Canyamel
Cap Vermell Grand Hotel
A five-star resort of 142 rooms built like a Mallorcan village in the Canyamel valley, home to the two-Michelin-star VORO.
Spain guide
Family trips to Spain
Days planned around who is travelling, from small children to grandparents, at a pace the whole family can keep.
By Ramin Jafari · Facts checked
For a family trip to Spain we would choose Mallorca for the sea and a villa, Barcelona for Gaudí and the beach, Andalusia for the Alhambra and the horses of Jerez, San Sebastián for its beaches and its food, or Madrid for the palace and the towns around it, and plan each day around the children: one great sight in the morning, something they will love in the afternoon, and short drives between. We say plainly when a hotel is adults only, and arrange guides who tell the story to children as well as adults.
At a glance
- Where to go
- Mallorca, Barcelona, Andalusia, San Sebastián and Madrid
- Best seasons
- April to June and September to October; summer by the sea
- Our itinerary
- The Spanish Family Adventure: eleven days, Barcelona to Marbella
- Kids' clubs
- Belmond La Residencia and Cap Vermell on Mallorca; Hotel Arts
How we plan
How we plan a family trip
Every family trip is private and planned around you: no group, no fixed timetable, the pace set by the youngest and the oldest. We choose hotels with room to spread out, or a villa or a finca with a pool, and say plainly when a hotel is adults only. The days mix the great sights, with guides who know how to tell them to children, with things to do with your hands, a cooking class, a flamenco class, a potter’s wheel, and with time outdoors, at sea or on a walk in one of Spain’s national parks.
Travelling as a couple? See our honeymoon trips to Spain.
Where to go
Five places for a family
Each with what we arrange there for children and the adults with them.
The Balearic Islands
Mallorca
A private villa, a day on a boat with stops to swim, picnics on the beach and a cooking class planned around the children. Belmond La Residencia and Cap Vermell Grand Hotel have children’s clubs; Cap Rocat’s restaurants take children only over fifteen, and Castillo Hotel Son Vida is adults only.
Catalonia
Casa Batlló, Barcelona Barcelona
Gaudí’s buildings with a guide who knows how to show them to children, the beach at the end of the street, a bike ride with a guide through the Ciutadella park and along the seafront, with child seats and smaller bikes, and a cooking class the family can share. We keep the days short and the walks shorter.
Granada, Seville and Córdoba
Andalusia
The Alhambra in Granada with a guide who tells its stories, a ceramics workshop in Triana in Seville, the forest of columns in the Mezquita of Córdoba, a silversmith’s bench to learn the city’s filigree and a ride through the olive groves outside it, on horses used to children; the horses of Jerez and the caves at Nerja, with the beaches close by. In summer we keep the cities to the mornings and evenings.
The Bay of Biscay
San Sebastián and the Basque Country
Ondarreta beach, with a playground on the sand; the Aquarium, with a tunnel through its tanks; the funicular up Monte Igeldo to its old funfair above the bay; and a pintxo route or a cooking class planned around the children. More of the Basque Country.
And the towns around it
Madrid
The Royal Palace with a guide who makes the visit a game for children, chocolate con churros at San Ginés, by the Puerta del Sol, which has served it since 1894, a morning in the Retiro, whose open-air puppet theatre the city runs for small children, and a day out to Toledo on its rock or to Segovia and its Roman aqueduct.
Things to do
Things to do together
Each on request and subject to availability.
- A day on a sailing boat off Mallorca, with stops to swim.
- Dolphins off Marbella, on a private boat from Puerto Banús with a skipper authorised to watch them; they are wild, so never certain.
- A flamenco class in Seville, the dance or the rhythm of the cajón and the clapping, for all ages; and for the parents, an evening of private flamenco.
- An architecture walk in Córdoba or Barcelona with a guide who tells the story to children: our private architecture and cultural tours.
- Zip lines and kayaks on the Costa Brava: a morning in a treetop adventure park in the pines, with circuits graded for younger children, and the coves by kayak with a guide, in Catalonia.
- Stargazing with a guide in Teide National Park on Tenerife, near the observatory that has stood at Izaña since 1964; see the Canary Islands.
- Markets and cooking classes for the whole family: our culinary and wine tours.
Beyond the five, four more places that suit a family: Valencia, for the City of Arts and Sciences in the old bed of the Turia, the Oceanogràfic and the city’s beaches; Tenerife, all year, for calm beaches in the south, the cable car up Teide and boats out to the whales and dolphins; La Rioja, for older children and teenagers, for the countryside, the table and the castles: Cornago’s restored fortress, with a tower to climb, and the clifftop ruins of Clavijo, where legend sets Saint James at the battle; and Granada, for the Alhambra, with the Sierra Nevada at its door. Any of them can join a longer journey.
Where to stay
Where to stay with children
A hotel with suites big enough for a family, a villa or a finca with a pool in the countryside, or a house by the sea: we choose for privacy, room and where it sits, and three of the hotels we recommend have something for children of their own.
Deià
Belmond La Residencia
Twin 16th- and 17th-century manor houses on a Deià hillside, with 67 rooms, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools and an art gallery.
Barceloneta
Hotel Arts
A Gran luxe tower on the beachfront by the Port Olímpic, with rooms over the sea or the city and two outdoor pools in its gardens.
Across the country: our luxury hotels in Spain.
Our itinerary
Eleven days for a family
Our Spanish Family Adventure, a starting point we shape around your family.
Barcelona first, for Gaudí, with a guide who makes Park Güell and the Sagrada Família a game for the children, a mosaic workshop, a chocolate workshop and a sail at dusk; then Seville, by bike through the Plaza de España and the María Luisa park, a day out among the horses of Jerez, and a flamenco show with a class for the children first; Granada, for the Alhambra with a storytelling guide and a tile-painting workshop; and the last days by the sea at Marbella, snorkelling and cooking with a local chef. We arrange the hotels, the guides and every journey between them.
When to go, region by region: our best time to visit Spain.
Spanish Family Adventure
from $9,400 per person
Spain guides for families
- The most beautiful coastal towns in Spain
Coastal towns from the Costa Brava to Asturias, and the best beach at each.
- Spain's national parks
The national parks, from the Picos de Europa to the volcanoes of the Canaries.
- 12 treasures of Spain
Twelve places to see once in a lifetime, from the Alhambra to Teide.
Across Spain: our luxury travel guide to Spain; and all our Spain guides.
Plan your Spain trip
Tell us your dates and who is travelling. Everything else we can work out together.
Plan your Spain trip Our Spain page
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