IF YOU'RE in the Comunidad Valenciana any time between now and the early hours of March 20, you may notice an awful lot of noise and colour on the streets. It's the season for the region's biggest festival,...
Which are the top six happiest towns in Spain?
12/06/2021
ALMOST anyone not heading for Spain this summer would be a lot happier if they were in it, and the town in question is probably academic – and although those who already live here year-round are entitled to be miserable now and again, because that's only human, the bright sunshine and warm weather mean it is arguably difficult not to be happy-ish at least part of the time during a Spanish summer.
But six towns have been named the 'happiest' – not through self-report surveys or calculating figures relating to lifestyle factors, but through Artificial Intelligence.
At this point, you're probably speculating as to which they could be. Suitable candidates could be anything with 'Alegre' in the name, as this means 'happy' – in Torrevieja, southern Alicante province, the waterfront esplanade is called the Paseo Vistalegre, which means 'happy-view boulevard'; a bit further north, just above Alicante city itself, is Villajoyosa or, in valenciano, La Vila Joiosa and, whichever of the two languages you write it in, translates literally as 'Joyous Town'. Given that it's the cradle of the nationally-acclaimed brand of chocolate, Valor, and to a museum showcasing it, Villajoyosa certainly lives up to its name.
How does AI define 'happy'?
Basically, LookFantastic's computer checked out people's faces on their Instagram selfies. Maybe this isn't a scientific method, but if you're radiating glee on your social media snaps, you're probably feeling pretty good or, if you aren't, you've done well to be able to hide it when faced with the all-seeing eye of AI.
A random selection of over 200,000 publications bearing the hashtag #selfie, taken throughout the country, found that the most common emotion seen in Instagram photos was happiness – featured in 40.4% of snaps – although in photos taken in some parts of Spain, happiness was detected in a higher percentage of them.
Overall, happiness features in Instagram shots in Spain at an above-average rate – the worldwide figure was 35%, so the country is already a happier place, according to social media.
Globally, though, the most negative emotions were rare. Rage, sadness or contempt, for example, were seen in fewer than 2% of Instagram selfies. But in between these and 'happiness' is an extensive and complex scale of feelings, including mildly contented, relaxed and smiling – and whatever emotion a sultry pout conveys.
Now for the towns with the happiest-looking selfies, in ascending order.
Number six: Málaga (happiness rating: 54% above average)
Starting the list – or ending it, depending upon which way you look at it – you're fairly obviously going to be happy if you find yourself in Málaga. The provincial capital of the Costa del Sol, with its bustling shopping, nightlife and beaches, bars, pavement cafés and restaurants serving up typical local cuisine, and some of the best weather in the country, it's unscientifically but anecdotally and widely held to be one of the cities with the highest level of quality of life in Spain.
Málaga city is also a hotbed of culture and heritage. Make a beeline for the Picasso Museum if you don't have time for much else; whatever your views on surrealism and cubism as opposed to pretty pictures where you can clearly see what they're of, this iconic artist is a massive cog in the wheel of Spain's history, and his and his generation's contribution to the creative world transcends continents.
Plus, it's colourful, and everyone likes colour.
The Alcazaba, or 11th-century Muslim fortification, at the foot of the Gibralfaro mountain, could easily swallow up a day and selfie opportunities abound with its Mediaeval arches, fountains, patios, gardens, palaces, towers, and intricate, eye-catching Islamic decoration.
Málaga's pedestrianised C/ Larios is one of the most elegant, up-market shopping streets in Spain, built in the late 19th century with funds provided by the powerful, wealthy local family of the same name, and its majestic stately homes converted into boutiques and bars make it one of the Costa del Sol's most-visited boulevards.
The impressive Renaissance cathedral, the 14th-century Islamic Gibralfaro Castle with its city walls and eight watchtowers offering a splendid urban and maritime panorama, the Roman amphitheatre – built by order of Emperor Augustus in the first century CE (AD) but only rediscovered 1,900 years later by workmen building a block of flats - the Bohemian, arty SoHo district, the tropical Málaga Park with its Eden-like botanical gardens, the bustling Atarazanas market in a sumptuous Arab-style building that was used as a workshop in Mediaeval times, and the Pompidou Centre and Málaga Thyssen art museums with their collections of internationally-renowned masters such as Zurbarán and Sorolla, mean you might end up so busy you forget to check out the beaches and the élite, luxury yacht marina with its extensive boardwalk, vast shopping and restaurant area, and the iconic lighthouse and Malagueta beach at the end.
