plambers

Hi and thanks all for your anticpated responses. My husband and I love to travel and we are off to Madrid and Sevilla in a week. Our children (will be 10 and 12 next year) have never been to Europe and am hoping we can all go next April for a week.
DH and I have been to Paris four times and absolutely love it. I have been to Barcelona (20 years ago). Good friends just got back from Barcelona with their children, who are a bit older than ours, and they had a great time so that is what put in on my radar.
Any comments very much appreciated!

stevewith

Why don't you wait until you have come back from Spain to see how you like it this time around? Barcelona is a very distinct region of Spain that prides itself on its differences with other parts of Spain, to be sure. Still, it does share many of the same features, most especially in food and the timing of meals. See if you think you would have enjoyed this trip with your kids along.

Next year (even now) your kids are not too young to be asked where in Europe they might like to go. Are either of them studying a foreign language? If they answer they want to go London or Greece, why not go there if they are so curious. But remember too that your kids are not going to have fun if you're not enjoying the trip, so if you have your heart set on enjoying some city with your children, start a family discussion. On the other hand, they are not going to have fun if mom and dad keep steering them around "our" Paris. Be prepared for your kids expressing their own opinion about Paris or Spain.

It's great that your friends came back full of enthusiasm for their Barcelona stay, and shared their enthusiasm with you, and it would be understandable if they are now urging you to go. All of like to share our fun travel experiences with everybody, but it is actually irrelevant to where you might most enjoy taking your kids for their first experience of Europe.

As you probably already know, there can be all sorts of events in April in Spain that mean crowds and high prices, depending on what year it is and when holidays fall.

plambers

Steve, thanks for your thoughful response. I studied in Spain and lived there for 8 months so I know I will like it. I actually think the tapas style will appeal more to my children (daughter likes a nice sit down meal-son sees food as a necessity and does not like long meals). Next year my daughter will be in middle school and starting French. I can speak Spanish, not too useful in Barcelona! Holy Week activites are minimal in Barcelona-nowhere like Southern Spain. I am a bit concerned about the 'our" Paris but am excited to see it through their eyes. Considerations have been weather, smaller museums, specific kids activities, dining hours. My daughter is so excited to go anywhere in Europe-particularly Paris, since my husband and I speak so highly of it, but Barcelona has been gaining energy!

justineparis

Hi, I have only been to Barcelona once so not qualified to offer much opinion on it.. it wasn't my favorite Europeon city myself so I am somewhat biased( I would put Paris, London, Rome , Venice and about 3 or 4 other places above it in terms of attractions for both kids and parents), but you having lived there probably know a lot more about it and can think of a half a dozen kid interesting sites.

I have however taken both my 11 yr old dd and 13 yr old son to Europe, on separate one on one trips with me . We have visited an assortment( different for both of them ) of cities , but both kids got to visit Paris.

My dd loved Paris, she was in the whole Marie Antionette thing, having read the Princess Diaries on Marie Antionette so Versailles was a fun and interesting day out for her. My son also enjoyed Versailles, he had just finished learning about the revolutions ( French and American) in school so he took a morbid delight in pointing out an area and saying "the Swiss guards were slaughtered there defending the royal family" .. boys..

As for food to me its a toss up between spain and france, I find both would be equally kid friendly but I took kids to mostly cafes and casual bistros in Paris, not restaurants that don't start serving dinner till 7:30 or so, we found Barcelona even more difficult though, I like to eat before 10 and tapas in Barcelona seemed a pricey way to do dinner ( you probably know the good places to go to though).

One thing I did do with both my kids is I told them they were required to find three sites they wanted to see in each city we went to.. I wanted them to be involved in planning and nowadays its easy for even a young child who can read to just google "things to do in..." . My son discovered the Catacombs in Paris and it was a huge hit with him, my dd chose on her trip not to visit them, but she found the Shoah Museum ( after having read a good book called "Hiding Edith" about a 10 yr old jewish girl who was hidden in a village in France by the villagers , true story and not too upsetting for kids)

One advantage of Barcelona over Paris in April may be weather, it can be nice in Paris in April or it can still be cool and rainy, I imagine you might have better luck in Barcelona at that time.

