Spain // Why you should visit Albarracín

Tucked away in the mountains of the Sistema Iberico, Albarracín is a lovely detour from any road trip in east-central Spain. In fact, it is known to be one of the most beautiful villages in all of Spain!

We intended on making a quick visit to this historic town on our way from Zaragoza to Valencia, but ended up spending almost the entire day here, just because it is so impressively beautiful!

Medieval splendor

Upon arrival we parked on the huge parking lot outside of the historic center. Vic lifted Mila onto his shoulders and off we went through the narrow cobblestone streets! It took us quite some time to get to the Plaza Mayor (or main square), simply because there’s a photo opportunity around every corner…

But as we soon found out, the best was yet to come, namely the spectacular mirador in front of the Catedral de Albarracín. This platform boasts stunning views over the old town and surrounding Sierra de Albarracín Comarca, as well as the impressive medieval Murallas de Albarracín (or Walls of Albarracín) and the ruins of a Moorish castle.

Murallas de Albarracín

It’s possible to hike uphill alongside the Murallas and visit the ruins, but we felt as if we had been sweating enough already (especially with a kid and a backpack on our backs!).

So we decided to stick around town and explore the streets surrounding the Catedral and Plaza Mayor a bit more. As it turns out, there’s a few viewpoints in the area that are worth a visit. One of the most popular pictures taken is at the Portal de Molina, where you get a good idea of the incredible architecture in this quaint little village.

Albarracín is definitely not that big, so we found the most pleasant thing to do is just wander around and taking the time to enjoy it all before continuing our way to (at least according to us) one of the coolest cities in Spain: Valencia!

Tips & Tricks

• Invest in a good backpack to carry your kid. We decided to go with a lightweight and compact carrier from Minimeis and couldn’t be happier!
• Be sure to choose the correct destination in your GPS cause there more than one town containing “Albarracín”. We mistakenly drove to Monterde de Albaraccín first, a 45 minutes detour. Luckily, the scenery was nice :)
• A wide angle camera (like a GoPro) can be handy it use in the narrow streets.
• Albarracín can easily be visited from nearby Teruel (30 min away), or from Zaragoza or Valencia (both 2 hours away).
• Best way to get here is by car. Take your time and take a longer road if you feel like it, the scenery is lovely!