Spring break is just about over for most of us with kids. We spent spring break this year, a week at the end of March, in Spain. Here are the highlights.
Orange Scented Courtyards in Seville
Getting There and Around
We flew from Washington, D.C. to Madrid. Though we had booked direct flights on Iberia Air, the airline suspended its nonstop flights between Madrid and Washington Dulles through April 12, 2025 shortly after we booked (it appears the route has now resumed). We stopped in New York on the way there without incident, but had a long delay further extended by a storm on the way home through Philadelphia. We survived, but the experience cemented that direct flights are the way to go, especially on spring break.
We had difficulty narrowing down where to go in Spain, and even with the cuts we made probably jammed in one stop too many. We visited Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, and Barcelona, traveling to each city via train. We did not rent a car during this trip, relying on trains, taxis, and walking to get us wherever we needed to go.
Three Days in Madrid
We landed in Madrid mid-morning and took an uber from the airport to our Airbnb rental. Our apartment was not quite ready, so we walked into a nearby café serving crepes and revived while people-watching. After we ate, we met our AirBnB host who showed us into the lovely apartment where we would spend the next three nights. The apartment had plenty of space for the four of us and was well-located in a neighborhood dense with restaurants, bars, and cafes. We walked almost everywhere, save for a couple of taxis at the end of a few long days.
We took a long nap and then we got ready for our first adventure: a tapas tour through Madrid. I am a long-time fan of Ali Martin, an American food blogger who lived in Spain for a few years, and took her advice to book a food tour at the start of our trip. We went with Adventurous Appetites, and visited four tapas bars and restaurants over three hours. Since we were the only people who booked that evening, we ended up on a private tour that went at our pace. The tour was a great introduction to the culinary traditions of Madrid and Spain more generally, and our guide Charlie helped us order many dishes we would not have discovered otherwise. We also walked through much of the city as we went from destination to destination, taking in the Puerta del Sol, the Opera, Plaza Mayor, and the Spanish Parliament along the way. The tour gave us a terrific sense of the city, which was helpful for navigating the rest of our time in Madrid.
The next morning we woke up earlier than our bodies wanted and hustled over to the Museo de Prado for a guided tour. Friends who had visited Spain last summer highly recommended art history professor Almudena Cros, and we reached out directly to her to book. Almudena specializes in tours for families, but her tour was truly the best museum experience I have ever had. Not only did Almudena give us insight into the Spanish masters, she helped us look at art itself in new ways.
Mastering the Masters in the Prado
After we said goodbye to Almudena, we had a quick lunch and spent another hour wandering around to revisit the pieces my kids loved and see a few more of the museum’s highlights. After more than four hours in the Prado, we were all ready for some outside time. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through beautiful Retiro Park, Madrid’s 300+ acre green oasis.
We headed back to the apartment and after a quick break, we went out again for dinner. We walked over to Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid’s most popular food hall. It was fun to walk through the maze of food vendors, each specializing in different Spanish delicacies and creative culinary inventions.
On our last full day in Madrid, we slept in and then split up for the day. The guys went to tour Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s stadium, while the ladies went shopping and explored a few more neighborhoods. We reconvened at the apartment at 5:30 and then headed to the Museo Reina Sofia, Spain’s national museum for twentieth century art. We took advantage of the museum’s free admission from 7 to 9 pm on Monday nights to see Picasso’s Guernica, and a few other masterpieces.
After the museum, we realized we were close to Bar El Brillante, recommended by a close friend’s husband as his favorite spot for calamari sandwiches, a hometown favorite for Madrileños. By the end of our third day, we had fully embraced the tapas lifestyle. We ended the night with a stop at Meson del Champinon, a tiny bar known for, and shaped like, a mushroom.
