Castilla La Mancha
| Castilla la Mancha | Albacete | Liétor |
Located in the Heart of the Iberian Peninsula, Castilla-La Mancha shelters the home land of the most daring and famous literary knight: Don Quixote of La Mancha, main ambassador of an unknown land, which hides surprises in every corner, in every valley, plain or mountain.
Amazing Variety
Castilla-La Mancha transforms itself widely and lengthways and offers to the visitor the possibility of enjoying one of the most and more spectacular territories, in where there is a big surface dedicated to parks and natural reserves. Here singular ecosystems follow one after the other, inviting to travel through surprising places, preserved almost untouched: Lagunas de Ruidera, Alto Tajo, Tejera Negra, Tablas de Daimiel, Cabañeros, Hoces del Cabriel…
The landscape
Diversity and heterogeneous spaces in the countryside are the predominance among the geography of the region. The Great Plain of La Mancha, maybe the most homogeneous and extensive natural region of Spain, is the plain that shapes the central nucleus and the physical support of that ingenious dream that Cervantes left us 400 years ago.
The mountains of the region have no less importance. Although not relatively large, they welcome a richness and singular ecological, geomorphic, hydrographic and biogeographic variety. Thus, we can enjoy the venerable Toledo Forest (Montes de Toledo), the mysterious Serranía de Cuenca, the attractive Sierra de Alcaraz (Alcaraz Mountain Range), the rural Tierras de Ayllón or the historical Valle de Alcudia.
The landscapes that will be pleasurable for the traveler’s eye are so diverse than they can vary from the Volcanoes del Campo de Calatrava to the arid pseudo-steppes of the Southeast of the region, apart from hydrographic complexes as singular as the ones of Lagunas de Ruidera or Tablas de Daimiel.
The rivers
Two main fluvial axis score the region from East to West: the honorable Tajo River and the slippery Guadiana River, accompanied by the Jucar River and the Segura River, which drain the East of the region towards the Mediterranean.
The population
Castilla-La Mancha is a vast region which occupies the South Submeseta of the Iberia Peninsula, with an expanse of 79,226 square kilometers, fact that situates Castilla-La Mancha as the third biggest region of the country, according to its surface. In spite of having been considered as a passing-through-land, it has always maintained a certain grade of human occupation, as it is proved by the abundant remainders of assents of different cultures, forming a rich historic and artistic heritance not yet known in its full totality.
A population of more than a million seven thousand inhabitants is distributed in five provinces: Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo. The organization of the cores of population is uneven and less numerous in the south of the region. This is a consequence of the way of repopulating used during the Christian Conquest, historic period that has left extensive repercussions on the territory.
Furthermore, the historic process of development has left important traces in the form of magnificent historic-artistic settings, some of them declared Humanity Heritance by the UNESCO: we are talking about the multicultural city of Toledo and the magic city of Cuenca.
Still, other places like Almagro, Villanueva de los Infantes, Molina de Aragón, Campo de Criptana and many other places also offer to the traveler a place where he/she can rest, relax and let his/her mind fly free under the vigilance of Sancho, the best of all the known squires, whose spirit still wanders through this soils accompanying his master Quixote.
Tourist routes 
Castilla-La Mancha is one of the most important Spanish tourist enclave, offering the possibility of visiting from the unknown –but not for that less important- Guadalajara North Romanesque, to the Don Quixote’s Route, crossing the plains of La Mancha, or walking through the La Mancha Lagoon, one of the areas which more concentration of air fauna of the Peninsula, or go into the prehistoric caves of Los Casares, Fuencaliente, Alpera, Villar de Humo o Nerpio. All this without forgetting a quite considerable number of towns such as Almagro, Ocaña, Sigüenza, Alcalá de Júcar, Ciudad Real… all of them truly jewels of Spanish artistic heritance.
When to visit
Any of the seasons of the year is a good one to visit Castilla-La Mancha, since the territorial variety and its climate make possible that each time of the year offers different possibilities in order to know the deepest side of this region.
How to arrive
Our region can be reached through plane, thanks to Barajas Airport (Madrid), which has very good connections with the main highways of the country. These roads turn the territory into a fast corridor of direct communication with the capitals of the provinces that form our region and community and several other regions of Spain.
Besides, the fast-speed train called as AVE, in its Madrid-Sevilla journey, has train stops in Ciudad Real and Puertollano, and Toledo-Madrid journey.
The region relies on multiple forest paths in perfect state, which allows the comfortable and convenient access to the most hidden places of the Community.
In recent years, this region is developing a policy of enlargement and improvement of infrastructure, with a network of more than 800 hotel establishments which cover all the needs of the traveler.
Rural Tourism
Castilla-La Mancha has not been foreign to the new touristy trend of Rural Tourism, meant for those who want to enjoy fully a direct contact with the natural environment.
This circumstance has helped enormously to the realization of a particular effort to promote the arrangement of housings inside the rural atmosphere, ending up with a increasing amount of rural and cultivation houses, complementary to an endless number of cultural, sports and recreational activities.
Furthermore, apart from the natural peacefulness you can get in the region, the rural surroundings of Castilla-La Mancha offers amazing settings to all of those who want to practice the so-called “Sport Tourism” or Active Tourism: trekking, mountain-bikes and horse-riding routes, canoeing, climbing, bungee jumping, paragliding… without forgetting about fishing and hunting. You can also alternate these activities with the ecologic and cultural tourism, which will allow you to know more about nature, its preservation and respect, apart from the contemplation of the large amount of artistic, archaeological, historic, ethnographic or folklore resources of the different provinces of our Autonomous Region.