Spain recommendations with kids

[MrsMartinRohde]

My sons (who will be 10 and 8) want to go to Spain next year. I've promised we will but I have absolutely no idea where to start looking. I've got no preference as to where in Spain, but I guess they'd prefer a beach.

It's got to be during school holidays, we will need access to a pool. There will be three adults and two children (one with ASD). Would be great to be in relatively easy access to water park and/or other kid-friendly amenities. Neither of my sons would be into kids clubs or the like so a resort type holiday would probably not be ideal.

Any suggestions would be very welcome! Thanks

Budget ?

What about Tenerife? It’s a Spanish island and the biggest waterpark in Europe is there (Siam Park). The Costa Adeje area is lovely with an enormous beach and plenty of restaurants etc. It’s away from the horrible 18-30 resort too.
If you specifically want mainland Spain then look at hotels in the area of Costa Dorada as there is the huge theme park and water park near there called Port Aventura.

Budget, I have no idea... don't know what's reasonable. I'd be paying for 1 adult and 2 children. Is £1,000 for a week for us three a lot/not enough/ridiculous? (I truly have no idea, as the only family holidays we've ever had have been to a caravan in Dorset or to family in Scandinavia where we only had flight costs - this is why I'm totally at a loss)

As for mainland vs islands - it's my older son who is driving this and I think the key is that Spanish is spoken so I think islands would be fine. :D

£1,000 before or after you have paid for your flights. ?

My sister is off to Costa Brava in Spain next week with her partner and two kids to a 3 star hotel and it’s costing them £2200 for the week all inclusive. It’s very expensive to go abroad during peak school holidays unfortunately.

Cala n Bosch in menorca has a small water park and is a nice family resort.
Lots of big family resorts on Costa del sol and you can choose self catering, small hotel or big resort. There are also big water parks.
I also second Costa adeje in Tenerife.
However I think you will struggle for £1000.
I just paid £3000 for three adults in two rooms a four star hotel b&b for a week including flights.
Go on a tour operator website such as Jet2 or Tui and put some details in.
It can often be cheaper to book a package especially if you are not fussy about airports or flight times..

We pay £1,000 a week for accommodation.

I would definitely recommend PortAventura World in Salou. There are 5 hotels as part of the theme park all on different board basis. I've stayed at the Caribe hotel (half board, £2,400 for 4) and El Paso hotel £2,800 for all inclusive). You get park tickets included so you have unlimited access. There is heaps to do for kids.

Thank you - £1,000 not including flights, but I can stretch further, well, it looks like I'll have to. I think I'd prefer self-catering, too, but I'll look into packages.

You could look at Air B &B too if you want self catering as they can sometimes work out a bit cheaper

We went to a Eurocamp park in the Costa Dorada area - was Torres del Sol at Miami Platya. The beach was lovely and quiet, we were a short taxi ride away from Cambrills which has shops/restaurants and we could do day trips to Barcelona. We could have easily gone to the Port Adventura Park but the kids weren’t really old enough and were happy with the on-site pool.

Would avoid Salou itself as it seemed a bit like the Spanish equivalent of Skegness and was just loads of Brit drinking pints.

Talayot in Menorca. Its a beautiful complex and very child oriented. Its not expensive either. Its self catering but the restaurant is lovely. Have a look on trip advisor.

And I wouldn't recommend PortAventura, sorry. Operations are never great there at the best of times but the queues are absolutely horrendous during school holidays, made worse by the constant queue jumping. They now flog so many Express Passes you can easily spend 90 minutes in an Express queue. That's not a fun time for anyone. Meal times at the hotels are like a zoo with far too many people trying to get to the crappy food at the buffet. The water park at PortAventura isn't the best, either. Siam is far superior.

I was going to suggest a Eurocamp too. We’re off to Sangli in Salou next month and it has waterslides on the park.