An option for overnighting in Hellín and making two quick visits just a few kilometers away, starting your journey early, with the idea of returning to Hellín to have lunch and spending the afternoon exploring the city.

Close to Hellín, 10 km away, there is one of the five Castilla-La Mancha Archaeological Parks: Tolmo de Minateda, the three-thousand-year-old city. It is a hill that dominates the crossroads between Murcia, Albacete and Alicante, which has led to the place being inhabited by numerous cultures that now allow us to understand human evolution from the Bronze Age to the 10th century.

The cave paintings of the Abrigo Grande de Minateda –known as the Cave of the Figures– and the smaller caves, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, represent one of the most complex iconographic and symbolic discourses of post-Paleolithic art in the Mediterranean arch.

(To complete the visit, of all the findings during the excavations done, there is an interesting collection in the Hellín Regional Museum).

At the nearby Cancarix volcano, the early hours of the morning highlight the interesting volumes much better. We recommend using sports shoes or hiking boots, and a hat and sunglasses. From afar, we’ll see its stunning vertical escarpments, some geographical structures and formations of great importance formed following the cooling and fissure of the volcanic rock.

We’ll find a path that, from the outset, forks into two branches, where we’ll leave the car; the right-hand route takes us to the foot of the volcano. The summit is reached by following a path through pine trees, with the Santo Domingo ravine to the left. If we cross the whole plateau, we’ll reach the edge of the cliff, at the summit of the basalt columns we saw from the road and where we’ll find a geodesic spot. This is the best time to rest and marvel at the landscape.

Back in Hellín, there is an extensive range of cultural activities: its Arabic origin is still visible in the urban part of the old town, with narrow, winding streets, battlement walkways and blind alleys. The castle displays part of its defences in the high section; the strength of the Catholic church from the Renaissance period onwards is evident in the churches, chapels and convents of the old town (the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption is noteworthy, a Gothic structure with Renaissance influences). During the stroll, we’ll admire the mansions of the nobility (the Falcón, Salazar, Conde or Perier Homes offer fine examples of 17th- and 18th-century stately residences) with indoor patios, exquisite details on the doors and windows of the façade, carefully crafted 18th-century grillwork on several parts of the balconies; the old potters’ neighbourhood; the lane of the Kisses, currently considered to be the narrowest street in Hellín with the eye-catching 19th-century Mascuñán House.

Easter in Hellín is a Festival of International Tourist Interest and UNESCO has declared the Hellín drum festivals an intangible cultural heritage.

Over 20,000 people, young and old, beat their drums around the streets of the city, decked in the black tunics and with red or black shawls around their necks. Visitors can actively take part in these drum festivals, enjoying a unique atmosphere and sound that will live on in the memories of those who visit the city.