But if your sore feet and aching selfie-fingers are screaming out for relaxation, you could end the day by chilling in the balmy warmth of the Al-Andalus Hammam, or Arab baths, near the Thyssen Museum, and book yourself a massage whilst you're there.
Number five: Sotogrande, Cádiz province (happiness rating: 55% above average)
Shifting along to the next province west, Sotogrande stretches the definition somewhat. Not of 'happiness' (it's 55% above the national 40.4% average) but of 'town'.
Mainly because it's not.
The actual town is San Roque, and Sotogrande is an urbanisation – a little pocket of luxury on the Cádiz-province coast with around 2,500 inhabitants.
Frequented by the rich and famous, and the place to see and be seen if a glitteringly-plush lifestyle floats your boat, Sotogrande's top attractions include its polo grounds – if you don't know how to play, you'll have fun watching this fast-paced, rough-and-tumble sport and admiring the beautiful, agile and fearless ponies – its beaches, country clubs, golf courses, spas, equestrian centres (long-distance hacks, lessons for all abilities up to professional competence, guided tours and polo lessons), watersports and segway trips (you can charter a yacht if you know how, or just admire the top-of-the-range vessels moored in the marina), the Levante market, and the Guadiaro river estuary nature reserve.
A great destination for those seeking activity, not just beaches and pools – and you won't have time to be gloomy, hence the 'happiness' rating.
Number four: Sevilla (happiness rating: 56% above average)
Another location where you won't have time to dwell on your problems, this provincial capital city is the largest in the southern region of Andalucía and the fourth-largest in Spain; its cathedral, with its globally-known Giralda Tower, is the biggest in Europe, and it's home to every single delicious, colourful stereotype about Spain that you've ever corrected with an exasperated sigh.
Normally, the Feria de Abril, or April Fair, sees everything unconnected with it stopped and shelved as hundreds of brightly-painted huts open as stalls selling souvenirs and typical foodstuffs, flamenco music plays, castañets rattle, feet tap as polka-dot-dress wearers dance the sevillanas in the street, and Andalucían horses decorated with flowers clip-clop through it all. And although Semana Santa, or Easter Week, is celebrated everywhere in Spain with the Good Friday parade being a must-see, Sevilla's own is world-famous.
Pandemics aside, that is; neither has happened for the last two years, but 2022 is looking good.
Visit the Expo park pavilions, walk by the oldest bullring in Spain, take a picture of the Torre de Oro ('Gold Tower'), and stroll round the vast Plaza de España and Plaza de América – and, if you're visiting in summer, take an umbrella to shade yourself from the sun and plenty of water (and stop at a pavement café for a granizado de limón, or lemon-flavoured slush-puppy) as Sevilla is one of the hottest cities in Spain in high season.
Number three: Marbella, Málaga province (happiness rating: 66% above average)
The southern region of Andalucía is doing well in the happiness stakes – as are up-market locations, it seems, given that Marbella has long been a celebrity stamping ground. Ironically, the likes of Sean Connery, Omar Sharif, Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Sofia Loren, Michael Caine and Rod Stewart headed there en masse in the 1970s because it was a quiet little fishing town where nobody recognised them, the paparazzi would never find them, and even once the locals figured out who they were, they could waltz into their nearest bar or corner shop and pass the time of day like any other resident without suffering so much as an autograph request. And selfies weren't yet invented then, as a bonus.
It didn't last long, obviously. Then, they all started moving to Sotogrande for that very reason – and the same thing happened.
Along with its yacht marinas and 27 kilometres of golden sandy coast, urban beaches and rural ones with dunes, Marbella is replete with golf courses and country clubs, prestigious nightspots along its Golden Mile, designer clothing shops, elegant bars and restaurants, and a stunning historic quarter intersected by narrow, winding lanes.
In the heart of the town itself, the most photogenic sights are the Avenida del Mar with its 10 bronze Dalí sculptures, its iconic lighthouse, the peaceful green haven of trees and fountain known as the Alameda Park, the idyllic 15th-century Plaza de los Naranjos with its trademark white houses and flower-filled balconies, the local craft shops and traditional taverns in the historic quarter, the stately homes alongside the C/ Ancha, the turreted city wall dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and the quaint and pretty Santa María de la Encarnación church.
