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If you are coming to Spain for the first time, be warned: this is a country that fast becomes an addiction. You might intend to come just for a beach holiday, or a tour of the major cities, but before you know it you'll find yourself hooked by something quite different

by the celebration of some local fiesta, perhaps, or the amazing nightlife in Madrid, by the Moorish monuments of Andalucia, by Basque cooking, or the wild landscapes and birds of prey of Estremadura. And by then, of course, you will have noticed that there is not just one Spain but many. Indeed, Spaniards often speak of Las Españas (the Spains) and they even talk of the capital in the plural - Los Madriles , the Madrids.
This regionalism is an obsession and perhaps the most significant change to the country over recent decades has been the creation of seventeen autonomías - autonomous regions - with their own governments, budgets and cultural ministries. The old days of a unified nation, governed with a firm hand from Madrid, seem to have gone forever, as the separate kingdoms which made up the original Spanish state reassert themselves. And the differences are evident wherever you look: in language, culture and artistic traditions, in landscapes and cityscapes, and attitudes and politics.

Overall, spring, early summer and autumn are ideal times for a Spanish trip - though the weather varies enormously from region to region. The high central plains suffer from fierce extremes, stiflingly hot in summer, bitterly cold and swept by freezing winds in winter. The Atlantic coast, in contrast, has a tendency to damp and mist, and a relatively brief, humid summer. The Mediterranean south is warm virtually all year round, and in parts of Andalucía positively subtropical, warm enough to wear a T-shirt by day even in the winter months.

In high summer the other factor worth considering is tourism itself. Spain plays host to some thirty million tourists a year - almost one for every resident - and all the main beach and mountain resorts are packed in July and August, as are the major sights. August, Spain's how holiday month, sees the coast as its most crowded and the cities, by contrast, pretty sleepy

Citizens of most EU countries (and of Norway and Iceland) need only a valid national identity card to enter Spain for up to six months. Since Britain has no identity card system, however, British citizens have to take a passport. US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand citizens do not need a visa for stays of up to ninety days, but this must be for tourism purposes only and not for work or study. Visa requirements do change and it is always advisable to check the current situation before leaving home

Spanish time is notionally one hour ahead of the UK - but conceptually Spain might as well be on a different planet. Nowhere in Europe keeps such late hours. Spaniards may not take a traditional midday siesta so much as they used to, but their life cycles remain committedly nocturnal. They'll saunter out around 8pm or 9pm in the evening for a paseo , to greet friends and maybe have a drink and tapas, and if they're eating out, they'll commonly start at 10 or 11pm, sometimes later in Madrid. It's not unusual for someone to phone around midnight to see if you're going out for the evening.

For breakfast you're best off in a bar or café, though some hostales and fondas will serve the "Continental" basics. The traditional Spanish breakfast is chocolate con churros - long tubular doughnuts (not for the weak of stomach) with thick drinking chocolate. But most places also serve tostadas (toast) with oil ( con aceite ) or butter ( con mantequilla ) - and jam ( y mermelada ), or more substantial egg dishes such as huevos fritos (fried eggs), which are not a typical Spanish breakfast but do tend to be on offer in tourist areas. Tortilla (potato omelette) also makes an excellent breakfast.

Dining off the beaten track may mean drinking whatever comes out of the barrel, or the house-bottled special (ask for caserío or de la casa ). This can be great, it can be lousy, but at least it will be distinctively local. In a bar, a small glass of wine will generally cost around ?0.30-0.60; in a restaurant, if wine is not included in the menu, prices start at around ?2 a bottle although you'll be paying at least double this and more for quality wine. If it is included, you'll usually get a whole bottle for two people, a media botella (a third to a half of a litre) for one. Be on your guard for the odd skinflint establishment which may try to get away with serving you a single glass of wine to comply with the "including wine" offer, thus obliging you to buy a bottle on top. A polite but firm word with the waiter is usually enough to secure your rights.

Bullfights are an integral part of many fiestas. In the south, especially, any village that can afford it will put on a corrida for an afternoon, while in big cities like Madrid or Sevilla, the main festival times are accompanied by a week-long (or more) season of prestige fights.

Los Toros , as Spaniards refer to bullfighting, is big business. It is said that 150,000 people are involved, in some way, in the industry, and the top performers, the matadores , are major earners, on a par with the country's biggest pop stars. There is some opposition to the activity from animal welfare groups but it is not widespread: if Spaniards tell you that bullfighting is controversial, they are likely to be referring to practices in the trade. In recent years, bullfighting critics (who you will find on the arts and not the sports pages of the newspapers) have been expressing their perennial outrage at the widespread but illegal shaving of bulls' horns prior to the corrida . Bulls' horns are as sensitive as fingernails, and filing them a few millimetres deters the animal from charging; they affect the bull's balance, too, further reducing the danger for the matador.

Notwithstanding such abuse (and there is plenty more), Los Toros remain popular throughout the country. To aficionados (a word that implies more knowledge and appreciation than "fan"), the bulls are a culture and a ritual - one in which the emphasis is on the way man and bull "perform" together - in which the arte is at issue rather than the cruelty. If pressed on the issue of the slaughter of an animal, they generally fail to understand. Fighting bulls are, they will tell you, bred for the industry; they live a reasonable life before they are killed, and, if the bullfight went, so too would the bulls.

If you spend any time at all in Spain during the season (which runs from March to October), you will encounter Los Toros on a bar TV - and that will probably make up your mind whether to attend a corrida . If you decide to go, try to see a big, prestigious event, where star performers are likely to despatch the bulls with "art" and a successful, "clean" kill. There are few sights worse than a matador making a prolonged and messy kill, while the audience whistles and chucks cushions over the barrera . If you have the chance to see one, the most exciting and skilful events are those featuring mounted matadores , or rejoneadores ; this is the oldest form of corrida , developed in Andalucía in the seventeenth century.