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Seville / Barcelona with kids: Help us split up 9 nights

Posted by (Northern California) on

Hi All

Thank everyone for the wonderful advice throughout the forum. We have used the RS forums to plan trips a few times in the past, and the Spain forum has more than held its own!

We will be visiting for spring break this year and are flying into Malaga and out of Barcelona. We will spend first half day and night in Malaga and the following morning have a tour of Alhambra and transit to Seville.

Our plan is for either four or five nights in Seville, and then fly or travel by train to Barcelona for the final four (or five) nights.

The final tweaks we could use some help with:
Should we spend the fifth night in Seville or in Barcelona?
Our kids are 12 and 9 and have traveled well to Europe before. They enjoy walking and exploring on our own more than anything. As an example: I would say their favorite cities have been Venice and Florence. My instinct is to spend the fifth night in Seville. This will give us four full days on the ground and we would still have 3 full days plus two half days in Barcelona before departing. Would love to hear if anyone has a case for an additional day in Barcelona. (I know this is a nit picky question!)

And some final questions/requests to help finalize things:
- We are interested in a private day tour of the white villages/Ronda. Does anyone know if Paul McGrath still does the private tours? I have read great things and recommendations but his website seems to have disappeared. I know a lot has changed in past few years so wondering if there are any similar vendors we could look to?

  • Any recommendations for kid friendly hotels in old town Seville?

  • Any recommendations for 1 or 2 kid-friendly and perhaps slightly more upscale restaurants in Seville?

  • We are going to be in Seville on the Sunday/Monday, and possibly Tuesday, prior to Easter. Would love to partake in some of the Semana Santa festivities - is there a practical guide to the events (calendar?), locations? Are reservations ever needed?

Thanks for all the help we've already received!

Posted by
27057 posts

Both Seville and Barcelona are worth five nights or more. There's really not a wrong decision you can make, but I might lean toward Seville in this situation for these reasons:

  • The weather will probably be a bit warmer there.
  • It's easier to visit Barcelona again since there are non-stop flights to Barcelona from several US cities.
  • Holy Week in Seville means your sightseeing activities will probably not be as efficient as they would otherwise be. You'll find special hours at some sights and may end up needing to go twice to the same part of town. Just moving from one sight to another may take extra time as you bump into processions and have to take detours. And you'll naturally end up spending some extra time just watching the processions.

On the other hand, Barcelona has all that wackadoodle modernista architecture, and it's stronger on art museums.

There's very heavy demand for lodging in Seville during Holy Week. It sounds as if you don't have a reservation yet. You need to get on that immediately.

In 2019 the tourist office had a one-page handout showing the Holy Week hours for all the city attractions; that was a very important document to have, since there were closures due to processions. There was probably also a handout listing the processions, but I don't remember seeing it.

Also in 2019 there was at least one company running bus tours to Ronda and a few of the white villages. Since you are a party of four, a private tour might not be much more expensive than four seats on a public tour. I don't have a recommendation for you, though.

Posted by
3893 posts

I guarantee that the Semana Santa festivities will be the highlight of your trip for everyone. Sevilla is the epicenter of passion of Semana Santa in Spain, every day is a festival. In Sevilla they put on really spectacular processions and celebrations combining music, art, and color. Semana Santa is the biggest celebration of the year in Spain, even bigger than Christmas.

By contrast Barcelona is rather lame during Semana Santa, not much in terms of festivities, best to spend more time in Sevilla I think. No need for reservations, just show up along the route of the processions, they will not be difficult to find lol

Here is the local guide for Sevilla's Semana Santa schedule (in Spanish) - https://www.diariodesevilla.es/semana_santa/recorridos-oficiales-Semana-Santa-Sevilla-2023_0_1749127059.html

Posted by
862 posts

Barcelona has all that wackadoodle modernista architecture

If your kids like walking around then Parc Guell in Barcelona should be on your list. Designed by Gaudi it's a wackadoodle park. Montjuic is also really nice, has a castle/fortress, and has the bonus of a funicular and/or cable car ride.

If you haven't booked accommodation in Barcelona yet I highly recommend Suites Center Barcelona in Gracia. Wonderful apartments in a family friendly area and walkable to the main sites.

Posted by
515 posts

I think Barcelona has a more diverse set of experiences, but I love Sevilla too.

I have not been there during the big festival but let me relay one negative experience about Sevilla which might be relevant. I was there on a somewhat regular Saturday night. We were on the tram to the city center, when it suddenly stopped a few stops before its destination and everyone got out. We attempted to walk through the city center near the cathedral - where we had been many times before. The crowd got thicker and thicker to the point where we jammed together into a mass of humanity that was not moving at all. We circled back and had this experience several times. It was pretty annoying. Finally we gave up and just tried to escape the crush, and eventually got out of the city center, quite far from where we started.

We took a bus across town and eventually ended up in a Chinese restaurant about 9:30 pm, to find it empty. I was worried they were closing soon ... but they were just opening, the place was packed by 11 pm, and the entire bill for 2 people was like $25.

Posted by
8 posts

I appreciate every one of these replies. It is clear that there is no "right" answer to spending the 'fifth" day, but I am going to book the Seville lodging for five nights.

And thank you for all of the specific tips in both cities, they are noted (especially the hotel in Barcelona, it looks great and Gracia is area we wanted to stay!)

If anyone does have info on private tour operators in Seville please let me know (I am doing the same search myself).

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