The hook
Spain's emptiest region holds one of the best-preserved Roman theatres in the world, a medieval walled city so intact it doubles as a fantasy capital on screen, and the home towns of the conquistadors, all with barely a tour bus in sight.
01Why it's worth it
Extremadura got left behind by Spain's development, and the upside is that its past stands unrenovated. Mérida was Augusta Emerita, capital of Roman Lusitania, and it kept an extraordinary amount: a 2,000-year-old theatre still staging a summer classical drama festival, an amphitheatre, a working Roman bridge, aqueducts, and a superb national museum of Roman art. Cáceres has an old town of golden stone, palaces and storks' nests on every tower, essentially unaltered since the 16th century, which is why film crews use it as a stand-in for medieval and invented cities alike. Trujillo, up a hill above the plain, sent Pizarro to Peru and spent the proceeds on mansions around its square. Around them lies the dehesa, an ancient wooded pastureland of holm oaks where black Iberian pigs feed on acorns, producing the world's most expensive ham, and where Monfragüe's cliffs hold Europe's densest concentration of vultures and imperial eagles. It's hot, remote, and blessedly unvisited.
02How to experience it
Drive a loop of Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo over three days, with Monfragüe for a morning of raptors. Take the Roman sites early before the heat, eat jamón ibérico de bellota where it's made, and time it for spring or autumn, high summer on these plains is brutal. The summer theatre festival in Mérida's Roman theatre is worth planning around.
From the locals
Spaniards naming what foreign visitors miss put the whole region forward: "almost all of Extremadura, but Zafra, Trujillo, Mérida, Cáceres, etc, are amazing places to visit and hardly any tourists," one wrote. Another, listing Spain's most underrated cities outright: "Mérida by far, so much history and amazing bars."