Category Archives: Tips and opinions

Top World Heritage sites in Spain

February 23, 2014Spain / España, Tips and opinions, Tours and Guidesbestplaces

Here you have a list with the most famous UNESCO World Heritage sites in Spain (Monumentos del Patrimonio de la Humanidad en España de la UNESCO). In the next list you will find the name of the monument, its city, province or region and the year of its inclusion as World Heritage site:

– Barcelona (Catalonia): The Gúell Park and Mila House (The Pedrera), added as UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1984. The Catalonian Music Palace (Palau de la música catalana) and The hospital of Sant Pau included in 1997. Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, included in 2005.

– Burgos (Castile Leon): TheCathedral of Burgos, year 1984. Sierra de Artapuerca (Burgos province), included in year 2000.

– Granada (Andalusia): Alhambra and Generalife, added in 1984 . The Albaicín neighborhood in Granada, 1994.

– Cordoba (Andalusia): Mosque of Cordoba, 1984. The Historic city of Córdoba, 1994.

– Sevilla (Andalusia): The Seville cathedral, The quarterdeck (Alcázar) and Archivos de indias, year 1987.

– El Escorial (Madrid region): The Royal Monastery of El Escorial added as World Heritage site in 1984.

– Aranjuez (Madrid region): Cultural landscape of Aranjuez, 2001.

– Alcalá de Henares (Madrid region): University of Alcalá de Henares and Old town, 1998.

– Toledo (Castile La Mancha): The Toledo historic city. Added to UNESCO list in 1986.

– Ávila (Castile Leon): The old city of Ávila and its walls in 1985.

– Segovia (Castile Leon): The Old city of Segovia and its Aqueduct, added as World Heritage sites in 1985.

– Valencia (Valencian region): The Silk market (La Lonja de la Seda), 1996.

– Cantabria region: Altamira caves (Cueva de Altamira), included in 1985.

– Oviedo (Asturias): Churchs (pre-romanesque churchs) 1985, an other monuments in Oviedo, 1998.

– Santiago de Compostela (Galicia): The old city of Santiago, 1985. The Saint James way, 1993.

– Lugo (Galicia): The roman walls, included in year 2000.

– A Coruña (Galicia): Torre de Hércules, 2009.

– Cáceres (Extremadura): The old city of Cáceres in 1986, and Santa Maria de Gudalupe Monastery, 1993.

– Mérida (Extremadura): 29 monuments in Merida and surroundings, included in 1993.

– Salamanca (Castile Leon): The old city of Salamanca, 1988.

– Tarragona (Catalonia): Archaeological complex of Tarragona, year 2000.

– Poblet (Catalonia): Monastery of Poblet, included in 1991.

– Lérida (Catalonia): Romanesque cultural landscape of Valle de Boi (Paisaje cultural románico), 2000.

– Cuenca (Castile La Mancha): The fortified and historic city of Cuenca, 1996.

– La Rioja region: San Millan de Yuso y Suso Monasteries, year 1997.

– Teruel (Aragón): The Mudejal towers and the cathedral roof (techumbre), year 1986.

– Zaragoza (Aragón): The Mudejar art of La Seo Cathedral, Aljaferia Palace and San Pablo church. Included in year 2001.

– Calatayud (Aragón): The Mudejar art of Santa Maria Church (in Cervera de la Cañada), Santa Tecla Chuch (in Tobed village) and Santa Maria Church, year 2001.

– Mediterranean rupestrian art of the Iberian Peninsula (arte rupestre de la cuenca mediterranea), included in 1998.

– Bilbao (Basque Country): Puente de Vizcaya, year 2006.

– Úbeda y Baeza towns (Jaén, Andalusia): Declared in World Heritage sites the 3rd of July 2003.

– Ibiza island (Balearic islands): Ibiza biodiversity and culture, 1999.

– San Cristobal de la Laguna (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands): Included as World Heritage site in 1999.

Read also our list with t he best cities and destinations in Spain, and the top monuments of Spain.

Shopping in Spain: Clothes and complements

January 7, 2014Madrid, Spain / España, Tips and opinionscloths, free time, INDITEX, shopping, shops, ZARAAnna

Spain is a homeland of INDITEX – one of the biggest cloth companies in the world. It consists of brands like: ZARA, Pull and Beer, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Bershka, Stradivarius or ZARA HOME. Even thought you can find these shops all around the world – in 74 countries, the prices in Spain are a little bit lower than in the other countries. During the sales time the prices fall and are very very attractive. You can find these shops in every commercial center or main street of bigger city.

