Unusual Things to Do in Seville, Spain

Watching flamenco in Seville won’t win you any prizes for originality. However, finding the real deal is harder than you might think. The city is awash with tourist-trap extravaganzas – huge red dresses and perfected routines – but flamenco auténtico happens in the corners of shady bars, where maestros turn up in jeans and improvise their magic. Tapas bar La Madriguera de Mai looks like a student haunt, but every Friday and Saturday night, its tiny stage hosts flamenco that’ll make you weep.

A female take on the city of kings, this alternative walking tour revisits the “queens, nuns, prostitutes and witches” whose legacies have been forgotten. Hear about the “cigar girls” as you pass the Royal Tobacco Factory, and the behind-the-scenes women who made Parque de María Luisa the landmark it is today. Tours run from Monday to Sunday at 10am (and occasionally 4pm), meeting at Costurero de la Reina. Book online.

Leave the 17th century in the Museo de Bellas Artes, and hunt down some madcap art in the making. Behind the centre’s cobbled streets are a host of courtyards where artists have worked for centuries, and they are still very much alive. In one of these corralónes lurks the Pelicano5 art collective, which counts sculptors, carpenters and a self-professed “mad inventor” in its midst. Sneak a peek through a window, and you might just catch contemporary art in action.