Drive the mountain road from the Pradollano ski resort into the Sierra Nevada National Park — the paved road climbs above 2800m on the approach to the observatory, offering an unobstructed southern horizon above the Mediterranean

Visit the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada at 2896m on a public open day — run by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía since 1962, with optical and infrared telescopes

Summit Mulhacén (3479m), the highest peak in mainland Spain, and photograph the coast of Africa on the southern horizon on a clear morning

A Class 1 IDA dark sky designation covers the summit area of Spain's highest mountain range — the Sierra Nevada Observatory at 2896m sits on the approach to Pico Veleta (3398m), the second highest peak in mainland Spain

The Sierra Nevada Observatory and Mulhacén

Ski or snowboard the Sierra Nevada Ski Station, Europe's southernmost ski resort, on 115km of pistes between Pradollano (2,100m) and 3,300m on the slopes of Veleta

Ski the runs that hosted the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1996

Drive the A-395 from Granada, 27km up to Pradollano; the season runs from late November to early May

Sierra Nevada is the southernmost ski resort in Europe, on the slopes of Veleta above Granada, running from 2,100 metres up to about 3,300 — high enough to hold snow into May at a latitude further south than Tunis. It hosted the Alpine World Ski Championships in 1996. The thing people do with it that they cannot do anywhere else is ski in the morning and be on a Mediterranean beach in the afternoon, because the coast is about seventy kilometres away.

Sierra Nevada: Skiing Europe's Southernmost Slopes

Go into a secadero and work out that altitude, not technique, is what makes this ham possible

Taste a ham cured for two years against one cured for a year and find the difference

Walk the three barrios stacked up the slope — Alto, Medio and Bajo

Work out the climb: 190 metres from the Barrio Bajo to the Barrio Alto, whose highest house is at 1,610 metres

Walk up towards Mulhacén from here, which is the standard approach to the highest peak in mainland Spain

Trevélez sits on the south-west flank of Mulhacén, the highest peak in mainland Spain, where the Trevélez river meets a smaller stream, and its three barrios climb 190 metres from bottom to top — the highest house in the Barrio Alto reaches 1,610 metres. That altitude is the whole industry: the air is thin, cold and dry enough that ham can be cured here with nothing but salt and time, no smoke and no additives, over as much as two years. Jamón de Trevélez has a protected geographical indication and is the only ham indication in Spain defined by altitude. Alongside the ham the village runs on cherry tomatoes and around nine hundred head of livestock.

Trevélez: Ham Cured in Thin Air

Walk between Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira, the three villages of the Poqueira gorge on the south slope of the Sierra Nevada

Look at the flat-roofed houses of the Alpujarras, the North African mountain architecture that the Muslim inhabitants of Al-Andalus brought to these terraced hillsides

Buy a handwoven jarapa rug in Pampaneira, in the Alpujarran weaving tradition

Walk part of the GR 7 long-distance footpath that crosses the Alpujarras

The Alpujarras are the south slope of the Sierra Nevada, terraced and irrigated on a system the Muslims built and the villages still use, with flat-roofed houses of slate and clay that belong architecturally to North Africa rather than Spain. This is where the Moriscos were finally pushed after Granada fell, and where they rebelled in 1568. Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira climb the Poqueira gorge one above another, and the walk between them is short, steep and the best introduction to the range.

The Poqueira Gorge: Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira

Take the waters at the balneario, which is why the town exists as it does

Walk between the public fountains in the town and taste the difference between the springs

Work out what the name means, and that it was describing the springs long before anyone bottled them

Come for the carrera del agua on the night of San Juan, when the town throws buckets of water over everybody in the street — while the rest of Spain spends that night round a fire

Use it as the gateway it is and go on up into the Alpujarra afterwards

Lanjarón is probably an Arabic rendering of a pre-Roman word meaning a place full of springs, and the name has turned out to be the whole story: the town sits on the western edge of the Alpujarra below the Sierra Nevada, its spa has drawn people for two centuries, and the one industry in the place bottles the water and sells it across Spain. It is the gateway to the Alpujarra proper, so it is also the sensible place to start anything going further up the valley.

Lanjarón: The Water Town of the Alpujarra

Walk through the Nasrid Palaces at your booked time, as far as the Court of the Lions

Climb the Torre de la Vela on the Alcazaba, built between 1238 and 1279, for the view over Granada and the Vega

Walk the gardens of the Generalife, the Nasrid kings' villa above the palaces

Go into the Palace of Charles V, begun in the 1520s inside the Nasrid walls

The Alhambra is the palace-city on its hill above Granada, built for the Nasrid emirs and their court and later lived in by the Kings of Castile; the decoration of the Nasrid Palaces is one of the high points of Andalusi art. It became Spain's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, together with the Generalife, the Nasrid kings' country villa and gardens just above it, and in 2016 it had over 2.6 million visitors, second in Spain only to the Sagrada Família. When Granada surrendered in 1492, the Catholic Monarchs' men raised the cross and their banner on the Tower of Comares, and in the 1520s Charles V began a Renaissance palace inside the walls. On the Alcazaba, the Torre de la Vela, built between 1238 and 1279, had a bell rung at dawn to tell the farmers of the Vega when to water.

The Alhambra: The Nasrid Palaces, the Alcazaba and the Generalife

Go through the eleven original cave dwellings kept at the Centro de Interpretación

See a zambra danced and work out how it differs from the flamenco performed everywhere else

Find out where the zambra came from — Morisco wedding ritual, not Andalusian cante

Walk up the Camino del Sacromonte for the view straight across the Darro at the Alhambra

Read Lorca's Romancero Gitano and work out which parts of it are this hillside

Sacromonte is on the eastern edge of Granada in the Valparaíso valley, directly across the Darro from the Alhambra — the traditional quarter of Granada's Roma, who lived in caves dug into the hillside. Lorca wrote them into the Romancero Gitano. The zambra danced here is its own form, distinct from the rest of flamenco, and descends from Morisco wedding ceremonies rather than from the Andalusian cante. The Centro de Interpretación del Sacromonte keeps eleven of the caves in their original state and opens them to the public.

Sacromonte: The Cave Quarter Facing the Alhambra

Ride the hanging gondola across the Nervión between Portugalete and Getxo

Take the panoramic lift to the 45m-high walkway and cross it on foot

Find the UNESCO World Heritage plaque — Spain's only Industrial Heritage listing

Photograph the 1893 ironwork from the Portugalete waterfront promenade

The Vizcaya bridge was conceived, designed and built by private initiative between 1887 and 1893 and opened on 28 July 1893 — the first transporter bridge of its type anywhere in the world, and one of only eight still standing. Alberto de Palacio y Elissague designed it, with the French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin repeatedly mediating when Palacio and the builders fell out; Arnodin went on to build the very similar transporter bridge at Rochefort. It is still a working toll crossing: a gondola slung under the span carries vehicles and passengers between Portugalete and Las Arenas across the mouth of the Bilbao estuary.

Vizcaya Bridge: The World's First Transporter Bridge

Visit the interpretation centre of the Las Nieves park and Los Tilos at Los Sauces

Walk the old streets of San Andrés by the sea

Los Tilos, on the north-east of La Palma above San Andrés y Sauces, is one of the best-preserved laurel forests in the Canary Islands, and it was the first place on La Palma to be declared a biosphere reserve. It lies inside the Las Nieves natural park, created in 1987, and the park's interpretation centre is at Los Sauces. The springs of Marcos y Cordero above it, with the island's other springs and galleries, have long watered the farms below, where bananas are still the main crop. Down on the coast are the old village of San Andrés, a protected monument, and the sea pools of the Charco Azul.