I’m taking the wife and two kids (boy, 6, and girl, 12) to Europe at the end of this month. We’re flying into Barcelona, getting there on a Wednesday morning, and renting a car Friday. We’ll be driving across to Nice on Sunday. I’ve already got hotels booked - Hotel Principal, in the City Centre, and close to Las Ramblas, and in Nice we’ll be staying at Hotel Paradis, which looks to be in the center of town, a short walk from the beach. We’re dropping the car off at the Nice airport and flying back from there on the next Thursday, so we’ve got a few days in each area.
I’m looking for any input from people who’ve been there on things that would be good for us to do. The wife and daughter LOVE to shop, so it was probably a bad idea to chose Hotel Paradis, which is apparently directly between Louis Vuitton and Armani!
Anybody got any can’t-miss type things to do, or any can’t-not-eat-at restaurants? Also, anything I should see on the way from one city to the other?
With two kids, near Barcelona, you should check out Montserrat. (See the pictures link.) It’s pretty amazing scenery, just a short side trip from the city, and a nice chance to stretch your legs.
You can see some gorgeous views on fairly easy, short hikes around Montserrat. Among other things, there’s a neat little chapel built into a cave hanging on the side of the cliff. There’s also a Black Virgin there at the Santa María de Montserrat monastery.
Oh, and it’s really fun to take in the rock formations at Montserrat and then go around Barcelona and look at the Gaudi architecture! You’ll see what I mean when you get there.
We were in Barcelona for five days, but loved Montserrat enough to visit it twice while we were there!
And there’s also a Picasso museum near Las Ramblas. His early work, as I recall.
As far as food goes, we had a terrible meal right on Las Ramblas. Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the place. But we were hungry and got sucked into the tourist trap. However, there’s a great market on Las Ramblas where we bought some food for lunches. Cheap and yummy.
Take some Dramamine for the kids if you’ll be driving on those cool, twisty roads along the way. I went to a wedding outside of Nice several years ago and the countryside away from the beach is really beautiful. Unfortunately I can’t add much about Barcelona, only been once for a day or so, but IMO that’s a lovely part of the world. Guess my other suggestion is to relax and eat leisurely meals - Spain and France are made for this- which may be tough with the kids.
Yes, Sagrada Familia is my favorite reason to visit Barcelona. And take the elevator to the top, if the line’s not too long. The kids should love just walking down the Ramblas, and there’s a neat Farmers’ Market nearby.
In June/July, I’m going on a 3-week train trip across Southern France, from Toulouse to Monaco. I can’t wait.
Thanks for the input, everybody. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back here and respond to it. I’ve got everything mentioned so far on my short list of things to do.
I do have a couple of specific questions, though, maybe you can help me out on this, too -
Are there any nice beaches close-by? I’m picking up the car on Friday, so we’ll be able to road trip on Saturday, and a good beach would be nice. I’d thought about hopping over to Ibiza, but I doubt that’s in the cards.
Do any of you have any specific restaurants that you would recommend, and related - is it true they really eat meals later in the evening? I saw a guide that said you’ll be lucky to be seated before 7pm, and their typical dinnertime is around 8pm to 10pm?
Rivulus - I try to maintain a policy of looking for hole-in-the-wall type places that look like they have great food, but I’ve been sucked into the tourist traps, too.
Shib - Yes, I most certainly will be enjoying some fun up-and-down and side-to-side driving. We’ll have a Peugot 407 to play around with. I’m looking at some of the twisty roads on the map with great anticipation.
With kids that age, you may want to be aware that some of the beaches might allow nude/topless sunbathing. If it’s something you and your wife want your kids to be comfortable with that’s cool, but I remember being hustled away from a beach somewhere in Normandy around the age of 13 (with an 11-year-old brother) when my parents were caught off guard by European sensibilities.
There was a horrid ruckus a few years back when, during a restoration, the guys doing it came out with… a rosy Virgin! They claimed that the image was originally rosy, but had been turned black by the smoke from candles. The Catalans were most certainly Not Amused by this: after all, they even call her La Moreneta, The Dark-skinned One. I think they’re back to having her black.
Barcelona itself has a beach, not any wonder as beaches go, but you can have a nice day just going there in the morning and skipping out when the crows appear. Take the subway to Vila Olímpica: you can enjoy the beach, the Vila and Maremagnum and walk up the Ramblas back to your hotel.
Salou (which has interesting architecture and a lively club scene as well, but don’t go there if you’re allergic to trannies) is a beach town to which you can take a day trip on the train, but I don’t think you have enough time for that really.
The highway (you do NOT want to take smaller roads if you can help it, at least not unless it’s with a very clear destination in mind) goes along several miles of coast, pretty much every village has a beach. depending on how you time the car trip itself, you could stop at one of them.
Nudity is fully legal in Spain except where a local law forbids it. So although there are such things as “nudist beaches” where they’ll look at you funny if you wear clothes, there are very, very few places where you’re not likely to see at the very least some women in topless, and not necessarily sexy ones.
To hop to Ibiza you’d have to take the ferry… from Valencia. WAY too far even with American standards, given Spanish traffic.
As for times, take the hour at which you’d do something at home and add 2: you’ll get a time close to when the locals do it. The problem with dinner is that locals will eat it at 9 if they’re at home, but later if they go out. That’s why God gave to us merienda (a snack about 5-6pm) and tapas, raciones or pintxos in any bar
The train through Nice runs right along the ocean and is very fast, so I’d recommend using it at least once.
My wife and I stayed in Antibes. Very pretty town, but not much to do for kids. Monaco is a short train trip away and worth the visit. Everything is expensive, but there’s plenty to see, even for kids. If you like expensive cars, the town is drenched in them.
Another beautiful little gem of a town is Cagnes sur Mer, but again, quite small and perhaps not appropriate for kids.
As far as beaches are concerned, they’re essentially everywhere. I suppose Cannes is the best, but all the towns along the ocean have nice beaches. We didn’t spend long in Nice, but I imagine the beaches there are pretty sweet.
If you can spare the time, I highly recommend St Paul de Vence, which is inland a bit, but is this beautiful little village high in the hills that doesn’t allow cars. It’s got a ton of little shops and restaurants and can be packed with tourists, but we found it just enchanting.
