first time for family to spain - random questions

Jen, I'm from Minnesota, too. We've started a twin cities travel group if that might be of interest. I'm planning a trip to Spain as well. I have about 13 days and we are doing mostly Andalusia. We are flying into Madrid and immediately taking a train to Sevilla. After Sevilla, we'll do the pueblos blancos, Granada, Cordoba, Toledo and then back to Madrid for a day trip to Segovia. We plan to cover Madrid more on a future trip. I've been to Barcelona. I took my two daughters (20 yrs) and we were in that area for about 8 days. I'll share some of their favorite activities. We spent a couple days in Girona which is a super fascinating smaller Catalan City. Some of the Game of Thrones scenes are shot there. Views from the river are spectacular. There is a bridge designed by Eiffel and colorful buildings on each side of the river. We walked the medieval city walls which was really fun and the views were fantastic. From Barcelona we took a day trip to Montserrat which the girls really liked. We of course went to the monastery, but after we took the funicular up to the top of the mountains and did some hiking. In Barcelona itself, the girls particularly liked La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and the Boqueria (market). Even though it was January, we went to Barceloneta to wander around and spend time on the beach. Barefoot and in jackets we gathered a nice handful of sea glass.

I went with two friends to Spain last September. We flew in to Madrid and spent four nights there, taking two day trips (Segovia and Toledo). We then took the train to Seville and spent two nights there. From Seville we took the train to Barcelona and spent four nights there, with two day trips (Montserrat and Figueres) before flying home. I think that your itinerary sounds too ambitious, especially adding in Gibraltar and Morocco.

We did a food tour with "Devour" in Madrid and thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn't a cooking class but rather an exploration of different cafes and markets.

I wasn't expecting to like Spain as much as I did. In fact, I went back to Madrid this past February and hope to go back to Barcelona and other cities sometime. It is a wonderful place to visit! Have fun!

Ten days isn't long enough to cover the Spanish destinations you mentioned, much less Morocco and Gibraltar.

Many of us think a day-trip to Tangier (which will also consume a major part of the days before and after if you are not renting two cars or some sort of large vehicle) is not a good idea at all. It is sort of like going to a Mexican border town. Morocco is worth a trip of its own so you can see places like Marrakech and Fes.

I'd consider focusing on Andalucia, including Cordoba, which can be a separate stop or a day-trip from Seville. If you'll have a vehicle, Ronda and a couple of the small white villages like Arcos de la Frontera might be nice. Alternatively, you could add either Barcelona or Madrid; Toledo and Segovia are great side-trips if Madrid's art museums do not appeal. The weather will probably be a bit milder in Barcelona than in Madrid.

Jen,

I've been to Spain a handful of times, across 20 years. One of my favorite countries, I believe Spain is generally under-rated, and under-appreciated by most Americans, who - for no logical reason - seem to have conflated it with Mexico, or just have no idea at all about it. IMHO Spain is (at least) the equal of France, Italy, the UK, Germany, or any other European country in terms of tourist attractions. You're in for a treat.

Ten days is quite short for a trip to Spain. There's so many great things to see/do, you will need to be careful not to over-stretch yourself. Spain is also a surprisingly large (for Europe) and diverse country. You won't be able to see it all, or even all it's 5-star highlights, so let that go and do the best you can with your time, and plan to return.

To answer some of your specific questions...

1. Skip the side trip to Morocco. Frankly, that ferry day-trip is one of Rick's worst ideas (sorry, Rick). Morocco is wonderful and well worth a visit, but by doing a ferry 1/2 day there, (at best) you see the absolute worst of the country, a grotesque, made-for-tourists experience (just as a few hours in Tijuana is not a worthwhile visit to Mexico). Morocco deserves more than a few hours, save it for another trip.
2. Open jaws is good. From Barcelona to...well, the rest of Spain (Madrid, Andalusia and the south) consider the fast train rather than a flight. Gibraltar yes, skip the ferry (see above). In the region, top destinations would include: Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, one of the "White Hill Towns" (Ronda, Arcos de la Frontera)....Segovia would be good too but you will have to pick and choose.
3. I don't do tours, can't help you there. That said, Spain is easy - the only tours you really need are the mandatory ones eg in the Alhambra.
4. Sorry, don't know about cooking classes - but you have few days and too many places to see, so any class could easily force you to skip a city, which I wouldn't do.
5. No kids here, but hopefully yours are interested in things like castles, forts, historic places...Spain has oodles of these ("Castile" = castles).

