Things to do in Seville, from someone who never left.

The Real Alcázar is the one place where booking ahead is not optional. Go for the first slot of the morning, before the gardens fill and while the light still slides low through the arches. Give it two hours, not forty minutes.

The Cathedral and the Giralda are enormous in a way photographs flatten. The ramp up the tower was built for a man on horseback, which tells you more about Seville's history than any plaque inside.

Plaza de España is free, open and best at eight in the morning or an hour before sunset. In between, it belongs to the tour groups and the heat.

Cross the bridge into Triana and walk Calle Betis with the river on your left. This is where the city looks at itself.

Sit in Plaza del Salvador at seven in the evening with a beer on the church steps, because that is what everyone here does and nobody writes it down.

Walk the Alameda de Hércules at night. Two Roman columns, a square full of families, dogs, students and old men arguing about football.

Get properly lost in Santa Cruz after dinner, when the day crowds have gone and the whitewash holds the last of the heat.

Two days covers the monuments. Three days lets you eat properly and see a neighbourhood or two. Four days and you start recognising faces in the bar — that is when Seville gets good.

If you only have one day, choose depth over checklist: one monument, one neighbourhood, one long lunch.

February to June is the city at its best. April brings Semana Santa and the Feria, which are extraordinary and busy in equal measure.

July and August regularly pass 40 °C. The city does not stop, it shifts: mornings and nights are alive, the middle of the day is not.

September and October bring golden light and warm evenings. December adds Christmas lights and a quieter, softer city.

Seville is flat and walkable. Almost everything in this guide sits within a thirty-minute walk of everything else.

Lunch runs from 14:00, dinner rarely starts before 21:00. Fighting that rhythm is the fastest way to eat badly here.

Tapas are shared, ordered in rounds, and priced per portion. Standing at the bar is normal and usually cheaper.