SPAIN ESSENTIALS BY AIR

More than a dozen airlines fly direct between the UK and

Spain, serving 28 Spanish destinations from London and many regional airports. They include British Airways (ba.com), easyJet (easyjet. com), Norwegian (norwegian.com), Ryanair (ryanair. com) and Vueling (vueling.com). But rather than check every website, it’s much easier to use a comparison site like skyscanner.net to research who flies where and get an idea of fares before you book. Santander start at about £428 from Portsmouth and £588 from Plymouth. There is also a weekly Portsmouth to Bilbao service from £588. All fares are for a car and two passengers and they vary according to demand.

13 BABIA

If someone in Spain says you are “in Babia”, they mean you are lost in thought, dreaming you are somewhere else, hiding away, or just happy doing what you’re doing. Not many Spaniards, let alone foreign tourists, have actually been to this area of emerald meadows, snow-capped mountains and glacial lakes in the north-west of León province, which borders the Somiedo nature reserve in Asturias. Walkers, cyclists, climbers and people who don’t want to run into anyone they know keep the handful of tiny villages busy at weekends. NEAREST AIRPORT León or Asturias

BASE YOURSELF AT Hotel El Rincón de Babia (elrincondebabia. com); doubles from €55.

14 VALLES PASIEGOS

The Pas, Pisueña and Miera valleys south of Santander in Cantabria make up the Valles Pasiegos, an area of lush green hills where farmers pick their crops with the traditional cuévano deep baskets on their backs and livestock are moved from lower to higher ground in summer. For centuries, the wet nurses for the Spanish royal family traditionally came from this area, as it was deemed to be the healthiest place in Spain. Nowadays, with easy access from Santander, visitors come to see cave art, fish for salmon and trout, plunge into hillside pools, and scoff the excellent cheeses and cakes. NEAREST AIRPORT Santander

BASE YOURSELF AT Gran Hotel Balneario de Puente Viesgo (balneariodepuenteviesgo. com); doubles from €83.

15 CERDANYA

Stretching along the eastern Pyrenees, straddling France and Spain, this Catalan region is an area of sprawling plains protected by the mountains. It looks a bit like Austria or Switzerland, but is not far from Girona and the

TIME TO REFLECT Puigcerdà in the Pyrenees; Vejer de la Frontera, bottom