Take the kids for thick hot chocolate and fresh churros in Madrid - it's in Rick's book. They'll be in heaven and won't ever forget it.

Spain is awesome - have a great trip!

I don't know the details because we went to Spain on a bus tour, but I think you need to get tickets to the Alhambra far in advance. I think your children would really enjoy touring the Royal Palace in Madrid-it's beautiful.

My family of 5 (myself, husband, mom-in-law, daughter age 13 and son age 12) traveled to Spain last April. We all loved it; it's my favorite destination. Been there three times myself; can't wait to go back!

My kids loved:

• going to Mariano Zamora's sword shop in Toledo. He gave them a tour and we watched the guys at work. My son loved watching them with the hammer and anvil.
• the Zocotren in Toledo
• riding the train from Madrid to Sevilla. Good chance to relax for a couple of hours, see the scenery
• hanging out on the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla, watching street performers and listening to music
• day tripping to Jerez. If your kids like horses (don't all girls??), the horse show is amazing. We all had a blast at the Tio Pepe bodega tour; the train is fun, the tapas sampling is fun (grape juice in stemware for the kids), the tour itself was just the right length for the kids to enjoy it but not get bored. Jerez is a quick,easy train ride from Sevilla.
• touring the Alhambra. We hired a private guide for our family, which was a great choice. We could go at our own pace and ask any questions. The kids loved this. I contacted Margarita Ortega Ortiz de Landazuri (in Rick's guidebook); her partner Maria gave the tour, and she was amazing. Make sure you purchase your Alhambra tickets 90 days in advance of your visit.
• night visit to the Alhambra. Kids loved this. Visit started at 10 p.m. and we just wandered around. Very cool.
• day trip to an olive oil orchard and old production facility, including a tasting. Very fun to get out into the countryside, absolutely stunning scenery. Fun tour for the kids (not much talking, lots of tasting!). oliveoiltour.com
• overall, my kids' favorite activities were eating, drinking, and walking around. Spain is VERY kid-friendly; young people are welcome everywhere. My kids loved sampling all kids of different foods (octopus is now a favorite). Drinks are fun to order because there are different choices available (mosto, an unsweetened grape juice, was my daughter's top choice; son is a pineapple and kiwi juice addict now). If any of your kids are learning Spanish in school, make sure they talk to waiters, taxi drivers. My daughter's (halting, broken) Spanish was SO appreciated!

I wrote a trip report, which has more details if you are interested.

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Make sure you slow down. The best part of Spain is soaking in the culture, history, food, ambiance. You can't do that if you're always rushing around. Take the time to do a tapas crawl (the kids will love it; sample everything -- if they don't like it, try something different), stop for ice cream or churros, listen to street music on the plazas. Don't overschedule your days.

To answer your specific questions:
1. I would not go to Morocco; you don't have enough time. Enjoy Spain with your 10 days.
2. You will be stretched with just Barcelona, Granada, Sevilla, and Madrid. Of these, Granada is my favorite. I don't love Madrid, especially with kids. The highlight of the city is its art museums, which can be drop-dead boring for younger folks. I would allocate more time in other places.
3. Tours: loved the olive oil tour (see above). Definitely recommend a private guide for the Alhambra (see above); you will get so much more out of your visit, and your kids can ask as many questions as they want. We also enjoyed our tapas tour in Granada (see my trip report); you can also do these in other cities.
4. Didn't do a cooking class. I researched this before our trip and did see some choices, but I decided that adding too many scheduled events was going to make our trip feel too structured. In hindsight, I'm thrilled with my choice.
5. See above for my kids' favorites

Have a great trip. You will absolutely love Spain with your family!

