Spain Travel

10 Reasons Gran Canaria is a Magical Experience

September 26, 2014 by Cat Gaa · 17 Comments

I’m pleased to bring on a guest post for the first time in ages. Like me, Sven fell in love with Spain a decade ago, and has been residing on Gran Canaria ever since. I’ve written about the islands a few times, but hear this local out – there’s a lot more to Gran Canaria than you’d think!

Maybe you’re already thinking about Gran Canaria for your next holidays? Or you just want to find out more about this beautiful island, not so far from Africa.

After all, there must be something special to attract over 3 million tourists every year, many of whom return time and time again.

In fact, this unique destination has so many unexpected charms they’re too numerous to mention, but here are ten of them:

1. You can walk through the Sahara without being in the Sahara

The Canary Islands are quite close to Africa – about 140km of ocean separate Lanzarote and the Western Sahara.

The unique climate conditions in the Canaries carries in a few thousands of years tons of Sahara sand to the Canary Islands in the air, and the most stunning result of this phenomenon are the Dunas de Maspalomas.

Follow the shore from the south point in Meloneras until you reach Playa del Inglés. You get an extraordinary feeling of how it feels to be in the Sahara on 12km of natural dunes without the heat.

The Dunas de Maspalomas is one of the most visited places in the Canaries.

2. Feel like heaven in Gran Canaria’s alpine world

The highest peak of the island of Gran Canaria, known as El Mar de Nubes, is Roque Nublo.

You get a similar feeling when you’re sitting in a plane, as you’ll see nothing else than clouds until the horizon below your feet. With an incredible view up to the neighbor island Tenerife, whose volcano Teide sticks out of this ocean of clouds.

If it’s cloudy and rainy at the seacoast, get a car and drive up to the mountains. When you reach 1500 meters, you pierce through the clouds and the sun welcomes you. Remember to wear suitable clothing, as it gets chilly!

3. Just one season all over the year

There is no such thing as four seasons on the Canaries.

Well…as a local, of course you feel the winter. It’s the time with more or less 20 to 23 degrees in the north, when locals dress up with thick clothing.

As a short time visitor, your body is not accustomed to the local climate. That’s why you are able to enjoy 365 days of summer with mild temperatures between 25 to 32 degrees all over the year. In fact, the Canaries are considered to have one of the best and most stable climates in the world!

4. You get to see different continents in 30 square miles

Gran Canaria is like a miniature continent and was awarded a Biosphere Reserve label by UNESCO for its natural diversity.

This makes it an interesting place to visit, because the landscape changes drastically in just a few short miles. Apart from the desert dunes and the mountains, Gran Canaria also has tropical beaches, fir forests, more than 60 lakes, a green lung and dry and dusty desert areas.

And besides, you can get into another climate zone in between an hour if you want. In winter, you can even see frost or snow while tourists are enjoying the beaches in the south of the island.

When you’re sick of being in the steppes in the south of Gran Canaria, just follow the highway to the north for 40 Minutes and drive to Tafira.

You will find a green natural oasis, palm trees and flowers in all directions. And that’s the whole north part of the island.

Since you’re already here, visit the island’s Botanical Garden.

5. Plants that don´t exist anywhere else in the world

I just mentioned the botanical garden in Tafira. This place shows you a few hundred endemic plants you can find only in the Canaries.

Sure, you will pass them by when you make a tour through the island. But certainly you won’t recognize them without a label. Those labels, you get to see in the Botanical Garden.

The “Jardin Canario” is not like those typical botanical gardens you walk through in half an hour, where you just get to see some trees and flowers.

Its a huge area with forests, rocks, small lakes, animals, waterfalls and uncountable stone paths up to the top of the valley. It’s full of endemic plant species and even trees you won’t see elsewhere.

If you feel physically fit, follow the stone paths upwards. From the top of the valley, the botanical garden presents you a wonderful view all over the green paradise and the valley surrounded by mountains.

