From the lush, green mountains of Celtic Galicia to the flamenco rhythms in Moorish Granada, Spain is a gorgeous place to explore.

Backpacking is a great way to immerse yourself completely in the Iberian Peninsula and even living on the cheap, you can still enjoy some of the best cuisine in the world against the dramatic backdrops of a beach strewn with cathedral-sized boulders or a palace built to house a harem. Here’s how to plan your trip.

Week one

Fly into Barcelona and head straight for Las Ramblas to let the good times roll. From your atmospheric 19th-century accommodation (www.guesthouse-barcelona-gotic.com, €15 per person, per night), you can step right into the heart of this most vibrant quarter to try tapas at La Boqueria market, watch the performance artists and admire Gaudi’s lampposts from a coffee shop on the Plaça Reial. As the sun goes down, this area heats up, so pace yourself.

No time to nurse a hangover on day two; Gaudi calls once more. The Park Güell is a good place to unleash your imagination on his mind-bending structures, but you should also prioritise La Pedrera, Casa Batlio and Casa Vicens. Save the best for last with the awe-inspiring Sagrada Familia church.

A walk up Montjuïc Mountain is worth the effort if you want to get away from the locura of the tourist centre.

At the top, the cityscape fans out below the Olympic Stadium and the Jardi Botanic.

Art is inescapable in this city. Buy an articket (www.barcelonaturisme.com, €28.50) and you’ll be able to see the works of Picasso, Miró and the other artistic giants. And after a cerebral day, try a crazy night at nightclubs Sidecar for an Indie fix or Magic for rock.

Four nights in Barcelona will not be enough, but Spain is really rather large (especially from a Maltese perspective), so head to the Sants or Nord bus station for the trip to Bilbao (€40).

Seven hours later, after you’ve thrown your backpack into your room at the Old Town Bilbao House (www.hostelworld.com, €19 per person, per night), your first stop has to be the Guggenheim Museum. Smooth, metal surfaces slope and slide to create a futuristic, architectural masterpiece, which houses some challenging, modern art. To really appreciate the museum, view it first from the Puente Pedro Arrupe.

Bilbao is a city where having fun needn’t cost you much. Spend a morning wandering the cobbled lanes of the Old Town, past the Teatro Arriaga, and pick up a picnic lunch at the Art Nouveau Mercado de la Ribera.

Pilgrims and visitors have been treading the very same flagstones for centuries and on a dark, misty night, under the glow of the replica gas lamps, you can feel them walking alongside you, lost in time

In the afternoon, buy a BilbaoCard (€10 for two days of unlimited travel) and head to Plentzia station to enjoy the beaches north of the city. Finish up with the Euskal Museum Bilbao to get to grips with Basque culture (€3).

Week two

As an antidote to the big cities, it’s time to go rural. Take the seven-and-a-half-hour bus to the coastal town of Ribadeo (€40, www.alsa.es). A bridge with sweeping views of the beautiful Eo estuary will carry you from Asturias into Galicia.

From the Plaza de España, with its quirky Torre de los Moreno, narrow, cobbled streets slope steeply through the old town, past higgledy-piggledy, old houses with crumbly, pastel frontages, down to the river.

The new town is stuffed with bars to take a corto (a small beer) or a wine; if you can blend in with the locals, bartenders will wave a tray of delectable tapas past your nose every 10 minutes or so. Really cheap and central accommodation is a bit thin on the ground here, but the www.hotelrosmary.es costs around €54 per person, per night.

Ribadeo is a great place to experience genuine Galician food. The caldo Gallego is the local soup, a peasant-style feast on its own. There’s also pulpo a feira (octopus Galician-style) with cachelos, a local potato; empanadas (a pie, usually of tuna); and queimada, a spirit with lemons, sugar and coffee, which is set on fire in a clay bowl. You’ll have to badger a local to do one for you as they are rarely found in restaurants.

If you can still move after all that feasting, make the effort to get out to Playa de las Catedrales, where comet-sized pieces of rock have been worn away by the sea to form vaulted archways and fluting pillars that are gradually revealed as the tide ebbs.

It’s also worth double-backing into Asturias to the coastal villages. Waiters here will contort themselves into knots to pour you a glass of the traditional cider from on high: the bottle behind their head, the glass behind their back; apparently, it aerates the drink. The glass is then passed around friends.

Nearby, the Parque Natural de Somiedo makes a wonderful mountain escape. Take a hike through villages that rarely see foreign tourists and try to stay overnight; the lack of development means a sky so dark that the stars seem to be on full beam.

Get back on the bus, bound now for Santiago de Compostela (four hours, €18, www.alsa.es). Stop off at Lugo on the way to explore the city walls, built in the third century. Miraculously, the entire circuit survives intact (you can walk on top of it), the finest example of late Roman fortifications in western Europe.

Santiago itself is a marvel. Pilgrims and visitors have been treading the very same flagstones for centuries and on a dark, misty night, under the glow of the replica gas lamps, you can feel them walking alongside you, lost in time.

