We just did London/Mallorca/Barcelona earlier this summer with our kids who were 6 & 9 when we went.

We enjoyed sandwiching a beach week alongside two city stints. Our kids are similar in that they like to do activities vs visit a museum. We failed to get advance tickets for the sagrada familia which meant the only option left was a private tour guide. This worked out in our favor though-the guide engaged the kids and pointed out things that matched their interests and my 9 year old came away saying it was one of his favorite things that we did.

Mallorca was absolutely lovely and walkable from where we stayed in Cala d’Or. We hired a boat for a day and it was everyone’s favorite day of our vacation! The captain took us around the island and made paella on board for us and was wonderful.

We had debated staying along the costa brava but when we were planning our trip there were rumors that if water shortages persisted in Catalonia then pools wouldn’t be filled etc, so, we evaluated alternate Spanish locations with better percentages in their reservoirs and landed on Mallorca.

Also in big tourist cities you can eat any timw of day, just maybe not at the fancy places . In San Sebastian you want the pinchos (tapas) anyhow which are served earlier. But this is not for a picky eater and 4-5 days is way too much for a gamily that you describe. Also dont forget its bloody hot there in summer!

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been to Spain multiple times, including with kids.

I’d do Barcelona (3-4 days) and then down to Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, and Mallaga. Southern Spain is incredible. You could stay in 1-2 places and do day trips or bounce around.

Madrid is nice but Barcelona is better in my opinion.

I would not spend 4-5 days in San Sebastian. There isn’t enough there. If you do go up there, the art museum in Bilbao has an amazing kids search activity pack. My kids LOVED it.

+1 this is good advice.

PP above.

And on the late dinners in Europe, we always just adjust our body clocks to it. We go to bed around 11-12p and just sleep until 9am.

We’ve been to Spain multiple times, including with kids.

I’d do Barcelona (3-4 days) and then down to Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, and Mallaga. Southern Spain is incredible. You could stay in 1-2 places and do day trips or bounce around.

Madrid is nice but Barcelona is better in my opinion.

I would not spend 4-5 days in San Sebastian. There isn’t enough there. If you do go up there, the art museum in Bilbao has an amazing kids search activity pack. My kids LOVED it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just did Spain with a ten year old. We flew into Madrid, drove up to the north coast and explored there for a few days, then over to San Sebastian. She absolutely loved it, including the food. The late dinner time actually worked out perfectly because Spain is 6 hours ahead - she went to bed late and slept in late. We generally ate lunch in with grocery items.

Thanks! Do you think San Sebastián would be as enjoyable for us if we have zero interest in the food? (By “us” I mean “my kids” who will not try anything unfamiliar and we will be looking for chicken fingers and fries, pizza, and eating most meals at picnics with grocery store items) I don’t think we would spend any time at all enjoying the amazing food options there because it would just be too stressful for my kids and, by extension, me.

My daughter loved the beaches (and that you could walk to them) and walking around Old Town among the crowds and stopping at random places to stand and eat. If you aren't going to do pintxos though, it might not be worth it; you may want to do the more beach focused trip as you said, like the beautiful Costa Brava (note that the SS beaches are very urban in feel IMO).

Anonymous wrote:We just did Spain with a ten year old. We flew into Madrid, drove up to the north coast and explored there for a few days, then over to San Sebastian. She absolutely loved it, including the food. The late dinner time actually worked out perfectly because Spain is 6 hours ahead - she went to bed late and slept in late. We generally ate lunch in with grocery items.

Thanks! Do you think San Sebastián would be as enjoyable for us if we have zero interest in the food? (By “us” I mean “my kids” who will not try anything unfamiliar and we will be looking for chicken fingers and fries, pizza, and eating most meals at picnics with grocery store items) I don’t think we would spend any time at all enjoying the amazing food options there because it would just be too stressful for my kids and, by extension, me.

Anonymous wrote:We traveled a ton with our kids in Spain (we were posted in Europe when they were small - basically ranging from ages 2-8). Our most favorite spot was Malaga. A super charming city on the beach, an hour from the Alhambra. Really can't speak highly enough about our experience there!

We also had great visits to Barcelona and Madrid with the kids.

Oh good to know, thanks! Does malaga tend to be overrun with drunk Brits? Looking for a sleepier vibe than, say, Lisbon was (gorgeous little city, filled with drunk Brits when we went in June)

We just did Spain with a ten year old. We flew into Madrid, drove up to the north coast and explored there for a few days, then over to San Sebastian. She absolutely loved it, including the food. The late dinner time actually worked out perfectly because Spain is 6 hours ahead - she went to bed late and slept in late. We generally ate lunch in with grocery items.

Not Madrid for 4-5 days... southern Spain is more interesting

We traveled a ton with our kids in Spain (we were posted in Europe when they were small - basically ranging from ages 2-8). Our most favorite spot was Malaga. A super charming city on the beach, an hour from the Alhambra. Really can't speak highly enough about our experience there!

We also had great visits to Barcelona and Madrid with the kids.

We did San Sebastian and Barcelona with a 6 year old who was an early riser. Plenty to do. But the biggest issue is that dinner isn't served until at least 9. I would do France or even Portugal over Spain for young children. We were all so tired.

Anyone have any reviews or itineraries from a trip to Spain this summer (or recently)? Planning next summers trip! Kids will be 6.5 and 10.

Ideas: fly into Barcelona, do 10-14 days along the coast/ costa Brava/ consider going into France and flying home from there. But we only want 1-2 home base spots in total, we don’t like to switch hotels every 2 nights. So this might be tricky.

Or: fly into Madrid, spend 5-6 days in Madrid and then 5-6 days in San Sebastián.

Anyone do a trip like this, or a different trip to Spain with elementary kids they could review for me?

In case its relevant, my kids are both terrible eaters and both prefer “doing” as opposed to “seeing” so we won’t be frequenting a lot of the art galleries that I know are popular. We would also like to avoid crowds and lines. We do not need to hit up the “must see” places in Rick Steve’s guidebooks for example.