Hoping for some help choosing between these two intriguing regions and for suggestions on where to "base" for a group travleing from Boston that includes 3 ~40 year olds, 2 ~67 YOs and 1 will be 4.5 YO at time of travel.
When my wife and I (40) have traveled Europe in the past we would spend 2-3 nights a place and then hop to another. With our daughter in tow we are thinking it would be best to pick a "base" for a week, relax and experience the culture while taking some day trips around the region.
Since we will have 5 adults to 1 child there will be opportunity for groups of adults to go exploring while someone stays back with our daughter. We all love nature (including the 4YO), food and wandering interesting neighborhoods. While we aren't looking for a beach vacation / resorty place there is something to be said for how much amusement a child can get with a bucket and some sand!
We plan to rent a car for daytrips and ideally would base somewhere big enough to be interesting for the adults but where we could potentially rent a larger apartment or villa with some outdoor space... so not a big city. An example of what we are thinking is one year we stayed at the bottom of Montepulciano in Tuscany, drove around the region during the day and walked the streets in the evening.
If we chose Basque Country we would target June which I realize will still be cool but my wife runs a summer camp so July / August are out. If we chose Andalucia we would target May (April?) to avoid the real heat.
Any thoughts on which region would be better suited to our needs and potential base locations are GREATLY apprecaited. Thanks in advance!