The cathedral is the central draw here; even hardened secularists will want to attend a service to see the botafumeiro in action. It’s the largest censer in the world and as it describes a swinging arch through the air high above the congregation, it leaves a heady trail of incense and charcoal smoke in its wake. It’s also traditional for pilgrims to touch the left foot of the statue of St James to signify the end of their pilgrimage. So many have done so that the stone has worn to a hand-shaped alcove.

At night, Celtic music spills from dozens of bars; choose one, order a glass of Albariño (a Galician, white wine) and segue into the nightlife. If you get the munchies, try an almond tarta de Santiago.

It’s time now to leave the soft syllables of Gallego behind and head to the harder consonants of the capital Madrid.

Beds on the train cost around €80, which is not bad considering the bus costs around €60. You might also find a cheap flight online.

Waiters here will contort themselves into knots to pour you a glass of the traditional cider from on high: the bottle behind their head, the glass behind their back; apparently, it aerates the drink

Website www.airbnb.com has a cheerful double room for €26 in the Barrio de las Letras, within walking distance of the Prado Museum (one of the greatest art museums in the world) and the oasis of El Retiro Park where you can row a boat as the Spanish world goes by.

Week three

If Santiago is full of spiritual energy, Madrid puts a match to it. Plan to be permanently busy to fit in the key sights: the Reina Sofia for Picasso’s masterpiece, Guernica; the gargantuan Palacio Real, used by the King for royal events; and the centre of Spain at Kilometro Zero, on the Puerta del Sol (also home to the clock the Spanish use to welcome in the New Year).

Make time while in Madrid for a day trip to Toledo. Catch the bus from the Plaza Elíptica bus station; the one-hour return journey will cost less than €10. This fascinating city was founded by the Romans, conquered by the Visigoths, claimed by the Muslims, then retaken in AD1085 to become the Spanish capital until mid-1500. The architecture and atmosphere reflect this chequered history.

Once you’ve had your fill of the capital and the environs, you can take the two-and-a-half-hour high-speed train (€80) or the six-hour bus (€20, www.socibus.es) to the heart of Andalusia, medieval Seville. The Traveller’s Inn Seville costs just €9 per person, per night, including breakfast (www.booking.com). Spend a morning drifting through history in the Alcazar, a fortified Moorish castle. The surrounding Santa Cruz area is a lovely neighbourhood to find lunch in.

Make time later to revive yourself with an ice cream at the www.heladerialafiorentina.com, Calle Zaragoza, 16. The extraordinary confections here include orange flower blossom, which captures the scent of a spring in Seville, or dulce de torrijas, an Easter treat of bread in wine, cinnamon, lemon and honey.

To get to know flamenco in a way that few others will be lucky enough to experience, book an evening at www.casadelamemoria.es. This intimate performance only admits 80 people in a circle around the stage and with no microphones, it feels how flamenco ought to – passionate and powerful. Performances are at 7.30pm and 9pm.

Spain is suffering the hangover from a frenzy of boom-time spending, and the Metropol Parasol in the Plaza de la Encarnacion is a good example of what happens to public money when good plans go awry. This modern, wooden building is appealingly quirky, but with a price tag of €100 million (double the estimate), it’s hard to imagine that the taxpayer got value for money.

Beneath the structure lies the antiquarium, where Roman and Moorish remains are showcased.

Week four

One of the jewels in Spain’s natural crown is Doñana National Park. The best option for transport is probably a day tour (or longer) from Seville as much of the park is out of bounds to other vehicle traffic to prevent damage to the fragile ecosystem. Website www.viator.com offers a day trip from Seville for €110.

You can reduce the price to around €30 by staying overnight (or longer!) closer to the park, for example in Matalascañas. The information centre also offers official, four-hour 4WD tours through a mosaic of sand dunes, wetlands, pine forests and swaying grasslands. Contact them for advice on transport. The birdlife is exceptional and there’s also a chance of seeing the endangered Iberian lynx and Egyptian mongoose.

To go out on a high, your final destination has to be a good one but Granada has no trouble rising to the challenge. It’s easy to get there from Seville on one of the regular buses. Base yourself at the White Nest Hotel (www.nesthostelsgranada.com, from €12 per person, per night) in the whitewashed maze of the ancient Albaicín quarter and you’re within walking distance of the Alhambra (book online a few days in advance, www.ticketmaster.es, €14.30).

The Mudéjar style of this former castle and palace is enchanting; intricate stone friezes shield the former harem from view, tranquil ponds reflect the elegant architecture and keyhole archways in twisting passages present a formidable line of defence.

Western elements are given an Islamic twist, with Arabic inscriptions arranged in sacred, geometrical patterns and wrought into arabesques. It’s unforgettable.

East of the Alhambra is Sacromonte, a gypsy neighbourhood full of cave dwellings. It’s an atmospheric place and a good place to catch a flamenco show.

Take a day too, to hike the nearby Sierra Nevada. Website www.treksierranevada.com gives directions for short and long hikes and has road tested all the ones that they recommend.

To squeeze in a last destination at the very end of your trip, plan to fly out of Málaga. It has the usual beaches of the Costa del Sol, but there are also some interesting Roman remains beneath the Alcazaba.

Rock climbing is possible in the surrounding mountains. El Chorro gorge is less than an hour away and also offers Kings Walkway, a nerve-wracking path suspended over the gorge. Not a bad way to end an incredible trip.