Andalucía small village driving itineraries

Here are some places I visited in 2019: Vejer de la Frontera (from Cadiz), Carmona (from Seville), Priego de Cordoba (from Granada), Grazalema (from Ronda), Ubeda and Baeza. They vary in size; some are definitely not villages.

Try using ViaMichelin for developing your route.

We enjoyed Almería. Just south of Granada is Lanjarón that is nice for a short break. If you like castles, there are Castillo de Vélez-Blanco and La Calahorra worth visiting. Pretty much anything east of Granada is seldom visited by tourists. Southwest of Sevilla en route to Huelva is El Rocio and the Doñana National Park. The area between Sevilla and Córdoba all the way south to the coast is fairly heavily touristed.

Returning to Madrid without backtracking, consider returning via Extremadura. It too is less frequented by tourists. The main cities are Mérida, Cáceres, Trujillo, and Guadalupe. If you visited eastern Andalucía then you could return via Cuenca, possibly stopping at Alarcón. There is no best route. It’s really dependent on what you decide to see.

Thanks for the replies. I still can't figure where should be my base except Ronda. Is there a point to stay several days in Marbella? ( we don't care about beaches so much).
Also is it better ( in terms of seeing old towns and villages) return to Madrid via Baeza on the East or Caceres on the West?

Just my preference, but I avoid the Costa Del Sol completely. With regard to returning to Madrid, unless you drive back roads, you won’t see any old towns. Driving on the autovías in Spain is no different than driving interstates in the states. Mérida has Roman ruins while Cáceres’ historic center is a UNESCO world heritage site. If you opted for the eastern route you could stop at Alarcón, Campo de Criptana (Don Quixote windmills) possibly Consuegra (castle and windmills), Belmonte Castle, and Chinchón. Once you have an idea of what you want to see or where you want to go, then hopefully places to use as bases might start to stand out.

For the driving itself, once you have an idea of some places you want to go, I'd use ViaMichelin.com to get proposed routes. If you zoom way in on the Michelin maps, the especially scenic roads will be highlighted in green.

Although I haven't read the book myself (I travel by train and bus, never renting a car in Europe), I feel comfortable in recommending the book "Back Roads Spain" by the Eyewitness Travel folks. You will easily be able to find an earlier edition for a low price online if you don't want to spring for the newest one.

If you go to this website: https://www.gale.com/ebooks/9780756671815/backroads-spain and click on Table of Contents, you can see a list of the drives included in the e-book version of the guide. I would guess that the basic drives don't change much from edition to edition, so that list is probably close to what you will get if you buy a used copy of an earlier edition.

I have a copy of another guide from this series, and it looks good to me for someone with a car. Everything is very car-focused, which would be an advantage for you.

I have a similar book by Frommer's "25 great drives in Spain", I just downloaded a PDF version of "back roads Spain". I think I'll return to Madrid from the East. Now I just have to figure out what towns should be my bases. I think Ronda - 3 nights, then maybe Jerez De La Fontera and eventually get to Caceres. I'm still open to any suggestions.