Castles in Spain and the Heritage Around Them

Alicante's two city-centre churches, the Basílica de Santa María and the Concatedral de San Nicolás de Bari, are the ones to build a walk around. Here is what to look for inside each, how they sit in the old town, and which church outside the city justifies the trip.

Two César Manrique houses are open to visitors in Lanzarote: the volcanic house at Tahíche that now holds the Fundación César Manrique, and the Casa-Museo in Haría's palm grove. Tahíche is the one to choose if you only have time for one, and a combined ticket covers both.

Jameos del Agua is a collapsed lava tube in northern Lanzarote that César Manrique turned into an art centre, with a sea-connected lake of blind albino crabs, a turquoise pool and an auditorium inside the grotto. Here is what the visit involves, how it sits against the Cueva de los Verdes, and what to confirm before you set out.

One ticket covers Cádiz Cathedral, the Torre del Reloj climb and the Casa de la Contaduría. Here are the published hours, prices in euros, free-entry groups and the chapels and crypt worth seeking out.

Dénia Castle is the walled complex on the hill above the old town, with Islamic gates, a Gothic council tower and wide views to Montgó and the sea. Tickets, seasonal hours, both walking routes up and the highlights inside are set out below, with the town's archaeological collection now housed elsewhere in the centre.

Figueres holds the Dalí Theatre-Museum, a former theatre rebuilt by Salvador Dalí himself, with gold mannequins and giant eggs on the roofline, a Cadillac in the courtyard and the artist's crypt inside. Here is what the rooms contain, how to reach the town by train from Girona or Barcelona, and how to plan around queues and the weekly closing day.

Girona stood in for three Game of Thrones cities in series six: King's Landing, Braavos and Oldtown. Here is what was filmed at each stop in the old town, the order to walk them in, and where the free streets end and the paid interiors begin.

El Call is Girona's medieval Jewish quarter, a web of stone lanes around the cathedral centred on Carrer de la Força. Walk it free, then decide whether the Museum of Jewish History at Bonastruc ça Porta earns your time and ticket.

The Botafumeiro flies on a fixed list of solemnities and on some Pilgrim's Masses, not every day. Here is how the censer works, where it hangs in the cathedral and how to plan around the dates it swings.

Four Toledo churches justify an entry fee or a detour: the Catedral Primada, Santo Tomé with El Greco's Burial of the Count of Orgaz, San Román's Mudéjar interior and San Ildefonso's towers. Everything else is a bonus, and Santiago del Arrabal admits visitors only during worship.

Spain's World Heritage listings reward the towns that carry them, not a top-twelve count. This guide groups Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, Cuenca, Santiago, Ávila, Cáceres, Mérida, Tarragona, Úbeda and Baeza, Alcalá de Henares and Ibiza's Dalt Vila by the base that suits a short break, and names the monuments and squares that hold each listing up.

Spanish castles are not one thing: a royal Alcázar, a Moorish Alcazaba and a hilltop Castillo give you three different afternoons. This guide picks the fortresses that fit a short city break, from Segovia and Olite to Palma, Málaga and Mallorca's east coast, and sets out the trade-offs on heat, timing and terrain.

Spain supplied Westeros with its most memorable backdrops from season five onwards, and most of the sites are ordinary monuments you can walk into. Here is what was filmed where, which scenes were built elsewhere, and how the locations group into workable short-break corridors.

Moorish Spain means the buildings and towns left by nearly eight centuries of Islamic rule, and most of the best are in the south. This guide picks the alcazabas, Arab baths and palaces a short-break traveller can reach from Málaga, Alicante or Palma, and explains how to read the arches, muqarnas and courtyards once you are inside.