Spain

Dinner at 7pm marks you out as a tourist immediately

Spain runs on a clock that makes no sense until it suddenly does. Lunch at three, dinner at ten, drinks until whenever, and somehow everyone is still at work the next morning. Resisting it means eating alone in empty restaurants. Giving in means the best nights of your trip start at an hour you would normally be asleep.

It is also far less homogenous than the beach-holiday version suggests. The Basque Country has its own language, its own food culture and no interest in your paella opinions. Galicia is green, rainy and Celtic. Andalusia is the flamenco-and-white-villages Spain of the postcards. Catalonia would quite like a word about being called Spanish at all.

The heat is the thing people underestimate. Inland Spain in August is genuinely brutal, well past 40 degrees, and cities like Seville and Cordoba effectively hibernate through the afternoon. Go in spring or autumn and you get the same country at half the temperature and two thirds of the price, with the added bonus that locals are still in town rather than at the coast.

Annual events and festivals

• Three Kings (6 Jan) — bigger than Christmas Day for gifts. Parades with floats throwing sweets into crowds.
• Las Fallas, Valencia (Mar) — enormous satirical sculptures built over months and then set on fire in one night. Loud, chaotic, unforgettable.
• Semana Santa (Mar-Apr) — Holy Week processions, with Seville and Malaga doing the most intense versions in Europe.
• Feria de Abril, Seville (Apr) — a week of flamenco dresses, sherry and horses in a purpose-built fairground.
• San Fermin, Pamplona (6-14 Jul) — the running of the bulls. Ethically contested, enormously attended, and far more of a nine-day street party than the footage suggests.
• La Tomatina, Bunol (last Wed Aug) — a town-wide tomato fight. Ticketed now, still ridiculous.
• La Merce, Barcelona (Sep) — human towers, fire runs and free concerts for the city’s patron saint.
• Bienal de Flamenco, Seville (Sep, even years) — the most serious flamenco festival there is.
• Dia de los Muertos and All Saints (1 Nov) — families visit cemeteries and eat huesos de santo. Quieter and more moving than the Mexican version.
• Nochevieja (31 Dec) — twelve grapes at twelve midnight chimes. Choking slightly is part of it.