Number two: Plasencia, Cáceres province, Extremadura (happiness rating: 81% above average)
If a 'happy town' was going to be in Extremadura, in Spain's land-locked west, we would probably have hazarded a guess that it was Mérida (Badajoz province), home to a huge and stunningly-preserved Roman city with a fully-intact amphitheatre, a UNESCO heritage site that attracts visitors from everywhere in Spain.
But Extremadura's other province, Cáceres, is home to the sublime, verdant Ambroz Valley – less verdant and more fire-coloured in autumn – and also Plasencia, a beautiful historic town of barely 40,000 inhabitants with a miniature version of Segovia's aqueduct (albeit 16th century, not Roman like the world-famous Castilla y León mega-structure), a quaint and pretty late-Mediaeval main square (pictured below), an unusual cathedral (which is actually two joined together, the 'old' one from the 13th century and the 'new' one from the late 16th century), the majestic, 600-year-old sandstone Dukes' palace, and ancient city walls dating back to the late Islamic era.
The late Romanesque San Nicolás church – which has a look about it of pre-Colonial Latin America – and the cosy, compact historic quarter with its pavement cafés and boutiques are recommended as part of an on-foot sightseeing tour, although Plasencia's biggest hooks for inter-regional travellers are its green bits around the edges.
Picture-postcard orchards, valleys, hillsides and pastures roll out before you in the Jerte Valley, famous for its cherry crop, whilst mountain rock formations and gorges hide natural 'swimming pools' which are an absolute godsend in high summer in an inland province; all this just 30 minutes from the town itself.
And the rural crown jewel is the Monfragüe nature reserve, a vast, lush haven crossed by major rivers and a natural habitat for birds of prey and wild deer.
Several companies run full-day guided excursions to Monfragüe, complete with the loan of ornithologists' binoculars for bird-spotting, including transport from Plasencia town for around €50 a head – Civitatis is one of the main providers, but others can be booked through the tourist information office.
Just before we get to number one...
We said there were six. In practice, the 'happiest towns' here are the ones with an AI facial-emotion-recognition-on-Instagram-selfies rating a considerable margin above the 40.4% average. But above average, even just slightly, is not to be sniffed at, and at least another four deserve a mention.
Barcelona is seventh, at 14% above the average – a city that should need no introduction, but just in case it does, make sure you hit the wacky, brilliant Sagrada Família Cathedral, the psychedelic mosaïc complex up the hill known as Parc Güell (designed by Antoni Gaudí, the off-the-wall brains behind the Sagrada Família), the Poble Espanyol (every province in Spain in miniature in one park), the Montjuïc mountain (cable-car and Olympic stadium), and the lively, bustling Rambla – then book yourself another three months there to do everything we haven't yet mentioned.
Palma de Mallorca is eighth, at 6% above the average of 40.4% happiness, and its cobbled streets, designer shops, elegant bars, huge and formidable-looking cathedral, and its being a short car or bus ride from everywhere else on this fascinating island means plenty of cheer for selfie snaps. If you've time and transport – or can find an organised excursion – the artists' colony of Deià, where World War I veteran and novelist Robert Graves lived for much of his adult life, Valldemossa with its monastery where French novelist George Sands and Polish composer Frédéric Chopin spent a winter together, the Caves of Ham and the larger Caves of Drach with its fairy lights and underground lakes are just a smattering of the top attractions Mallorca is screaming out to show you.
Jointly at number nine, meaning they complete the top 10, are Madrid and Alicante, at 4% above average.
For the capital, a short break should at least include a shopping spree, a walk around the Plaza Mayor and Plaza de España, a stroll around the gigantic, green Retiro Park, a selfie in front of the Puerta del Sol 'New Year's Eve' clock, a tour of the Royal Palace, and visits to the 'big three' art galleries, the Thyssen-Bornemizsa, the Reina Sofía, and El Prado.
For Alicante, one of the warmest cities on the east coast, attractions within a short drive would make up several separate articles, but if you're sticking to the main hub, your obligatory stops are the Santa Bárbara Castle, the MARQ museum and the Lucentum Roman settlement on site, then hit the shops, before chilling out on the sands of the El Postiguet urban beach.
