Adventure
Tour & Taste
Relaxing
Educational
Ancient & Historical

There's one particular moment during a hike in Serrania de Cuenca Natural Park, Castilla-La Mancha in Spain that Don Quixote, the 17th-century literary novel by Miguel de Cervantes, comes alive for me. As I trudge across limestone hills lush with pine trees and interjected by gorges and canyons, it is the realisation that the adventure really lies in setting out. As a student, I read the pages describing the misadventures of a rather whimsical knight gallivanting across the region of Castilla La Mancha in Spain. On this crispy afternoon under an unrelenting sun, I find myself on an imaginary exploration of the literary setting—not while reading on a couch, but on my two feet, matching step with a knight and his faithful squire Sancho Panzo. 

Cervantes constructed his protagonist as a wanderer on a mission, without a clear destination but gifted with bizarre imagination. The region celebrates this story, and inspires travels around UNESCO villages, old towns, nature and food histories.