Barcelona Tips for travel with Child

For a family-friendly neighborhood to stay in Barcelona, I would recommend the Gràcia area, specifically the Vila de Gràcia neighborhood. It is the "hip" place to be now, with its co-working spaces and artist studios, but also feels very cozy, welcoming, and family friendly. You see many young families living there, kids playing futbol in the neighborhood's various small squares, it has a small town feel. Vila de Gràcia is within walking distance to most of the Gaudí sites and has good access to public transportation.

It's quite a long slog over to Bilbao by public transportation (over 6 hours, and not very attractive departure times by train) and you'd be doing it twice if you're flying in and out of Barcelona. There's more to see in the Basque Country than you'd have time for on this trip, and it's a great mid-summer destination when much of the rest of Spain is uncomforrably hot, so I'd plan Bilbao and the rest of that area for a later trip.

How about Girona? It's a quick trip from Barcelona but has a very different feeling, and it's a great base for visiting a number of attractive destinations that would require a lot more travel time from Barcelona; Figueres, Cadaques and Besalu are the obvious choices.

Collioure seems to be the most popular reasonably nearby French destination. The fastest rail connection takes just over 2 hr. 40 min. Collioure was tourist-thronged during my mid-summer visit--not an environment where I'd want to spend multiple nights, but opinions definitely vary on that point.

Narbonne is farther away but quicker to reach (2 hours) because the whole trip can be done via AVE. It's less overtly touristy than Collioure.

There are other options in that part of France, of course. Personally, I'd choose Girona unless being on the coast is very important to you.