Spain's happiest town: Toledo, 99% above average
Number one most cheerful municipality in Spain, Toledo is one of just two entries on the list where the exact figure of smile percentage has been given: 79% of selfies posted on Instagram from here show joyful faces, making it 99% above average or, basically, double the typical rating for Spain (Plasencia's selfies show 71% of happy faces).
But why?
Well, the entire city is a UNESCO heritage site, which makes up for its being capital of the province which is home to the town the longest distance in Spain from any coast (Nombela, which has other attractions anyway and plenty of 'river beaches', so arguably, it doesn't actually need a coast), and is quite probably the epitome of Classical Spain as you've read about it in the history books and pictured it from literature set in or written in every era besides the modern one.
Late-Mediaeval structures include the Mudéjar Puerta del Sol and Morisco Puerta de Bisagra archways – built in the style of Moors who escaped the Inquisition – and the city was home to the world-acclaimed late 16th-century master painter El Greco, whose scenes of a Toledo skyscape are simply breathtaking, and whose house you can visit (spoiler: He's not in, but you can have a poke around his pictures as it's been made into a museum – around 10 minutes on foot from the Santo Tomé church, where one of El Greco's trademark pieces, the five-metre-high Burial of the Count of Orgaz, is on display).
Toledo was once one of Spain's most cosmopolitan cities, a melting pot of communities, with an eclectic population who lived side by side and mingled in complete harmony – Christians, Muslims and Jews shared neighbourhood space and fully respected each others' customs and traditions. Sadly, in the 21st century, this is still a newsworthy feature for many places on earth, although happily, in the 21st century, it is gradually becoming less newsworthy (and in Spain, is pretty much par for the course).
And over the Mediaeval and Renaissance eras and through to the other side of El Greco's artistic reign, such mutual respect, mixing and blending was incredibly rare: The Inquisition made sure of that, and even without it, these remote times were not typically a period of tolerance of differing approaches to religion which, of course, was intrinsically linked to law and order and to culture and society across the board.
It was this harmonious coexistence that allowed artistic and architectural styles from all these communities to flourish publicly, and gained Toledo its sub-heading of 'The City of Three Cultures'.
The gothic cathedral is said to be one of the most impressive and awe-inspiring on earth, as spectacular inside as it is out, and pre-dating it by less than half a century, the Santa María La Blanca Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter, with its Sephardic Museum inside, is a compulsory stop-off on the tourist trail.
The ornate, detailed San Juan de los Reyes Monastery, built in the late 15th century by order of King Fernando and Queen Isabel, the 'Catholic Monarchs' who spearheaded the Inquisition, is unmissable, and the Alcázar, or Mediaeval Arab fortress, is so splendid from the outside that you might forget to check it out on the inside; constructed on the site of a Roman fortification, four-square and solid, it was renovated in the early 16th century in the 'Christian' style by King Carlos I.
From a later era, the Jesuits Church took nearly a century and a half to build – between the early 1600s to the mid-1700s – and, as well as its Baroque splendour, visitors to Toledo flock to it to get a panoramic view of the city skyline from the top of its two towers, joined together by a walkway.
Over 700 years before the Jesuits Church was finished, the Cristo de la Luz ('Christ of the Light') Mosque opened its doors – right in the final year of the last millennium – and, despite the Christian reconquest in the 12th century and the mass remodelling of religious architecture to reflect the newly predominantly-Catholic society in Spain, the Mosque survived it all intact. In fact, it's considered one of the best-preserved examples of Muslim design in central Spain, although it's no longer used for its original purpose as it was redeployed as a church after the Inquisition.
The main shopping and café nucleus is the pedestrianised Plaza de Zocodover, with classically-Spanish buildings but a name of Arab origin, and the solid, sand-coloured Alcántara Roman bridge over the Tajo river, constructed on five robust pillars in the year 103 CE with a central arch dedicated to the Emperor Trajan is almost impossible not to visit, since it's the main entrance to the walled city by road.
Finally, and once you've seen it all from the ground, take a hike up to the El Valle viewing point – or get a taxi from the AVE station, costing around €5 – and then onto the Piedra del Rey Moro (literally, the Moorish King's Stone) for some truly striking city panoramas and bird's-eye views of Toledo and the Tajo.
