Hello. My wife and I are planning to go to Spain at the end of May. We typically visit cities when we travel, and we’ve been to Sevilla and Madrid in the past, and I’ve been to Barcelona for work. (We/I loved all three.) On this trip we will meet our son and son-in-law in Madrid for three nights, and for a week or so before that we are thinking of staying in a smaller town and having a car and exploring from a home base. We'll probably get a car at the Madrid airport so would not want to drive more than 3 or 4 hours from there and ideally less. We’d very much appreciate any suggestions. We are pretty low-key travelers – we like to wander around cities and towns, do easy or moderate-level hiking and biking, eat and drink at local/casual places, and in cities visit botanical gardens, an art or historical museum or two and overall just absorb the local flavor. We like “aparthotels” or independent hotels or similar within walking distance of places to eat, and we love having a terrace or garden to sit in (if we can have it all…..). Somewhere on the coast is appealing (though not Costa del Sol), but we’re very open to inland as well.
So, if any of you have any suggestions for particular towns or areas and/or places to stay in, or good sources for accommodations (we’ve used Airbnb with decent success but I know there are other good sources), please let us know, and thanks so much in advance!