Spain is rightly proud of her paradors, 86 state-run hotels that have helped preserve and renovate some of her most historic buildings. "Quality, charm, history" is their motto, though only 37 are truly authentic and some entirely bogus. They can tend to a sameness of style, and piped music over your chorizo and boiled eggs sometimes smacks of the Harvester-en-Hispania. But they offer a touch of old Spain and, perched often in castles soaring above the olive groves, an affordable taste of the high life.
Imaginative Amigos de Paradores tarjetas - five-day credit cards allowing you to stay for £48 a double - can make paradors fantastic value. So armed, you can hire a car and hop from one to another. There's no better start than heading south for Andalucia, a region which - like nowhere else in Spain - blends modernity with a passion for traditional hospitality, and the drama of an unforgettable landscape and history.
Ronda
Ronda's parador is next to the medieval "New Bridge", edging the thundering chasm. Built inside the Town Hall, its glass entrance is thoroughly modern-chic, and the hotel stylish and efficient. For history, set off around town or visit Ronda's bull ring, Spain's oldest and most elegant. Looking out over the parador's tiny swimming pool, down to the river Tajo, the historical juices really start flowing.
Ronda is a dash from the sea and a favourite of the Brits, but dusk in Plaza de Socorro brings out the parade of local life and Ronda becomes far more than a tourist museum.
Address: Plaza de España.
Telephone: 00 34 952 87 75 00.
E-mail: ronda@parador.es
Extras: The parador offers mountain bikes free of charge. You can buy a useful booklet to the region in the tourist office next to the parador. Ronda's bull ring opens at 10am till 8pm and entrance is Ptas500.
Next bull fight: September 9.
Arcos de la Frontera
The parador is in the Corregidor's Palace, flanking the main square, a delight of cobbles, ancient walls and orange trees, spoilt only by the cars.
With hacienda-style bedrooms and vaulted orange corridors kitted out simply with oak chests and pottery, this is a nice example of a grand Andalucian house, with its familiar central atrium.
But the iron balconies and tatty sun terrace make Arcos something of a dowdy maiden aunt compared with Ronda. We couldn't get a beer after 11.30pm either, while pleas to breakfast on the terrace met with Andalucian defiance. It hardly mattered. Arcos has a sleepy charm all its own and, from room 18's terrace, the view across the white-washed houses to the 15th-century San Pedro is unforgettable.
Paradors all offer imaginitive choices of regional food, though the quality tends to be stolid. Some of the riojas are superb value, especially a Cune 1996, and the breakfasts always expansive.
The suffix "de la Frontera" stretches back to the Christian reconquest, pressing at the gates of Moorish Al Andalus. Arcos is a perfect launch pad either for the White Towns - like windy La Zahara rising like a medieval Titanic above its glittering turquoise reservoir - or the undervalued south-west. Jerez de la Frontera - home of sherry, the Spanish Riding School and Flamenco - is 40 minutes away and beyond is the Cota Doñana National Park, edging the estuary of the Qualquiver river. Also here is the Costa De La Luz, which has largely been protected from the building that has wrecked the Costa Del Crime.
Address: Plaza del Cabildo.
Telephone: 00 34 956 70 05 00.
E-mail: arcos@paradores.es
Extras: Arcos does a guided tour of the historic town and its patios, both free to parador guests. For a lovely 15th-century hacienda, where you can stay suprisingly cheaply, visit the Hacienda El Santiscal Avda del Santiscal (0034 56 708313).
Carmona
Start a truly grand romance with historic Spain driving through the great stone arch at Carmona, up to the Alcazar of King Pedro. Carmona is one of the oldest towns in Europe and from the parador's beetling terrace, the plain of the Vega opens with the sweeping drama of Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto.
Although built in 1976, this cross between a convent and a Shogun Fortress can't help but impress when viewed from the lovely swimming pool. The fountain in the glass-framed atrium, lined with slender columns and cool tiles, is as attractive as the largely authentic walls that encase Carmona. The hotel's touches are highly professional and the old town fascinating, which is why, like some of the other four-star paradors, you have to pay a Ptas3,500 supplement.