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ALMOST anyone not heading for Spain this summer would be a lot happier if they were in it, and the town in question is probably academic – and although those who already live here year-round are entitled to be miserable now and again, because that's only human, the bright sunshine and warm weather mean it is arguably difficult not to be happy-ish at least part of the time during a Spanish summer.
But six towns have been named the 'happiest' – not through self-report surveys or calculating figures relating to lifestyle factors, but through Artificial Intelligence.
At this point, you're probably speculating as to which they could be. Suitable candidates could be anything with 'Alegre' in the name, as this means 'happy' – in Torrevieja, southern Alicante province, the waterfront esplanade is called the Paseo Vistalegre, which means 'happy-view boulevard'; a bit further north, just above Alicante city itself, is Villajoyosa or, in valenciano, La Vila Joiosa and, whichever of the two languages you write it in, translates literally as 'Joyous Town'. Given that it's the cradle of the nationally-acclaimed brand of chocolate, Valor, and to a museum showcasing it, Villajoyosa certainly lives up to its name.
How does AI define 'happy'?
Basically, LookFantastic's computer checked out people's faces on their Instagram selfies. Maybe this isn't a scientific method, but if you're radiating glee on your social media snaps, you're probably feeling pretty good or, if you aren't, you've done well to be able to hide it when faced with the all-seeing eye of AI.
A random selection of over 200,000 publications bearing the hashtag #selfie, taken throughout the country, found that the most common emotion seen in Instagram photos was happiness – featured in 40.4% of snaps – although in photos taken in some parts of Spain, happiness was detected in a higher percentage of them.
Overall, happiness features in Instagram shots in Spain at an above-average rate – the worldwide figure was 35%, so the country is already a happier place, according to social media.
Globally, though, the most negative emotions were rare. Rage, sadness or contempt, for example, were seen in fewer than 2% of Instagram selfies. But in between these and 'happiness' is an extensive and complex scale of feelings, including mildly contented, relaxed and smiling – and whatever emotion a sultry pout conveys.
Now for the towns with the happiest-looking selfies, in ascending order.
Number six: Málaga (happiness rating: 54% above average)
Starting the list – or ending it, depending upon which way you look at it – you're fairly obviously going to be happy if you find yourself in Málaga. The provincial capital of the Costa del Sol, with its bustling shopping, nightlife and beaches, bars, pavement cafés and restaurants serving up typical local cuisine, and some of the best weather in the country, it's unscientifically but anecdotally and widely held to be one of the cities with the highest level of quality of life in Spain.
Málaga city is also a hotbed of culture and heritage. Make a beeline for the Picasso Museum if you don't have time for much else; whatever your views on surrealism and cubism as opposed to pretty pictures where you can clearly see what they're of, this iconic artist is a massive cog in the wheel of Spain's history, and his and his generation's contribution to the creative world transcends continents.
Plus, it's colourful, and everyone likes colour.
The Alcazaba, or 11th-century Muslim fortification, at the foot of the Gibralfaro mountain, could easily swallow up a day and selfie opportunities abound with its Mediaeval arches, fountains, patios, gardens, palaces, towers, and intricate, eye-catching Islamic decoration.
Málaga's pedestrianised C/ Larios is one of the most elegant, up-market shopping streets in Spain, built in the late 19th century with funds provided by the powerful, wealthy local family of the same name, and its majestic stately homes converted into boutiques and bars make it one of the Costa del Sol's most-visited boulevards.
The impressive Renaissance cathedral, the 14th-century Islamic Gibralfaro Castle with its city walls and eight watchtowers offering a splendid urban and maritime panorama, the Roman amphitheatre – built by order of Emperor Augustus in the first century CE (AD) but only rediscovered 1,900 years later by workmen building a block of flats - the Bohemian, arty SoHo district, the tropical Málaga Park with its Eden-like botanical gardens, the bustling Atarazanas market in a sumptuous Arab-style building that was used as a workshop in Mediaeval times, and the Pompidou Centre and Málaga Thyssen art museums with their collections of internationally-renowned masters such as Zurbarán and Sorolla, mean you might end up so busy you forget to check out the beaches and the élite, luxury yacht marina with its extensive boardwalk, vast shopping and restaurant area, and the iconic lighthouse and Malagueta beach at the end.
