine country is in harvest.
EventsThe vendimia in La Rioja and the Duero from mid-September; Barcelona's La Mercè in late September.
Mild in the south and the islands — Seville 16°C (61°F), Palma 15°C (59°F), the Canaries warmer — cold and clear in Madrid at 10°C (50°F). Museums and tables without the queues.
EventsChristmas markets and the Three Kings on 6 January; Carnival in Cádiz and Tenerife in February or early March.
Region by region: our best time to visit Spain guide.
04Shape your trip
Four of our sample itineraries across the country, priced in US dollars per person, each a starting point we then plan around you.
from $27,279 per person
Photo: Elena.laps, CC BY-SA 4.0from $9,814 per person
from $9,408 per person
from $15,365 per person
05In their words
Some times you don't know what you're going to get online and I cannot compliment Ramin enough — this was FIRST CLASS treatment. I would most certainly use him again.
Melissa Cameron
From the moment I first discussed the trip with him, and conveyed what we liked, what we were hoping to do in Spain and the Canaries, the types of experiences we were looking for, etc. I could tell that he was truly listening.
Paul Oetter
In planning stages, he listened carefully, and then proceeded to custom design my trip. Through every aspect, Ramin was professional, gracious, knowledgeable, and excellent at communications and accessibility.
Ginny Welek
06Planning with Avelia
We start with which parts of Spain, and in what order — the question that shapes everything else — then choose the hotels, and only then fill the days. Ramin Jafari plans it from Málaga, where Avelia is based, and is your contact until you are home.
Tell us your dates, interests, preferred pace and any practical requirements.
We prepare a tailored proposal and refine it with you, with a quoted trip price and clear inclusions.
Once you approve the proposal and complete the agreed booking requirements, we confirm your arrangements. We coordinate the details and support you while you travel.
Your proposal sets out the arrangements included in your trip.
When to go, where to stay, the food, the great sights and three days in the city.
When to go, where to stay, the food, the great buildings and three days in the city.
When to go, where to stay, the food, the great museums and the palace, and three days in the city.
When to go, where to stay, the food, Palma's landmarks and three days on the island.
When to go, where to stay, the food, the sights and three days in the city.
07Questions
Every trip is priced individually. After discussing your plans, we prepare a tailored proposal with a quoted trip price and a clear outline of what is included.
Ten days does one region well; two to three weeks crosses the country. The mistake is breadth: Spain’s regions are far apart and unlike each other, so two of them given time beat four glimpsed — Andalusia and one of the north, say, or Barcelona and the islands. Madrid is the exception: it is the hinge of the country, and a few days there at either end cost nothing in pace. Our published itineraries run from ten to twenty-one days and are a fair guide.
April to June and September to October suit almost the whole country at once. Summer belongs to the north and the coasts — Seville averages 36°C in July — and winter to Andalusia, the islands and the museums of Madrid. The seasons above give the figures, and our best time to visit Spain guide goes region by region.
Yes. We plan all three, and a journey that begins in one and ends in another is common — Barcelona to the French Riviera by train, or Madrid and then Rome. Our luxury trip planning page explains how a multi-stop trip comes together, and all our destinations are on one page.
Very. The food is easy, the days are long, the beaches are close to the cities, and there is a castle, a boat or a market for every age. We plan for who is travelling, keep the drives short, and say plainly when a hotel is adults only. See our luxury family trips to Spain.
All of it — sixteen national parks, fifty World Heritage sites and the country between them. The pages here cover the five regions and the cities and wine country most of our clients ask for; for the coast, town by town, see our guide to Spain’s most beautiful coastal towns.
The ones we would choose ourselves, and not only those. Each destination’s page features a selection. Among Seville’s hotels, Hotel Alfonso XIII, Mercer and Palacio de Villapanés; among Marbella’s, Nobu; Granada’s hotels have a page of their own, and in Córdoba there is Hospes Palacio del Bailío. Among Mallorca’s hotels, Cap Rocat and Belmond La Residencia. Among Barcelona’s, Hotel Arts and the Cotton House; among Madrid’s, Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Rosewood Villa Magna and Urso; among San Sebastián’s, the Maria Cristina and Akelarre. For the country as a whole, see our luxury hotels in Spain, and in the journal our boutique hotels in Spain and five-star hotels in Spain. Where a trip calls for a house, a finca or a hotel not featured here, we arrange that too.
Spain is in the Schengen area. Citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom do not need a visa for tourism for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Longer stays, or travel for work, study or residence, need a visa arranged in advance. Visa-free visitors also meet the EU’s Entry/Exit System, which since April 2026 registers fingerprints and a photograph at the border in place of a passport stamp, and will need ETIAS, an online travel authorisation the EU is introducing; the EU’s own travel-europe.europa.eu page gives its current status. Check your own nationality’s requirements before you book.
Both. We plan complete trips, and we also arrange a stay on its own: a hotel matched to you, with transfers, a guide or a few reservations added if you wish.
Avelia suits travellers who want a private, well-paced trip planned around them: the right places in the right order, hotels chosen for them, guides who know the ground, tables and tickets taken care of, and one point of contact from the first conversation until they are home.
Tell us your dates and who is travelling. Everything else we can work out together.
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