Hotels in Ávila

Ávila is the best-preserved walled city in Spain, its complete medieval ramparts, studded with dozens of towers, still wrapping the old town and forming the core of a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is also the city of Saint Teresa, the sixteenth-century mystic and reformer, and pilgrims come for the convents and churches tied to her life, along with the fortress-like cathedral built into the walls and the Romanesque Basilica of San Vicente just outside them.

Food is hearty Castilian fare: thick chuletón steaks from local Ávila beef, judías del Barco beans, and the sugary yemas de Santa Teresa sold in every pastry shop. Be honest: this is a small, sober provincial city, and once the Madrid day-trippers leave, evenings are very quiet. It sits high on the meseta, so winters are genuinely cold, even when the capital feels mild. Stay inside or just beside the walls so you can walk them at dusk and see the floodlit ramparts after the tour buses have gone.