On one of those stone paths you will find a little wide open cavern with space to sit down and enjoy the silence. You will know that you’ve seen the whole park when you find the founder’s tombstone somewhere hidden in the forest.

6. Your allergies and pains can disappear

Apart from having the world’s best climate, the Canaries is a haven for people who suffer from many different diseases and conditions. One important point is that there’s not much industry that could pollute the air, and an island like Gran Canaria gets fresh air from the Atlantic from all sides.

Many people with Asthma are report breathing normally, and people with muscle tension, rheumatism feel much better in Gran Canaria because of the favorable temperatures. People who suffer from skin diseases like neurodermitis, experience a significant improvement, too.

This, of course, is not a medical advice; it’s subjective experience from thousands of visitors. That’s why Gran Canaria is not only well known as a holiday paradise: many retired people from northern countries move to this healthy island to live their life with less pain.

7. A dreamlike above- and underwater world

Water is an intimate part of life on Gran Canaria, particularly with water sports. Surfing far away from the coast, accompanied by sharks or even whales is an unforgettable experience for many surfers.

And sometimes they get to see orcas here, though you can charter a boat trip to see whales and dolphins from out of a secure distance.

Snorkelers and divers will find an awesome living underwater paradise. With steep rocks, dropping down into unfathomable depths. Underwater trenches, volcanic caves, underwater dunes with countless wrecks. And of course, an impressive amount of beautiful fish and other sea animals awaits you.

It’s a fascinating sequence of the most beautiful underwater landscapes from the world’s oceans.

8. Perfect Produce

The first time you go into a fruit store in Gran Canaria (not a supermarket) you probably will call your family in your home country to tell them how great it smells here inside a fruit market. Tomatoes, Bananas or Mangos have such a yummy smell that you would love to bite in immediately.

So when you’re on holidays here, get fruits in an outdoor market or individual fruit market. Fresh local fruits from Gran Canaria and not the frozen imported ones are incredibly delicious here. Look for the label “Producto de Canarias.”

Canarians also produce fantastic seafoods, cheeses and wines, so get crazy!

9. Get a front row seat for a specutacular view of the universe

The nights are absolutely clear on Gran Canaria, free of air pollution. And clouds are very rare on the south of the island, which gives you a mind-blowing view to the universe.

You see the stars so clearly that you feel like you’re in the middle of the Milky Way. Because of this, NASA has some observatories in the Canary Islands, including one on the south end of the island.

Interestingly enough, the signals from the Apollo 11 mission first reached Gran Canaria. From here, Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step….” got forwarded to the Kennedy Space Center in the USA.

10. A paradise for history lovers

A few hundred years ago, Christopher Columbus left Gran Canaria bound for India, just after he prayed in a little church in Las Palmas for success and a safe passage.

So the capital of Gran Canaria is full of Columbus’ footsteps and there are a lot of historic buildings left to discover. Gran Canaria has its own interesting local history.

People still love to live in cave dwellings like their ancestors, the Guanches, and you’re able to visit some of those old caves, hidden all over the island.

As you can see, there are a lot of great secrets to discover in this tiny island and if you haven’t already, it’s time to book your flights. And who knows….many people who have been here for holidays got the idea to live here forever.

About the author: Sven is a writer, living since 10 years in the Canary Islands. He fell deeply in love with Gran Canaria and he wants to pass over his passion for this paradise to travelers on his blog adventuregrancanaria.com, where you can download his latest Guide “Triana y Vegueta in one day”. Follow his stories and photos in Google+ and Twitter.

Filed Under: Canary Islands, Featured, guest post, Spain Travel · Tagged: Gran Canaria, Spain travel

Rainy Days in Oviedo

September 23, 2014 by Cat Gaa · 6 Comments

It’s raining in Seville, rare in September but welcome after a hot and excruciatingly long summer. They’re those sort of spotty showers that come and go as fast as takes you to find a cozy cafe to wait it out. Usually, I’d be cursing having to take public transportation to work or scrambling to bring in laundry I’d hung in the sun, but this last week of rain has been incredibly relaxing.

