Spain with 16 year old grandson
 

Would like to head to Spain for a week to ten days in August. Besides Madrid, what sights, cities or towns would a teenager find interesting? Castles? Archaeological sites? And what in Madrid might be interesting to him? Trains and ferries preferred to autos. Thank you!

Have you asked him? Did he deal with Spain in history or geography classes? Is he taking Spanish as a language? Have you encouraged him to raid the shelves of his local library and look things up?

When he gets enthused about something that he finds out on his own, that's when you know you're on the right track, not when somebody among us here on Fodors simply makes a recommendation that may have nothing to do with your grandson's preferences.

I suggest you, too, get a guidebook or three, read up on the history and geography, there is way too much in Spain to sum up in a glib few sentences.

When you have questions about specific locations and transportation modalities etc., we can help.

Perhaps a visit to the Santiago Bernabéu, the home of Real Madrid, one of the greatest soccer teams in the world. http://www.realmadrid.com/cs/Satelli...o_Bernabeu.htm

The spectacular Teleférico/Cable car with the best views of the city: http://www.teleferico.com/en

The Veranos de la Villa/Summer in the city festival goes on through August. World class concerts/performances in outdoor scenes every night. The one in the Sabatini gardens just outside the Royal Place is something special.

And you are close to Toledo, an adventure in itself: http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres...os/toledo.html

Madrid in August is usually very hot, so it might be a good idea to take the high speed AVE train to either Valencia or Barcelona in no time. Great beaches and tons of things to do. Barcelona is both the medieval Gothic quarter and ultramodern, and Valencia is, among other things, known for the cutting edge City of Arts and Sciences: http://www.cac.es/?languageId=1

The Port Aventura Park is one hour outside wonderful Barcelona: http://www.portaventura.co.uk/

Always updated info about Madrid: http://www.esmadrid.com/en/portal.do
Barcelona: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/
Valencia: http://www.visitvalencia.com/en/home

As nice as Madrid is, August in not the best month for visiting. It will be too hot to be actually enjoyable. Also, most of the better restaurants will be closed for the month. Instead, you should look at heading north, to Donostia-San Sebastian and the Basque coast, which include Asturias and Cantabria. And there is also Galicia, including a stop in Santiago de Compostela.

As noted, give him a guide book so he can part of the planning.

Thank you all so much. He has no interests outside of hanging out with friends and iPad. Very low key kid. Perhaps this is not the best place to take him. Alternative is the Caribbean. Need minimal time change as only gave a week. He wants warm and dry weather.

"...He has no interests outside of hanging out with friends and iPad..." That changes everything. You'd be wasting your money and nerves. There would be too much unfamiliar stuff, and too much "to learn" for somebody who is not interested. A guarantee for disaster.

A week in the Carribean, if you can stand the idleness, seems the better of two not-very-interesting choices. Preferably where English is the main language so that he doesn't have to make an effort.

Maybe taking him to somewhere out of his usual comfort zone, might just kick start his brain into more worthwhile activity. Unless you give him a chance to see something different, you and he will never know what he'll learn. Rather than Madrid, I'd go for Barcelona.

The easy route is say "Oh OK, he's a cabbage".

What about some place like an ecotourism resort in Costa Rica? You have the beach, the rain forests with lots of interesting animals, hiking, etc. This kind of place would be out of his comfort zone and maybe out of yours. And no jet lag. We love it although we also love Spain.