Aragón
Three landscapes in one region: the Pyrenees and their canyons in the north, the dry Ebro plain with Zaragoza at its centre, and the high, empty south where Teruel's villages and the Maestrazgo stand. It is the least-visited half of northern Spain and the cheapest, and the driving is excellent. The trade is distance — Zaragoza to Albarracín is three hours — and the south is very quiet outside summer.
How long this region actually takes
Four days is Zaragoza and one of the two mountain areas. A week lets you take the Pyrenees and the southern sierras, which are four hours apart and worth the drive between.
Where to put your nights
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The questions that decide the trip
None — Aragón is landlocked, and the nearest coast is Catalonia's, two and a half hours from the Ebro valley.
None. River swimming instead: the Guadalaviar below Albarracín, and the Ebro's meanders and gravel bars in summer.
Ternasco — roast lamb — above all, along with migas, borage and cardoons in winter, jamón de Teruel, sheep's cheese from the Albarracín sierra and Garnacha from Campo de Borja. Zaragoza eats far better than its reputation suggests.
Zaragoza's Roman Caesaraugusta and the Aljafería palace, the Mudéjar brick towers of the Ebro valley, the taifa kingdom of Albarracín, the walled villages of the Maestrazgo and their Carlist wars, and the Romanesque of the Pyrenean valleys.
Zaragoza and Calatayud are on the high-speed line and Teruel has its own railway, but everything that makes Aragón interesting beyond the cities is not served at all.
The Pyrenees and Ordesa, the Maestrazgo's stone villages and the pine sierra around Albarracín — this is a region built for driving.
May, June and September for the sierras, and October for mushrooms and colour. The Ebro plain is hot in July and August; the Pyrenees are at their best in June and September.
August outside the Pyrenees, which are busy then; and the southern sierras in January, when villages are half-shut and the cold is real.
Five days in Aragón
Two nights in Zaragoza — the Aljafería, the Roman remains, the basilica and a tapas crawl — then drive south for two nights in Albarracín with a day in the sierra and the Maestrazgo's stone villages on the road back.
Where Aragón gets compared
Experiences worth booking ahead
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Everywhere in Aragón
The other regional guides
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