Overall, A Wonderful Trip Exploring Spain!W...

Spain | Jul 26 - Aug 4, 2024

Overall, A Wonderful Trip Exploring Spain!

We have a family of 5; the three kids are 15, 14, and 11.

Madrid tapas culinary experience. Grade A+. It was in the Salanca area in the evening starting around 6 pm. It was our family of five and two other guests. We stopped at 4 places and had a great blend of tapas and drinks. Not too much walking, perfect amount of food and very interesting. Definitely recommend.

The Madrid for Kids Tour. Grade B. I think it would have been better had it not been in July when it's so hot. There was a bit more walking, the history and insight was great. Old Town, cathedrals, etc. It was a morning tour (starting around 9 am). It was just so darn hot!

Day Trip to Toledo. Grade A-. It's fun taking the train as we don't train often. The city is definitely a must visit and the tour guide shared great insight and took us to some really cool places. One time, we had access to an underground water tank that others could not visit. Very cool tour. Ended around 12:30 pm and we ate. We should have gotten tickets back to Madrid for the 3 pm train instead of the 5 pm train. In cooler weather, I think we would have explored more and the 5 pm train would have worked.

Spanish Cooking Class in Mallorca. Grade A+. The host was excellent, taught us how to make several dishes, the kids really enjoyed it, my wife and I were able to just watch and have wine. It was a great way to spend about 4 hours and the time flew by!

Luxury Catamaran Tour with tapas and swimming (Mallorca). Grade B-. We did a 4 hour tour which isn't really enough time to get somewhere remote. We anchored near a pretty busy area and not far from a busy beach. The food and service were great. However, it was as remote as I would have liked. I think a longer tour allows you to get further away from the populated areas. You may need a speed boat also.

Coastal Hike, Kayaking, and Lagoon Dipping in Costa Brava. Grade A. This was a delightful daytrip for my family. It's absolutely gorgeous scenery and we had a small group of 10 (so 5 duo kayaks). We hiked, kayaked, cliff jumped, snorkeled, etc. While they say it's 8 hours in Costa Brava, the trip itself is like 5.5 hours and you have 2.5 hours to explore Costa Brava by foot. That information would have been helpful.

The lodging:

Slow Suites Bellas Artes was great for us and very centrally located. It was easy to walk anywhere from there. Only downside was during our stay, they were doing repair on the road outside. That should be complete by now.

Melia Calvia Beach. It's a nice, higher end resort beach. Though our check in process was painful (room key didn't work, when it did, someone was in room already, moved to a different room, ugh), the overall stay was great. Their pools are beautiful, great breakfast buffet, and immediate access to the beach. The parking situation does suck though and we had rented a car.

Val Barcelona Apartments. This was a last minute change. It was a great place. It was spacious, quaint, and cozy. The location allowed you to walk anywhere you needed with plenty of restaraunts and sights nearby. Only drawback was you check in at Hotel Claris, information that was not shared prior to our arrival.

Overall, we had a blast. There were some hiccups along the way but with a 10 day trip, you'll have those. I would highly recommend this itinerary to others!

Activity Review

Spanish Cooking Class in Mallorca

Spain

This was a fantastic activity for our family of five. It was fun, engaging, intimate, and relaxing. Thank you!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff