The Dynamic Cities of Spain and Portugal

Artist Antoni Gaudí made the paintbrush-straight avenues and leafy squares of the Catalan capital his living studio, and his imagination lives on in the mosaics of Parc Güell or in the gingerbread spires of Sagrada Família , a basilica 144 years in the making. From the tangled lanes of the Gothic Quarter to the beaches of Barceloneta, a lifetime could fly by basking in the city’s cultural riches, hopping from art galleries filled with Mirós and Picassos to restaurants that reach the same dizzying heights as the sacred, chapel-crowned hilltop of Tibidabo.

Rising magisterially from Spain’s mountainous heart, Madrid courses with distinguished blood, the home of kings and Cervantes. And yet the grand old Spanish capital is as much the masterpieces that hang in the Prado and the Reina Sofía as it is the dusty, raucous bars of La Latina, the impassioned roars that ring through the Santiago Bernabéu stadium or a sunset picnic beneath the madroño trees of Buen Retiro Park. 

Under the watch of the snowy Sierra Nevada, the poet Frederico García Lorca forever sang the praises of Granada and its rolling, peaceful countryside, and he would still much find eulogize today in its spirited jigsaw of grand chapels, palaces, old-school tapas bars and Arab-style teahouses – the heady bookmarks in a history every bit as twisting and turning as the narrow lanes of the Albaicín. 

As intoxicating as a cold Cruzcampo lager on a summer’s day, Seville is a breathless dance through every sultry Spanish daydream. Beneath the minaret-turned-belltower of the Giralda, one of Europe’s largest old towns spreads out in a web of tiled courtyards and cobbled, brightly colored squares, where ladies fan themselves beneath the orange trees. Ornate Moorish palaces sprawl around lush fountains, while secret flamenco shows bubble with passion above old, sepia-toned tapas bars. 

Like the illustrated tins of its famous sardines, the pretty Portuguese capital is colorful, compact and packed with flavor. Trams and hilly streets tip travellers out into Bairro Alto’s lively bars, the chic beaches out at Cascais and Alfama’s winding backstreets, which echo with the refrains of a fado singer. Beneath ancient fortresses and grand, Palladian-style squares, the salty air of the Atlantic mingles with the sweet smell of flaky pastry and custard at traditional pastéis de nata shops and bars serving cherry-red ginjinha.

At once moody and magnificent, Porto is a city of brutish good looks, set on the steep terraced banks of the Douro River. There are soaring bell towers, tiled train stations and baroque churches with gleaming gilded interiors that sparkle like the surface of the Douro. Boats laden with barrels of port once lingered along Ribeira, but now, the neighborhood's buzzy riverfront bars and restaurants make for prime people-watching, whilst Mercado do Bolhão is an immersive insight into local life and fresh Portuguese produce.