kdoughboy

Thank you all for your helpful and informative replies! At this point we've decided to go to Granada instead of Valencia, so our trip will definitely be changing somewhat.

We're also reconsidering whether we should go to Mallorca or perhaps find a nice beach city on the Costa del Sol. We talked about things in further detail and decided that we'd really prefer not to rent a car, which seems like something you kind of need in order to fully take advantage of everything Mallorca has to offer. What we'd really like for that part of our vacation is a beach-front hotel (or a hotel with a shuttle to its own beach club) that is very close (~10 minutes on foot) to a town that has some history, nice architecture, lots of restaurants and bars, and a fun, lively buzz without being a straight-up "party" destination. If we can get that on Mallorca, then we could live with not seeing more of the island and we'd still be able to get the "exotic" island feel, even if we may be fooling ourselves a bit. If there are better places on the mainland, then we're open to those suggestions as well. It seems like Málaga, Almería, and Marbella are good options on the Mediterranean side, and maybe Cádiz on the Atlantic side--although we'd really prefer to be on the Med, and we're definitely open to smaller/more obscure towns as long as they match what we're looking for. Any recommendations for places on Mallorca (still our first choice) or the Andalusian coast are greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your help!