Spend a week in a small town or village in Southern Spain

I’m not certain what “southern Spain” means to you. It could be everything south of Madrid or simply the coastal areas. It would also help to know what you’d like to do and see when referring to local sightseeing; visit castles, monasteries, visit bodegas, beaches, hiking, etc. Is your preference a large city, town, village, touristy location or a location that seldom sees a tourist. If you intend on using public transportation select a town or city that has regular train or bus service. Many smaller towns and villages no longer have train stations and sporadic bus service. Also many really small towns in the interior are dying out and have few stores and restaurants.

Only going by your basic question, Albacete, Alicante, Baeza, Córdoba, Carmona, Cáceres would all work, but there are dozens of other more popular places like Cádiz, Sevilla, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, or Ronda.

My favorite city in Spain is Seville, it is not a small town, but of moderate size. Granada is great as well.

I am not a huge fan of Costa del Sol, but Rhonda is worth a visit.

If you won't have a vehicle, then consider staying in a city near a train station.

What do you mean by small town village, how small we talking about here?

Many of these places are not well connected to public transportation, will you have a car at your disposal? It'll make local day trips so much more easier.

I also agree about the above question where in southern Spain are you going to? Could be Extremadura, Andalucia, Murcia, Valencia, even parts of Castilla.

Public transportation tends to fan out from large cities. If a small town has bus or train service, it may be linked only to the nearest large city, plus perhaps some equally small towns. Bus service in particular can be rather slow and infrequent. This can matter a lot since there may not be enough sightseeing options in a small town--much less a village--to keep you busy for more than a few hours.

I have a feeling you may be planning to rent a car, though. Am I right?

Hi from Wisconsin,
Here are places you haven't heard of before, Baeza, Jaen, or Ubeda. These are small with Historic centers. I would select Baeza just because of the Cafe Teatro Central. Cordoba and Grenada are not too distant from these places. Go ahead Google Cafe Teatro Central Baeza.

Maybe Cordoba, which is a much larger place than any of the three above. It feels like a small place. Big enough to have plenty of food options.

wayne iNWI

For a week in Andalusia I would choose either Seville or Malaga. Both cities have sights to see and both are within “easy” day trips to a wide variety of places. And both easily connect via train to Madrid if that matters or both have international airports.