We are planning a week long beach vacation in Spain with 2 small kids (2 and 3 yrs old). Our mid 60 yr old parents will likely join us and we are late 30s. We'd like to center the vacation around the beach and would like to rent a villa/house. As we comb through the millions of options, we are becoming overwhelmed.

Can anyone recommend a coastal location which may be good for us? We are looking for calm, easy swimming, good quality restaurants that are sophisticated, but kid friendly. We like dining out, but not nightclubs. We would rather not stay in or near the big all inclusive resorts. We also like to stroll through shops so a proper town or village is preferable.

Forgive me, I know this is broad, but any help helping us slim down the options would be great. I've been doing lots of research on line, but still haven't been able to narrow it down.

Any ideas? Thank You!

Try Mojacar in Almeria province.

san sebastian.

wonderful food, beach, no "all inclusive" stuff.

and [for the sake of the little ones] hopefully not too hot.

The two responses above indicate the wonderful variety of Spain. San Sebastian in the northwest Basque country is on the Atlantic, close to France. Almeria is in the southeast, the most Moorish part of Spain, on the Mediterranean. Different people, different food, different seas. All glorious. But if you want practical information, you need to specify when you want to go and what you want to see, and what attention must be paid to the kids. For instance, I doubt you want to pay Michelin 3-star prices in San Sebastian for molecular foamed snails for your kiddies. There are lots of other choices in that foodie destination -- and indeed in all of Spain, possibly the hottest country for gourmets right now -- but you see how being a little more specific will produce more edifying results here. And with an open attitude, you cannot go too far wrong in Spain, any age, any appetite.

Hi, very helpful, thank you. You're right, foamed snails will be wasted on us. So, primary goal is making kids happy and being in a place where we are all comfortable. We don't want such fine dining that patrons cringe at the sight of our kids, but we do want the adults to be able to enjoy a good meal. We primarily want easy swimming within walking distance, a town (with stuff of the more local, handcrafted variety and farmers markets) and a really nice villa where we can be comfortable. We don't yet know of activity options, but things like strolls on a promenade, horse and carriage rides, and lots of water activities would be a hit with the family. We are planning on going in late August, coming in from London. We basically want something that has enough going on to give us options, without the noise or over touristy vibe. In my limited research, Stiges, Nerja, and Cambrilis all looked nice, but we've only been at the research for 2 nights now! Thank you!

Look at Denia and Javea. Then you have good day trips to the aquarium and zoo ( bio Park) in Valencia when you tire of the beach. Both are nice strolling towns.

The beach areas will be VERY busy wherever you go in August,

...at least on the eastern coast and south. Up North it can be more solitary and fewer people. But weather can be much cooler.

In late August much of Spain will be hellishly hot - and not places where you would want little kids out in the heat and sun.

At that time of year I would head for the Northwest coast around San Sebastian - as the only place in the country with deent weather. (IMHO 100 and humid means staying indoors with AC until the weather changes.)

It's interesting that you would use the term "kids" when posting on the Spanish forum instead of toddlers or children as you use on the other forums. Believe it or not, a lot of Spaniards use the term kid when referring to a yourg goat (when thinking of lunch) and may look at you rather strange at times. Just a thought...

Another vote for fabulous San Sebastián (pop 180 000), European capital of culture 2016 and one of the favourite summer destinations for the Spanish for a couple of hundred years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOyyfd5dO8

Some of the finest city beaches in Europe. Ondarreta beach and famous La Concha beach are perfect for "calm, easy swimming". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U09M361MVk

Tons of affordable and no fuzz high quality restaurants in food crazy San Sebastián. It's not all about Michelin stars and miniature cooking, they are just taking food dead serious up here.

Kids are everywhere at all times. Several nice playgrounds around town, and some great parks (Urgull, Miramar, Cristina Enea etc). An old-fashioned funfair up at Monte Igueldo in the western part of town. Great views over beautiful San Sebastián from up here:
http://www.monteigueldo.es/indexIN.html

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Small Nerja (pop 22 000) on the coast just East of Málaga city would be something completely different, but also a great alternative. Excellent for kids (nine small and large beaches between the cliffs) and popular with tourists, but has also retained much of its Andalucian small town charm. Photo: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/...de6a8146_o.jpg

Always updated info about Nerja.
http://www.nerjatoday.com/

If you truly are loking for something small check out Puerto de Santa Maria near Cadiz.You can actually take a small boat ferry over to Cadiz.There is a castle where supposedly Clumbus stayed while waiting to be funded,lots of sherry bodegas,a short train ride to Jeres and Sevilla.I loved wandering around the town,great market,bullring,seafood.The beach is wonderful.Puerto is popular with Europeans-I didn't meet any Americans as yet!
IMO San Sebastian these days is getting way too much publicity-rightly so but becoming so crowded and overpriced.

Cadaquez (in Catalonia), arsty fishing village on the Mediterranean (Dali's birthplace), about 1.5 hours from Barcelona. Many Northern European families with kids go every year. We were there with our boys (when they were young) during August - not too hot, really fun, great town...not too touristy. We stayed at the very unpretentious, affordable hotel Playa Sol - rocky beach, otherwise fantastic.
http://www.playasol.com/index.php?op...mid=13&lang=en

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions - we will check them out!