So, if you want to buy something more extraordinary, you should go to Desigual. In this shop prices are higher, but the clothes are not usual. If you like very colorful clothes in an ethnical style and you want to stay out in the crowd this is the shop for you. It offers collection to women, mem and children.

If you look for something really smart and elegant, you should go to the one of the most expensive places in Madrid – Serrano Street, which is situated in the center of Madrid, close to Plaza Colón and Goya Street in the district of Salamanca. There you can find shops from the best designers: Prada, Louis Vouitton, Manolo Blahnik, Gucci, Cartier or Chanel. This is the most elagant district of the capital, with the best shops and the highest prices.

If you would like to buy some unique and extraordinary cloths the best direction in Madrid is to go to Malasana and Chueca. This two parts of Madrid are famous from their alternative spirit. There you will find the famous Mercado de Fuencarral which is place with a lot of interesting shop. Apart from it, there are many small shops of still unknown designer, vintage shops, shops which offer clothes made to messure and small boutiques…

When we talk about fashion in Spain, we can omit mentioning the elegance of Spanish men. Their clothes come from the best designers, very often they wear suit or elegant shirt and shiny shoes. They look smart everyday, no matter how hot it is. So, if you are a man and you visit Spain, you should invest in buying moccasins the typical Spanish shoes, made from leather which will make you look more handsome 🙂

What to buy in Spain? Food and drinks from Spain

December 19, 2013Gastronomy, Spain / España, Tips and opinionsAnna

If we talk about shopping… Spain offers many interesting things to buy for tourists and people visiting this beautiful country.

Let’s start from food!
If you are in Spain, you have to buy at least some of the things which are on the list:

– Jamón serrano, chorizo, salchichón: all of them are typical Spanish hams used to prepare tapas or bocadillos, the price of really good jamón can be very high (100 euros for 1kg), but it’s really worth trying. These cured meats have a very specific taste, so if you don’t like trying new things or you are not sure if you like it or not the best option will be to go to some coffe house or pub and ask fot the “bocadillo de jamón”. I’ll try it and decide if you enjoy it or not.

– Vine or sangria: Germany is famous from its beer, Poland from vodka and Spain from wine. Spanish wines are the best in the world and much cheaper than the French ones so that gives them a lot of advantage. La Rioja is the most popular region of the country where the vine is maid. Of course, the best vine is the red one, but you can also try other types of it. Another Spanish invent which is woth trying is sangria or summer wine (tinto de verano). Both of them are sweet red wine made form a lot of fruits. As I said they are very sweet but taste deliciuos, especially with a lot of ice! They are grat alternative for the beer which you may drink during hot Spanish summer. One bottle of sangria usualy costs around 1,5-2 euros. The prices of the vine are very diversified. You can buy many vines for 3 euros and there are considered to be a good ones, but the shops are full of many different types, so you can choose whatever you like.

– Turrón: is a traditional Spanish sweet for Christmas. Christmas in Spain begin after the 1st of November, at least in shops and malls. Turrón is a tradional things which may remind you chocolate, but only from inside. The two tipical types come form two cites near Valencia, in the east of country: Alicante and Jijona (Xixona in catalan language). Both of them are made from almonds, but the one from Alicante consist of the whole almonds while this from Jijona from the grinded ones. To prepare them, apart form almonds you need honey, eggwhites and nuts oil. The tradional recepies are supervised by a special comission which takes care of the quaility of turrons.

– Fruits: Spain is an Europe’s door to exotic fruits! Because of it situation you can find a wide range of fruits and vegetables in this country, which are often much cheaper and taste better. All of fruits shop are very colorfull and can offer you many things: khaki, chirymoya or papaya.

– Cheese: even thought the cottage chceese is not a Spanish delicacy, the one which is made from goat’s milk is one of the bests. You can’t leave Spain without trying it. You also have to try the typical cheese, made form cow’s milk, becuse they are very tasty. As you can see, you can call France the country of cheese, but Spain has also many things to offer in this area.

After eating well, you can finally go and visit some clothes shops!

How to add a new place

September 17, 2013Spain / España, Tips and opinionsbestplaces

If you want to send suggestions, corrections or new places to the website, you can do the following:

Send us an email

You can write us with the name and the location of the place that you want to add, and a brief description about it (from 400 to 800 words approx.)

You can write about streets, monuments, parks, buildings, beaches, nature…, also you can attach photos.

Once published, we will write the name of the author, and a link to its profile if the author wants to do it.

The best places in Spain

A guide to visit Spain, written by Spaniards