Surfergirl

Paris. Your daughter clearly has a preference. And for the first trip to Europe, yes, Paris would make the lasting impression.

I'm not just basing this on what you've mentioned, I'm basing it on personal experience. As background, we've been taking our son to Europe every 2 years since he was 13 months old. So by the time we visited Spain when he was 10, he'd already been to Paris 4 or 5 times. On the Spain trip, we also took our niece, who had never been to Europe. She was 15 at the time. While she enjoyed Madrid and Barcelona, it wasn't as exciting to her as Paris, and there didn't seem to be as much to do -- and at 15, she really loved to shop.

The kids loved the hotel and the hotel pool. They enjoyed the Sagrada Familia and the Museu Picasso (particularly since it covers his youth, so they could see how he painted at their respective ages). They liked the Gaudi bone house (Casa dels ossos).

The hardest thing for my son was the language -- he sort of "got" what they were saying, but he prided himself in knowing Spanish, so I think he felt like he thought he knew more than he did. So it wasn't great for his ego/confidence.

He was super fine with the food, since he's always been experimental, but I think my niece was not particularly thrilled with the food. But she did like drinking the sangria!

Surfergirl

I should have mentioned that following Barcelona, we took the night train to Paris and were in Paris for a week. Which is how my niece, at least, could visit, and compare. She absolutely loved it.

StCirq

We used to take our kids down into Spain from time to time from our house in France. We never got to Barcelona, but did a fair bit of wandering around the Costa Brava and on the northern coastal area. Of course, my kids came with their own biases (didn't speak Spanish, did speak French...had lots of experience with France compared to Spain), but what really always upended those trips and made us run back to France after 4-5 days was the dinner hour issue. My kids loved eating, pretty much anything (not picky), and they simply could not get used to not being able to sit down for a good dinner until well past the hour they were used to eating. And yes, we could have had pizza or tapas or small bites somewhere, but after a day of touring all of us wanted to chill over a full (not fancy, just full) meal. I kept thinking they'd get used to it, but nope...so we'd head back to France breathing a sigh of relief.

Probably seems like a picayune matter, but it was annoying, and I recall it being a nightly bit of turmoil. I guess my kids were creatures of habit. Your family, of course, is likely completely different and could be totally unfazed by this.

plambers

All, thanks again. I was "underimpressed" with Barcelona 20 years ago, but guess I got caught up with the Olympics and that it is a hot city to visit. Nothing has been able to compare to Paris for us-my fear is that I wanted to do Paris my way but after reading your posts, it would be fun to do it with kids - maybe both ways. I should not let things like rain deter me. Thanks for bringing me back to reality!!
Will be sure to report back as to how our 10 pm dinners go in Spain in a few weeks!! Will also post on things to do with kids-am not familiar with many of your great ideas so it will be planning anew. Thanks again

danon

Barcelona is very different than 20 years ago...
I find it easy to walk around.....several possible day trips
Great food .. Formal restaurants open late, but there is
plenty to eat in Spain any time of the day...You will see.

justineparis

Secretly I am rooting for Paris, but am trying to be "fair" to Barcelona as I have so little experience there and so much more in Paris, lol.

surfmom

I haven't been to Barcelona, but Paris is great with kids ... and that would be my vote.

We just returned from there and had a great trip - click on my username for a trip report and you can see some of the fun things we did... bike tour of Versailles, cooking class, chocolate tour.

have a great trip!

Robert2533

If you want to experience something a different from Paris and Barcelona in April, then you might want to consider spending time between San Sebastian-Donostia (País Vasco) and Biarritz (Pays Basque). It's not actually beach weather, but there are usually enough things going on to keep the children busy and entertained.

