Cordoba

Córdoba can be seen in a full day, with the Mosque-Cathedral as a must-see stop of at least 2 hours, followed by a walk through the old Jewish quarter and the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos. March-May is essential: May brings the Patio Festival, when locals open their flower-filled courtyards to the public. It's one of Andalusia's most affordable cities for food and lodging. Its centerpiece, the Mosque-Cathedral, is unlike anything else in the world: a Christian cathedral built literally inside an 8th-century caliphal mosque, with its forest of red-and-white arches as a backdrop.