Where to Stay in Spain

How Spain sleeps

Spain has one of the deepest hotel markets in Europe, from five-star palaces in Madrid to family-run hostales (small budget hotels) above a bar in a village square. Outside the big cities and the peak weeks, you get more for your money than in France or Italy: a central, air-conditioned double with a private bathroom in Seville, Salamanca or León often costs less than a chain motel near a US airport.

The big change of the last few years is in apartments. Spain's cities have cracked down hard on short-term rentals, and Barcelona plans to end them in residential buildings altogether. Hotels, paradores and properly licensed apartments are the safe choices. This page explains each, then goes city by city.

The types of lodging, decoded

Each of Spain's 17 regions sets its own lodging categories, so the details vary, but the letters on the blue plaque by the door are consistent enough to read anywhere.

Tiers are per night for two: $ under €100 (about $112), $$ €100–200 (about $112–224), $$$ €200–400 (about $224–448), $$$$ over €400.

Paradores: castles, convents and palaces

Paradores de Turismo is a state-owned chain founded in 1928 to bring travelers to parts of Spain with few good hotels. Today there are 98, and many occupy historic buildings: medieval castles, Renaissance palaces, monasteries and pilgrim hospitals. The rest are modern buildings in spectacular places, on a cliff, a beach or a mountain pass. Most have a restaurant that serves the region's cooking, often with views and a menu of local wines.

A few that fill months ahead:

• Book direct at paradores.es. The free Paradores Amigos program gives 5% off online bookings, points toward free nights and breakfast on your first stay as a member.
• Watch for sales. Paradores run frequent promotions; check the offers page before booking.
• Check the room type. In castle paradores, rooms vary a lot; a few euros more often buys the view.
• Eat in. Even if you do not stay, a parador restaurant is a good lunch stop on a road trip.
• Some paradores close for renovation each year, so confirm yours is open for your dates.

Apartments and the rental crackdown

Holiday apartments are the most political subject in Spanish travel right now. Housing costs in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Palma, Valencia, San Sebastián and the Canary Islands have soared, and residents blame tourist flats for part of it. Large protests against overtourism in 2024 and 2025, with marches through the tourist centers of Barcelona, Palma and the Canaries, pushed governments to act.

What has changed

• Barcelona plans to cancel all 10,101 licenses for tourist apartments (HUT) by November 2028. The plan faces legal challenges, so check before booking a 2028 or later stay. New licenses have not been issued for years.
• Spain's consumer affairs ministry ordered Airbnb in 2025 to remove tens of thousands of listings, about 65,000, that broke the rules, mainly for missing or false license numbers.
• Building residents now have a veto. Since April 2025, owners who want to start renting a flat to tourists need the approval of three-fifths of the building's owners' association.
• The national registry was struck down. Spain introduced a single national registration number for short-term rentals in July 2025, but the Supreme Court annulled it in a ruling made public on May 21, 2026, finding the state lacked the power to create it. Regional licenses still apply, and platforms must still share data with the authorities.
• Cities have their own limits. Madrid, Málaga, Palma, Valencia, Seville and others restrict new tourist flats in central districts, and rules keep tightening.

How to rent legally

1. Look for the regional license number in the listing. Catalonia uses HUT numbers (HUTB in Barcelona), Andalusia VFT, the Balearics ETV and most other regions VUT. A listing without one is a red flag.
2. In Barcelona, check the number on the city's public register of licensed tourist flats before you pay.
3. Pay only through the platform or a licensed agency, never by bank transfer to a stranger. Fake listings with stolen photos are common in Barcelona, Madrid and the islands.
4. Expect the host to ask for your passport details before arrival, which the law requires (see check-in below).
5. Be a good neighbor: keep noise down after 11 p.m., use the building's recycling bins and do not let a group of ten into a flat licensed for four.

Rural houses and country estates

Rural tourism is huge in Spain and mostly aimed at Spaniards, which keeps it good value. A casa rural may be a stone farmhouse in Asturias rented whole for a week or a village house in the Alpujarras with three rooms and breakfast. Each region has its own name and flavor:

• Andalusia: the cortijo, a whitewashed farmstead among olive groves, and cuevas, cave houses near Guadix and in the Granada hills.
• Catalonia: the masia, a stone farmhouse, often in the Empordà behind the Costa Brava.
• Basque Country and Navarra: the caserío (baserri in Basque), a big farmhouse, often with a family kitchen. See the Basque Country.
• Galicia: the pazo, a stone manor house with gardens and, often, its own vineyard.
• Mallorca and Menorca: the agroturismo, a working or restored country estate, often with a pool. See Mallorca and the Balearics.
• Canary Islands: restored farmhouses on La Palma, La Gomera and in the hills of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. See the Canary Islands.

