Barcelona

Barcelona is a city that feels like it was designed by an artist, and in many ways it was. Antoni Gaudi's fantastical modernist buildings, from the still-unfinished Sagrada Familia to the undulating facade of Casa Batllo, give the city a surreal, organic quality found nowhere else. But Gaudi is just the most famous chapter in a story that stretches back 2,000 years: Roman walls in the Gothic Quarter, medieval churches in El Born, and the orderly grid of the 19th-century Eixample district intersected by Gaudi's works at almost every major junction.

What makes Barcelona irresistible is the combination: world-class architecture and art, a genuine beach-city lifestyle, one of Europe's best food scenes, and a nightlife that does not get started until midnight. The city stretches along 4.5 kilometers of sandy Mediterranean coast, so an afternoon at Barceloneta Beach is as much a part of the experience as touring the Picasso Museum or getting lost in the Gothic Quarter's medieval lanes.

Catalan identity runs deep here. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, and you will hear Catalan as often as Spanish in the streets. The culture expresses itself through distinctive traditions: castellers (human towers), the sardana dance, and a cuisine that draws from both mountain and sea. The city's food markets, especially La Boqueria on La Rambla, are temples of Iberian gastronomy.