In between the raindrops, people run into the street to do their errands, to have a coffee, to meet with friends. I was virtually the only person on the street last Friday as I let the bottoms of my jeans get wet on the way to sue my bank (pequeños placeres, people). For sevillanos, rain means literally raining on their parade, but so many places in Spain get rain almost daily.

I spent two days in Oviedo last summer with my local friend Claudia, ducking into boutiques, cider bars and bakeries when the rain clouds closed in and sipping coffee in the sun when they dissipated. In the summer months, the capital of the Principality of Austurias still gets rain nearly half of the day!

Clau lives right behind the train and bus station, so after I set down my bag, all packed for the Camino de Santiago, we stopped off at a bakery for an early afternoon treat. The repostería’s outdoor seating area looked inviting, so we caught up between mouthfuls of cupcake.

Just as we were counting out change for our coffees, a waiter came to zip the plastic enclosure around the patio. Asturianos are like dogs – they know when the weather is about to change.

I’d been to Oviedo once before with the Novio and some friends – his mom’s family is from Asturias – so we could skip the museums and touristic sites. The rain came and went quickly, leaving the marble pavement in the city center slick.

Claudia is Argentian and once lived in Seville, where we met. After years of almost nothing but sun, she’s learning to live with rain.

Even with the spotty weather, Asturias shone. The colorful buildings stand apart amidst the grey skies that dogged my first of seven days in Asturias.

Having known one another for five years, Clau led me exactly where I wanted her to: a place to eat and drink in Plaza Fontán. We ordered a bottle of cider and two bollos preñaos, hardly breaking our chatter to have a bit to eat.

Once again, the sky opened and we could hardly hear one another over the rain drops on the canvas umbrellas. Unlike in Seville, no one ran for cover, but scooted their chars a bit closer to the table, lest a few raindrops splatter on them.

We ordered another bottle of cider to wait out the storm. Now with hazy brains, we took long naps and headed to Calle Gascona later on for endless rounds of cider, cachopos and giggles.

The next day’s sun burnt the clouds off early in the morning. We hiked to the Pre-Romanesque churches of Monte Naranco, taking time on the way down to stop in bars for the views over the valley, have a caña and share a few snacks.

The rain held off all day in Oviedo, only to pour that evening in Avilés. No wonder the cows here produce such great milk – the grass really is greener on the other side of the Picos!

Surprisingly enough, for the five days Hayley and I walked through Asturias on the Camino de Santiago del Norte, we had not one drop of rain. We were instead met with soaring temperatures and beach weather, a rare but celebrated thing in this corner of Spain.

I’ve dealt with rain in Lisbon, in Brussels, in Ireland, often sticking around in my hostel to relax or get to know other travelers in the bar or common areas. But somehow, rain in Oviedo just seemed like something to work around, and not get worked up about. Way to not be an aguafiestas, lluvia!

How do you cope with rain when you’re traveling?

Filed Under: Asturias, Featured, Places with Encanto, Plazas and Squares, Spain Travel, Weather · Tagged: Oviedo, Spain

Five Places in Spain that Surprised Me

September 18, 2014 by Cat Gaa · 51 Comments

When you’ve criss-crossed Spain as I have – both on four wheels and on foot – you’re bound to see a number of sites, of cities, of open road. While Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Granada are the cities most synonymous with a ten-day itinerary through Spain, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the, um, surprises in lesser-known cities and towns we’ve hit along the way.

Some have been planned, others were by pure luck or a because of a tummy rumble, or the place where I’d planned to rest my head. If you’re planning a trip to one of Spain’s big cities, there are plenty of other stops to consider not too far away:

Don’t go to SEVILLA: go to Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)

Sitting smack dab in the sunflower fields between coastal Cádiz and Seville is Jerez de la Frontera, a city renowned for its sherry and purebred Andalusian horses. Their fair is open to the public, their pubs fun and cheap, and the city is a gateway to the pueblos blancos in the region (as well as the beach!). I love Jerez because it’s like Sevilla lite – all of the andalusian salsero without the cost or the snobbery.

read more about Jerez.

