Post transatlantic cruise - 1 wk - where to?

Because of your love of the outdoors, and if your budget allows, I would suggest Switzerland. It's expensive but oh so worth it and I think the kids would love it.

Day
1. Disembark in Barcelona (3N)
2-3. Barcelona
4. Train to Madrid (4N)
5. Madrid
6. Toledo
7. Segovia
8. Depart Madrid

Visit Sevilla from Cadiz, and Granada for the Alhambra from Malaga.

It won't be peak season anywhere in Europe in May, although many countries have a Bank Holiday at the end of the month, so flight prices will be higher and accommodation booked around this time.

To be close to farms, you will probably have to hire a car in most places.

The Asturias area of northern Spain and the Picos would offer some great scenery and hiking, very different from the other parts of Spain that you are covering, although you are going to see very little if on a cruise.

Alternatively, fly from Barcelona to Dubrovnik in Croatia and spend time there and in Split for great scenery and visit some of the islands such as Korcula as a day trip. Great food and good value.

Alternatively, fly to Glasgow or Edinburgh and visit the Scottish Highlands.

Or the Azores.

I'd spend a two nights in Barcelona and then take the train into France: Provence, or the Languedoc/Toulouse, or even as far as the Dordogne (but you'd need to rent a car somewhere for this region). We stayed on a very reasonably priced farm with our meals included near Les Eyzies and found a lot of good hiking, prehistoric caves, excellent food. You can start your trip home from Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux or Lyon airports depending on where you go in southern France.

We have done two transatlantic cruises (out of 16 total) in the past seven years. They are relatively inexpensive and you save on airfare. You should join your roll call on cruise critic to get information about activities organized by other passengers.

Since your cruise ends in Barcelona, I concur with the suggestion of taking the high speed train to Madrid and enjoy that city as well as Toledo and Segovia. Spend a little time in Barcelona as well. Your other option is to head to southern France and go either to Provence or other areas of France.

We did a very similar Transatlantic last April. You will love it. I'm guessing you haven't bought airfare yet, but figure you know that the one way fares offered through ChoiceAir, or whatever your cruise line calls their airfare program, are generally very good and you can choose from almost anywhere in Europe. It made decision making very difficult! After changing our minds hundreds of times, we decided to spend two weeks in Spain after our cruise.

As far as your port days, this is what we did in each;

Azores: We booked a day tour with Gary Travassos. It was excellent and highly recommended. Book him early though.
Lisbon: We did the RS Three-neighbourhoods Walk. We got off the ship pretty much right at 7am and took a (4 euro) taxi to the castle, and worked our way back. We had ample time to complete the Walk, have a nice lunch and even some shopping. An excellent day.
Cadiz: We joined a tour arranged by someone on our Cruise Critic Roll Call to Sevilla. It was a long day, but overall I was glad to have done it.
Malaga: We booked the Walk and Taste tour with We Love Malaga. It was a highlight of our tour. I really recommend this. The tour notes that it only includes samples, but we found it more than enough. In fact, we were given so much we had a picnic in a park before returning to the ship. It was a top notch day.

(our other port was Alicante before disembarkation in Barcelona).

I am assuming since you are a seasoned cruiser you participate at Cruise Critic. There is some great information over there, but I would only say that if you consider yourself to be an "RS" style traveler in Europe you won't find too many like souls on that Board. I joined a number of activities through the Roll Call with varying degrees of success: The Slot Pull and the Cabin Crawl were great fun. The Meet and Greet party was a total b*tchfest (full of people who have taken way too many cruises and don't enjoy them anymore - and just complain), and the Book Club stunk (and I was elected to be the facilitator! --but you can't control who joins in, can you).

I think Bets's suggestion of the Dordogne would be a great choice for a family.

My first question is where can you fly home from? You are looking at one-way tickets, which can be pricey and your options to wherever you live may be limited. Prague and Budapest could be great, but you may be hard-pressed to find good options home from either of those cities. Italy, Germany, Paris, Amsterdam . . . those may end up being more viable options.

One way fares booked through the cruise line are very affordable. We had choice of every major European airport and most of the smaller ones too. They ranged from $350 CAD from Paris and Budapest to about $600. We ended up booking Madrid for $509 CAD. But if we bought it when our gut said to it would have been $460 CAD.

Do check with your cruiseline....air purchased through them, including home to port and Europe to home, can be very reasonable. We have done this a few times and pay around $650 RT....a bargain in my book. Also, the insurance we bought for the cruise covered us while on land up until we boarded the flight home, also a plus. This was on Holland America.

If you want to see more of Spain you have been given very good ideas above. Even if you go to another country, do allow some days for Barcelona; there's lots to see and do there.

If you want to go somewhere else, here is the list of nonstop flights from Barcelona's airport. As you see, you have a ton of options: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona%E2%80%93El_Prat_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

If you want to get ideas, you may find watching videos helpful. Rick's are here: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show.

Wow! thanks everyone for the replies. Lots of great ideas for me to think about.
I can fly home from anywhere so that is not a consideration for me. Looking at all of your suggestions I am currently leaning towards further travel in Spain and/or Portugal or maybe France. There are just so many wonderful places that I want to see that it will be difficult to narrow it down.
Thanks Again!

"...example: go to Prague for a week because there is not much else in Poland we would be interested in"

Did you think Prague is in Poland?

LOL - No, I actually do know where Poland and Prague are - my fingers did not keep up with my brain there - I was trying to think of places and those two came to mind and instead of selecting one I linked them. That's funny...unless you are from Prague or Poland.

I am from Poland actually. By way of full disclosure that makes me a bit biased, but there are truly a lot of interesting places to visit there that are both on and off the tourist radar (and very inexpensive). Good luck with your planning.