We will be driving to this area after 4 nights in Cordoba/Granada area. Can anyone suggest the best points of interest (towns, museums, palaces) and which town to stay in as best base for sightseeing this region. Is it worthwhile to drive over to Portugal from this point? We will be staying here 4 nights before moving on to visit family in Salamanca, and would consider a villa/apt. rental - any suggestions? Thank you!

Extremadura is a very large area. 4 days will test your skills in trying to see much of anything because of all the driving you'll have to do.

This is an area rich in history. The Conquistadors came from Extremadura. You may want to check out the following web sites for some additional information of the province:

http://www.turismoextremadura.com/
http://www.extremadura.com/general/

Hi;
We found Extremadura a great place to visit. You may wish to look up trip reports and rental review for an apartment in Caceres. There are a couple on this website.
If you have specific questions posters here will try to answer them.
Dennis

indeed is a large area rich in history and very good highways going into Portugal.
i will say Caceres and Merida are a must to visit, time permitting.

Thank you for the very helpful websites! and I will also check out trip report history here for places to stay/see. We are looking forward to visiting this area very much.

Trust it is not too late to add something here for timely use. Extremadura is my favorite region of Spain! - and Trujillo is my favorite town. It has a very walkable old city center, a marvelous plaza from where you can continue walking up to the castle and from there gaze 360 o upon the plains of Spain.
And, a little to the East, 45 minute drive, is the monestary of Guadalupe. If time permits, stay overnight in the monestary itself and have your midday meal there. then of a course there is the attached cathedral and gallery to visit, filled with great paintings.
If you continue on to Portugal, there or back, try to stop in the town of Olivenza ( south of Badajoz) See the tiled interior of both churches, eat at any restaurant in the lovely central plaza and stop in a bakery (pasteleria) to try the towns speciality, tecala mecala.
There is so much more but these are my personal favorites that I did not see mentioned above, so far.
Kathyk

KathyK - thank you! We are still planning our itinerary for this area and appreciate your suggestions. In the meantime, I have made a reservation for us at the Merida Parador to use as a base for exploration. Thank you again for your response!

I agree with kathyk on the Trujillo recommendation - a gem of a town. Nobody seems to have mentioned Zafra - equally as enchanting.
Beware - it is a huge province and the roads/infrastructure are not as good as other areas of Spain as yet, it takes much longer than you envisage to get from A to B - use www.mappy.com to discover distances and times which are deceptive - would suggest basing yourselves in two or three towns rather than one.

It certainly is a wonderful taste of "the Real Spain" and joyously undiscovered except for Merida and Caceres which are becomong quite touristy.

Michael