There is just so much to love about Spain. Travel is effortless, accommodations are always available (and you’re bound to find something in your price range), you get 300 days of sunshine a year, the people are happy, and you can enjoy some of the cleanest beaches in the world. That’s why over 50 million foreigners a year visit Spain. This is really paradise!

Spain’s climate varies from region to region. The Mediterranean coast as a whole, and the Balearic Islands, get a little more rain than Madrid and the south can be even hotter in summer. The Meseta and Ebro basin have a continental climate: scorching in summer, cold in winter and dry. Barcelona’s weather is typical of the coast, milder than in inland cities, but more humid.

Valladolid on the northern meseta and Zaragoza in the Ebro basin are even drier, with only a little more rainfall per year than Alice Springs in Australia. The Pyrenees and the Cordillera Cantabrica backing the Bay of Biscay coast bear the brunt of cold northern and northwestern airstreams, which bring moderate temperatures and heavy rainfall (three or four times as much as Madrid’s) to the northern and northwestern coasts, including cities like A Coruna. Even in high summer you never know when you might get a shower.

Madrid regularly freezes in December, January and February and temperatures climb above 30′C (86F) in July and August (locals describe it as: nueve meses de invierno y tres de infierno - nine months of winter and three of hell). The Guadalquivir basin in Andalucia is only a little wetter and positively broils in high summer. This area doesn’t get as cold as the meseta in winter.

In Andalucia there are plenty of warm, sunny days right through winter. In July and August, temperatures can get unpleasant, even unbearable, anywhere inland (unless you’re high enough in the mountains). Snowfalls in the mountains start as early as October and some snow cover lasts all year on the highest peaks.

In general you can rely on pleasant or hot temperatures just about everywhere from April to early November (plus March in the south, but minus a month at either end on the northern and northwestern coasts).

The best seasons to see Spain are May, June and September (plus April and October in the south). At these times you can rely on wonderful weather, yet avoid the extreme heat - and the main crush of Spanish and foreign tourists - of July and August. However you can always go to the northwest, to beaches or high mountains anywhere to escape the heat. Some places have decent weather virtually year round. Winter along the southern and southeastern Mediterranean coasts is mild.