Andalucía is a land of extremes, with Spain’s driest areas of Almería in the east and its rainiest, the Sierra de Grazalema, in the southwest. Five hundred miles of coastlines span Andalucía, of which roughly three-quarters are sandy beaches.

Each of the 17 autonomous communities in Spain is proud of its uniqueness, but none is so fiercely nationalistic and culturally disparate from the rest as the País Vasco. The name itself, “the Basque Country,” embodies the proud, bold, individualistic spirit of the people here. For a land that has been historically isolated, whose people have fiercely resisted outside influence since Roman times, the years of cultural suppression under Franco, when the Basques were forbidden from speaking their own language and practicing their cultural traditions hit hard. The struggle to be heard, the outcries for sovereignty have spawned fear, as a result of the terrorist organization ETA, which, since its inception, has killed over 600 people in the name of independence. Frustration is apparent in the miles of graffiti damning Spanish culture and government and, since the demise of Franco, a re-flowering of Basque culture.

An impressive blend of scenery reveals itself in the Navarre region: rocky cliffs, snow-capped mountains, soft bubbling streams, misty waterfalls and dense forests. The Pyrenees mountains and the French border snuggle nearby on the north end, while the ever-charming Basque County is just to the west and Zaragoza is a short drive southeast. This is a wonderful region for sampling local wines and discovering great crafts.