julies

We've got 15 nights in the second half of May and are flying in and out of Barcelona. I am thinking of 4 nights in Barcelona, and then we want to spend some time in the rural areas perhaps with an agrotourism type accomodation. We don't want to go to the beach and are thinking about the more mountainous areas. We do not want to move around all the time, but are happy to do some initial driving (perhaps eventually 5 or 6 hours from Barcelona) to get to a few good places. We have become much happier renting gites or cottages or whatever they are called in Spain. Ideally we'd like to find perhaps two different self-catering bases from which we can operate. We'd like to have locations where there are interesting day trips, interesting small towns, perhaps some local festivals, interesting markets and active outdoor things to do. While we want to do some hiking we are more interested in an area where we could do some circle loops and where the villages are quite close together. We'd be interested in some day biking trips if the area is amenable and if there are rental places around, but my guess is that this area is probably too hilly. We'd like a mix of scenery and real rural Spain with its small villages rather than touristy Spain and resorts. We are not looking for a true nothing but wildlife type area because if wanted that we'd go to the western mountains in the US; we want to know that we are in Spain. We are middle-aged and more downscale than upscale. We like small family run inexpensive places that are not at all fancy. Do you have any ideas for locations, places to stay (or how to track some down), or general areas? And what would these areas be called if I want to look for guidebooks? Most of the northern Spain guidebooks that I've come across seem to focus more on the east near Asturias. Thanks much.

lincasanova

www.toprural.com
pazos de galicia.. google search
casas rurales...search

vizcaya (bilbao, etc)
asturias (gijon/oviedo)
cataluña (barcelona inland and coastline)

navarra (pamplona area and more)

winnie

Look into a rural seaside house/B&B near Santander called La Posada Morena. It might suit you. We plan on staying there later in the summer.
AVA

julies

Thanks for the replies; I'm looking into all of them (lots of hours at the computer and with the books). Any more thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I am becoming more confused all the time.

ezlivin

There are some very nice small towns on both sides of the Spanish-French border in the Pyrenees. We did daytrips from Barcelona and enjoyed Puigcerda, La Seu d'Urgell, Ripoll, Llivia and a few others in the area. Beautiful views of the valleys and mountains in the Pyrenees and very nice quaint towns with friendly people and some very good eating establishments and markets (especially in Puigcerda).

Driving is a must if you want to enjoy and base yourselves in these these towns.

julies

I'm trying this again since I hope more people might be looking at the board during the week. One place I am thinking about is in the Tremp Valley northwest of Barcelona in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Do you know anything about this area? Have you any other thoughts for good areas? Should we go all the way to the Basque area or should we stick closer to Barcelona?