Madrid

This is Spain’s headiest city, where the revelling lasts long into the night and life is seized with the teeth and both hands. Strangers quickly become friends, passion blooms in an instant, and visitors are swiftly addicted to the city’s charms.

With a triad of truly great art museums that includes the Museo del Prado, and buildings like the Palacio Real that span the centuries, plus lively plazas, mighty boulevards and neighbourhoods brimming with character, Madrid has plenty of sights to keep the eyes, ears and mind occupied.

Barcelona

Barcelona has transformed itself from smug backwater into one of the most dynamic and stylish cities in the world. Summer is serious party time, with week-long fiesta fun. But year-round the city sizzles – it’s always on the biting edge of architecture, food, fashion, style, music and good times.

The wild and whimsical architecture of Gaudí dominates the streets of Barcelona and makes for some of the finest city-walking in the world. The art will beckon you from museums and streetsides. The vibrant central drag, La Rambla, will lead you to the city’s marvellous medieval quarter, Barri Gòtic.

Bilbao

Post-industrial Bilbao, the largest city in Basque Country (the País Vasco) is transforming itself with ambitious urban-renewal projects, most notably the marvellous Museo Guggenheim. This twist-up of glass and titanium, designed by US architect Frank Gehry and inspired by the anatomy of the fish and the hull of a boat, is the city’s showpiece. The contents of this sardine can are no less stunning than its exterior: works by Serra, Braque, Kandinsky, Picasso, Warhol and more line its walls and halls. The Museo de Bellas Artes, just 300m up the road, is also worth a look. When you tire of art riches, wander over to the restaurants and bars of the medieval casco viejo (old town).

Granada

During the period of Muslim domination of Spain, Granada was the finest city on the peninsula. Today it is still home to the greatest Muslim legacy in Europe, and one of the most inspiring attractions on the Continent - the 11th century Alhambra.

The Alhambra palace is a must-see. Set against the stunning Sierra Nevada and surrounded by cypress and elms, it’s an escape into Granada’s Moorish past. There’s a lot to see, including the Alcazaba, the Palacio Nazaries (Nasrid Palace) and the Generalife gardens, so set aside a whole day if you can.

San Sebastián

Famed as a ritzy resort for wealthy Spaniards who want to get away from the hordes in the south, stunning San Sebastián has been a stronghold of Basque nationalist feeling since well before Franco banned the use of Euskera, the Basque language, in the 1930s.

Donostia, as the city is known in Euskera, is a surprisingly relaxed place with a small-town feel. Those who live here consider themselves the luckiest people in Spain and won’t hesitate to tell you so. After a short stay you may well begin to appreciate their immodest claim.

Seville

One of the first people to fall in love with Seville was the poet-king Al-Mutamid, and the city’s ability to dazzle has not abated since. It takes a stony heart not to be captivated by its exuberant atmosphere – stylish, confident, ancient, proud, yet also convivial, intimate and fun-loving.

In keeping with the slow-burn nature of the city’s charms, two great monuments - the Muslim Alcázar and the Christian cathedral - reveal most of their glories only once you’re inside them. These, along with many other buildings and areas around Seville, are World Heritage Sites.

Toledo

Toledo is an intact medieval city of narrow winding streets perched on a small hill above the Río Tajo. The city is crammed with fascinating museums, galleries, churches and castles. The awesome cathedral harbours glorious murals, stained-glass windows and works by El Greco, Velázquez and Goya.

Unfortunately, it is also crammed with daytrippers, so travellers wanting to enjoy the city should stay overnight and explore in the evening and early morning to see it at its best. The dominant Alcázar has been the scene of military battles from the Middle Ages right through to the 20th century. Other attractions include the city’s two synagogues, the Iglesia de Santo Tomé (which contains El Greco’s greatest masterpiece, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz) and the Museo de Santa Cruz. Archaeologists working on Toledo’s Carranque recently uncovered a 4th-century Roman basilica, Spain’s oldest.

Valencia

Spain’s third-largest city, and capital of the province of Valencia, comes as a pleasant surprise to many. Home to paella and the Holy Grail, it is also blessed with great weather and the spring festival of Las Fallas, one of the wildest parties in the country.

One of Valencia’s best attractions is the baroque Palacio del Marqués de Dos Aguas. The facade is extravagantly sculpted and the inside is just as outrageous. The Museo de Bellas Artes also ranks among the best museums in the country, containing works by artists such as El Greco, Goya and Velázquez.