For its culture, history, gastronomy, leisure and the quality of its beaches and hotel fabric, Spain is a first rate tourist destination. But also for its incredible natural spaces, which makes us one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity and ecological value in Europe.

Noteworthy amongst this are its National Parks – a designation inaugurated by the Picos de Europa in 1918 – and which now make up a network of spaces of great ecological value that are legally protected and of tremendous scientific interest.

We review the 15 National Parks in Spain where you can enjoy nature in its purest form.

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Located in the Cantabrian Mountains (between the Regions of Asturias and Cantabria, and the Province of Leon), this is one of the best global reserves of ecosystem associated with the Atlantic forest, with the finest limestone ridge in Atlantic Europe.

It has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2003 and is the third most visited National Park in Spain, with hundreds of hiking trails of varying difficulties where you can enjoy unique landscapes. Its most noteworthy points include the River Cares Route, the Covadonga Lakes, the village of Bulnes and Fuente Dé, and the Urriellu Peak – one of its most iconic summits.

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Located in the heart of the Aragonese Pyrenees, in the district of Sobrarbe (Huesca), the second oldest National Park in Spain is also declared a Biosphere Reserve, a Special Protection Area for Birds and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Its many jewels include Ordesa Valley, which encompasses such places as the Estrecho Waterfall, the Gradas de Soaso and the Cola de Caballo waterfall, among many others. The Cañón de Añisclo and Pineta Valley are also essential viewing.

The Teide Volcano – the highest point in Spain - is an enclave full of different shapes and colours. Its landscape changes every few kilometres, offering visitors panoramic views that seem to be taken from another planet. Declared a World Heritage Site in 2007, it is the most visited National Park in Europe and among the most visited in the world.

As well as its incredible ecological value and the attraction of visiting its crater – with a prior booking – the Teide has an extensive historical value: it was of significant spiritual importance to the Guanche people – the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, and it was a fundamental resource to sustain these people, of which archaeological sites still exist. The Guanche people referred to the volcano as ‘Echeyde’ – the dwelling place of evil.

Also in the Canary Islands – the region with the most National Parks - Caldera de Taburiente occupies a good part of the island of La Palma. It comprises a large depression encircled by mountains. Its highest point is Roque de los Muchachos – one of the most popular peaks in this park. Like the rest of the islands, it is of volcanic origin. This park is also a Biosphere Reserve, along with the whole of the island.

Its privileged geographic located, situated between Europe and Africa, and close to where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea, make Doñana a unique natural space, where close to 200,000 examples of aquatic birds of more than 300 different species pass through, inhabit and raise their young in its marshes. Furthermore, this park, located between the Provinces of Seville, Huelva and Cadiz, is one of the most important sanctuaries of the Iberian Lynx – a native species in danger of extinction.

With different scientific institutions that oversee the conservation of its fauna, Doñana is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has a history dating back many centuries, inhabited by the Greeks, Phoenicians and Etruscans. Legend also places the mythological Atlantis in its marshes!

Located in the Province of Ciudad Real, this is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems in Spain, given the wide variety of species of flora and fauna that inhabit there, which has led to this National Park being declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

Tablas de Daimiel perfectly represents the ecosystem of river water levels in their middle sections, forming wetlands.

Timanfaya, located on the island of Lanzarote, is one of the most visited National Parks in Spain. It is known as the island of the volcanoes, given that it has more than 25 volcanoes, which changed the physiognomy of the island when they last erupted in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The most emblematic volcanoes include Montañas de Fuego, Montaña Rajada and Caldera del Corazoncillo. 

As well as the enjoyment of a wide variety of landscapes, visitors to Timanfaya can see first-hand that volcanic activity remains very active on the island.

Without leaving the Canary Islands, we continue our tour to the National Park of Garajonay, on the island of La Gomera, which is also a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve designated by UNESCO. It hosts the finest European example of a laurel forest – a rain forest with a variety of species of evergreens that covered practically the whole continent in the Tertiary Period.

Furthermore, the mist that tends to cover the higher parts of the Garajonay make it an area with its own magic and allows the imagination to wander while following a hiking trail along one of its hundreds of paths and looking out from its vantage points. The Roque de Agando is one of its main points of interest.

The Galician islands of Ons, Cíes, Sálvora and Cortegada, off the coast of the Provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra, make up this National Park – the only one located in Galicia. Given their growing popularity, in order to visit both the Cíes islands – where, according to The Guardian, the prettiest beach in the world can be found, Rodas beach – and the island of Ons, you have to book in advance, given that visitor numbers are limited.

These islands, which were populated in the Iron Age, by the Romans and mediaeval monks, host a maritime and terrestrial ecosystem with an outstanding laurel forest, and more than 200 species of marine algae, along with molluscs, coral, anemones and many species of aquatic birds.

Located in the province of Caceres where the Rivers Tajo and Tiétar converge, you can find the Monfragüe National Park – the first one designated as such in Extremadura. Called mons fragorum (the fractured mountain) by the Romans, it is principally made up of Mediterranean forests and scrubland, meadows, crags and water masses (rivers and reservoirs).

Its main points of interest include the Salto del Gitano and the beautiful viewpoint of Monfragüe Castle, the nearby chapel of which conserves the carving of a virgin brought over from Palestine by the knights of the Order of Santiago. 

This is the latest natural space declared to be a National Park in Spain, located between the Provinces of Madrid and Segovia. Given its proximity to the capital, this is the second most visited National Park in the country, which hosts 11 different ecosystems, some of which are high Mediterranean mountains, unique on the Peninsula, with more than 1,280 species of wildlife and another 1,500 species of vegetation. These include wild pine trees, junipers and holm oaks, the Iberian wolf, bucks and mountain cats, along with such birds as the Imperial Eagle and the Black Vulture.

The most interesting features of the National Park include La Pedriza, with its wide variety of rock formations, and Peñalara Lake.