Andalusia travel guide: when to go, what to see and how to plan it

Three days are not too many for Seville. The Real Alcazar, a Mudejar palace with vast gardens, needs a timed ticket bought online. The cathedral, Europe's largest by volume, comes with a climb up the Giralda by ramp rather than stairs. The Triana district, across the Guadalquivir, keeps its tile workshops and flamenco peñas. The city goes all out during Holy Week and the April Fair, but slows to a crawl at 40 °C in high summer. An ideal base, Seville is under an hour by train from Cordoba.

One day is enough for Cordoba, but essential. The Mosque-Cathedral, a forest of 850 columns topped by two-tone arches, is free Monday to Saturday from 8:30 to 9:30 am, before the paid opening at 13 euros. Around it, the Juderia, the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir and the Alcazar of the Christian Monarchs. In May, the patio festival opens private courtyards buried in geraniums. Eight kilometres away, the ruins of Medina Azahara, a 10th-century caliphal city, are worth the half-day. Cordoba is on the Seville-Malaga high-speed line.

Granada deserves two nights. The Alhambra is visited over a half-day, with an entry slot for the Nasrid Palaces to be kept to the minute or the ticket is lost. The rest: the Albaicin, a maze of white lanes facing the fortress, the San Nicolas viewpoint at sunset, cave-dwelling Sacromonte and its Roma zambras. A local quirk, every drink in a bar comes with a free tapa, which makes for a cheap dinner. In winter you ski the Sierra Nevada in the morning and visit Granada in the afternoon.

Above the plain, the Serrania lines up the pueblos blancos. Ronda, split in two by the El Tajo gorge spanned by the 98-metre Puente Nuevo, has Spain's oldest bullring. Day trips from Ronda: Setenil de las Bodegas, whose streets run under huge rock overhangs, Zahara de la Sierra clinging above its turquoise lake, Grazalema for hiking in the country's wettest natural park. A car is needed, as buses link the villages poorly. Allow two days.

Two opposite coastlines. On the Mediterranean, the Costa del Sol runs resort after resort, but Malaga has reinvented itself with around thirty museums, including the Picasso in his birthplace, and Nerja keeps its coves. On the Atlantic, the Costa de la Luz stays wilder: ancient Cadiz on its peninsula, the Bolonia dunes with their Roman town, wind-swept Tarifa, a kitesurf spot and the departure point for cetacean-watching trips in the Strait of Gibraltar from April to October.

About thirty kilometres from Granada, the Sierra Nevada holds Europe's southernmost ski resort, open from late November to early April, and the Mulhacen, the peninsula's highest peak at 3,479 metres, walkable in summer. On the southern slope, the Alpujarras string together Berber-looking villages, Pampaneira, Bubion, Capileira, with flat roofs and capped chimneys, known for their high-altitude cured ham and their rugs. It is the ideal area to pair snow and culture in a single day.

At the mouth of the Guadalquivir, Doñana National Park protects one of Europe's largest wetlands, a major stopover for migratory birds between Africa and the north of the continent, and a refuge for the Iberian lynx. It is visited by guided 4x4 from El Acebuche or by boat from Sanlucar de Barrameda, home of manzanilla, a dry wine aged under a veil of yeast. In spring, the sandy-streeted village of El Rocio hosts one of Spain's largest pilgrimages.