Flying to Madrid, 7 days to explore Spain with a little kid

Hi all,

I've found some useful info about getting around in Spain from this forum, and thanks for that. However, I still have certain concerns regarding my coming first trip to Spain, so please help me.

We will be flying to Madrid 3 of us, me, my husband and my 2-year-old girl, and be staying at our friend in Madrid. But her idea is that Madrid is not much to see, so she suggests making a tur of Cordoba-Sevilla-Granada for 4-5 days then back to Madrid, and if time permits, then we can discover more of Madrid and neighbouring towns.

I am not the type who can enjoy 1 city per day, esp. when we have our small kid with us. But our interest is very much in cultural experience, like old town, small streets, pure spanish taste/people and the like...

My first question is, is it worth going all the way down south while there can be similar cultural experience in the nejborhood of Madrid?

Or to make it easier for you, I can think of some choices as follows:

1. Madrid - Seville - Cordoba - Granada - Madrid
2. Madrid - Seville - Granada - Madrid (+neighbourhood)
3. Madrid - Seville or Granada - Madrid (+nejbourhood)
4. Madrid - nejbourhood - Valencia (assuming there's child-friendly beach in Valencia, no?) - Madrid
5. Madrid - nejbourhood - Salamanca - Madrid
6. ...

I'm also in doubt what this "neighbourhood" could be, Toledo, Avila, Segovia..., those one can visit within the day???

On the one hand, i'm definitely ambitious to see the most of Spain, but on the other hand, i want a child-friendly holiday so it can't be a tight schedule and the sightseeing shouldn't be too boring for a small girl sitting on the stroller looking! Ignore the latter if you think I'm asking too much!

So, pleaseeeee, we are flying the last day of July, so some promt feedback with suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks a lot. Enjoy your summer.
Li. Reply to this

The cities you have chosen thus far are really excellent to see. I have been to Granada and Valencia and I enjoyed them both immensely and I can't wait to go back to Spain and to those particular cities again! One thing I must recommend to you, is when you consider where you want to go in Spain you have to consider distances and public transportation...Whether if you're traveling by train or bus from one city to the other, for some reason in Spain it takes forever. I remember taking a train from Valencia to Barcelona that took over 3 hours, and when I traveled from Granada to Valencia, I took a bus ride that lasted over 8 hours! So keep that in mind. Traveling by either train or bus in Spain is great; I did both and I like both options, but basically choose to whatever works best. Since you have the small child, I would recommend that you travel by train because they show movies on the train and they have dining cars; the buses in Spain don't not from what I remember, but having the movie would help to entertain your little girl during those long treks through Spain. As for cities to visit, I've heard that Madrid is a very fine city and that there's a lot to see and do; I didn't go but a lot of people that I have met who have visited Madrid say that they love it, so spend at least 2 days, 3 days in Madrid. I highly recommend Granada, and it has everything that you mentioned that you are interested in seeing: narrow streets, small town, cultural; it is everything that you could imagine Spain to be...you have the fantastic and magnificant Alhambra and the beautiful and quaint Albazin quater which was the old 11th century Moorish quarter...just beautiful, eventually you have to see Granada. I've also heard that Cordoba is very nice but I remember some people telling me that they found Cordoba to be a bit dirty and unkept (but of course, that's there opinion) so keep that in mind; with the little one that might not be a good place to go. I was in Granada for 3 days, but it's primarily musuems and walking and with the little one doing a whole lot of that might be difficult and also Granada is way, way down south and Madrid is in the dead center. But, if you did want to go and explore Granada, what I'd recommend is that you could spend 3 days in Granada, then take the train to Seville and spend 3 days there, and either take a day trip from Sevilla to Granada or spend 2 days in Granada, go back to Sevilla and spend one last night and go back to Madrid to fly home. Sevilla is supposedly very nice and beautiful and I feel bad that I didn't go so if you can go there, go.
I highly recommend Valencia as well, and might be more child friendly. You still have your nice narrow, pretty Spanish streets and plazas, and you have nice museums to explore and all that will satisfy you and your husband, but for your daughter (and for you as well) there's the new Ciudad de Artes i Ciencias, which if you go to Valencia you have to see this. It's a large modern like theme park dedicated solely to science and the arts; there's an Imax theater, an intereactive science musuem, and an aquarium park, supposedly the largest in Europe. Spend at least two days here if you go it's amazing at least, and you cannot miss the science musuem or the aquarium park because they are just...I don't know how to describe them. Valencia might be easier for you to get to from Madrid and you could hang out in Madrid for 2 or 3 days and Valencia for about 3 or 4.
Even though I didn't care for Barcelona, Barcelona might be good for you and your family because there's a lot of activities for the entire family, and it's not as serious of a destination. The reason why I didn't like it was because it's very Catalan and not Spanish so you're not going to get your "cultural" aspect here but you'll get it in a different way. Also this is a larger city and it's busy with lots of tourists and locals so keep that in mind as well, but there's a zoo and aquarium, there's the Poble Expanyol which is a recreation of villages from all over Spain, you have Parc Guell, and there's a fair ground as well I think; lots to do with the kids there and enough there for you and your husband to keep you entertained.
You could also consider cities like San Sebastian, Alicante and Benidorm because of the beach. San Sebastian is small and has a nice beach and an the oldest aquarium in Spain, and outside of Benidorm there are a few theme and nature parks.
Well sorry for the long entry but I hope this helps. Good luck with your planning and enjoy yourselves! I hope y'all have fun! Reply to this

You're welcome, ma'am, not a problem. Your iterary sounds good to me, definately enjoy yourselves. I agree, I don't think you can do Granada this time because it's harder to get to and with the little girl, I think passing it up this time is a good idea, but if you can go there eventually definately...I absolutely adored Granada when I was there and I can't wait to go back, but the choices you've made are very good I feel. Good luck with your trip and enjoy yourselves! Thanks! Reply to this