Spain, Three Trips In:

Sep 10

My Honest Take

Spain keeps coming up. A cruise that starts and ends in Barcelona. A graduation trip with the kids. A "we've done Italy, what's next." So here's what I actually think, after three very different trips: an anniversary, a family vacation, and a mother-daughter week on the coast.

A confession first. France is my favorite place in the world to go back to, and every one of those Spain trips started as a France trip with Spain tacked on. Somewhere between the first and the third, Spain stopped being the add-on. It worked its way into my heart, and I didn't see it coming.

Barcelona: the one that got me

I am not an art person. I say that up front so you understand what it means when I tell you Gaudí got me.
Dan had La Sagrada Familia at the top of his list. We walked in expecting a nice church. A couple of hours later we walked out with our necks aching from looking up, and it still wasn't enough. I've been picturing picnic lunches at different spots around it ever since, just to keep staring at the details. Next time, it gets a whole day.
Barcelona is also the easiest Spanish city to do with older kids. It's walkable, the food is unfussy, the beach is right there, and Gaudí works on a sixteen-year-old the same way it worked on me.

Malaga: the outdoors surprise

Beaches, yes. But also hikes I did not expect, the kind that make you forget you're twenty minutes from a beach chair. If you're an outdoors person who also likes a proper lunch, this is your corner of Spain. It's where I'd send a mother and daughter, or anyone who wants sun without a resort.

Madrid: the city that changed my mind on the last day

Here's the honest part. For three days, Madrid felt like Times Square. Big, loud, everyone in the same three streets. I was ready to write it off.
Then, on our last day, we took a food tour. Not the polished kind. The kind where a local walks you down back streets you'd never find, into places with no sign, and hands you something that ruins every version you've had before. We sat down with a table of strangers and stood up with friends we still talk to. By the end of the night I understood Madrid. I'd been standing in the wrong part of it the whole time.

That's the one thing I tell every Spain client to book first, in whichever city they land: a food tour, on day one, with a local. It resets how you see the place. We've done them in Madrid, Barcelona, and San Sebastian and loved every one, but Madrid is the one that turned a city around for me.

A few things I'd tell you over coffee

If you're doing the cruise. Give Barcelona two nights before you board and one after. Ships leave and return early. You'll want the city on your own clock.
If you're doing the graduation trip. Barcelona first, then somewhere slower. Teenagers will tolerate one cathedral. They'll remember the beach, the churros, and the day you let them lead.
If it's just the two of you. San Sebastian. Small, coastal, and possibly the best eating in Europe for the size of the town. It's where Dan and I went for our anniversary and where I'd go back tomorrow.