Don’t go to OVIEDO: go to Avilés (Asturias)

Choosing a place to start the Camino del Norte last year was easy: we had two weeks, so we counted back 14 stages and ended up in Avilés, the third largest town in Asturias. While we’d heard that the city was smelly, industrial and a little unwelcoming, Hayley and I explored the town on foot the night before starting the big hike and found it a beautiful juxtaposition of traditional and up-and-coming. The food choices were outstanding, the buildings colorful and there were small pocket plazas and green spaces throughout the city center. It’s a quick FEVE ride from Oviedo and worth an afternoon.

Read more about Asturias

Don’t go to CÁCERES: go to Garganta la Olla (Cáceres)

After a disappointing visit to the Yuste monastery in the backwoods of Extremadura, we steered our car down the steep, cherry-blossom covered hills to the hamlet of Garganta la Olla. Rumor had it that it was one of Spain’s most beautiful villages – and it was – but it won me over with its bountiful free tapas, its dilapidated wooden porches and its local legends. It’s a bit out of the way, but a wonderful little place to wander through.

Read more about Extremadura

Don’t go to BARCELONA: go to Girona

I ended up in Girona after booking two flights with a long layover in the RyanAir hub of the same name. I expected to find an airport with something to keep me entertained, but instead saw little more than a snack bar. Plan B: get my poor culo to Girona and walk around to kill time. The city’s colorful buildings seem to tumble into the river, and its medieval alleyways and religious statues provide plenty of entertainment. It’s also home to some of Spain’s best dining! I don’t like Barcelona, but Girona is a quick escape away.

Read more about Cataluña

Don’t go to BENIDORM: go to Calpe (Alicante)

I was psyched to be invited on my first blog trip, #Calpemoción. I knew very little about the beach destination, other than that it was just north of Benidorm. From our first glimpse of the Ifach to the fresh seafood to stand-up paddle surfing, it was a beach escape worth repeating. What stood out about Calpe were the people we met, who had worked hard to be sure that tourism – while the city’s lifeblood and its most important sector – didn’t take away its charm.

Read more about Calpe

Spain is most like itself in its small towns and off-beat destinations. There are plenty of other places I’ve really enjoyed – Murcia, Cádiz, Alcalá de Henares – and others that are pure hype. Sure, Madrid has its museums and Barcelona has Gaudí, but getting out of the big cities makes trips more and candid. Thanks to a new house, I’m sticking close to home for my next few trips – Valverde del Camino, hiking in the Sierra Norte and a quick jaunt to Madrid with a visiting friend.

This post was brought to you by Booked.net – Top Destinations to Go There Booked.net – Top Destinations to Go There, and I’m encouraging other bloggers to take part. So let’s hear it, Jessica | Mike | Tiana | Kaley | Courtney!

What’s your favorite city or town in Spain? Why do you love it? Have you been to any of the places listed above?

Filed Under: A Few of My Favorite Things, Calpe, Catalonia, Day Trips, Extremadura, Featured, Girona, Habla de Tu Ciudad y Vive de Ella, Spain, Spain Lists, Spain Travel, Travel, Travel Tips, typical Spanish · Tagged: Spain, Travel in Spain

Autonomous Community Spotlight: Las Islas Canarias

July 31, 2014 by Cat Gaa · 3 Comments

Not one to make travel goals, I did make one when coming to Spain: visit all 17 autonomous communities at least once before going home. While Madrid, Barcelona and Seville are the stars of the tourist dollar show (and my hard-earned euros, let’s not kid around here), I am a champion for Spain’s little-known towns and regions. Having a global view of this country has come through living in Andalucía, working in Galicia and studying in Castilla y León, plus extensive travel throughout Spain.

