Now that locals in Barcelona are using water pistols to make it clear that tourists are no longer welcome to come spend money in their popular city, it's time to look elsewhere for a taste of Spain. 
    May I suggest the Andalusia region, easily accessible from the US via a flight to and from Madrid? From this central city (which has a few things worth visiting), you can easily take a train or drive to my favorite of all -- Granada (Spanish for 'pomegranate') -- and use that as a hub or drive in a circle, covering Cordoba, Seville, Ronda, and Malaga. Seville and Malaga are much larger and more urban feeling than Granada, but that's exactly why I would use Granada as a central place, or a least to spend more time there immersing myself in the food, architecture and culture. This whole area stands apart from the rest of Spain for its Moorish history and heavy Arabic culture and architectural influences.  
     Granada Highlights: Last year, we only allowed a day to try and visit the Alhambra palace AND the city of Granada, and boy was that a mistake. Our food tour guide, a Food Sherpa, nearly cried and insisted on hand-writing us a list of at least 25 more sites to see on our next visit. So what did we do? Nine months later we scheduled another trip to Europe to include more of the region that we'd missed before. Turns out, Granada is THE city for tapas, not necessarily because they're better than any other city, but because they're FREE! Order a drink at a high-top table or the bar (NOT the clothed tables with place settings), and a tapa of the day will magically arrive a few minutes later. Then there's the Alcaiceria near the main cathedral, Granada's "bazaar" where one can find all kinds of spices, trinkets, leather goods and foods. And even if you don't manage to book an official Alhambra tour ahead of time, the truth is you can see a good portion of it by walking around the palace's perimeter and exploring the public places. But what I like most is just the overall charm of the city, which is bustling but doesn't (yet) feel over-touristed. For breakfast and people-watching, have some churros and hot chocolate in the Gran Cafe Bib-Rambla.  
     Seville Highlights: This, too, is a good place for a tapas tour, but you don't get any freebies. Try the more local-imbibed Vin Tinto instead of the touristy Sangria, or a glass of Rioja, Albarino, or Tempranillo. And get a ticket at the cathedral that lets you walk the same ramps inside the tower that a donkey used to take the bell ringer up to every day. Sneak inside the Hotel Alfonzo XIII for an old world glimpse of luxury life in the lobby and common areas. Save time to tour the Gardens and Palace of the Real Alcazar. And if you have time, taxi over to the Plaza de Espana near sunset, where everyone seems to take their families to enjoy time at the park. 
     Cordoba & Ronda Highlights: These are two historic cities with famous palaces, bridges, and cathedrals of their own, along with good tapas and people watching. Both are worthy of a couple of days each, but can be covered on day trips to see the main sites. Tour guides are always helpful, and I personally prefer to find aspiring local guides via AirBnb or Viator that mix in a food tour when possible, to save me research time and money. Consistently, I've found professional guides and drivers to be expensive and overqualified for what I'm looking for. Here is where I will also mention a number of "castle towns" dotting the countryside that looked worth a stop if I had a car or driver, but just had to gawk from the train car. 
     Malaga and Madrid Highlights: If it were up to me, I wouldn't suggest going out of one's way to make a stop in Malaga. Yes, Picasso was born here, and there are some interesting cathedrals, tropical parks and shopping streets, but I found this port city to feel too urban and run down in places compared to the other ones mentioned above. The rundown train station with only a hidden bathroom in the basement parking garage was enough to make me want to hop the train back to Granada. But a tapas tour revealed a lot of tasty foods and drinks somewhat unique to this region. And Madrid, which is mostly a "new" city (according to a Granada native), has a palace, park, and somewhat-old-town worth half a day before flying out, and a city park within walking distance of the train station with endless paths and a pond that locals use to hang out around or row a boat in on lazy days. 
     Unfortunately back in the 80s, I chose to study the French language as a means to travel to France. But the French would rather speak English to tourists rather than put up with their attempts to speak their language, so that was a waste of time. Instead, I wish I'd studied Spanish, not only to help me navigate a growing part of the US and its citizens, but also to help unlock a country that keeps growing on my every time I visit, and locals who keep giving me more reasons to return. 

First of all, of course three days isn't enough time to enjoy the Lake Como area of northern Italy! But sometimes a few days is all someone has for a long weekend or as a tag-on to another trip, so here are some thoughts about how to at least get a "taste" of the region and decide whether a longer return visit is worth making. 
