European mini city tour with two older teenagers

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Thinking ahead to next year for holiday. I suspect that DSs (18 and 17) will still not be going away with friends and will want included in our plans and we are fine with that, however I think we want something different to a beach/villa type holiday.

I was thinking about maybe european mini city tour - stuff to do but still hopefully nice weather :) This is something that DH and I would enjoy even if we did end up going on our own so the planning wouldn't be wasted and I think DSs would like it as long as there were some actual activities (tours etc) included as they don't really do wandering about/shopping without purpose. They'd like sitting in squares with a beer and food though!

DH wouldn't want to do more than one flight so thought we could do a few places that were trainable in between.

DS2 & DH really into history, DH anything, DS2 anything but also very keen on the byzantine empire. DS1 and I are pretty easily pleased. We are not really art gallery people but museums and sciency stuff are fine.

Anyone recommend some cities that would be interesting, enjoyable and easy to go between?

Fly to Madrid on BA / Easyjet / Norwegian / Air Europa

Things to do include:

• Retiro park with boating lake, crystal palace
• Prado art gallery (also Reina Sofía, which has Picasso's Guérnica, the Thyssen museum, Caixa Forum, and the Sorolla museum (painter's former home, with lovely quiet, shady gardens)
• tour of Bernabéu or new Metropolitano stadium
• "Sunset Cinema" - evening showings of all sorts of films inside the atrium of a beautiful 1900s building, with an indoor "beach bar"
• El Escorial monastery and mountain town, also the controversial Valle de los Caídos nearby
• short train or bus ride to the mountains for hikes and swimming in natural pools
• Royal Palace
• zoo and theme park in Casa de Campo park
• waterpark and many outdoor swimming pools
• lots of rooftop bars
• tapas tours, food markets, great food, inexpensive

High speed train to Valencia:

• beach
• "City of Arts and Sciences" - aquarium and other futuristic buildings housing various exhibitions
• huge park surrounding the city centre (the bed of a former river)
• medieval silk market - absolutely stunning
• food market in a cool iron and glass building from early 20th C.
• paella, seafood

Train or bus to Barcelona:

• Sagrada Familia, Park Güell and Gaudi architecture
• tour of Camp Nou
• beach, and long boardwalk, with restaurants overlooking the sea
• lovely Catalan food
• historic "El Born" area with a stunning church (Santa María Del Mar) and a former market turned into an exhibition of local history
• loads of places to warm, drink, eat, explore

Train to Bilbao:

• cooler weather!
• Guggenheim museum
• lovely old town with loads of pintxo bars (pintxos are Basque tapas) - Basque food is AMAZING
• local wines and ciders
• nice river walk
• short metro ride to various beaches (including ones where you can surf)
• bus ride to Guérnica, if you're interested in visiting (personally I thought it was a little dull despite the historical significance)
• bus ride to San Sebastián, a beautiful, elegant seaside town with lovely beaches, outstanding food, historic old town, nice walks / strolls

Fly back from Bilbao on Vueling

(You could skip Valencia or Barcelona if you just want 3 locations rather than 4. Barcelona has more to see, but is busier and the beach in the city centre isn't particularly special).

Trains in Spain are fantastic - fast, reliable, and very comfortable. Do try to book early (e.g 2 to 3 months in advance) for the best prices.

Berlin. We had our best short break ever there with teen dss.

Have a look at Seat61.com for the rail possibilities. I haven't braved the sleeper or interail possibilities yet, but we are taking train from Nice to the Cinque Terre villages in Italy for October half term with some stop offs. We did go to south of France this year on the train vs driving which was bloody marvellous.

Madrid. Loads to do + day trips to Toledo, Segovia, easy travel to Valencia.

Or Vienna, again loads to do. Boat down to Bratislava. Train to Budapest.

Byzantine Empire - Italy doing Ravenna, Venice, other stuff round Emilia-Romagna. Would sciency include cars eg Ferrari at Modena? Other great places to visit are Padua, Mantua, Bologna, Ferrara. All can be done v easily by train - not totally art, a lot of opportunity for sitting in squares with amazing food. Mosaics in Ravenna are amazing.

Another vote for Granada/Seville etc. We did this a few years ago and it was fabulous.

We flew to Malaga and then hired a car to stay in an airbnb so we could do the El Caminito del Rey and then drove to Granada and got rid of the hire car.

Stayed 2 nights in Granada and did the Alhambra and just wandered around eating tapas etc. There's a great square up in the Moorish Quarter with several tapas restaurant and a viewpoint nearby where you can see the Alhambra lit up at night.

Then we got the coach to Seville (there is a train, but the line was closed and might still be) and stayed 4 nights in Seville. One of those days, we got the train to Cordoba for the day. Last day we got the train back to Malaga, hung around the beach and city for a few days, before getting the train back to the airport - all very easy and relatively cheap on the trains and coach. We prebooked some parts, but not others.

Hung around Malaga for a few hours, not a few days, although Malaga is also great for a Spanish city break, Picasso museum, tapas, squares, two monument/castle type things and beach too.