Spain

Spain, the country we cross more than any other

Living down in Portugal’s Algarve, Spain is not some far-off holiday for us, it is the neighbour we drive through every single time we head to France and back. We know it the way you know the road home, and over the years that constant crossing has turned into proper stops, long meals and a few places that stole our hearts completely. This handful of guides is not meant to be exhaustive, just honest reports from a couple who treat Spain as a well-worn corridor rather than a bucket list.

The Basque Country and the north

Our very first taste of Spain was San Sebastian, right at the start of our earliest run down towards Portugal, and it hammered down with rain the whole time so we ended up chasing the sun south instead. Even soaked, the old town felt instantly foreign in the best way, one narrow lane and you stumble onto an old traditional church, and it was here we had our very first proper pintxos initiation in a little bar, about sixteen euros for the two of us: a pea pintxo, a prawn one, sun-dried tomato with cheese and walnut, a skewer of beautifully aged beef, tortilla and, of course, ham. If you want the full story, our San Sebastian camper guide covers it, coastal Game of Thrones spots and all.

Andalusia, the one that keeps pulling us back

The south is where Spain really got under our skin. Seville alone took our breath away, the Plaza de Espana moved us both to actual tears the first time we stood in it, though the famous Alcazar became a running joke because it took us three separate tries to finally get inside, sold out day after day until we learned to book online. You can read the whole saga in our Seville campervan travel guide, tapas and Christmas market included.

Just up the road sits El Rocio, and honestly nothing prepared us for it: streets made of actual sand, horses tied to posts outside every house, caleches trundling past like a proper western film. There is a lagoon at the end of the village where horses wade and flamingos gather, and we ate dinner over a mesa camilla, the traditional table with a heater tucked underneath. Our El Rocio motorhome guide tells you exactly why this village is unlike anywhere else in Europe.

Down on the coast we spent time in Cadiz, all salty air and fried fish, and it remains one of our easiest, most relaxed Andalusian stops for cracking tapas and vistas. If sea, history and unfussy good food are your thing, our Cadiz campervan travel guide lays out where we parked and what we ate.

Campervanning in Spain

As neighbours rather than tourists, we can tell you Spain is genuinely one of the kindest countries in Europe for a motorhome, with aires scattered almost everywhere and parking that rarely turns into a headache, even in busy Andalusian towns. The one thing to make peace with is the rhythm: nothing much happens in the sleepy early afternoon, the siesta is real, and dinner often does not get going until half past eight, so slow right down and eat late like everyone else.

Four guides is not the whole country, but it is four places we genuinely lived and loved on our way through, and we will keep adding to this list every time the road home gives us a reason to linger.