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8 days Spain in April (over Easter) with 2 kids

Hi all,

My wife and I are considering booking a last minute trip as described in the subject line above, approximately April 14-21/22, 2022.

Since we do not have a lot of time and have younger children in tow, we do not want to jump around to too many places. Kids ages are 6 and 11.

We have been to Spain before children came along (Madrid / Toledo / San Sebastián / Barcelona) We are planning to fly into Madrid and spent a couple of days there and then either spend time in San Sebastián or Barcelona again.

We are leaning toward San Sebastián because it is a lot more compact, is on the shore (even though it won’t be beach weather) and we really enjoyed the pintxos. BUT, we are debating Barcelona instead because we think it would be fun for the kids to see all of the Gaudi architecture- although I am personally not sure about doing 2 major cities, I generally prefer something smaller and a bit more laid back - ie San Sebastián.

I don’t think we have enough time to do all 3 locations (if we did, I would fly into Madrid and out of Barcelona), when we visited these places last time (2009) our trip was 11 full days.

Any advice or feedback would be most helpful! I have no idea what to expect due to the Easter weekend and the weather expectations. Thanks.

Posted by
28083 posts

I agree that a week is nowhere near long enough for Madrid-San Sebastian-Barcelona.

I'm not sure about April in the Basque Country, weather-wise, and it's a significant time-commitment--at least 5-1/2 hours by train each way.

If you're looking for a smaller place than Barcelona, I wonder whether Zaragoza would suit you. It's less than 1-1/2 hours from Madrid by train. It's not much warmer than San Sebastian in April, on average, but it's likely to give you a lot more sunshine (about 50% more, according to the Wikipedia climate-summary charts.)

However, I'd think there'd be more for the children in Barcelona. Nights will be a bit warmer in Barcelona than in the other cities I've mentioned here. Hours of sunshine will be similar to Madrid and Zaragoza.

Posted by
481 posts

Take a look at Salamanca one of the nicest cities in Spain. Totally walkable and an easy train from Madrid.

Brad