Cáceres is one of the most beautiful small cities in Spain, and it’s easy to reach by train. The celebrated walled Old Town (the Ciudad Monumental) is a fine place to linger for a few days. Roman, Moorish and Renaissance styles meld in Cáceres to give an extraordinary cityscape, which has gained recognition through its inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The rail routes to the region are among the finest in the country, but travel times are on the slow side. Your patience will be rewarded by glimpses of a Spain bypassed by many travellers.

Regular services from Madrid, 335 km from the city, usually take about four hours for the run to Cáceres (with one fast Talgo train each day now needing just 3 hrs 30 mins). The rail route from Madrid is being upgraded (middle-speed rather than real high-speed is the aim!) to improve connectivity to Cáceres and other communities in the Extremadura region. So that will lead to shorter journey times from late 2019 or shortly thereafter.

Onward connections are generally good, but do check timings carefully as some routes run only infrequently. Mérida, with its fine Roman ruins, is less than an hour away to the south. There is a once-daily early morning train direct from Cáceres to Seville, a journey of almost five hours that crosses a remote area of Extremadura to reach Andalucía. Following the reopening of the rail route across the Spanish-Portuguese border at Badajoz, there's now a daily afternoon connection from Cáceres to Lisbon. It's perhaps only for more adventurous travellers as it requires three changes of train along the way.