Hostel Search

• Discover Spain and Portugal
  • When To Go
  • Podtours
  • Barcelona
  • Suggested Itineraries
  • Best of Spain and Portugal
  • Off the Beaten Camino
  • Explore the North
  • Southern Comforts
  • Let's Go Picks
  • Featured Articles
• Spain and Portugal Essentials
• Beyond Tourism Spain and Portugal
• Community
  • Discussion Forum
  • Photo Forum
  • Spain 2008 Researcher Blog
  • Past Researcher Blogs
  • Spain/Portugal
  • Portugal
•  
  • Inside Let's Go Spain and Portugal
  • Letter from the Editor

Printable Version

Email This Page

Spain is a paradise for partiers, a mecca for art lovers, a kick-start for thrill-seekers, and a rest-stop for the restless. Its regions offer distinctive foods and styles, as well generous portions of natural and man-made wonders, and everywhere the Spanish people are eager to share their joyful, social lifestyle. Northeastern and central Spain are aesthetic wonders, with trend-setting Barcelona, a rugged coastline that inspired Dalí, and Bilbao’s shining Guggenheim Museum. The dizzying Pyrenees and Picos de Europe challenge adventurers, while Baroque, Arab, and Modernista constructions in Galicia, Cataluña, and Andalucía invigorate architectural enthusiasts. The Spain of popular imagination, full of bullfights and flamenco, exists throughout the south, and the Spain of youthful excitement, with enough all-night partying to turn entire cities nocturnal, can be found in Madrid, Barcelona, and Ibiza. Spain is the perfect destination for first-time travelers, seasoned adventurers, families with children, or college students in search of fast, easy fun. Once you’re there, you’ll wonder why you never came before.

One traveler to Portugal may pass the time partying in a top European hotspot; another may spend days relaxing in towns that have been untouched for nearly a millennium. Often unjustly overshadowed by its Western European neighbors, Portugal is a country with an astounding range of attractions. In Lisboa alone there are imperial monuments from the country’s triumphant past, traditional houses of fado, the native music of Portugal, and clubs that can match any in the world. The southern Algarve, with its wild nightlife and sparkling beaches, draws droves of backpackers, while northern Coimbra crackles with the energy of a university town. The deeper one digs, the rarer the treasures one finds; small towns such as Sines in the Algarve and Barcelos in the wild northern region are throwbacks to a calmer, more isolated time. Portugal stands on its own as a destination worth a considerable stay—it’s impossible to leave disappointed.