Take a budget flight to Valladolid, pick up a hire car and head off on a 90 mile drive through Castilla y Leon, Spain’s largest (and my favourite) province, to the venerable old university town of Salamanca. You’ll have long empty roads through orchards and vineyards, flower-strewn verges in spring, and storks clacking their bills from bell towers as you pass.
After a night exploring city squares, restaurants and bars that come alive at 11pm, continue another 70 miles to the hilltop towns, forests and orchards of the Sierras de Francia. At the medieval village of La Alberca there are half-timbered houses, washing draped over balconies, donkeys, pastel shutters and window boxes. From here return direct to Valladolid and enjoy a last night with a stroll among the peacocks and statures of Campo Grande Park before flying home.

Look out for the plentiful “Miradors” where you can pull over to picnic or admire the views at your leisure. Fuel is cheaper than the UK and attendants do the filling. But watch your speed: on-the-spot fines of €150 are a nice little earner for Spanish traffic cops when for a few hundred yards signs change inexplicably from 90 to 50 kph.

Google map: bit.ly/mtsWaO

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