Discover Spain travel guide

Spain is a beautiful country, boasting the Pyrenees Mountains and an expansive coastline along the western end of the Mediterranean Sea.

With the second largest number of UNESCO World Heritage sites, Spain’s relaxed lifestyle and unique culture, along with its famous fiestas and festivals attract many tourists every year.

Spain shares a border with Portugal, Morocco, Gibraltar, Andorra and France. Spain runs on Central European Standard Time (CET) which is 1 hour ahead of Universal Coordinated Time (UTC+1) during winter and 2 hours ahead during summer.

Spain is a country full of passionate and interesting people. Here you’ll find that eating, drinking and celebrating are the Spaniards’ principal way of spending time together.

• The festival and family atmosphere means that it can be noisy even late at night. So if you want a
  quiet sleep make sure you bring ear plugs.
• Spaniards don’t eat when you normally would. Dinner in Spain is usually eaten late, around 10 pm, so if you head out at 6 or 7 for dinner don’t be surprised if you’re eating alone.
• If meeting someone for the first time, you should shake their hand — after you become friends hugging or kissing on the cheek is more acceptable.

• The best time to visit Spain is in the Spring. The weather is very comfortable, with long warm days and cooler nights. Summer is also a popular time as the country comes alive with festivals.

• Climate and temperature varies across the country depending on the region, but on the whole, Spain is known best as a sun-drenched Mediterranean destination. Temperatures below are averages for Barcelona:

• Spain is an easy country to travel around. Public transport includes high-speed rail, buses, flights and taxis, and good quality roads cover most of the country. Bigger cities like Madrid and Barcelona also have a great Metro system. On Sundays, you may need to plan some extra time to get around as the public transport system doesn’t run as often.

• The most yellow cards (cautions for bad behaviour) issued during a soccer World Cup is 14, during Spain’s 1 - 0 win over the Netherlands. Spain also holds the world record (along with Italy) for most wins of the Champions League with 12 wins.
• La Tomatina holds the world record for the largest tomato fight where 20,000 people hit the streets and throw over 100,000 tonnes of tomatoes at each other.

• The national icons are the Spanish Guitar, Cactus and Sombreros.