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You don’t get to see Vitoria-Gasteiz all at once. You discover it bit by bit, at a leisurely pace, like the cities that are in no hurry but have everything to offer. This friendly, cultured and surprisingly green city, capital of the Basque Country, has managed to achieve that rare combination of tradition and innovation, nature and urban development, history and the future. When you arrive in Vitoria-Gasteiz, you soon realise why it’s one of the best cities in Spain in terms of quality of life, where the air is clean, it’s easy to walk around and you can live life to the full.

From its impressive Old Town, one of the best preserved in the north of the country, to the modern districts around its famous Green Belt, Vitoria-Gasteiz will captivate you with its quiet charm. Its narrow cobbled streets, named after medieval guilds, wind around the Cathedral of Santa María (a gothic gem that inspired Ken Follett, no less), and lead you to welcoming squares, Renaissance palaces and contemporary murals, making every stroll a sensory experience.

But Vitoria-Gasteiz is not just about stone buildings and heritage. It’s also about woodland, ponds, storks and paths that hug the city in a green embrace. The Green Belt, a ground-breaking project in urban sustainability, has turned Vitoria-Gasteiz into an internationally renowned example of green urban planning. Salburua, Armentia, Zabalgana: all names that not only refer to parks but to spaces where you can truly reconnect with nature, just a few minutes from the centre of town. Here, the city and the forest stand together in harmony, and it's not unusual to see families, runners or cyclists sharing their route with deer and migrating birds.

As you move into the heart of the city, the atmosphere becomes livelier, with its porticoed squares and bustling terraces. The Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, with its unmistakeable silhouette and monument to the Battle of Vitoria-Gasteiz, represents the soul of the city. The pintxo and wine bars around it invite you to savour the best of Basque cuisine, in its most casual and delicious form. Because here, eating is an everyday art, and your day would not be complete without stopping to try a gilda (a chili pepper, anchovy and olive skewer), a taco of bacalao al pil-pil (salted cod) or a glass of Rioja Alavesa wine.

Creative works also bring some modernity to the city. Urban art abounds on its façades, projecting memory, diversity and a sense of community, whilst its cultural calendar, with events such as the International Jazz Festival or Azkena Rock, makes Vitoria-Gasteiz a vibrant place aside from its landscapes. Museums such as the Artium Museum of Contemporary Art or the Museum of Fine Arts offer a stimulating range of avant-garde and classic works, in a city where culture is in its nature.

And if that weren’t enough, Vitoria-Gasteiz is also the gateway to some of the most charming landscapes in the Basque Country and to the cities of Bilbao and San Sebastián. From here you can explore the area of Rioja Alavesa, with its futuristic wineries and villages built from golden stone, the amazing lunar landscape of the Salt Valley of Añana, the exciting Basque Coast, or venture into one of the five Natural Parks near the city, a paradise for hikers, climbers, mountain bikers, trail runners, or simply for those wishing to admire the scenery.

There’s no need for us to rave about Vitoria-Gasteiz. It doesn’t seek to impress, but to leave a lasting impression. And it does this in spades, because of its people, its human scale, that rare balance between urban development and nature. It’s a city that slips silently into your mind but leaves its mark. A city you’ll always want to come back to.