Family Bliss On the Go in Barcelona
We went to Barcelona in early June 2023 with our two boys (then aged 5yo and almost 8yo).
May 31st, we left Egypt and headed to Barcelona. I will say that when we saw our Disney cruise was leaving from Barcelona, I was less than thrilled with the destination. I knew really I’d say nothing at all about Barcelona. Even after researching and planning a few fun sounding plans for our couple days there, I still did not have the highest of hopes about our time there. I have never been more wrong. Barcelona was one of my favorite places I think, and I’d love to go back and see more. It is an absolutely beautiful place to explore, and our kids loved it too.
Day 1: I always recommend no significant plans on the first day arriving to a place because everyone’s tired from traveling and not at their best. So this first day in Barcelona, we simply relaxed and settled in to our new city for the next couple days. Our hotel while in Barcelona was an “aparthotel,” which is a phrase you can search for when looking for lodging in many places in Europe. It’s essentially like a small apartment or condo in your room, which separate sleeping areas and a kitchen, but with the amenities of a hotel still. The one we stayed at was called Aparthotel BCN Montjuic, and they have a rooftop pool which sounds awesome, but I will say the water was COLD when we were there! The boys and Jon swam one night after sightseeing, but I took a hard pass!
Day 2 (June 1st), we did 3 different big things this day. As you’ll read below, that is not advised. I would recommend doing everything we did on this day because it was all AWESOME, but I’d do it over at least 2 days. So, what did we do? First, we went on a private walking tour of Barcelona which was specifically geared for families with children. We saw the Gothic Quarter, Born, and Ciutat Vella neighborhoods. Our guide, Adrianna, was amazing! She had a scavenger hunt for the kids with landmarks along our walk to keep them engaged, and she planned strategic stops along the way for play at playgrounds and a break for churros and chocolate. We met her on La Rambla and first navigated through Mercado de la Boqueria (a HUGE market where we sampled fresh ham and cheese), then strolled along quaint streets near the Cathedral de Barcelona, where we saw remnants of the original Roman wall surrounding the city. We lingered through the Placa de Sant Jaume (a square with government buildings famous for being their place of protest…we actually saw a small protest there later in the day), and we continued past the Basilica de Santa Maria Del Mar. We made a pit stop at a souvenir store where the boys bought statues of their favorite characters pooping....may be their favorite souvenirs to this day! There's a story/reason behind these statues in Barcelona, but I will say....every kid would love a pooping souvenir! We cruised through the Musea d’Historia de la Ciutat (City History Museum) which has an extensive collection of underground Roman Ruins, then we crossed into the Parc de la Ciutadella to see the French-inspired park and watch the ducks. This is where our tour guide left us, so we could spend some time in the park ourselves, snapping pictures of the mammoth and fountain. If we would have broken up the day into multiple days like I suggested at the beginning, I would have stayed in this park for much longer and had some free time with kids running and playing more, but we had to leave fairly quickly to get to our next place.
We booked this private family friendly tour through Viator. It’s called Family Private Tour: Churros, Hot Chocolate, and Games. Here’s the link if you want to book it too: https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/The-best-private-Family-tour-in-Barcelona-Have-fun-with-your-kids/d562-110975P6?pid=P00300712&mcid=42383&medium=link&campaign=BarcelonaFamTour
Next, we took a group tour of Parc Guell. It was a group tour, not private as we often prefer, which meant that Jon (who is hard of hearing) couldn’t hear the tour guide and the kids lost interest quickly. This meant I followed closely to the tour guide to hear all the information while Jon and the boys wandered nearby for pictures and sight-seeing, and then I translated to them the main points or interesting facts thereafter. Parc Guell was AMAZING, and I wish we would’ve had more time on our own there and/or booked a private tour to enjoy it more. The park is Gaudi’s most famous work with buildings and structures made with intricate mosaic designs. There are stone walkways through gorgeous gardens designed to highlight natural elements like caves with stalactites or a giant wave of water. I will say that we booked the guided tour specifically because it’s the easiest way to get tickets and enter without a long line, and our tour guide allowed us free time to explore on our own there after the tour, so we could’ve spent hours there enjoying it all. Planning faux pas on my end was booking too much into one day, and we had to leave to get to our mosaic making class. If I were to do it again, I’d plan a day or at least several hours to spend in the park.
We booked this group tour of Parc Guell through Viator. It was called Parc Guell Skip the Line Guided Tour in Barcelona. Here is the link if you want to book this tour as well: https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/Park-Guell-Tickets-with-Tour-Guide/d562-340934P1?pid=P00300712&mcid=42383&medium=link&campaign=ParcGuell
Despite being sad about having to leave the park earlier, I LOVED our mosaic class. We got to make our own personal souvenir to take home, and the boys had so much fun with this. They had our youngest son make a treasure box with pre-cut plastic pieces for safety, while the rest of us made picture frames with real pieces of ceramic tiles that we got to break ourselves with tools. We booked a private family class for Mosaic making directly with the store called Mosaiccos. You can also just google search family friendly Mosaic making classes in Barcelona.
Day 3 (June 2nd), we went on a guided tour of the Magic Mountain (Montserrat) and the monastery there that is famously known for the Black Madonna statue. This church, which is surrounded by giant mountains, was thought to hide the Holy Grail. In fact, it was raised by Napolean and Hitler’s Nazis, all searching for the chalice. This is still an active monastery with monks living behind the walls, so they ask you to be mindful of that and respectful. It is also well known for its boys’ choir, the first musical school in the world, and ranked in the top two with Vienna. If you time your trip well, you can hear them practicing. We did not get to hear that, but we did hear the church bells ringing through the mountains, which was amazing. Our tour started with a long steep ride up the mountain on a Funicular. We visited the church with our tour guide, got to go inside and light a candle, and then we walked down the mountainside. It was a clear path but steep.
We booked our tour through Viator. The exact tour we booked does not appear to be an option any more. That being said, this one looks very similar/the same: https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/Montserrat-Monastery-and-Hiking-Experience-with-Cable-Car/d562-62766P11?pid=P00300712&mcid=42383&medium=link&campaign=Montesserat
After this morning/afternoon journey, we went back to the hotel for a siesta and then relaxed nearby that evening. When traveling with kids, as much as possible, I’d suggest planning for one major activity per day and then letting the rest of the day unravel as it will. That doesn’t always work if you’re trying to pack in a lot of sights in a small amount of time, but when it’s possible, it’s definitely more enjoyable for everyone.
Day 4 (June 3rd), we left and boarded our Disney cruise boat, which was what had brought us to Barcelona in the first place. In the morning, we grabbed a light breakfast and coffee at a café which was just around the corner from our hotel (Tahona) and where we went every morning that we were in Barcelona, officially making it “our place.” It was kind of nice because Barcelona was definitely a very quick whirlwind trip but having this routine made it feel more like living there or as if we had more time than we really did. I would highly suggest a trip to Barcelona for any families with kids!
If I could do Barcelona again, this is what I’d do:
-Stay at same place and still frequent our little morning Tahona Café. Plus, do all the same activities/tours, but add 2 more days to our stay so that this could have been the schedule:
Day 1: relax and settle in
Day 2: walking tour that we did, spend much more time letting kids run around the park at the end
Day 3: Parc Guell tour and spend much more free time there ourselves after the tour ended
Day 4: walk around Barcelona more on our own, or maybe visit the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, then do our mosaic making class
Day 5: the Montesserat tour
Leave on Day 6.
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