I forgot to include one more thing that my son loved and is still talking about: in Granada, you can walk up the hill to the Alhambra and keep going. There is a big park with open land, sheep, nice walking paths. My husband went running up there most days when we were in Granada, and he took my son up on a stroller ride to see the sheep and awesome views. Both loved it!

We just got back from Spain and LOVED it!!! We weren't in the areas you are planning and only spent one night in Madrid. However, for that one day, we hired David from Madridivine.com and he was absolutely fantastic. We did the city walking tour. I'm not sure how that would go with little ones (it's 3 hours of walking), but he does an amazing job of pacing the tour to fit your needs. We had so little time that it's the only way we could even see Madrid.

It sounds like you have a pretty full itinerary, but if you are willing to drop a few things, I would recommend taking a day trip to Salamanca (or one night there). It's 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Madrid (one way), and there are train options as well (that may be faster, not sure). It overwhelmed me (in a good way) with the arrchitecture and history - oldest university in Spain, many beautiful churches (one with a painting by Rubens) two cathedrals, a much more beautiful plaza mayor than Madrid, and a Roman bridge that was built in 200 AD)! At one of the monasteries, Christopher Columbus met with Queen Isabella to discuss his big voyage. How cool is that! I would definitely hire a tour guide for this, so you can get the stories behind the buildings. I can't recommend anyone, because our guide was my friend's relative :) I enjoyed Salamanca much more than Madrid, to be honest. We didn't have time to "do Madrid" properly. I feel like Madrid is about the lifestyle more than sightseeing (still liked it, though- it has a fun vibe to it).

Spain is a large country. With only ten days, I'd pick two of the following three:

Madrid and around (Toledo, Segovia)
Barcelona and around (Girona, Montserrat)
Andalucia (Granada, Seville, Cordoba).

It's not that there isn't much more to see that's worthwhile - it's that you don't have time. I think trying to see all three in ten days will result in more time spent in transit than actually seeing things.

Once you've picked the areas you will see, then pick your flights. A big mistake I see on this forum all the time is people who've booked flights round trip to Madrid, but then decide they want to focus on Barcelona and Andalucia. They have to burn a day (and a fair amount of money) on each end to get to and from their transatlantic flights, losing precious time and money.

To get from Barcelona to Madrid or Madrid to Seville, you'll take high speed trains, which are MUCH cheaper if booked in advance. When you're ready, this tutorial will tell you how (it's long, so no need to read it until you're ready): https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online.html

If you're going from Barcelona to Seville, the train and the plane are about equal. If you're going from Barcelona to Granada, right now they're building the high speed train, so part of the "train" route is by replacement bus; flying is the way to go, unless they finish the train by the time of your trip.

If you do want to go to Granada, as said above you must nail down your Alhambra tickets as soon as they become available. Apparently, it now sells out in advance every day.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU so much for all of your great wisdom! I am soaking in the replies and revamping our itinerary. Thankfully we haven't purchased our tickets yet, and will adjust our flight cities to correlate with the finalized itinerary. I LOVE this forum. Thank you so much everyone - your comments and thoughts have helped tremendously!

To answer a question you didn't ask (sorry), over Christmas presumably means you will be somewhere on Christmas Day. Expect the main tourist sights to be closed that day. That might not matter if you are visiting for a few days, but given how much you plan to move around it may be an issue when you only have one day in a city. Lots of attractions are also closed New Year's Day and 6th January, if you are still here then.

Overall, I think you are planning too much. I know Spain is tiny compared to America but it still takes time to travel around. And most of the places you list are worth at least a couple of days each. I would cut back as suggested above.

Barcelona has a great aquarium if that is of interest to your children.

When my wife and I visited Madrid we took a class from “Cooking Point”. It was tapas and it was excellent,