You still hear catechisms behind the afternoon shutters in Carmona's ancient streets, but it is only 20 minutes from Seville, which is party town. You will probably want to plunge into the life of Seville's squares, bodegas and the guitar bars along the Calle Vetis, but Carmona offers the perfect retreat to higher ground.
Address: Alcázar.
Telephone: 00 34 954 14 10 10.
E-mail: carmona@paradores.es
Extras: To sample a really wonderful and original hacienda,have supper at Casa De Carmona, Plaza de Lasso 1 (00 34 954 19 10 00).
Jaén
You wind on forever up to the castle on the hilltop, where the thoroughly-bogus parador looms like a 1970s film set. The halls are lined with tapestries, fake swords and suits of armour. Jaén is no less fun for all that - children love it - and its strength is its fantastic position.
By the relaxed swimming pool, dive-bombed by thirsty swallows, surrounded by a crucible of hard brown hills, you half expect Charlton Heston as El Cid to come riding out of legend for a beer at the pool bar.
Jaén is an uninteresting modern town saved from a height by its cathedral, which makes it really a stopping point on the way south.
Address: Castillo de Santa Catalina.
Telephone: 00 34 953 23 00 00.
E-mail: jaen@espana.es
Extras: To eat, try Casa Vincent, Martin Mora 1 (00 34 953 23 22 22) lined with bulls' heads and photographs of the correo.
Córdoba
If you can find the parador, dodging Córdoba's sweltering traffic jams, you might wonder why you bothered. Built in the grounds of one of the first Arabic palaces, the hotel is thoroughly modern. It boasts a tennis court, orange garden, swimming pool and kids' park, along with plenty of in-hotel entertainment but, though comfortable, it is an ugly tower block.
Disappointed, hurry to the Mesquita, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, a vision of double-arched columns like painted aqueducts and exquisite Arabic traceries, capped in the centre by the monolithic pomposities of Catholic Spain.
The Caballo Rojo beside the Mesquita, with patio upstairs and cheaper café downstairs, is famous for excellent food, as is El Churasco in the Juderia, the Jewish quarter. Over the years, Raphael Carillo's little bar kept on expanding and incorporates one of the finest bodegas in all Andalucia. For tavernas and the best tortilla, try the Casa Pepe, also by the Mesquita.
Address: Avda De La Arruzafa
Telephone: 00 34 957 27 59 00
E-mail: cordoba@partador.es
Granada
León and Santiago may be the most completely authentic, but Granada is the jewel in the crowned "p" of the parador system. Almost literally, because the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, were originally buried here. The old part has quite the loveliest courtyard of all, a sturdy oak door opening, like in a fairytale, on to a sun-dappled sanctuary of flowers, fountains and chequered tiles. A convent in the 16th century, it was used both as a hospital during the civil war and a painting school.
But the parador's triumph is that it is set slap bang in the middle of the Alhambra. A five-minute wander brings you to the famous Nasrid palace, which could teach anyone about interior or exterior design. When medieval Europe was fumbling with thumbscrews, this society developed an unrivalled tolerance and sophistication, patterned in the delicacy and eroticism of its architecture and water gardens.
Be warned, the credit- card scheme doesn't apply to Granada at any time of year, which means double rooms are around £120 a night, and it is so popular you will have to book at least a month in advance.
The parador is proud of its restaurant, which anyone can visit, and its chef has now become the head of the whole parador system. One of its greatest charms is guests eating on the terrace, serenaded by the guitar.
Granada's magnificently-walled cathedral is hardly worth a look inside, unlike the chapel were the Catholic kings now reside. But the greatest discovery is Cunini near the cathedral - the restaurant and tapas bar hums with an unpretentious love of superb food and drink. Next door El Cepillo - the Clothesbrush - has the best cheap local food, and round the corner La Pescaria serves the finest fish. For Flamenco and Gypsy music, head up the hill to Sacramonte.
Address: Real De La Alhambra
Telephone: 00 34 958 22 14 40
E-mail: granada@parador.es
Extras: With a reservation, you can drive straight up to the Alhambra, and the hotel will reserve tickets for the palaces for you.
• David Clement-Davies's first novel Fire Bringer was published in paperback last month by Macmillan at £5.99.