When the Novio asked if it would be ok if he took me to a wedding on Gran Canaria island, I started looking for flights before I even agreed. Located off of the coast of Africa, this archipelago is comprised of a dozen islands, has two capitals and is famous for being a holiday maker’s paradise.

As we drove around Gran Canary on an amazing road trip, dined on fresh seafood and I attended my first Spanish wedding, I almost forgot that most of the people we met or who served us spoke English. Six years later, I was on a Tenerife road trip with locals, exploring caverns, colonial cities and Spain’s highest peak.

The islands are definitely Spanish while retaining a little bit of a wild heart.

Name: Islas Canarias

Population: 2.1 million, the majority of whom are on Tenerife and Gran Canaria

Provinces: The Canaries consist of seven main islands: and Tenerife in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife province; and Gran Canaria in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria province. What other autonomous region can boast two regional capitals?!

When: 11th of 17 regions, June 2008

About: The islands’ name is said to be derived from the population of monk seals that once inhabited the islands. Volcanic eruptions led to the formation of the seven inhabited islands and five smaller islands less than 100 kilometers off the coast of Morocco, which are believed to have been inhabited from the Roman times, or perhaps earlier by aboriginals once called guanches.

Thanks to its strategic positioning, the islands have served as an outpost for explorers (including Columbus), mission bases for galleons and fleets and pirate hideouts. The islands were colonized by the Castillian crown in the early 15th century, and the autonomy gained status as one of Spain’s 17 in the early 1980s. Nowadays, sugar and bananas are huge exports, and small pockets of immigrants from the mainland, Europe and northern Africa make the islands an interesting cultural melting pot.

Must-sees: The big draw to the Canarias is the sun – the islands get more sunny days and a more stable climate than any other place in Spain. So there’s the beach, the sand and the sun, which is why droves of budget flights congregate in the two largest airports in the archipelago, Tenerife Sur and Gran Canaria. In fact, I flew for free to Tenerife earlier this year! Lanzarote also draws those with a love of hiking and adventure sports.

On my first visit, we spent time on Gran Canaria, hitting the capital, the touristy southern resort towns of the island like Maspalomas, Playa de los Ingleses and Puerto Mogán and the northern gems of Arucas and Agaete before visiting the central mountains of this near-circular island.

My long weekend in Tenerife was full of adventure – from the guachinches to scaling Mount Teide, Spain’s highest point. While the southern part of the islands draws the sun seekers and the cruise ships, the north is a bit more local and untamed, as well as wallet-friendly. The cliffs are just as dramatic as I’d expect them to be on the other islands, which are far less touristy.

Undoubtedly, what stands out about the islands is the biodiversity, from marine life to plants. The islands boast four national parks, a number of celebrated canarios and a dedication to preserving the island way of life. I was shocked to see so many local fairs, Canarian kitchens and a pidgin-holed language that uses gua-gua instead of bus or employs whistles.

Oh, and then there’s the Carnival, one of the largest outside of Brazil. And the food – the fresh shellfish, the soft cheeses and the mojo picón-drenched wrinkly potatoes.

My take: I am always a bit hesitant about places that are overly touristy and catered towards those wallets. When the Novio took me to Gran Canaria, we sat on the dunes in Maspalomas, sun bathed on Playa de las Canteras and ate in a British pub. But we also partied at a Spanish wedding in a beautiful church in Arucas and drove to Roque Nublo in the center of the island.

We truly got the best of both worlds – the familiarity of my Anglo world with the charm of an island community, plus the melting pot of so many other languages, cultures and histories. I felt like it was a bridge between my two worlds.

Have you been to the Canary Islands? What would you recommend seeing, eating and doing?

Check out the other regions I’ve highlighted: Andalucía | Aragón | Asturias | Islas Baleares . If you’re looking for other great blogs on the Canaries, don’t miss Gran Canaria Local or Island Momma.