You will need a car for nearly all of them; see Driving. Many rural houses rent only by the weekend or week in summer, and a few have a two-night minimum year-round.

Where to stay, city by city

A short guide to bases; each city page goes deeper.

Tourist taxes

A tourist tax is charged per person per night at the property, usually at check-in or check-out, and it is often left out of the price you see online. Children are generally exempt, and in Catalonia the tax is charged for up to seven nights of a stay. These are the main ones as of November 2026; for how they fit into a daily budget, see Money.

Barcelona's city surcharge is planned to rise by €1 a year until 2029, and other places, including Vigo, Toledo and Asturias, are studying their own taxes. Madrid, Andalusia and the Valencia region had none as of November 2026. Expect this table to grow.

When to book and what it costs

Spanish prices follow events more than seasons. A room in Seville that costs $$ in November can triple during Holy Week. Book these as early as you can, often six months to a year ahead:

• Holy Week (Semana Santa) everywhere, especially Seville, Málaga and Granada. In 2027, Easter Sunday is March 28.
• Seville's Feria de Abril, normally about two weeks after Easter.
• Las Fallas in Valencia, March 15–19.
• San Fermín in Pamplona, July 6–14; rooms in the old town sell out a year ahead. See Rioja and Navarra.
• August on the coasts and islands, when all of Spain is on vacation.
• Big trade fairs and matches: Barcelona's Mobile World Congress in late winter fills the city, and Real Madrid or Barça home games can push up nearby prices. See Football.
• Christmas, New Year and Three Kings (January 5–6) in Madrid and the Canary Islands. See Festivals.

The cheapest months in the cities are generally January, February and November, plus July and August in hot inland cities like Madrid, Seville and Córdoba, where locals leave and many hotels cut rates. The catch is the heat. See When to go.

Check-in, rooms and house rules

Your passport and the new data rules

Since December 2024, Spanish law requires every hotel, hostal, campsite and rental host to send the police a long record of each guest: name, passport number, date of birth, nationality, home address, phone and email, the dates of the stay, how you paid and, for minors, your relationship to them. Expect a form or an online pre-check-in link. It is legitimate, but the request should come from your hotel or booking platform, not a random text message.

Floors, rooms and noise

• Floor numbering: the ground floor is planta baja (0), and the US "second floor" is the primero. Older buildings, especially in Barcelona and Madrid, add an entresuelo and a principal before the first floor, so "first floor" can be three flights up. Ask about the elevator (ascensor) if stairs are hard for you.
• Interior or exterior: an habitación exterior faces the street, often with a balcony; an habitación interior faces a courtyard and is darker but much quieter. Spanish streets are busy until 1 or 2 a.m., and street cleaners and delivery trucks start early.
• Air conditioning is standard in hotels in the south and the cities, but not universal in rural houses in the north and older hostales. Ask if you are traveling June to September.
• Breakfast: a hotel buffet often costs more than a café con leche and toast with tomato at the bar on the corner. Book room-only if you like to eat out.
• Check-in times are usually from 2 or 3 p.m.; small hostales and rental flats may need you to give an arrival time, and some charge for late arrivals after the front desk closes.
• Parking in city hotels is usually a nearby public garage at extra cost. See Driving.

Families, accessibility and long stays

Families: Spanish hotel rooms are smaller than US ones, and many limit triples and quads. Ask for a family room (habitación familiar) or connecting rooms, or book an apartahotel. Spanish children stay up late, and hotel pools and restaurants welcome them in the evening.

Accessibility: newer hotels and paradores in modern buildings usually have adapted rooms; castles, convents and old-town hostales often have steps, narrow lifts or none. Ask for photos of the bathroom and the entrance. See Spain by interest.

Longer stays: for a month or more, mid-term rentals (alquiler de temporada) follow different rules from holiday lets, and stays beyond 90 days need a visa. See Long stays and Entry rules. Walkers on the Camino de Santiago sleep in albergues; see the Camino.