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Spain launches its first guide to travelling by looking at the sky
There will no longer be a need to wait for restaurant or beach recommendations to choose a destination: it will now also be possible to travel by following the stars.
On 9 September, 65 Los cielos más bellos de España, the first guide devoted exclusively to astrotourism in the country, goes on sale.
The project, written by experts Miguel Ángel Pugnaire and Miguel Gil and published by Alhenamedia, covers 48 Spanish provinces and three locations in Portugal, with the collaboration of the Fundación Starlight, which certifies 53 of the selected sites. Its aim is to reclaim the night sky as cultural and natural heritage, and bring the excitement of observing it closer to everyone.
Catalonia plays a prominent role on the list, with places such as the Montsec range, the Prades Mountains, Alta Garrotxa, the Boí Valley and Montgai, as well as urban astrotourism proposals in Barcelona.
The guide does not only invite people to contemplate meteor showers or skies free from light pollution. It also seeks to promote tourism in depopulated Spain by turning astronomy into a new reason to travel, with an approach that combines nature, history and science.
“In every province there is, at the very least, a wonderful corner where you can rediscover the universe,” Pugnaire says. An invitation to look upwards in order to look inwards again.