Each month for the next 14, I’ll take a look at Spain’s 17 comunidades autónomas and my travel through them, from A to, um, Valencia. I’d love your take on the good and the bad in each one, so be sure to sign up for my RSS feed to read about each autonomous region at the end of each month! Next up for August is Cantabria.

Filed Under: 17 Spanish Regions, Canary Islands, Featured, Habla de Tu Ciudad y Vive de Ella, Places with Encanto, Road Trip, Spain Lists, Spain Travel, Tenerife, Travel in Europe · Tagged: 17 Spanish Regions, Canarias

Spain Snapshots: The Guadalupe Monastery of Cáceres

July 14, 2014 by Cat Gaa · 12 Comments

Many great places in Spain are seeped in legends, mentioned in texts or venerated by the insane queues at its ticket offices (I’m looking at you, Alhambra).

For me, the Real Monasterio de Guadalupe was an obscure monastery and the name of many females, little more than a blip on a map in the wild back country of Extremadura. I figured it was worth a detour on our way to Trujillo.

Then came this:

According to legend, the veneration may have been carved in the 1st Century by Saint Luke himself, who then carted her around the world before presenting the Archbishop of Seville, San Leandro, with it. During the Moorish invasion that commenced in 711, the Archdiocese of Seville looked for a place to hide her as invaders ransacked cities and palaces.

Turns out, I have something in common with this particular image of the Virgin Mary (besides my birthday being on the day of her ascension into heaven): we both made a pilgrimage to Guadalupe from Seville of 320 kilometers. When she arrived, though, she was buried next to the Guadalupe River and not discovered until the late 12th Century.

On that very spot, a humble chapel was erected and eventually converted into one of Spain’s most important (and arguably most stunning) monasteries.

Like all great pilgrimage sites, like the ending points of the Camino de Santiago or El Rocío, Guadalupe has attracted illustrious names in Spanish history – Columbus prayed here after returning from the New World (and the Madonna is now revered in Central and South America), King Alfonso XI invoked Guadalupe’s spirit during the Battle of Salado, and many modern-day popes have stopped to pray.

While we weren’t on a religious pilgrimage, really, I’m slowly ticking UNESCO World Heritage Sites off of my Spain list, and Guadalupe is listed as such. We joined the last tour of the day after getting lost in teeny towns on nearly abandoned highways, many of which bear names that were later given to cities in the New World, like Valdivia, where we devoured fried calamari sandwiches.

Tours to Guadalupe’s cloisters, treasury, church, religious art museum and sacristy can only be done on a guide tour in Spanish, which leave on the hour. As the monk droned on about artistic heritage, I stole into the Gothic cloistered courtyard.

As we had joined the last tour of the day, an elderly monk showed us through the sacristy, painted in its entirety by Zurburán, and invited us to the room that held one of three black Madonnas. The soaring chamber had frescoes of Catholicism’s most famous female saints, relics in every wall and a small turnstile that allowed the three women on my tour named Guadalupe to kiss the hands of the veneration.

They, like Columbus and Cervantes before them, had come to pray in front of the woman who gave them their name and ask for her eternal protection.

As it turns out, the 60 minutes we’d budgeted for the monastery stretched to nearly two hours, meaning we were late to meet Angela from Trujillo Villas, but a night in a cozy palace-turned-vacation-home has us back on the right track the following morning before visiting Yuste and the gorgeous hamlet of Garganta la Olla.

Have you ever been to Extremadura?

Filed Under: Architecture, Churches, Extremadura, Featured, Places with Encanto, Road Trip, Rural Tourism, Spain Shots, Spain Travel, Trujillo, UNESCO World Heritage · Tagged: Extremadura, Spain travel

Autonomous Community Spotlight: Islas Baleares // Illes Balears

June 30, 2014 by Cat Gaa · 11 Comments

After Valladolid orientation, I struck up a conversation with Meg. We had many mutual friends and would be studying abroad together in Castilla y León, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to introduce myself.

