Everything you need to know about Spain
Spain changes from the green Atlantic north to the Mediterranean coast, with a high plateau between them. Its regions have their own traditions and, in several cases, their own languages. Explore the maps and discover the history behind the places, then practise Spanish or Catalan for everyday conversations.
Read it, then make it stick
Geography of Spain
After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in western Europe: a plateau averaging around 650 meters fills the interior, and the Pyrenees, the Sierra Nevada and the Cantabrian range ring it. The second round leaves the land for the cities, which sit almost entirely on the coast or on that plateau, with very little in between.
Know the shape of the country
Start with the seventeen autonomous communities and the two autonomous cities. Then place the cities on the map and explore the rivers, reservoirs and surrounding seas.
Places worth visiting
Essential · Basilica
Sagrada Família
Gaudí’s basilica is still being completed. Book ahead to see colored light pour through its stained glass.
Move between Madrid’s museums and the Moorish palaces of Andalusia, then add Gaudí’s Barcelona and the pilgrim city of the green northwest. Essential is our shortlist for a first trip, and worth a detour goes further. Select a pin to read about a place, then play the map and find them all.
Take Spanish with you
Greetings and politeness
Hello, please, thank you, sorry: the ten openers everything else builds on.
Keep going one country deeper
When you have had your fill of Spain, the countries in white have a guide like this one, and every other has maps of its own.
Europe
- Albania
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Northern Cyprus
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Türkiye
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Asia
- Afghanistan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Philippines
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Yemen
North America
Africa
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Somaliland
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Western Sahara
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe