Bilbao & Basque Region: Includes the Guggenheim, San Sebastián and Vitoria

The bible of Bilbao includes all you need to prepare in advance and adore your city trip. It contains the most interesting sights, restaurants, shops and advises what to do when you are in Bilbao as well as some useful information about its night life. Including valuable information and an in-depth advice, it is an essential reading for everyone!

• Galicia chapters
• Understanding Spain
• Galicia maps

Galicia's spiritual, cultural and official capital is Santiago de Compostela, the destination of tens of thousands of pilgrims who set out every year on the famous Camino de Santiago. This magical medieval city still has a palpable aura of the middle ages.
This guide is the result of research by dedicated authors and local experts who immersed themselves in Galicia, finding unique experiences, and sharing practical and honest advice, so you come away informed and amazed. This guide includes up-to-date reviews of the best places to stay, eat, sights, cultural information, maps, transport tips and a few best kept secrets - all the essentials to get to the heart of Galicia.

Coverage includes:

• Understanding Spain : Spain Today, History, Architecture, Spain's Food & Wine, Spain's Passions
• Santiago de Compostela, A Coruna & the Rias Altas, Costa da Morte, Rias Baixas, the Southwest, the East

Lonely Planet's Spain guide is researched and written by: Anthony Ham, Josephine Quintero, Stuart Butler, Damien Simonis, Brendan Sainsbury, John Noble, Zora O'Neill, Miles Roddis

When, in 1978, as a participant in a teacher exchange programme, the author, accompanied by his wife and young family, exchanged his boring existence in Grangemouth in central Scotland for life in Missoula, Montana, in the western United Sates, he could not have foreseen just how much of a life-changing experience it would be ? not just for him and his family, but for his exchangee as well.

He was prepared for a less formal atmosphere in the classroom, while, for their part, his students had been warned that he would be ?Mr Strict?. It was not long before this clash of cultures reared its ugly head and the author found himself in big trouble. But, as he had found out from the very instant he arrived on the continent, just because we share a common language it doesn?t mean Americans do things the same way. And the Montanans, he was to discover, do things more differently still.

There were times, in the beginning, when he wished he had stayed at home in his boring but safe existence in Scotland and there were times when life got more than just a little bit too exciting for comfort. But mainly this is a heart- warming and humorous tale of how this Innocent abroad, confronted with one culture shock after another, overcame his trials and tribulations and thanks to a whole array of colourful and kind people, finally came to realise that this exchange was the best thing he had ever done.

At about the time of my graduation a new hotel was opening in London's Knightsbridge. It was to be called the Carlton Tower and to be operated by Hotel Corporation of America, the first new hotel to be built in London after the war and the first belonging to an American operator. Completely against the advice of my college professors, I applied for, and was offered, a position as a front desk clerk. "How can you throw away four years of college by taking such a lowly job?" they winged. Quite simple. The pay was to be ten pounds per week with the chance of some extra cash from tips and I had to do my bit to feed and clothe two children. Something else, however, had stirred in me. By taking this job I was not following the crowd; most of my fellow graduates were routinely taking positions in executive training schemes with British hotel companies. I was doing something different and, even though it was the lowliest of jobs, something individual. But most of all I was putting my foot into the door of America!

• Cantabria & Asturias chapters
• Understanding Spain
• Cantabria & Asturias maps

You can traverse either of these two small regions from north to south in little more than an hour. But don't. Most of the coastline is a sequence of sheer cliffs, beautiful beaches and small fishing ports.
This guide is the result of research by dedicated authors and local experts who immersed themselves in Cantabria & Asturias, finding unique experiences, and sharing practical and honest advice, so you come away informed and amazed. This guide includes up-to-date reviews of the best places to stay, eat, sights, cultural information, maps, transport tips and a few best kept secrets - all the essentials to get to the heart of Cantabria & Asturias.

Coverage includes:

• Understanding Spain : Spain Today, History, Architecture, Spain's Food & Wine, Spain's Passions
• Cantabria, Asturias, Santander, Oviedo, Gijon, Picos de Europa

Lonely Planet's Spain guide is researched and written by: Anthony Ham, Josephine Quintero, Stuart Butler, Damien Simonis, Brendan Sainsbury, John Noble, Zora O'Neill, Miles Roddis