If going mainly to cities like most are want to do in Andalusia take trains or buses as cars are useless once in those cities. Now if say driving thru rural scapes like he iconic perched white villages or along the coast do a car. But if wed t cars do it - the cities are not impossible to drive into and out of but just to tour around the city a car is useless.

Since you are not are not "check the box" travelers, I think you will really enjoy having a car. It will give you so much freedom and there's enough parking possibilities in the cities. Many hotels that don't have private parking will point you to an easy-to-get-to parking garage in their neighbourhood.
Driving in Spain is so easy. We find Spanish people to be very courteous towards people driving in rental cars.

That is what I like to hear. I know that having a car in a major city is usually more of a hassle than benefit, but I do love how freeing a car can be. Perhaps we don't stay in any cities which the exception of Seville. Does anyone have experience staying in any of the smaller, less populated/touristy town/cities in Andalusia?

It's reat to stay in a Cordoba, Seville or Granada and driving into and out of is not much a problem really. Just in the city cars are useless.

That's funny because I think having a car is LESS freeing than taking trains. Big time.

So you want to spend two weeks in Andalusia and not go to any city but Seville? Because that means you are ruling out Cordoba, Malaga, and Granada, all of which are over 250K population. Even Cadiz is over 100K, and JErez is large, also. Do you plan to stay in smaller towns outside the big cities and then use your car to drive into the city centers for sightseeing?

But then you said does anyone have experience staying in a less touristy city in Andalusia? So maybe you want to stay in a city after all? All of the cities I've been to have been top tourist draws. I've been to less interesting places just didn't stay in them, although You can rule out Nerja, also, as it's very popular with tourists. You could consider Antequera as a place for part of the trip. It has a good central location and does have rail and bus transport to the big cities if you wanted (Granada, Cordoba, Malaga). It is about 40K population but not one of the top tourist cities in Spain. It has a lot of churches. So if you want a city, that might be a good one.

Leave the car decision until you select the specific places you want to see, along with activities you wish to do. I visited Andalucia twice without a car, and it is undeniably easy to get from place to place (all of the main places and even some quite small places) with train and bus. But two weeks is an ample amount of time, and you might decide you want some more rural, small town exploration in there. A car for a portion of the trip might be useful in that case--for stopping in small towns that you want to see but that bus schedules are iffy for (places that only need a look-see, not an overnight), or for reaching some of the fabulous national parks where you might want a car for reaching trailheads, for driving along the coast.
The Rough Guide is useful.

Here is our 2015 Spain trip report with photos. Take out our days in Barcelona and it is a 15-day trip (Granada, White Town area, Sevilla, Cordoba, Toledo, Madrid). I would skip the white towns (we did spend one day there) I would then add that day to Madrid and possibly a day trip to Segovia. Here you go.

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/spain-2015/

From my planning, and limited experience, the white hill towns, Gibraltar, and parts of the Costa del Sol are better by car than public transportation. If those are not priorities for you, then I would stick to public transportation. We did not opt to stay overnight in any of the hill towns--for us, driving through the area and seeing the situation of those towns was the attraction--a worthwhile use of time, but not indispensible. The architecture wasn't terribly different from parts of Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. Could you spend multiple nights hopping from hill town, to hill town? I suppose so, but I wouldn't trade that for time in Seville, Granada, or Cordoba. Also, you haven't told us exactly what dates you are looking at (if I recall correctly), and that could have a huge impact on where you go (and how you get there), particularly if you are going to be in Andalusia during Holy Week (leading up to Easter on April 21). You might opt to spend more time in the cities during that week, or less, depending on your preference for seeing cultural spectacles vs. tolerance for crowds.

Funny! I was just going to suggest to drive the Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos. We have driven the complete route, of course in more than one day to enjoy the many different villages and the sights when driving the local roads. This is really something that cannot be seen nor experienced when traveling by public transport. And an excellent itinerary for someone who loves to drive. We left from Málaga (I love Málaga), spend a night in Ronda and one in Arcos de la Frontera before heading to the Costa de la Luz (Conil de la Frontera).
We did Granada, Córdoba and Sevilla (by car) on various other occasions.