“Hey, I mean, holaaaaa. Soy Meg. Want to come to Ibiza with me once the program is over?”

Sad but true: of the four islands that constitute the Mediterranean archipelago, I have been to just one. And that island is known for little more than foam parties, beaches and monstrous discos. I even turned down a position at a summer camp outside of Palma to return to rainy Galicia summer after summer.

Mallorca, the largest of the islands and home to its capital, has been on my Spain Wish List this year. Given that it’s a gateway to other parts of Europe, sounds like the perfect place to meet my cousin in a few months for our bi-annual European adventures!

(My apologies for not posting last month. As you know, life can sometimes interfere with everything from work to a writing hobby, so I’m a month late here)

Name: Islas Baleares in Castillian, Illes Balears in Catalán

Population: 1.1 million (including mi niño, Rafa Nadal, when he’s not off somewhere winning cups)

Provinces: Baleares consists of four islands: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Fomentera

When: 4th of 17 regions, June 2005

About: It is believed that the islands that sit between 50 and 190 miles off of the eastern coast of Spain have been inhabited since the shipwrecked Boeotians, later taking its name from the Phoenician language.

Apparently everyone went around nude then, too, so it’s no surprise to me that the four big rocks that make up the island chain are touristic hot spots.

Anyway, given its strategic role smack dab in the middle of the Med, the Baleares constantly found themselves under different rule – Carthinigans, Greeks, Romans, and didn’t even escape Muslim rule until the 12th century.

During the Reconquist, King James I of Aragón captured the islands one by one, incorporating them into the crown once he had died and his will called for the Count of Urguell to give them back. Like marbles, the islands were wrestled back and forth between seemingly everyone in Europe – Holy Roman Empoeror Charles V, the British, Napoleon and even Turkish and barbary pirates – before 1802.

Interestingly enough, catalán is an official language, with some 75% claiming to speak it.

Must sees: The islands are no stranger to mass tourism – Palma’s airport is one of Spain’s busiest in terms of passenger volume – and it’s benevolent temperature yearround means it’s full of expat enclaves, particularly English, Nordic and German. Even the former Spanish king, Rey Juan Carlos, summers there!

Don’t let that throw you off, though. The impressive Palma cathedral and the port below it, Menorca’s calas and interior wild beauty, the club scene in Ibiza and the temperate waters seem to lure tourists to Las Islas Baleares, but the archipelago’s culture and sun sports have me itching to make it back.

You can tell from my Irish roots that I don’t lend well to sitting on a beach, but I’d love to learn to sail or scuba dive. It just looks like…a break from my computer?

Because the Islas have a distinctly Catalan flavor, the two regions share many popular traditions and festivals. Most notably, last week’s Nit de Foc, celebrating the feast of Saint John, where bonfires blaze throughout the night around the islands, and people burn things as a sort of rebirth that marks the summer solstice. There’s also a mock battle in Soller between pirates and the townspeople to commemorate the islanders’s win over Moorish seafaring folk, and parties and romerías seem to rage on throughout the summer. Oh, and did I mention a grape fight in September?

And, of course, there’s the cuisine. Mallorcan food centers around seafood, tumbet mallorquín (a version of pisto) and the sinful ensaimada pastry. Mallorca is also an up-and-coming wine region, protected under the Denominació d’Origen Binissalem.

My take: I’ve always equated the islands with partying, Rafa Nadal and pebble beaches, but I’ve seen relatively little of the comunidad autonoma. But with daily flights on several airlines, my biggest excuse is deciding which swimsuit to pack and then to actually go!

Have you been to the Balearic Islands? What would you recommend seeing?

Check out the other regions I’ve highlighted: Andalucía | Aragón | Asturias.

Filed Under: 17 Spanish Regions, Beach, Featured, Islas Baleares, Spain Travel, Spanish Traditions, typical Spanish · Tagged: 17 Spanish Regions, Spain

10 Reasons Gran Canaria is a Magical Experience