A Brief Stop in Granada
From Madrid, we took a high-speed train to Granada, arriving in the late afternoon. We checked into our hotel and then hiked up the narrow streets of the hillside Albaicín neighborhood to take in the Alhambra at sunset at Mirador de San Nicolas. On our way back down, we stopped for a drink and tapas at a lovely restaurant with beautiful views of Granada and the Alhambra. We walked into town from there, for more tapas and drinks at La Tabernilla del Darro, a warm resto-bar overlooking the river running through Granada. They squeezed us in after a wait, but I’d recommend calling ahead for reservations.
Our one mistake was failing to buy tickets to visit the Nasrid Palaces and interior of the Alhambra well in advance. My husband made several attempts to secure last minute tickets, but we had no luck. The Alhambra is a sprawling complex with many areas open to the public without tickets, so we did explore a good bit of the Alhambra the next day before returning to the train for an evening train to Seville.
Two Days in Seville
Seville was almost everyone’s favorite stop on this trip (my son chose Barcelona). There were lots of reasons we loved Sevilla, but high on that list was our terrific AirBnB in Barrio Santa Cruz, the hard of Seville’s old town. The two-story apartment we rented had floor to ceiling windows opening to balconies on every floor and a rooftop patio with views of the city’s beautiful Catedral de Sevilla. To my children’s delight, the apartment also sat directly above a tiny ice cream shop that they visited on their own.
We started our first day in Seville with a walking tour, which was a nice introduction to the city and the Muslim and Catholic influences that have shaped the architecture, food, and culture of Seville. We visited the Catedral de Sevilla and went to terrific flamenco show at Sala Almoraima recommended by our guide. My favorite part of our time in Seville though was the long afternoons we spent hanging out on the rooftop of our AirBnB with the scent of orange blossoms all around us.
Rooftop Service in Seville
A Weekend in Barcelona
Our time in Barcelona, our final stop in Spain, was compressed, but we made the most of it. We took an early train from Sevilla, arriving in Barcelona just after 1pm. We changed and dropped our bags off at our hotel before heading back out immediately for our 2pm entry time to Gaudi’s Parc Guell. We spent about an hour wandering around, stopping at the Serpentine Bench, El Drac, and the Hypostyle Hall. We could have spent far longer exploring the park, but our timed entry to Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia beckoned.
We walked about 30 minutes from Parc Guell to Sagrada Familia, the most visited attraction in Spain. We booked tickets and a guided tour of the basilica more than a month before our trip; like the Alhambra, entry to Sagrada Familia regularly sells out. Our guide was excellent and almost poetic in recounting the ongoing history of the basilica and Antoni Guadi. We joined the last tours of the day, and were rewarded with late afternoon sunlight filtering through the basilica’s western stained-glass windows, streaming orange and red light inside.
We timed our trip to Barcelona to spend our last full day in Spain crossing off a bucket list item: seeing a La Liga football game live. We watched FC Barcelona take on neighboring Girona through a terrific Airbnb Experience hosted by David, a lifelong Barca fan. David and his co-hosts gave us a pre-match tour of the stadium, taught us the FC Barcelona’s chants, and reserved excellent tickets with terrific views of the match.
Celebrating a Win
We ended the day, and our trip to Spain, with an impromptu stop at the beach on the edge of the city. The pause felt like a premonition of times to come in this beautiful country.
Bookmarks
My top recommendations for Spain, all in one spot.
Stay: The apartment we rented in Seville was one of the best places we have ever stayed. Our rental in Madrid was also fantastic and well-located.
Eat: It’s easy to eat well in Spain. Some favorites were Mercado de San Miguel and Chocolateria San Gines in Madrid; La Tabernilla del Darro in Granada; La Brunilda and Bar Casa Morales in Seville; and Perikete in Barcelona.
Play: Almudena Cros gave the best guided tour of a museum that I’ve ever experienced. David made watching an FC Barcelona match easy and fun.
What a great article. Having a rooftop AirBnB is special in Sevilla that overlooks the Basilica.
The orange blossoms were lovely and although touristy, the crowd on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were manageable.,