I would think that a decision about whether to include the white towns or not really depends on the itinerary and how much time the OP is willing to devote to that area. And as yorkshire notes, the "final" (or at least almost final) itinerary should provide a good basis for deciding whether to rent a car, and if so, for how much of the trip.

Ahh, sorry, I should choose my words more wisely. I meant town/village, not city. But to answer your question, yes, we are thinking about staying in a smaller town/village and using a car to travel to other towns and city centers for sight seeing. We are obviously in the very infancy of our planning so we aren't sure if this is even a "good" way to see this area. We found it very helpful on our last trip, but I know that this mode of vacationing might not be ideal elsewhere. We see the benefit of staying inside a city center, but we also enjoy the calm that you get outside of a major city. For example, we stayed in Bologna for a period of days last year and took day trips, one of which was to Modena and we wish we had used Modena as our base as it was considerably more "relaxed."

Thank you for the suggestions!

You might enjoy staying in Cordoba, which although fairly large, felt like a small town to me. Ditto Ronda, of which I am a big fan (I'm a sucker for places where the sunset gets a round of applause). Once you narrow down the wish list, you can determine the transport options. I never like to be in a car more than about an hour per day,

Just my opinion... and I am one who doesn't really like to drive distances:

• The high speed trains in Spain are great -- up to 300 km/hr -- 180 MPH. Fly into Madrid, spend a few days there, then take the train to the south.
• Take the train between larger cities; Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, etc.
• Drive short day trips if trains do not have convenient connections...a bus may be good for a day trip, too.

Driving to see the country close up is great...if you are NOT the driver, who must pay attention to the road more carefully than usual, since he/she is in a foreign country. I have driven in Ireland and France, but only day trips with 15-30 min stretches between sights (France and Ireland) or 2-3 hour stretches where trains were not feasible (Ireland). In Ireland, to travel the Ring of Kerry, we hired a driver, or I'd have (a) missed everything or (b) killed myself and my wife or (c) both.

ssander

In the spring Cordoba has a festival of patios.

Cordoba patios and patios contest | City of Cordoba | Andalucia.com

ssander

I can tell you that I need to pay a LOT MORE attention when driving the ringroad in Antwerp or Brussels (I live in Belgium) than driving anywhere in France, Spain or Italy, ...
I guess it's what one is used to. My husband and I both drive. Long stretches are cut in parts of 2 to 3 hours, then the other one takes the wheel.

...but Ireland was a challenge, since they drive on the opposite side of the road from the USA. My wife's job was reminding me whenever I started to drift to the left.

I will say this...our Google Maps (downloaded before we left the USA so that we wouldn't need to use cellular data) were great...never failed us in either country, even on the unimaginably narrow back roads in the middle of nowhere in Ireland.

MyriamC...the Dublin ring road wasn't too bad; only missed an exit once.

Same in South Africa and in the UK. No problem, just concentrate.

I agree with Yorkshire about spending 1 or 2 nights in Cordoba, and it does have a small town feel. While the Mezquita is magnificent, there is more to Cordoba than only the Mezquita, such as the gardens of the Alcazar, Roman Bridge, Juderia, Palacio de Vianos, etc. Cordoba was quieter than Seville and Granada. It was one of our favorite places on our trip. I think people who go to Cordoba as a day trip to or from Seville are shortchanging not only Cordoba but themselves.

FWIW -- and it may be very little! -- one of the things I loved most in Andalusia was walking around the historic cores of Seville, Cordoba, and Granada in the evening, when they can be particularly vibrant. I love dining late, enjoying incredible Spanish wines with delicious Spanish food, and then strolling around. I didn't find them loud or boisterous -- but I did find a very pleasant ambiance. I think you will find that Andalusia is very, very different than Emilia-Romagna.