Husband and I would like to home-base in a lovely, quaint, historical, non-touristy village in Spain away from Andalucia (been there) for 10 days from which we could take 3 or 4 interesting day trips and view some other sites, maybe 1-hour travel distance each way. No car, so would rely on public transportation. We enjoy relaxed-pace traveling and staying put to absorb a given area, as opposed to city/hotel-hopping. So far I have come up with Girona in Calatuna, but it is larger and more touristy than my ideal. Any suggestions?
Time of year?
Can you give us a better idea of the size of place you'd prefer? To me a "village" is quite small, and small places are often not convenient for taking multiple day-trips by public transportation. Girona's population is right at 100,000.
Do you already have your airline tickets? Are you arriving in Barcelona? What's your departure point from Spain?
Two initial thoughts:
If you are truly interested in staying at a "non-touristy" village (I'm thinking less than 500 people) for 10 days you are definitely going to need a car. Many of these smaller villages are not well connected via public transport and are not "master planned" so you may need to travel to the local larger town for groceries, supplies, restaurants.
Girona is a city so you could consider actually looking into smaller towns rather than a remote village as a good halfway point, that would be my recommendation. A car would still be preferable, but you could get away with public transport in a town of less than 10,000, like Tossa de Mar or Peñíscola .
Here are a few places (smaller in size but not tiny villages that I would consider if I were going to pick a smaller base): Teruel, Sigüenza, Cuenca, Cáceres, Lugo, Plasencia, Soria, Burgos, Cartagena. You said you had already been to Andalucia so is there another region in Spain that you are particularly interested in exploring?
Hi Rinnaroo,
staying in a small village without a car will present some difficulties. If you were to go to a place like Briones, you would have to have a delicate timetable just to arrive there on the first day.
I would suggest Logroño. Bigger than Soria but small that Burgos, but they are both easily visited by bus from Logroño. It is relatively easy to get there from Madrid, as there are several buses a day from the T4 at Barajas. Other cities that are an easy one to one and half hour bus ride are Pamplona, Vitoria, Bilbao.
There is also a good regional bus service which allows you to visit some of the small villages in La Rioja. There is Najera with it´s pantheon of Navarran kings, San Millan the Unesco heritage site, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Haro. The buses for Alava also stop in Logroño so it is very easy to visit Laguardia or Labastida.
Logroño also would probably be one of the non-(international) touristy places in Spain, although Calle de la Laurel is pretty well known.
Thank you all for the input. I look forward to exploring your suggestions.
To answer some questions:
Size of "village" I'm thinking of-- you all made a valid point that it can't be too small and have good public transportation. So I guess maybe 20+ to 100 K pop.
Our dates there will be 4/27-5/7, with some flexibility.
As for arrival and departure points, this is an extended and varied trip, including a both cruise and a land tour of Andalucia. We arrive Lisbon early April and depart end of May from Granada.
As far as what area we are interested in visiting, that's where the decision becomes perplexing/overwhelming. The various regions of Spain are so diverse, that I just don't know which version of "Spain" to choose! And we are in our 70's and do not want to jump all over the place, hence staying put and limiting our range.
Again, thank you!
Thank you for that extra info! I agree a town between 20k-100k will be much more practical with public transportation and many still have a "small town feel" that I think you guys are after. I would probably skip northern Spain for this time of year, but here are my recommendations for good bases of varying sizes:
Cáceres (Extremadura region) - the old town of Cáceres is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has a mix of Roman, Islamic, Gothic, and Renaissance architectural styles.
Salamanca (Castilla-León region) - larger lively university city that makes for a great base to explore the underrated Castilla y León region.
Cuenca (Castilla–La Mancha region) - cliffside town founded by the Moors, known for its unique hanging houses perched on the side of the Júcar river gorge.
Teruel (Aragon region) - located in the mountainous area of eastern Spain, known for its elaborate Mudéjar architecture, for for exploring both southern Aragon and Northern Valencia.
Besalú (Catalonia region) - smaller medieval stone town accessible by a historic bridge, has a preserved Jewish quarter with narrow streets and alleys.
Teruel is so ignored that (reportedly) the city printed T-shirts that read (in Spanish) "Teruel exists". It is a very attractive, laid-back place. It's on a rail line that runs between Zaragoza and Valencia. Unfortunately, there seem to be only 3 trains a day to Zaragoza and 2 to Valencia, and both those cities are at least 2 hr. 15 min. away. I don't know what day-trips would be practical. I can tell you that medieval Albarracin doesn't work as a day-trip because the bus to Albarracin runs in the afternoon and the bus back from Albarracin runs in the morning. Even spending the night, you don't have much time in Albarracin.