I am in the early stages of planning a 16 day visit to Spain late April. We are 2 couples and our plan is to spend a week in two different locations and do day trips from our home base at each location. Ideally we would like to stay in a small town setting that is scenic and central for day trips.
We do not plan to stay in Madrid or Barc since we have spent time there previously. We will rent a car and will take the train or possibly fly between our 2 home bases.
We enjoy beautiful scenery,food and wine and wandering around interesting villages and historical sites.
Any suggestions on location or accomodations ?
Thanks

Well if you've already done Madrid and Barcelona the obvious thing to do is Andalusia. Late April should be warm enough for swimming - so you might do one town on the coast and another up in the hills - with a catr for day trips to Seville, Granada, Crodoba, white towns etc.

We had a grand time staying in Burgos in Castile. In itself and exciting location, we visited Lerma, Covarrubias the oldest middle-ages town in Spain, the fascinating Monastery de Santo Domingo de Silos, and much more.
We found Burgos absolutely wonderful the right size, it is located in El Camino and thus has fascinating places to visit,the Kingdom of Castile was born in BUrgos, and the Cid Campeador was born there. THe Cathedral , the MOnasterio de las Huelgas, with the world famous
Museo de RIcas Telas, and the Cartuja de Miraflores recently renovated are in themselves worth visiting Burgos but there is much more in Burgos and nearby.
We stayed in 2007 and were really delighted with an excellent deal in the four stars Hotel Fermin Gonzales. Its breakfast is outstanding, location great, and on top of everything has a great daily menu top cuisine , can you believe it for 12 euros in 2007.

To be honest we left Burgos by car and visit on our way to Salamanca, many great destinations like Valladolid, Tordesillas, Toro, Aranda del Duero and Tordesillas. Sometimes we stayed in Paradores other times in nice Spanish hotels. It was a fascinating trip. Good luck.

On the other hand, we limited our explorations (which amounted to just under 3 weeks) in Spain to Basque country and Rioja (OK, 2 weeks if you delete Barcelona, which you don't need to visit again!)

We were there in September-October time frame - the other "fringe" from when you are going. It was incredible. We spent most of our time between Pamplona, Vittoria, San Sebastian (although we stayed further down the coast in Lekeitio) and Zaragosa.

It was a beautiful region with lovely towns, terrific food and wine...I'd go back again in a minute! (Even though we don't speak much other than menu Spanish -- in this region it wasn't particularly a handicap. We worked things out very well just by being open and patient.)

And -- we did it without any pre arranged reservations -- just a lot of good research on the areas, and Maribel's notes!

I would totally recommend basing in Lekeitio for three or so days to explore some beautiful country. This hotel was fabulous: http://www.hotelzubieta.com/cast/zubieta.asp

They didn't have a restaurant, but locally in town -- there were some very good choices. The grounds were beautiful, and we had a beautiful suite for under 100 Euros in 2006.

We did have a car and enjoyed driving all over the place.

OMG! How can I forget Bilbao! We actually ENJOYED BILBAO! Driving into it was real "adventure" (no guide books seem to really anticipate that people might be driving), but once there we stayed in a dumpy place in old town (which I won't recommend) but we could walk every where from there. And walking along the river to the Getty is a real beautiful trip.

firstlake:

(also UhOh_busted)

If you finally decide that one of your weeks will be in Basque country around San Sebastian and Bilbao, may I suggest not to miss El Bosque Pintado (The Painted Forest), just a few kms. north out of Gernika on the Lekeitio road...here's a "teaser" for this remarkable, rather not well known phenomenon:
(Did you get to it, Uh_oh busted?)

http://tinyurl.com/4mj9y5

Stu T.

Thanks everyone --I had not even heard of some of these wonderful places.

Wanna have an unforgettable experience? Balearic island is the best for You visit Majorca on holydas and stoy in a an historic Hotel...S'Olivaret is a very charming 4-star hotel, offering excellent value for money. A good choice if you look for a tranquil place and do not mind some distance to the beaches.

- Ca n'Ai is a piece of garden Eden, located in an orange plantation. The King of Spain stays here occasionally, and I know, he is somewhat picky with the places to stay.

- La Residencia is considered the very best hotel on Mallorca.

All these three hotels are historic and very atmospheric. I would say: Each of them is an excellent choice. And the other 29 look equally good.
www.reisdemallorca.com