Practical Murcia

Food and Drink. The municipality of Calasparra is famous for its delicately flavoured rice, considered the best in Spain and the origin of which is guaranteed by a denominación de origen. Typical dishes therefore include arroz con pollo, chicken rice, arroz con verduras, vegetable rice, arroz con conejo y caracoles, rice with rabbit and snails, arroz con alubiones, beans and rice, etc. Fish is popular, in the form of sopa de pescado, fish soup, or many kinds of salty fish products: huevas, roe, or fish cooked in escabeche, oil and vinegar, or mojama, a cured fish. Murcia wine is of surprisingly high quality, and this small region has three denominaciones de origen: Bullas, Jumilla, and Yecla.

Language. Castilian Spanish. In rural Murcia, there is a dying Spanish dialect called Panocho, which includes a lot of vocabulary derived from Arabic and is pretty well incomprehensible to ordinary Spanish speakers, but you are not likely to come across it.

Getting There. Murcia's San Javier Airport has long been popular for charter routes, and Ryanair now operates flights to it from Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham and London Stansted and Luton.