What Most Travellers Miss About Spain And Why It’s Worth Going Back

Spain is one of those destinations that rewards the traveller who arrives without too many assumptions about how a day is supposed to go.

I say that because Spain operates on a rhythm that is genuinely different from what most Canadian travellers are used to and the visitors who try to impose their own schedule on it tend to find the country frustrating. The ones who surrender to it tend to fall completely in love.

Spain is not in a hurry. The sooner you accept that, the better your trip will be.

The siesta is not a myth.

This is the thing I tell every client before their first trip to Spain, because it catches almost everyone off guard: the siesta is real, it is widespread, and it will affect your day if you haven’t planned for it.

Between approximately 2pm and 5pm — sometimes later — a significant portion of Spain shuts down. Smaller shops close. Some restaurants stop serving lunch and won’t open for dinner until 8 or 9pm. The streets in residential areas go quiet. This is not inconvenient once you understand it — it’s actually one of the most civilised aspects of Spanish life. But if you’re wandering around looking for somewhere to eat at 4pm without having planned ahead, you will struggle.

The practical adjustment is simple: eat lunch when Spain eats lunch — between 2pm and 4pm — and plan for a long one. Then use the quiet hours for something that doesn’t require shops or restaurants. A siesta of your own. A walk. Time at the hotel. And then dinner, late, the way Spain intends it.

Malaga as a base camp

Most first-time visitors to Spain head straight for Barcelona or Madrid, both of which are extraordinary and both of which I recommend. But for clients who want to experience the south of Spain — Andalusia, the white villages, the sherry bodegas of Jerez, the caves of Nerja, the old city of Granada, I almost always suggest Malaga as a base.

Malaga sits on the Costa del Sol and has a reputation, unfairly, as a package holiday destination. The city itself, the old town, the Alcazaba, the Picasso Museum, the covered market, is genuinely wonderful and significantly less crowded than the major cities. And from Malaga, you can reach almost all of Andalusia on day trips without once changing hotels.

Granada is ninety minutes away. Ronda, one of the most dramatic towns in Spain, built on the edge of a gorge, is an hour. Seville is two hours by train. Nerja, with its extraordinary coastal caves and beautiful beaches, is forty-five minutes. Staying in Malaga and taking day trips through Andalusia is one of the most satisfying ways to experience southern Spain and one of the least crowded.

What Spain gets exactly right

The food culture in Spain — particularly the tapas tradition in Andalusia is one of the great pleasures of European travel. In the south especially, tapas are not necessarily small plates. If you order a glass of wine or a cold beer, ask for tapas to accompany. This is how locals eat, and it is delightful. It is also their snack ahead of their meal.

The Spanish are genuinely warm and unhurried with visitors. There is a relaxed hospitality to the south of Spain in particular that is different from anywhere else in Europe. Nbody is rushing you, nobody is watching the clock, and the expectation is that a meal is an event rather than a transaction.

• Learn three words of Spanish before you arrive — locals notice and appreciate it enormously

• Book restaurants for dinner no earlier than 8:30pm — showing up at 7pm puts you in an empty room

• Avoid driving in city centres — the old towns were not designed for cars and parking is a genuine ordeal

• Give yourself more time than you think you need everywhere — Spain rewards the unhurried

The travellers who love Spain most are almost always the ones who stopped trying to optimise it and started letting it set the pace. That’s not advice for every destination. For Spain, it’s essential.

Ready to talk about your trip?

Every Dietrich Getaways engagement starts with a complimentary consultation — no obligation, no fee. Just an honest conversation about what your trip could look like.

BOOK YOUR COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION