Barcelona

Some cities invite one visit, others demand a multitude. City breaks to Barcelona can be spent a thousand different ways, placing it firmly in the second category.

While most Mediterranean cities are happy to pass their days lazily sunbathing on the coast, Barcelona rarely stays still for a minute. Locals affectionately refer to the Catalonian capital as La Gran Encisera, "The Great Enchantress", and not without reason.

Home to the greatest collection of Modernista (Art Nouveau) architecture on the planet, an artistic legacy of similar calibre, great beaches, and arguably the best nightlife on the mainland, it's little wonder that short breaks to Barcelona are so popular.

The city's centrepiece is Gaudí's La Sagrada Família, an awe-inspiring cathedral still being finished off today. A short metro ride away, Gaudí's spectacularly surreal Parc Güell prompts some uncertainty over whether his handiwork belongs at the visionary, or the lunatic, end of the creative spectrum.

Colourful, intriguing and bustling by turns, Las Ramblas, the city's main thoroughfare and most famous street, is as popular with locals as it is with visitors. All roads on short breaks to Barcelona lead to this one, where bird-sellers, buskers and street artists vie for your attention against older monuments such as Gran Teatre del Liceu and Palau de la Virreina.

Leading off Las Ramblas, the jigsaw of streets in the Gothic Quarter forms the atmospheric heart of the city. As charming as ever for visitors notching up their second or third city breaks to Barcelona, it's an intriguing warren of fascinating architecture, chic bistros, smoky tapas bars and raucous nightlife.

Short breaks to Barcelona can even be an adrenalin-spiked affair. Take the hair-raising cable car journey up to Montjuïc, which holds a collection of Barcelonan-born painter Joan Miró's work in the Fundació Joan Miró, leafy parks and wonderful views of the incomparable city below.