     For our first trip in late June, we were breaking one of my cardinal rules of travel: don't go to Europe (or anywhere, really, if you can help it) in June-July-August. That's because not only is it typically hot, but everyone else in the world is traveling to Europe for summer break/vacation, so it's hot AND crowded, a very bad combination for trying to enjoy oneself. But somehow, we managed to enjoy ourselves for the most part (and save some money) by doing a few strategic things despite visiting Lake Como in prime tourist season:
    1) Don't stay in Como (or Bellagio). Como is pretty much the southernmost entrance point and closest city to Milan, so you may get there and get settled in faster than staying in other places, but if you want to explore the lakes you will spend a LOT of time taking crowded ferries from way down there up to the popular areas like Tremezzo, Bellagio and Varenna. Sure, part of the fun of exploring the area is taking a boat on the lake to see all the towns, but it won't feel so charming when you're facing another two-hour ride home to Como from your day visit to Varenna. Yes, there are some fast ferries that help cut down that ride, but if you don't read the schedules carefully or manage to get on those, it's a tedious ride home on a hot, crowded ferry. Ditto with Bellagio: it's further up the lake and therefore reduces ferry travel time, but because it's a popular town, it's crowded with tourists all day long and not a very fun place to make as your home base, IMHO. 
     2) Don't stay in a hotel. Actually there are several hotels in the area that would have been very nice to stay in, IF I had wanted to pay $400 a night. But hotels are crowded, almost none of them have parking available even for guests, and you'll have to pay extra to hope for a lake-facing room. Instead, look up the many AirBnb options in the area that have patios, bedrooms and living rooms with amazing lake-facing views, either right on the water or just up the hillside. We stayed at a rustic place in a tiny town called Sala Comacina (on the west side of the lakes), that was steps from a ferry terminal, as well as in a town full of small, friendly butcher shops, bakeries and restaurants.
     A highlight of the trip was buying groceries each day and chatting in broken Italian with the local merchants, who seemed to appreciate foreign visitors who had chosen to stay here instead of the bigger cities. The best part, though, was that it never felt crowded. This was just a sleepy little fishing town with quick ferry access to all the more popular ports across the water. And I was easily able to book my choice of many places just a month ahead of time for less than $200 a night. My host was also happy to recommend and book restaurants and help with other necessities. 
     3) Don't expect to drive a car around. Truth be told, I rented a car from the Venice airport where we landed (not a fun experience), mainly because we were on a time crunch to get to a cruise port following our brief Como stay. But I parked it and never drove it until we left. So if you do rent a car, be sure the place you're staying has a guaranteed parking space, or you'll be in a big pickle (as I mentioned above, most of the hotels don't have parking spaces available even for their paying guests, and street parking is rare). And if you rent a car, be ready to navigate the VERY narrow streets along the lake, which are just barely two cars wide and are fraught with lots of obstacles (especially pedestrians who have no sidewalks available) along the way. 
     And if you don't rent a car, then you can easily take a train out of Milan to a town like Varenna on the east side of the lakes, where AirBnb stays are within steps or a short cab ride (or a pick up from your AirBnb host) away. Training up the extra distance from the bottom of the lakes only takes a little longer than a train to Como, and will pay off in shorter ferry rides and a more relaxing stay during your visit.   
     4) Do visit the many gardens, palaces and castles in the area. At the end of the day, all the towns feel the same whether jockeying to eat at a restaurant, board a ferry, or buy a souvenir in Como, Bellagio, Varenna, Tremezzo, or any of the other popular ferry stops. But what helped us avoid/escape the crowds and REALLY get well-framed (i.e., Instagram-worthy) photos was a small entry fee to gain access to some historic and beautifully maintained gardens including Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, Villa del Balbianello in Lenno (where Padme and Anakin secretly got married in Star Wars), Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, and Castello di Vezio or Villa Cipressi in Varenna.
     If you can climb the long hill to the Castello in Varenna to get a sweeping view of all the lakes at once and check out a really cool medieval castle and dungeon, be sure to take the hidden street Via Alla Riva straight up the hill from the ferry terminal (and to the left of restaurant Locanda Cavallino) instead of the more popular path that cuts to the right through town and takes the much longer and is a more difficult path to get to the castle. Bonus: there is a cafe just outside the castle with reasonably priced bottles of water and refreshments to enjoy on either side of the journey! 
     5) Do consider hiring a private boat to take you around the lakes on your first day. There are many options available on AirBnb or by searching directly online (to save the fees the apps charge). It's not cheap, but with the money you save NOT staying at a hotel, you can afford this private tour with champagne and tips from a local. For an added bonus, have them drop you off at a dock in one of the towns you want to visit to save you an extra trip to get there by ferry. Instead of starting and ending at the standard location, we had our driver pick us up just outside our rented place and drop us off in a quiet place at the far end of the gardens in Bellagio to allow us a one-way tour of the Serbelloni gardens. Felt very VIP.