I'm trying to plan a vacation to Spain, I don't know where to go or where to stay I just know that I want to vacation in the south of Spain near the Sea. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best locations, best hotels, etc.

Thank you kindly.

I have spent some time in Madrid, so would have some suggestions there, but as for the south of Spain, I would try posting on www.madridman.com
it focuses a lot on Madrid, but you will find folks there who know a lot about Spain in general.

Best of luck, I am envious...Spain is great.

We stayed in the Malaga area in October of 2003. It was wonderful. I will look up the small city on the sea, but there are several just west of Malaga. We flew into Madrid and then trained to Malaga.
The reason that I liked the Malaga area is that we were just a couple hour drive to many things including the Alhambra, Sevilla (which is a great city), and Gibralter.
The city we stayed at (I will look up the name later) has a large British population, so many spoke English.
Spain is great. Wine is wonderful, the place is inexpensive compared to most of Europe.
Let me know if you have specific questions.
I will look up some stuff and post more later.

Abeka80- I just got back from studying in Madrid for a semester, feel free to drop me a private message and I will be happy to offer you some more detailed advice depending on what you want to see.

Madrid is home to the Prado, need I say more.
Basque country is gorgous and home to some amazing sites. The south has amazing sites including the Alhambra.

So many good places to go, you probably can't go wrong.

Some suggestions of my favorite places in Spain:
1) Seville
2) Barcelona
3) Granada
4) Madrid

For some more information, you can go to http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations and look at Spain, which will have some good info for top destinations.

(Edited to add: Just saw that you said 'by the sea', but I'll leave my comments above intact in case you have time to venture away from the sea. Good luck! Oh, if you are in the south of Spain, you'll likely encounter the Andalucian accent, which may take a while to get used to.)

I would suggest Cadiz. If you want "good" hotels, go elsewhere. I get the sense that you are British...there are no brits in Cadiz...but if that is what you are looking for this place has the best beaches and the best atmosphere.

Madrid's an obvious. You should take a day trip at least to Toledo. I don't love Barcelona, but many people do. The Alhambra in Grenada is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I stayed in Marbella some years ago and enjoyed it, but I think it's quite built up now. I would also suggest a short visit to Bilbao--the Guggenheim is amazing. From there you could go to San Sebastian.

I only have one recommendation and that's to stay away from the main resorts. They're crowded and totally skewed to bilking the tourist out of as much money as possible and have very little in the way of culture or charm. If you go 5 to 10 miles inland from any of the main resorts though and you'll find the real Spain (and zero holidaymakers) but still have the beaches accessible, I would recommend looking at Andalucia as it is a good value for money destination, Malaga airport is fine with plenty of flights and the city of Malaga is a decent place too with all the amenities and good hotels.

As someone else recommended, a day trip to the Alhambra Palace in Granada is a must if you're in that region. As is a tipple of sherry which is made in Jerez

I second Bilbao and the Guggenheim, the building alone is worth a visit to northern Spain. I was also in San Sebastian and did not particularly enjoy it, I can't tell you why I just didn't. If you are spending time in northern Spain check out Santillana del Mar. It is one of Europe's prettiest medivial villages and within walking distance of the Altamaria Caves. These caves are home to some of the best cave art in Europe, although the actual caves only allow 20 visitors a day there is a vistor center that is houses an exact replica of the caves and is well worth the visit, as are the vistas from the drive/walk between the town and the caves. The town is reached by bus from Santander. I have a great hotel in Santillana that I recomend with no hesitation Casa del Organista http://www.casadelorganista.com/.