Spain must be Europe’s most exotic country. From passionate flamenco and finger-licking good cuisine, to cutting edge architecture and avand-garde cities, Spain is a fascinating  mix of stirring and often curious traditions, live-for-the-moment hedonism and a willingness to embrace the future with a relentlessly adventurous spirit. Here are the top 10 places a good time is almost guaranteed.

1. La Sagrada Família

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família inspires awe with its sheer verticality and, in the great manner of the medieval cathedrals, it is still not finished after more than a century.

2. Marvel at Grenada’s Alhambra

The Palacio Nazaries is the Alhambra’s true gem, the most brilliant Islamic building in Europe, with its perfectly proportioned rooms and courtyards, intricately moulded stucco walls.

3. La Mezquita de Córdoba

It is hard to exaggerate the beauty of the Córdoba mosque, one of the great creations of Islamic architecture, with its shimmering golden mosaics and rows of  red-and-white arches disappearing into infinity.

4. Celebrate Easter in Seville

Return to Spain’s medieval Christian roots and join Seville’s masses for the dramatic Easter celebration of Semana Santa.

5. Sleep in luxurious paradores

From former palaces to one-time castles and convents, paradores offer nights of grandeur and historical charm.

6. Laze on Menorca beaches

Menorca is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve with beaches that words cannot describe.

7. Toledo of Three Faiths

Toledo is a gorgeous place, like a city-sized version of a medieval Spanish hill-town with just the right combination of grand moments and twisting narrow lanes in which to get lost.

8. Segovia

Segovia is a town of all gold, honey stone under sun. Unesco World Heritage-listed, it always has had a whiff of legend about it – was it truly founded by Hercules?

9. Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada forms an almost year-round snowy southeastern backdrop to Granada.

10. Tour La Rioja wine country

Get out the glasses for La Rioja and for some of the best red wines produced in the country.