Highly recommended areas to live in

eggcup - I'm just wondering why you don't like it. 

Forgive my being droll. But I didn't say I didn't like it - it's fabulous. Unspeakably beautiful. Unspoiled. I walked the via de la Plata camino a few years ago with a couple of my teenage kids, entered Extremadura just north of Seville and exited it a month later at Banos de Montemayor. Captivated. And so decided to buy a smallholding here in one of the string of medieval villages that stretch from Madrigal to Plasencia, known as La Vera. It's magical. Funnily enough, there is a thriving real estate market for smallholdings as it's only in recent years that the roads have become good enough for madrilenos to do a weekend commute. We often struggle to find a hotel room for visitors. It's a sort of Spanish Cotswolds and loads of tourists all year round. Our typical neighbours are well heeled families from Madrid who keep horses on their smallholding and come down weekends and holidays. It's getting very difficult to obtain planning permission but can be done as long as you've got >25000 sq m and no more than 3 houses allowed in any 500m circle. So our neighbours are roughly 250m away on either side. Madrid airport's a little under 2 hours. So now you know. Keep out! lol.

Guy, you've well and truly let the cat out of the bag now, then. EXTREMADURA IS THE PLACE TO BE. Shout it from the rooftops. (I like Banyos de Montemayor, too.)