Hotels in Murcia

Murcia's cathedral mixes fourteenth-century Gothic vaults with an exuberant Baroque facade and a bell tower that is the second tallest in Spain, said to hold the interred organs of Alfonso the Tenth, the Wise, at his own request. A few streets away, the Real Casino de Murcia is a nineteenth-century gentlemen's club turned open house, with a gilded ballroom, an English-style library and a Moorish courtyard covered in gold leaf.

The city sits amid the huerta, a fertile plain of citrus and vegetable farms that has fed Murcia for centuries and still shapes menus with fresh produce. Summers here are brutally hot and dry, and Murcia sees far fewer foreign visitors than the nearby coast, so expect a working Spanish city rather than a resort. Stay near the cathedral and Plaza de las Flores for tapas bars and an easy walk to the Casino.