Base for staycation (but not in my home country)
 

Hi folks,

I am already thinking ahead (in an extremely preliminary way) to my 2024 vacation.

My essential plan is essentially to spend 3-4 weeks in Europe, probably in one spot (if I decide on four weeks, I might consider splitting it into 2 places.
Criteria that I will base my decision on include:
1. Medium to large town (a small city might be ok, if it covered all my other criteria) Mostly it should be big enough to give me a few dining options, and decent public transportation connections to nearby places of interest (I won't have a car).
2.It should have some pleasant scenery (doesn't need to be spectacular, just enough to make me want to get out and explore when I feel up to it.)
3. It shouldn't be a major tourist hub. I hope to travel in the shoulder season (restaurants/hotels still open, but mostly reduced crowds)
4. Ideally, the location should lend itself to walking opportunities. Nothing too strenuous, (a little hill climbing is fine, but nothing in the hiking camp (I am just not capable of it anymore))

Those are the big points. My initial thoughts are somewhere in Spain or Italy (I have small amount of familiarity with both languages - not remotely fluent, but I can read a menu, count to 100 etc.), but at this point I will listen to any suggestions offered.
I am thinking mid-May to mid-June, or from mid-September on - I am flexible up to a point on this, though I would prefer to avoid the worst of the summer heat.

Anyway, at this point I am just looking for suggestions that I can research over the next few weeks/months.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have. (don't fell limited to the countries I tagged - I just picked a bunch almost at random)

Glen

How about Bilbao in northern Spain?
https://tourism.euskadi.eus/en/top10...aa30-12376/en/

Mikelg is an expert who can inform you extensively about this destination.

How about Trani in Puglia. One of my favourite places. You can get there easily from the airport in Bari. It's on the main train line along the east coast so you can get to other beautiful places easily: Molfetta, Barletta, Monopoli, Polignano a Mare, Bari, Giovinazzo, Molfetta or further afield Brindisi and Lecce.
Even when you need a quiet day, just stroll to the Villa Comunale, that is the park by the sea, benches, views, places to sit and read.
​​​​https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspo...trani.html?m=1

I’ll suggest that you at least look into Zaragoza, in Spain. My one visit to Zaragoza was in 2009, and though I don’t know how much a 2000-year-old city would have changed in the last 14, if I may assume that it is still essentially the same city I visited then, you will find it a large enough city to serve as an interesting base, but not so large as to seem crowded or hectic. It offers both a nice modern area, and a quaint historic center, and many points of interest of its own, including Roman remains and Goya’s art. Several medieval towns, like Tarazona, Albarracín, and Teruel, can be reached easily.

Several other cities in Spain and Italy may meet similar criteria (except maybe the Goya art), but what may make Zaragoza uniquely suitable as a “base” is that though it is sufficiently distant from Madrid and Barcelona to avoid the tourist crowds that those cities attract (especialy Barcelona), it nonetheless allows for convenient high-speed train trips for short visits to either city.

Bilbao is a little bigger than I was hoping for, but I really like the idea of that area in Spain. I will look around and see if I can find something smaller in the area. (like maybe the small town on the border with France (Hondarribia?)

Thanks for the suggestion,
Glen

Trani looks very promising. Its size is about right, in an area of Italy I haven't been to before, and the little park you mentioned looks like a nice civilized place to go read,

It's early days yet, but it is definitely a solid candidate. :) Thanks for the suggestion.

At 600,000+ people Zaragoza seems a bit too big for what I am looking for. However, Albarracin in particular looks kind of awesome. Oh, I know, it is so small that the transportation connections are likely very limited and I might be effectively stuck in the town for most of my visit. In spite of my original post, that might not be a deal breaker.

To slightly clarify my original posting, I don't anticipate doing a lot of sightseeing. I just thought it would be nice to have a few options close by and accessible by train or bus. But if the base is sufficiently appealing, I may not care about going anywhere.

Not Italy, but we loved Aix-en-Provence.

In Italy, we happily used Pisa as a great base:

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...-pisa-1702701/

Some cities can fool like small towns. A good example of the is Krakow in which the historic core is compact but has so many magnificent features. I would say the same for Siena.

Well, instead of Bilbao you could choose Vitoria-Gasteiz, which was the European Green Capital 2012. Due to its location, Vitoria-Gasteiz is an excellent base to visit, by train or bus, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Pamplona, Burgos and the La Rioja wine region.
https://tourism.euskadi.eus/en/top10...aa30-12376/en/