Where to stay in Spain: the best cities, coasts and islands

Majorca is the best all-round holiday island in the Mediterranean, and a couple of hours from most British airports. Palma, the capital, has a Gothic cathedral on the waterfront and an old town worth a weekend on its own. The south-west has the busy resorts; the north has the long, shallow bays of Alcudia and Playa de Muro, which are ideal for small children; and the Tramuntana mountains run down the west coast.

Hotels cover every taste. Families head for beachfront resorts on Playa de Muro or five-stars a short stroll from the sand in Puerto de Alcudia. Couples might prefer an adults-only resort and spa with sea views in the calm south-west, or a hotel with its own beach club in Santa Ponsa. Playa de Palma, minutes from the airport, is the easy option for a short break.

Barcelona has more ideas per street than most cities manage in a district. Gaudí's Sagrada Família is still rising after more than a century, his apartment blocks ripple along Passeig de Gràcia, and the Gothic Quarter is a tangle of medieval lanes that opens suddenly onto sunny squares. Then there is the food, the football and several kilometres of city beach.

For a first visit, stay in the Eixample, the elegant grid around Passeig de Gràcia, where the smartest hotels sit among the designer shops and a short walk from La Rambla and Plaça de Catalunya. Beach lovers should look at the seafront, where a landmark tower hotel has pools, a spa and several restaurants above the sand. Families wanting space and gardens will find resort-style hotels uptown along Avinguda Diagonal.

Madrid does not have a beach or a Gaudí, and does not care. What it has is energy: tapas bars packed at midnight, grand boulevards, the vast Royal Palace and an art collection to rival any on earth, split between the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen. Retiro Park, with its boating lake and rose garden, is where the city goes to recover on Sunday.

The historic centre around the Royal Palace, the opera house and Plaza Mayor is the most atmospheric place to stay, with five-star hotels in converted palaces. The Salamanca district is smarter and calmer, all limestone mansions and boutiques, a few steps from Retiro and the museums. Either way you can walk to most of the sights. Come in spring or autumn; August is fierce.

Seville is Spain at its most romantic and most theatrical. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in the world, with the Giralda, a former minaret, as its bell tower. Next door, the Alcázar palace is a fantasy of tiled courtyards and gardens. Evenings are for wandering the lanes of Santa Cruz, crossing the river to Triana for tapas and finding a flamenco bar with room at the back.

The old centre is compact, so stay inside it and walk. Hotels range from a legendary grand hotel with a pool in its gardens to a small five-star with a plunge pool on the roof, a few steps from the cathedral. Across the river, a hotel on the upper floors of Andalusia's tallest tower has the best views in town. Visit in spring or autumn: in July and August the city is one of the hottest in Europe.

The Costa del Sol is the original Spanish beach holiday, and it has grown up. The coast runs west from Málaga, itself now a city of museums and good restaurants, through the family resorts of Torremolinos, Benalmádena and Fuengirola to Marbella and Puerto Banús, where the yachts and sports cars live. Beyond, Estepona is a prettier, quieter town with a long seafront.

The area around Marbella has some of the finest resort hotels in Spain, with golf courses, spas and gardens running down to the beach; one palatial retreat in the hills has access to three courses. Benalmádena has boutique beachfront hotels about 15 minutes from the airport, and Estepona a grand seafront hotel with a thalasso spa. With so many courses and so much winter sunshine, it is no surprise the locals call it the Costa del Golf.

North of Barcelona, the Costa Brava is the wild, beautiful one. Cliffs covered in pines drop into small coves of clear water; fishing villages have become resorts without losing their looks; and inland there are medieval towns and the Dalí Museum at Figueres. It is easy to combine with a couple of nights in Barcelona.

Each resort has its own character. Tossa de Mar, with a walled old town above the beach, is the prettiest, and has a renovated five-star on the waterfront. Platja d'Aro is livelier, with an adults-only retreat on a cove. Roses, on a wide bay near the Cap de Creus, suits families, and the long sandy beaches further south around Santa Susanna and Calella have big, good-value hotels with spas and kids' clubs.

Tenerife is where Britain goes to thaw. The largest Canary Island sits off the coast of Africa and stays warm all winter, especially in the dry, sunny south, where Costa Adeje, Playa de las Américas and Los Cristianos merge into one long strip of beaches and promenades. In the middle stands Mount Teide, Spain's highest peak, and the green north has the old resort town of Puerto de la Cruz.

Costa Adeje is the smart end, with five-star hotels near Playa del Duque about 15 minutes from the airport, some with views across to the island of La Gomera. Families love the big resorts with several pools. For nightlife, stay on the Golden Mile in Playa de las Américas, where one five-star is built in the style of a grand hacienda. For character and cooler air, go north.

Gran Canaria's party piece is at its southern tip: the dunes of Maspalomas, a small desert of rippled sand that rolls down to several kilometres of beach, with a lighthouse at one end. The weather here is among the most dependable in the Canaries, and the south coast is one long resort, from quiet San Agustín through busy Playa del Inglés to Meloneras.

Meloneras is the newest and most polished part, with a seafront promenade, smart shops and big five-star resorts set in tropical gardens beside the dune reserve. Maspalomas itself has a stylish hotel 150 metres from the endless beach, and San Agustín a luxury all-inclusive right beside the sand. The airport is about 36 km away. For a change of scene, the capital, Las Palmas, has a fine city beach of its own.

Spain's north coast faces the Atlantic, and it shows. Asturias is all green mountains, fishing harbours and sandy coves backed by meadows, with the Picos de Europa rising inland and cider poured from a great height in every bar. Oviedo, the elegant little capital, and seaside Gijón make good bases. To the west, Galicia adds deep sea inlets and Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrims' city, whose old town is a World Heritage site.

Hotels here have real character: an eighteenth-century listed building in the centre of Oviedo, a sixteenth-century palace surrounded by forest near the coast, a restored mansion a short walk from the cathedral. Summers are mild, not scorching, which is the whole appeal, and prices are lower than on the Mediterranean. Pack a waterproof and an appetite.