But if your sore feet and aching selfie-fingers are screaming out for relaxation, you could end the day by chilling in the balmy warmth of the Al-Andalus Hammam, or Arab baths, near the Thyssen Museum, and book yourself a massage whilst you're there.
Number five: Sotogrande, Cádiz province (happiness rating: 55% above average)
Shifting along to the next province west, Sotogrande stretches the definition somewhat. Not of 'happiness' (it's 55% above the national 40.4% average) but of 'town'.
Mainly because it's not.
The actual town is San Roque, and Sotogrande is an urbanisation – a little pocket of luxury on the Cádiz-province coast with around 2,500 inhabitants.
Frequented by the rich and famous, and the place to see and be seen if a glitteringly-plush lifestyle floats your boat, Sotogrande's top attractions include its polo grounds – if you don't know how to play, you'll have fun watching this fast-paced, rough-and-tumble sport and admiring the beautiful, agile and fearless ponies – its beaches, country clubs, golf courses, spas, equestrian centres (long-distance hacks, lessons for all abilities up to professional competence, guided tours and polo lessons), watersports and segway trips (you can charter a yacht if you know how, or just admire the top-of-the-range vessels moored in the marina), the Levante market, and the Guadiaro river estuary nature reserve.
A great destination for those seeking activity, not just beaches and pools – and you won't have time to be gloomy, hence the 'happiness' rating.
Number four: Sevilla (happiness rating: 56% above average)
Another location where you won't have time to dwell on your problems, this provincial capital city is the largest in the southern region of Andalucía and the fourth-largest in Spain; its cathedral, with its globally-known Giralda Tower, is the biggest in Europe, and it's home to every single delicious, colourful stereotype about Spain that you've ever corrected with an exasperated sigh.
Normally, the Feria de Abril, or April Fair, sees everything unconnected with it stopped and shelved as hundreds of brightly-painted huts open as stalls selling souvenirs and typical foodstuffs, flamenco music plays, castañets rattle, feet tap as polka-dot-dress wearers dance the sevillanas in the street, and Andalucían horses decorated with flowers clip-clop through it all. And although Semana Santa, or Easter Week, is celebrated everywhere in Spain with the Good Friday parade being a must-see, Sevilla's own is world-famous.
Pandemics aside, that is; neither has happened for the last two years, but 2022 is looking good.
Visit the Expo park pavilions, walk by the oldest bullring in Spain, take a picture of the Torre de Oro ('Gold Tower'), and stroll round the vast Plaza de España and Plaza de América – and, if you're visiting in summer, take an umbrella to shade yourself from the sun and plenty of water (and stop at a pavement café for a granizado de limón, or lemon-flavoured slush-puppy) as Sevilla is one of the hottest cities in Spain in high season.
Number three: Marbella, Málaga province (happiness rating: 66% above average)
The southern region of Andalucía is doing well in the happiness stakes – as are up-market locations, it seems, given that Marbella has long been a celebrity stamping ground. Ironically, the likes of Sean Connery, Omar Sharif, Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Sofia Loren, Michael Caine and Rod Stewart headed there en masse in the 1970s because it was a quiet little fishing town where nobody recognised them, the paparazzi would never find them, and even once the locals figured out who they were, they could waltz into their nearest bar or corner shop and pass the time of day like any other resident without suffering so much as an autograph request. And selfies weren't yet invented then, as a bonus.
It didn't last long, obviously. Then, they all started moving to Sotogrande for that very reason – and the same thing happened.
Along with its yacht marinas and 27 kilometres of golden sandy coast, urban beaches and rural ones with dunes, Marbella is replete with golf courses and country clubs, prestigious nightspots along its Golden Mile, designer clothing shops, elegant bars and restaurants, and a stunning historic quarter intersected by narrow, winding lanes.
In the heart of the town itself, the most photogenic sights are the Avenida del Mar with its 10 bronze Dalí sculptures, its iconic lighthouse, the peaceful green haven of trees and fountain known as the Alameda Park, the idyllic 15th-century Plaza de los Naranjos with its trademark white houses and flower-filled balconies, the local craft shops and traditional taverns in the historic quarter, the stately homes alongside the C/ Ancha, the turreted city wall dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and the quaint and pretty Santa María de la Encarnación church.
