Home base for one month in Spain w/ 4-year old?

I'd suggest Zaragoza, located in the north east of Spain, in the shadow of the Pyrenees, Zaragoza was once the seat of the mighty Kingdom of Aragon, whose possessions included southern France, Sicily, and even Greece during the middle ages.

These days Zaragoza is a charming city to explore with more than 2,000 years of history including Roman ruins of the city walls, forum, and amphitheater, and the Aljafería; an 11th-century Moorish palace, the most northern Islamic palace in Europe. Throughout Zaragoza you'll find Mudéjar architecture, a unique mix between Moorish and Christian styles and motifs. Zaragoza is also the home to the Nuestra Señora del Pilar Basilica, which has one of the best church exteriors in Spain.

I think that Zaragoza is one of those undiscovered gems that Rick Steves calls "back doors". It reminds me a lot of Barcelona before international mass tourism really took off. Virtually unknown to foreign tourists, who just zoom past it on the highspeed train from Barcelona to Madrid.

In June, the temps in Zaragoza hover around the upper 20s.

Lots of great choices.

Why not do with Madrid, unless you want a smaller city. I loved Toledo and Segovia, a day trip away from Madrid.

Salamanaca and Santiago de Compostela are too remote from the rest of Spain.

Do you plan to rent a car? If not, you should dig into bus and train schedules to be sure you have a reasonable understanding of practical side trips.

I was disappointed in Avila, which seemed to have not a lot going for it except for the wall. It would definitely not be my choice for a one-month stay.

Santander suffered a horrible fire in the 1940s, so it lacks the sizeable historic core you can find in many other Spanish cities. The beaches looked good, but keep in mind that the northern coast tends to be cool and damp even in the summer.

The other options you mentioned are, overall, more interesting to this adult, but I'm not the one to advise you on which you be most appealing to a young child.

Although Zaragoza is a very interesting place, I think Carlos is underestimating the possible heat challenges there in June. The average high temperature given by Wikipedia is 84.7F, so it would be reasonable to expect a lot of June days to be hotter than that. And Wikipedia's averages don't include the years after 2010. The risk of days over 90F, 95F or even 100F is real. Of course, you could be lucky.

Madrid wouldn't be my choice in June, either.

Thanks everyone for these helpful replies. I'll first clarify a couple of points.

First, for city size Zaragoza is on the top end of what we would consider. I have read really good things about Zaragoza and it also seems to be a great hub. But it may be a little larger than we are looking for and it also on the hotter side. It's definitely a place we'd at least like to visit. Madrid is definitely a place we hope to explore extensively, but is far larger than we want for the month stay.

Second, we would be fine renting a car for a couple of weekend trips - say to the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa, or the Costa da Morte. For all else we'd like to use public transportation, so I appreciate the advice to look closer at those networks now.

Thanks for sharing the hesitancy about Avila and Santander. I was unaware about the fire in Santander, but I had wondered about Avila's small size and maybe running out of interesting activities to do. With a four year old, routine will be a much greater part this trip then when my wife and I visited Andalucia and Catalonia pre-kid. However, it will still be nice to have variety.

The area around Madrid can be very hot in June, though not as bad as Seville and Cordoba. However, since you want to do some sightseeing in Madrid, I'll toss out a nice, smaller-city possibility in the area that would make day trips to Madrid very easy: Alcala de Henares, population 184,000. I've only day-tripped there myself, so I don't know what it would feel like as a base for a longer stay. However, it's an historic university town with a very pretty historic center and frequent (cheap) commuter-rail service from Madrid. It did not feel like a city of nearly 200,000 people.

Of course, if you wanted to daytrip to some of the popular side-trip destinations in Madrid's orbit (Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, Cuenca, or even Avila), you'd have to start each excursion with a trip from AdH into Madrid. That's the penalty for staying somewhere that isn't a transit hub.

Are you wedded to the idea of one base for the entire month? That's really not the most practical approach when you want to see a bunch of different places. With two or three bases you might completely avoid the need for overnight or weekend side trips. If one of the bases was in a meteorologically risky area and the weather gods didn't smile on you, well, at least you wouldn't be miserably hot for the entire month.

Great ideas, acraven. I have been thinking more about picking ~3 different cities and then just soaking up what each of them has to offer as well as places you can reach in a short day trip from them. We like the idea of one base to get more of a feel for how that city and its people live on a day-to-day basis. It is also nice to have that stability and routine with a young kid, whereas my wife and I often stayed 3 nights in each place during our pre-kid travels. Maybe the 7-10 days in a place is a nice compromise, and we could pick a place in Castile and Leon, another in Galicia, and another in Asturias, Aragon, Basque country or another northcentral province. Spain has such an incredible wealth of diversity in landscapes, culture, weather, etc. It's hard to choose where to start! I also appreciate Alcalde de Henares. I'll look into more later today. Thanks again for your generous advice.

Zaragoza. Excellent train service.

I notice that several posts comment on the heat and are concerned with 84 degrees.

I live in South Georgia and consider 84 degrees to be nice in the Summer.

Just be sure and keep hydrated.

There's quite a difference between an average high temperature of 84.7 F and not needing to worry about temperatures above that level. An average temperature for a month is not the expected temperature for every day of the month. One should expect some days to be a lot hotter, just as some will be a lot cooler (at least one hopes they will). Furthermore, in any given year the weather can be a lot hotter than average.

I have been to Zaragoza in the summertime. I wonder whether the folks recommending Zaragoza in June have had that experience. I got a really good rate at a business-class hotel. I later figured out that no sane business traveler would go to Zaragoza in the summer. Hotel occupancy was so low the hotel restaurant was closed for the summer--not a minor issue given that the hotel was located in a food desert.

I'd suggest taking a look at the actual, day-by-day temperatures for Zaragoza in June 2022 before assuming a June visit would just mean tolerating 84F:

June 2022 weather for Zaragoza from timeanddate.com

Days with high temperature of at least 90F: 20
Days with high temperature of at least 95F: 12
Days with high temperature of at least 100F: 5 (plus 2 days at 99F)

June 2022 was unusually hot, but I ask you: Does that look like a good time of year to be in Zaragoza when Spain has so many attractive options with more moderate summer temperatures? We're discussing a potential one-month stay, not a two- or three-night visit. Just about anything is tolerable for a couple of days; a month is a completely different kettle of fish.

It’s lovely to be by the coast with a small child. You’re never stuck for something to do to keep him entertained and if it’s hot you can cool down. It’s a good place to meet other families with young children too.

You could look at the Valencia region. You wouldn’t have to stay in the city itself but nearby and day trip. There are lots of attractions for children in the city as well as the beaches - Biopark zoo, Aquarium, Science Museum, huge Turia park.