Costa de Luz. See history in Cadiz and enjoy the Sherry Triangle. Best beach in Spain in Zahara.

I recommend:
- Catalonia area: Barcelona is a must and it has a lot of travel options: visit Costa Brava (beaches and amazing towns), Girona (nice old town), Tarragona (with Roman ruins), and a lot of towns (Besalú, Pals, Sitges...) and other places and natural spaces (Pyrenees mountains are at 1,5-2h driving). In september and october you'll find good weather and less tourists than in mid summer.
- Euskadi (Basque country): Bilbao or Donosti (San Sebastian) are both good places to visit, stay some days and make short trips to discover this green area. Provably the best destination if you like to enjoy a good gastronomy.
- Andalucia: Seville is another nice city and a good operations center to visit Andalucia. From there you can visit Cadiz, Cordoba, Málaga and Granada (1-3h driving). This is a very hot part of Spain, so expect high temperatures even if it's autumn.

Note that there are a good public transport in this areas, specially the cities with AVE (high speed train), so you can do some visits without a car.

Madrid for me is not a must, is an overrated city, but it's just my opinion. Much better other Castillian cities like Salamanca, Segovia, Toledo or Ávila, but Madrid has two great museums (Prado & Reina Sofia) and a great night live.
Other interesting area is Galicia, green moutains and beautiful beaches with a good gastronomy with the best seafood in the world.

Mike you are giving away our secret!!!!!

I will be back in March..more later....x

Madrid
San Sebastian
Sevilla

How much time in each base?

Full agree with ekscrunchy:
Madrid https://www.spain.info/en/destination/madrid/
San Sebastián https://www.spain.info/en/destinatio...san-sebastian/
Sevilla https://www.spain.info/en/destination/seville/

I have not been to northern Spain (Basque - Galicia), but I loved Barcelona & environs, Madrid and Andalusia. Easily 3-4 weeks can be spent just in these places. Barcelona is such a fun place, not to mention the Dali museum, Monserrat, the beach, etc. Madrid is simply wonderful - just get a base near bars and great tapas joints and enjoy! And Andalusia is perfect (and warm), enjoy Seville, Granada & Cordoba and all the little asides each offer.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed information. I am taking it all on board and will let you know what decisions we made and experiences we had. There seems to be a lot of commonality in many replies so that helps narrow things down. Thanks again and happy travels.