Where to take teen DD to practice her Spanish

[RenegadeKeeblerElf]

She's doing A level Spanish and we would like to go somewhere together where she can be exposed to the language. She's not into beach holidays or museums and art galleries, just wants to wander around interesting places where she can hear the language around her 🤷. My preference would be Barcelona but that's Catalan rather than Spanish so not so helpful. Looking at early July so Madrid might be a bit too hot. Any bright ideas (trying to persuade her to do the Camino de Santiago but not sure I'll have much luck!)

What about Bilbao? Not a touristy city at all so she would definitely be fully immersed in the language/culture. It’s on the northern coast so much cooler than Madrid and Barcelona etc. One of DD’s friends is studying Spanish at university - she’s currently on her placement year abroad in Bilbao and loves it.

Salamanca? Massive university and an influx of summer school students every year so the locals are well used to people who want to practise their Spanish.

Seville

Granada. Few British, cheap accomodation, flamenco, moorish architecture, no beach, tapas, the Alhambra, awesome city.

Madrid would be your best bet for Castellano but agree it would be hot in July, like most of Spain. They speak Andalucían in Seville and other places further south, just so you are aware.

Go to somewhere like salamanca and book onto the Spanish tour (not the English) eg https://www.freetour.com/salamanca/free-tour-salamanca-must-see?source=

Or book other classes like cooking but in Spanish ask the tourist office

San Sebastián, it’s a beautiful city and its Atlantic coast location usually ensures it doesn’t get oppressively hot.

I’m sending my kid to learn to sail in Spanish.

Madrid and bilbao, have great museums, lively nighttimes and good food.

the trains in Spain are good, you could visit multiple places. Cadiz, Seville, Grenada would also be great to visit.

I'd do a tour of a few places in Castile y León if that's feasible. There are lots of interesting places. My personal favourite is Segovia, but there's also Salamanca, Avila, Burgos, Valladolid etc. It will be hot more or less everywhere in Spain in July unfortunately but not quite as hot there as either Madrid or Andalusia. It's true that the northern coast is cooler and very beautiful but of course places like San Sebastian and Bilbao are in the Basque region and so probably not the best place to go to practice Spanish.

I would say Madrid and just siesta like the locals! Also some lovely outdoor pools

Place marking as I'm learning Spanish!

Thanks all, some really good food for thought, particularly about different dialects, hadn't considered the Basque area as well as Catalan!

Oh and in Galicia where it would be cooler a lot of people speak Galego which IMO is a bit more like Portuguese.

I think going to the Basque country to practice Spanish would be a bit like going to Wales to practice English. Many, probably most, people are bilingual and signs, menus etc are usually in both languages but many people have Basque as their first language. It's a truly beautiful region and a great place to visit but if your DD wants to immerse herself in the language that she's learning it probably isn't ideal.
If the main purpose of the trip is for your DD to practice the language I would go for places that are less popular with British tourists. There are lots of beautiful places off the tourist trail where people won't just reply in English if you address them in imperfect Spanish! North-central Spain might be your best bet as it will be a little bit cooler and the language will be the one she's needing to hear.

I'd say you need to go to a non touristy town, all the cities will have lots of English speakers, menus in English etc.
If you opt for a city try somewhere like Merida in Extremadura which has few non Spanish tourists but unfortunately will probably be very hot in July.
Salamanca is fabulous but I'm not sure how easy it will be to practice Spanish.