In San Sebastian you can take them up to Monte Igueldo, an amusement park overlooking La Concha bay (www.monteigueldo.es), or walk La Concha Beach and visit the aquarium. In the Pays Basque, you can take them on the train (La Petit Train de La Rhune) to the top La Rhune mountain (www.rhune.com) and stand with one foot in Nafarroa (Pays Basque) and one foot in the ancient kingdom of Navarra. On a clear day you see all seven provinces of the Basque Country from the top of the mountain.

This year they had a treasure hunt for children during Easter Week.

They can go horseback riding on both sides of the Pyrenees and if the weather is warm enough, learn how to surf in Biarritz. Fishing season (Trout, salmon, eel, shad, carp, barbel, zander, pike, black bass) opens in March.

And if you golf, there are 11 excellent courses in the area around Biarritz.

Surfergirl

@StCirq -- it's funny you should mention the dinner hour, because I was contemplating also mentioning that issue as well. Except with my son, eating at 10 or 11 p.m. was never an issue -- in fact, all the times we spent in the south of France in the summer, it was not unusual for us to have dinner at that time.

But for my niece, it definitely was an issue, and waiting until 10 p.m. in Spain for the restaurants to open -- we did spend a LOT of pre-dinner time in bars -- fortunately everyone including the niece were just fine with anchovies, ham and olive tapas!

plambers -- glad you decided on Paris! There's so much to do with a 10 and 12 year old, even in April, aside from the usual landmarks. Happy to give you a multitude of ideas, as I'm sure everyone else can do as well or better than me.

StCirq

Surfergirl, the funny thing is, in France and at home in the USA, we were always used to eating at later hours (8-9 pm, especially in France in summer when it was light out until 10 or later), but that extra hour seemed to drive the kids nuts.

Lexma90

We've visited both places with our teen kids, and they liked both. DS really likes more modern art, so that was one of the reasons we visited Barcelona with him (he was 12yo at the time) - Gaudi, Miro, we went to the Dali museum in Figueres. We were concerned about dinner hours, too, even though we eat at 8-9 pm at home. In Barcelona, at least where we ate, they do eat a little earlier than in other parts of Spain. I think we usually ate in Barcelona between 8 and 9, and it worked out just fine. We liked the tapas concept a lot, though that is less a custom in Barcelona than other parts of Spain (though you will find plenty of tapas there, don't worry about that).

I wondered about the first time in Paris with our kids, too, but it made for a wonderful experience to see the place anew, through their first-time eyes.

sf7307

We took our kids both places, Paris when they were 11/13 and Barcelona when they were 13/15. We really liked Barcelona (and my son and his wife have been back - they got engaged in Barcelona), but nothing beats Paris for a first trip to Europe. I could return to Paris over and over, whereas Barcelona is a "once or twice" kind of place.

kimhe

Barcelona is great with kids, tons of attractions, parks, the excellent city beach Barceloneta (as early as April it will be crowded with people) and fabulous tapas style and laid-back dining.

Some suggestions:

Tibidabo Amusement Park: http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/en/ti...amusement-park
FC Barcelona, the greatest football (soccer) team ever, museum and Camp Nou tour: http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/en/fc-barcelona-stadium
The Aquarium: http://www.aquariumbcn.com/AQUARIUM/index.php?wlang=en
Sagrada Familia: http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/en/sagrada-familia
Montjuic Cable Car: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/Mont...i_wPIXQ6GELBrQ
Montjuic castle: http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/en/montjuic-castle
Xmax speedboat: http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/en/xmax-speedboat

With kids in Barcelona in general: http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/en/visiting

plambers

Hi all-ff miles stlil not available for 4/11 travel so have not booked anything yet. DH and I leave for Spain (Madrid and Sevilla) next Thurs. Looks like this will be our last trip alone for a long time!
Barcelona is on my (long) list of places to re-visit but as many of you have said, there is nothing quite like Paris and think it would be a great "first" for them and 5th for us.
THanks again for all your thoughtful responses.