Malaga or Madrid with early teens

[ForNaiceHiker]

Barcelona, Seville and Valencia all hugely enjoyed.

Now for Easter 2025 (we have booked Seville again for 2024)…. malaga or madrid? city break as beach holiday always booked in summer. This is about 3 nights of culture, trying weird and wonderful foods, loads of walking and practising our spanish as much as possible.

I like Malaga but think Madrid has much more to offer

Teen DD hated Malaga, to be honest so did I. Not much to do if you’re not an art gallery fan, an incredibly dirty beach and a lot of very dodgy areas once you’re off the main strip. Our trip was 4 nights long and I had an incredibly bored and fed up teen by the end of it.

We’ve been to both Barcelona and Valencia as you said above which she loved

Would you consider Granada? An hour and a half by train from Malaga and much nicer.

My teens loved Malaga, they loved the Alcazar, Picasso, tapas. We took the train to Segovia, and Marbella (the beach is nicer) it really depends on your teens. If you like heritage sites I found it better than Madrid in that respect. I found Malaga less shady than Barcelona.

Madrid in a shot.

Malaga without a doubt. Mine found Madrid underwhelming.

Disclaimer that I haven't been to Malaga, but if you want to walk lots and try lots of food then Madrid is fabulous. It's a beautiful city spread out over a big area so it's very easy to get your steps in. The San Miguel market in the centre is wonderful for food and drinks, plus we visited others that were less central and more for locals that were also fab.
I'd go back in a heartbeat!

Madrid fits your description. We loved it.

We have been to Malaga (Carihuela) but as a sun break really, didn't do much cultural stuff!

oh goodness i’m more confused. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. It’s either malaga is great but madrid is poor or vice versa

please help!!

can you elaborate? why? we aren’t after a beach holiday btw. pure city break

i think i’m going to follow you given loved valencia and barcelona

thank you!

Neither. Another vote for Granada. Definitely worth the trek. And make sure you arrange a trip to:

https://www.caminitodelrey.info/en/

grenada is 2026

have you been to both madrid and malaga?@Bjorkdidit

Oh, in that case Madrid. But tbh, Malaga was worth the trip too, so for me it might come down to which had the cheapest flights/best times.