Odin

For a family that want history, culture, architecture, I would have thought that Greece at Easter would be a no-brainer. It is the most important event of the Orthodox calendar, more so than Christmas. I agree that you are getting the wrong impression about how crowded it is in Greece and Spain for that matter. I think you should take notice of the advice that posters who have actually been to these countries at that time of year who are telling you that you are overthinking this.

Either country would give you the history, culture and architecture that you want to see/experience.

brook33003

Odin, this wouldn't be the first time I've overthought something.

kimhe

Impossible to overthink how crowded easter is in Andalucía. In the rest of Spain it's not very crowded at all (everyone is in Andalucía ;-)), you'd have to seek out the processions if you want to see them. In Andalucía the processions are everywhere and people are all over the place almost all the time.

kimhe

To give you an idea of the Semana Santa atmosphere in Andalucía, here is wonderful malagueña Diana Navarro singing a seaeta from a balcony over the Marques de Larios street in Málaga. Fellow malagueño Antonio Banderas on her side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0HHdxt5_kY

mariha2912

I don't know why people keep mentioning the islands for this trip...I would think mainland Greece suit much better what OP's needs?
First of all, do you plan to hire a car brook? And how do you envision your trip exactly? Staying put in one place and take a few side trips, make sort of a orad trip fitting 2-3 locations or what?

Something to be aware of is that Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are bank holidays in Greece so archeological museums and sites etc will be closed, while timetables are often limited on Great Friday too. Of course with kids i tow you do not want to run from one attraction to an other without fitting other activities, so this is not much of a problem with proper planning.