What is the difference between "lugar" and "paraje"?
both words mean "place" or "spot". What is the difference in their usage?
9 Answers
That rest-stop/gift-shop/food and bathroom place you find when taking long road trips, in México is called "parador".
We understand "paraje"as an isolated place outdoors.
I've never even heard of paraje. Sounds like somewhere where one might just simply to chose to stop.
In Colombia the word 'chuso' is used for lugar, sometimes disparagingly. It comes from the Muisca language, not to be confused with musica...
Paraje, a Spanish term in use among English speakers in the southwestern United States, refers to a camping place along a long distance trail where travelers customarily stopped for the night. A paraje can be a town, a village or pueblo, a caravanserai, or simply a good location for stopping. Parajes typically are spaced 10 to 15 miles apart and feature abundant water and fodder for the travelers' animals (cattle, sheep, and horses).
A route between two parajes, that is difficult but must be traversed in one day because there is no water along the way, is known as a jornada.
The RAE doesn't make a distinction, but I've always seen it used to mean some sort of remote, rural sort of place. More landscape than site, as it were. A remote camping site, a lost little lake somewhere nobody goes, a little cabin in the middle of the woods, that sort of thing.
Here in New Mexico (EEUU), there are numerous place names containing the word "paraje". Historians define los parajes as stopping places or camp grounds for travelers. Along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (which runs roughly from Mexico City to Santa Fe -beginning circa 1598) there are locations named "Paraje de Belen", "Paraje de Bernalillo", "Paraje de Fra Cristobol", y "Paraje", These all began as stopping points for caravans traveling north or south along the Camino Real. The various parajes were very important in timing and provisioning the caravans, particularly near the water-less 90 mile "Jornada del Muerto".
So, historically, along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the word "paraje" took on the specific meaning of "stopping place".
El Camino Real is still visible in many areas of New Mexico. In some places it is still in use -- road signs call it "Camino Viejo".
Here in New Mexico (EEUU), there are numerous place names containing the word "paraje". Historians define los parajes as stopping places or camp grounds for travelers. Along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (which runs roughly from Mexico City to Santa Fe -beginning circa 1598) there are locations named "Paraje de Belen", "Paraje de Bernalillo", "Paraje de Fra Cristobol", y "Paraje", These all began as stopping points for caravans traveling north or south along the Camino Real. The various parajes were very important in timing and provisioning the caravans, particularly near the water-less 90 mile "Jornada del Muerto".
So, historically, along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the word "paraje" took on the specific meaning of "stopping place".
El Camino Real is still visible in many areas of New Mexico. In some places it is still in use -- road signs call it "Camino Viejo".
look guys "lugar" means "place" meaning a location in space as opposed to placing something. but it doesnt reffer to a specific location.
"paraje" in the other hand, although it certaintly is a place it means a particular type of place a paraje is that rest-stop/gift-shop/food and bathroom place you find when taking long roadtrips.
Like Debs said, I'm thinking paraje might be more an American usage, I'm more familiar with lugar - eg: lugar de nacimiento (birth place). Remember Don Quixote: En un lugar de La Mancha... 
It might be a regional difference. I'm not sure. 