Number two: Plasencia, Cáceres province, Extremadura (happiness rating: 81% above average)
If a 'happy town' was going to be in Extremadura, in Spain's land-locked west, we would probably have hazarded a guess that it was Mérida (Badajoz province), home to a huge and stunningly-preserved Roman city with a fully-intact amphitheatre, a UNESCO heritage site that attracts visitors from everywhere in Spain.
But Extremadura's other province, Cáceres, is home to the sublime, verdant Ambroz Valley – less verdant and more fire-coloured in autumn – and also Plasencia, a beautiful historic town of barely 40,000 inhabitants with a miniature version of Segovia's aqueduct (albeit 16th century, not Roman like the world-famous Castilla y León mega-structure), a quaint and pretty late-Mediaeval main square (pictured below), an unusual cathedral (which is actually two joined together, the 'old' one from the 13th century and the 'new' one from the late 16th century), the majestic, 600-year-old sandstone Dukes' palace, and ancient city walls dating back to the late Islamic era.
The late Romanesque San Nicolás church – which has a look about it of pre-Colonial Latin America – and the cosy, compact historic quarter with its pavement cafés and boutiques are recommended as part of an on-foot sightseeing tour, although Plasencia's biggest hooks for inter-regional travellers are its green bits around the edges.
Picture-postcard orchards, valleys, hillsides and pastures roll out before you in the Jerte Valley, famous for its cherry crop, whilst mountain rock formations and gorges hide natural 'swimming pools' which are an absolute godsend in high summer in an inland province; all this just 30 minutes from the town itself.
And the rural crown jewel is the Monfragüe nature reserve, a vast, lush haven crossed by major rivers and a natural habitat for birds of prey and wild deer.
Several companies run full-day guided excursions to Monfragüe, complete with the loan of ornithologists' binoculars for bird-spotting, including transport from Plasencia town for around €50 a head – Civitatis is one of the main providers, but others can be booked through the tourist information office.
Just before we get to number one...
We said there were six. In practice, the 'happiest towns' here are the ones with an AI facial-emotion-recognition-on-Instagram-selfies rating a considerable margin above the 40.4% average. But above average, even just slightly, is not to be sniffed at, and at least another four deserve a mention.
Barcelona is seventh, at 14% above the average – a city that should need no introduction, but just in case it does, make sure you hit the wacky, brilliant Sagrada Família Cathedral, the psychedelic mosaïc complex up the hill known as Parc Güell (designed by Antoni Gaudí, the off-the-wall brains behind the Sagrada Família), the Poble Espanyol (every province in Spain in miniature in one park), the Montjuïc mountain (cable-car and Olympic stadium), and the lively, bustling Rambla – then book yourself another three months there to do everything we haven't yet mentioned.
Palma de Mallorca is eighth, at 6% above the average of 40.4% happiness, and its cobbled streets, designer shops, elegant bars, huge and formidable-looking cathedral, and its being a short car or bus ride from everywhere else on this fascinating island means plenty of cheer for selfie snaps. If you've time and transport – or can find an organised excursion – the artists' colony of Deià, where World War I veteran and novelist Robert Graves lived for much of his adult life, Valldemossa with its monastery where French novelist George Sands and Polish composer Frédéric Chopin spent a winter together, the Caves of Ham and the larger Caves of Drach with its fairy lights and underground lakes are just a smattering of the top attractions Mallorca is screaming out to show you.
Jointly at number nine, meaning they complete the top 10, are Madrid and Alicante, at 4% above average.
For the capital, a short break should at least include a shopping spree, a walk around the Plaza Mayor and Plaza de España, a stroll around the gigantic, green Retiro Park, a selfie in front of the Puerta del Sol 'New Year's Eve' clock, a tour of the Royal Palace, and visits to the 'big three' art galleries, the Thyssen-Bornemizsa, the Reina Sofía, and El Prado.
For Alicante, one of the warmest cities on the east coast, attractions within a short drive would make up several separate articles, but if you're sticking to the main hub, your obligatory stops are the Santa Bárbara Castle, the MARQ museum and the Lucentum Roman settlement on site, then hit the shops, before chilling out on the sands of the El Postiguet urban beach.
