I will be going to Spain in May. Can you suggest any villages/towns that are off the beaten path which you enjoyed. We are planning on hitting the main cities as well, but would like a feel for small town spain as well. Thanks

Bubion and surrounding villages in the Alpujarras are nice. We just returned from 11 days there. Very easy to drive there from Granada or there is bus service also.

I liked Palencia - the cathedral purports to be where El Cid was married.

nanoose,<BR>There are so many charming, less traveled towns all over, dozens and dozens-it really depends on your itinerary, what areas of Spain you'll be visiting. If you could give us your rough itinerary, we can give you many suggestions to fit it. <BR>But here are two off the beaten path delights not far from Madrid:<BR><BR>Pedraza<BR>in the Segovia province, is one of Spain's very most charming, atmospheric, highly photographed, perfectly preserved medieval villages. It's just oozes charm, a real wow! You can reach it by car in 1 1/2 hrs. from Madrid, and it's a favorite Sat./Sun destination for city folks. Makes a nice extension to a Segovia/La Granja visit.<BR><BR>Chinch&oacute;n, <BR>southeast of Madrid, is another highly atmospheric little place (where Spain's anisette liqueur is made) with an oddly shaped, 3 tiered balonied and often photographed Plaza Mayor, where bullfights are still held in the summer (as they are in Sept. in Pedraza's main square). Chinch&oacute;n is less than 1 hr. from Madrid and can be reached by car or,,<BR> by &quot;La Veloz&quot; green bus #337 (it might say “Valdelaguna” on the front) from Avenida del Mediterr&aacute;neo 49. (Coming out of metro stop Conde de Casal on grey circular line #6, they're the busses on left side of avenue)<BR>Leaves every hr. on the hr. Mon-Sat, every 1 1/2 hrs. on Sun. Takes 40 min.

We visited two towns in the region of Extremadura: Caceres and Trujillo. Caceres is a bigger city with a walled old town and Trujillo was a smaller town (also quite old). We liked both places a lot and felt the accomodations and food were good value. Almost no tourists in any of these two. Extremadura is probably the least visited region of Spain. There's also the town of Guadalupe, which we didn't make it to.<BR><BR>It was quite a chock when we reached Sevill after Extremadura. While I loved Sevilla, hearing English everywhere was no fun.

I wish I would have spelled -checked, it's 'shocked' not 'chocked'

We stayed at Casa de Carmona in Carmona outside of Seville. It was low key and the hilltop town was charming. We also liked the hilltop parador in Jaen. Interesting fortress to explore surrounded by gorgeous countryside. Both of these towns are touristed, but not heavily so. You can explore these towns and easily find your own paths away from tourists (other than yourself of course). Antequerra was really nice, and really hardly a tourist there (when we went anyway). That's where Madonna stayed while she was filming her &quot;Take a Bow&quot; video in Ronda; she needed to escape the tourists and fans, so she stayed in Antequerra.

So far the itinerary includes madrid, barcelona, seville &amp; granada.

Go to Arcos de la Frontera. Beautiful &quot;white city&quot; outside of Jerez.

If you like the beach, there are dozens of darling little fisherman towns on the coast of Galicia.

Other ideas <BR><BR>From Sevilla:<BR>the Baroque mansion and monument filled town of Osuna (on the road from Seville to Antequera).<BR>The town of Aracena and the Sierra de Aracena, north of Seville<BR><BR>From Barcelona:<BR>Two cities not always visited-Tarragona (for its Roman ruins) and Girona (for its colorful houses on the river and its atmospheric medieval Jewish quarter, the Call, plus the cathedral) You can easily do these by train.<BR>Further afield: the wonderful medieval towns of Rupit, Besalu and Santa Pau in and around the extinct volcanic regional of La Garrotxa.<BR><BR>From Granada:<BR>the blindingly white, Moorish hill town/artists' colony of Frigiliana on the way to Nerja. Go now while it's still *relatively* unspoiled.<BR><BR>From Madrid:<BR>the beautiful drive, great on a wkd., into the Guadarrama mountains, between the ski resort of Navacerrada and the Monastery of Santa Maria del Paular at Rascafria. <BR><BR><BR><BR>

Here's one you probably won't hear about: Sanlucar de Barrameda. About an hour SW of Sevilla on the Guadaqilvir and the ocean. virtually no tourists but the best thing is the daily auction of the seafood at the fishing village of Bonanza just about 5miles north of Sanlucar. Every day between 3and 5 in the pm you have about 25 boats returning from the sea, total length of the boats is probably 800-900 feet. They are all trying to get berthed on a dock about 150 ft long. Much ramming, cussing, and shoving. We are talking about money! When they get to the dock, they offload their catch, [fish, lobster, shrimp, octopi, etc] and put it in a warehouse in open flats. The catch is then auctioned off &quot;tobacco style&quot; to seafood houses and restaurants. I have been just about everywhere in Spain and this is hands down the most interesting, intense event I have seen anywhere wexcept the bulls in Pamplona.

The best of Spain is on the beaten path: the beaten path being el Camino Franc&eacute;s (The Camino de Santiago) in the north and, in the south, the Romeria de la Virgen del Rocio that ends at the Santuario de la Virgen del Rocio in Huelva province (which will take placwe the first week of June this year).<BR> <BR>lweber: They have the same type auction in Campello (Alicante) and in Santander (Cantabria) in the Barrio Pesquero. Some of those fish (rap&eacute;, for example) are ugly &amp; frightening (but very tasty). <BR><BR>Never talk about Sanlucar de Barrameda without mentioning the Manzanilla or the Do&ntilde;ana National Wildlife Refuge just across the rio Guadalquivir. <BR><BR>

Did Donana. I was a bit disappointed but I think it is very &quot;season-dependent&quot; i.e., if you hit it during migrations, it is great. If you miss migrations it is less great. Fun trip across the river in an old wooden boat powered by a Evinrude 50.<BR><BR>I have attended the auctions in other cities but none measures up to Bananza. IMHO&gt;

We have travelled to Spain many times, but our most memorable was the time we drove north, thru Galicia, Austuria, and thru the Basque country. Stayed in a little town north of Madrid called Lion, had a medieval castle that no one seemed to know much about, it was a charming town...helps to know a bit of spanish.

See response 16 at Just Returned From Southern Spain

How long a trip are you planning? Madrid, Barcelona, Granada and Sevilla are all places with lots to see and do and are really not off the beaten path. Are you driving in-between these places or looking for daytrips from these bigger cities?<BR><BR>What is your planned timeframe in the cities as well as in-between? That will help some of us to give you more information!<BR><BR>Maria

We enjoyed our driving trip from Granada, to Cordoba, Seville, Ronda and Costa del Sol. A couple of the charming small towns we stayed in were Ubeda (N. of Granada) and Carmona (outside of Seville). We stayed in these places because they had Paradors located there. Many of the Paradors are in small towns rich in history. I suggest you check out their website and do some research (can't remember the address but you can access thru paradors/Spain search). I only wish we had more time to explore the Jerez area to do some sherry tasting!

Message: We are spending 2 weeks in Spain. We will spend on average 2 days per city. We are undecided on train vs. bus travel, but we will not be driving, so I am not sure if it will be difficult to get to off the beaten path type of places. I was hoping to do some of them as day type trips from the bigger cities - assuming there are busses going to the smaller areas.

I highly recommend a car (a compact, of course)if you truly want to see some of the smaller towns. Take train long distances, but most of the time you can rent a car at the train station. We took at train from Madrid to Sevilla, then after touring Sevilla for 3 days without a car, we rented a car at Santa Justa station and drove to Rota and Puerto Santa Maria. It was a great drive.