CycleTourSpain.com

I’m always overly critical of travel journalists. Mostly because the majority turn up, spend a pampered weekend at the behest of an interested sponsor, muster up some stats from one of the regular tour guide series and perceive themselves as an ‘expert’.

Windows in Madrid's Plaza Mayor

A case in point that really drove me mad yesterday was a piece in one of the leading travel mags recently which tried to position Madrid as the ‘perfect summer city break’. This left me questioning the sanity of the writer, who appeared to be a resident ex-pat. Madrid is an oven in summer – a windless, merciless cauldron with temperatures reaching the mid-40s! It’s also largely empty of life as the locals have scrambled off to the coast for a month. Summer should be the season for city breaks in the major north European cities, with Madrid saved for spring or autumn, its best seasons. The other huge omission in the nightclub-heavy article was that there was not one single mention of Madrid’s key draw – art. It’s got to be one of the richest hubs of art in the world – El Prado, La Reina Sofia, Thyssen-Bornemisza but no one sings about it like they sing about Florence, Barcelona and Paris, for example. Madrid is an unsung hero.

I love Madrid, I went to university there and I’ve been there three times in the last nine months, so I’m extra sensitive to inaccurate write-ups. One day I’ll do one of my own, but for now I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to a really good article – yesterday’s Telegraph travel section on Cantabria. I am a big fan of Northern Spain and plan to spend a lot more time there than the south and east, which I feel I’ve exhausted.