Spain's happiest town: Toledo, 99% above average
Number one most cheerful municipality in Spain, Toledo is one of just two entries on the list where the exact figure of smile percentage has been given: 79% of selfies posted on Instagram from here show joyful faces, making it 99% above average or, basically, double the typical rating for Spain (Plasencia's selfies show 71% of happy faces).
But why?
Well, the entire city is a UNESCO heritage site, which makes up for its being capital of the province which is home to the town the longest distance in Spain from any coast (Nombela, which has other attractions anyway and plenty of 'river beaches', so arguably, it doesn't actually need a coast), and is quite probably the epitome of Classical Spain as you've read about it in the history books and pictured it from literature set in or written in every era besides the modern one.
Late-Mediaeval structures include the Mudéjar Puerta del Sol and Morisco Puerta de Bisagra archways – built in the style of Moors who escaped the Inquisition – and the city was home to the world-acclaimed late 16th-century master painter El Greco, whose scenes of a Toledo skyscape are simply breathtaking, and whose house you can visit (spoiler: He's not in, but you can have a poke around his pictures as it's been made into a museum – around 10 minutes on foot from the Santo Tomé church, where one of El Greco's trademark pieces, the five-metre-high Burial of the Count of Orgaz, is on display).
Toledo was once one of Spain's most cosmopolitan cities, a melting pot of communities, with an eclectic population who lived side by side and mingled in complete harmony – Christians, Muslims and Jews shared neighbourhood space and fully respected each others' customs and traditions. Sadly, in the 21st century, this is still a newsworthy feature for many places on earth, although happily, in the 21st century, it is gradually becoming less newsworthy (and in Spain, is pretty much par for the course).
And over the Mediaeval and Renaissance eras and through to the other side of El Greco's artistic reign, such mutual respect, mixing and blending was incredibly rare: The Inquisition made sure of that, and even without it, these remote times were not typically a period of tolerance of differing approaches to religion which, of course, was intrinsically linked to law and order and to culture and society across the board.
It was this harmonious coexistence that allowed artistic and architectural styles from all these communities to flourish publicly, and gained Toledo its sub-heading of 'The City of Three Cultures'.
The gothic cathedral is said to be one of the most impressive and awe-inspiring on earth, as spectacular inside as it is out, and pre-dating it by less than half a century, the Santa María La Blanca Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter, with its Sephardic Museum inside, is a compulsory stop-off on the tourist trail.
The ornate, detailed San Juan de los Reyes Monastery, built in the late 15th century by order of King Fernando and Queen Isabel, the 'Catholic Monarchs' who spearheaded the Inquisition, is unmissable, and the Alcázar, or Mediaeval Arab fortress, is so splendid from the outside that you might forget to check it out on the inside; constructed on the site of a Roman fortification, four-square and solid, it was renovated in the early 16th century in the 'Christian' style by King Carlos I.
From a later era, the Jesuits Church took nearly a century and a half to build – between the early 1600s to the mid-1700s – and, as well as its Baroque splendour, visitors to Toledo flock to it to get a panoramic view of the city skyline from the top of its two towers, joined together by a walkway.
Over 700 years before the Jesuits Church was finished, the Cristo de la Luz ('Christ of the Light') Mosque opened its doors – right in the final year of the last millennium – and, despite the Christian reconquest in the 12th century and the mass remodelling of religious architecture to reflect the newly predominantly-Catholic society in Spain, the Mosque survived it all intact. In fact, it's considered one of the best-preserved examples of Muslim design in central Spain, although it's no longer used for its original purpose as it was redeployed as a church after the Inquisition.
The main shopping and café nucleus is the pedestrianised Plaza de Zocodover, with classically-Spanish buildings but a name of Arab origin, and the solid, sand-coloured Alcántara Roman bridge over the Tajo river, constructed on five robust pillars in the year 103 CE with a central arch dedicated to the Emperor Trajan is almost impossible not to visit, since it's the main entrance to the walled city by road.
Finally, and once you've seen it all from the ground, take a hike up to the El Valle viewing point – or get a taxi from the AVE station, costing around €5 – and then onto the Piedra del Rey Moro (literally, the Moorish King's Stone) for some truly striking city panoramas and bird's-eye views of Toledo and the Tajo.
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