Spain off the beaten track: villages, islands and nature far from mass tourism

The Spain that makes headlines is the one of overtourism protests: residents of Barcelona, Palma and San Sebastián weary of hollowed-out old towns and sky-high rents. But you only have to move a few kilometres off the busiest routes to find a different country, made of red-stone villages, all-but-uninhabited islands and inland areas where Roman and medieval history can be touched without a queue. This is a guide to Spain's little-known destinations, organised for those who want villages, nature and authentic urban corners.

Walled villages

Let's start with the walled villages of the interior, perhaps the thing Spain does best. In Aragon, Albarracín is a maze of terracotta-coloured houses clinging to a crag above the Guadalaviar river, with walls that climb up to the Torre del Andador: it's two hours by car from Valencia and beautiful even in winter, when the warm light sets the stone aglow. Not far away, in Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca suspends its casas colgadas over the void of two gorges: the houses hanging above the precipice have become the symbol of a town that stays surprisingly quiet. In Catalonia, far from the crowded coast, Siurana is a balcony of red rock above the Priorat, a region of powerful wines and winding roads that discourage the coaches. And an hour from Segovia, Maderuelo draws its medieval walls around a promontory overlooking a reservoir: a village of a few hundred inhabitants where you walk in silence.

Nature and islands

For nature, the most startling place is in Castilla y León: Las Médulas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Ponferrada. It is what remains of the largest open-cast gold mine of the Roman Empire: the Romans dismantled entire mountains with the ruina montium technique, and today rust-coloured peaks and gorges stand among centuries-old chestnut trees, with the Orellán viewpoint crowning the trail. Those seeking islands without the Balearic crush can aim for the smaller Canaries: La Graciosa, the eighth inhabited island, officially recognised only in 2018, with no paved roads; El Hierro, remote and perfect for trekking and diving; La Palma, Europe's stargazing capital at the Roque de los Muchachos. Off Alicante, tiny Tabarca preserves its eighteenth-century military layout inside a marine reserve. On the mainland, the fishing villages of Asturias — Cudillero, Lastres, Llanes with its inland Gulpiyuri beach — offer a green, cool Cantabrian coast, while Ronda and Cabo de Gata deliver the least postcard-perfect Andalusia.

Corners of Madrid

Then there's a Spain off the beaten track that hides inside the big cities, behind a doorway. In Madrid, on the eastern edge, El Capricho is the romantic garden commissioned by the Duchess of Osuna, ignored by the tourists who throng the Retiro. Beneath Plaza de Chamberí sleeps the Chamberí ghost station, closed in 1966 and now a museum with its original advertising tiles. In the heart of La Latina, the Jardín del Príncipe de Anglona is an eighteenth-century garden the size of a courtyard, and in Malasaña the church of San Antonio de los Alemanes astonishes with its wholly frescoed elliptical plan.

Corners of Barcelona

In Barcelona, while the Sagrada Família grinds to a halt, you can seek out places that are almost empty. On Montjuïc, the Mossèn Costa i Llobera cactus garden gathers hundreds of succulent species overlooking the harbour, and just above it the modernist cemetery of Montjuïc rises in terraces sheer above the water, among Art Nouveau mausoleums. In the Barri Gòtic, in an enclosed courtyard, survive the four columns of the Temple of Augustus, the only monumental remains of Roman Barcino; two minutes from Plaça Catalunya, the Romanesque church of Santa Anna offers a silent cloister. And in Poble-sec, the Refugi 307 descends into the air-raid tunnels that neighbours dug by hand during the Civil War: a harsh and necessary story.

A practical tip: for many of these destinations the low season makes all the difference, both on prices and on the experience. Albarracín in January, Las Médulas in autumn among the chestnut trees, the smaller Canaries in May or October. Off-the-beaten-track Spain is no less beautiful than the Spain of the rankings: it's simply more patient, and it asks you to slow down.

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