Spanish holidays with teen and pre-teen

[ladette]

Doing lots of internet searching but thought that you very helpful mnetters might save me a bit of time...

Looking for summer holiday in Spain.
Must be:
self catering (either mobile home or apartment
site/complex which will appeal to teen and pre-teen
have great facilities, but lots of scope for trips out and possibly walking
be somewhere where they speak the kind of spanish taught in school (so believe the Barcelona area is out)
Not the Costa del Sol (cos we spend our Easters there)

We've seen a lovely Europcamp site but no direct flights to Bilbao and we're a long drive from Plymouth to do the overnight ferry.
Any thoughts?

There's a P&O Ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao but there should also be direct flights to Bilbao from the London area (I don't know if you're anywhere near there). There's also a flight from Liverpool to Santander (SDR) if that's any better. I recommend anywhere on the North coast: Basque country (where Bilbao is), Cantabria (where Santander is), Asturias (also direct flights from Stansted) or Galicia (direct flights to Coruña or Santiago de Compostela): lovely scenery, lots of fantastic walks and much quieter that the rest of Spain but still plenty of happening places around for your teens to enjoy.

Sorry Ladette, just realised you were the person who asked about activity holidays recently and I also replied about this area. Not stalking you, honestly!

Shame Costa del Sol is out - we went to an otherwise ideal place last year.

we'd fly from Manchester, and short direct flights unless we go to the Barcelona area but was worried about the language implications. Will check out Liverpool again, I only looked at Easy Jet and they don't do Santander. Considered the ferry and might still do that but it'll be a lot of travelling. Are you aware of any good self-catering complexes round the area vacaloca (other than mobile home campsites - we're already looking at these and interested in alternatives).
Wendy, I agree, but we are going to Costa del Sol at Easter and have been there a few times, and always try to spend our longer summer holiday somewhere we've not been before.
thanks both, we are doing lots of research but you can't beat other people's experiences and knowledge!

This is where we went but now I look it's fully booked in the summer anyway.

I can recommend the holiday-rentals website though so have a search around to see if you can find somewhere else. Do you want coastal? You could think about the Cadiz area (costa de la luz) - no direct flights from Manc, but you could fly to Gib?

thanks Wendy, one to consider.

In Barcelona people speak Catalan and Castilian (the Spanish that people learn at school). They'll definitely make an effort to speak Castilian to you if they see you are making an effort to do so. The only problem might be signs etc. But I wouldn't rule it out just because of Catalan.

Thanks chica666, i'd love to go to the coast around barcelona, but was worried about the language. Not for me (I don't speak Spanish at all) but for DS - idea is for him to get all enthused about the GCSE subject he hates the most. I was just worried it would be a turn off if people didn't understand his efforts, so your post if encouraging. Thanks. Off to explore some options....

Have just booked, mobile home in Vilanova, Costa Dorada, 40 km from Barcelona.Thanks Chica for giving us the thumbs up re the language in this area.

Hi Ladette, I live near Vilanova (about 10mins away). There are tons of things to do around there with kids. Check out this site for activites for kids and teens as recommended by local mums www.mumabroad.com

thanks RebeccaandOllie, will have a look. Looks a lovely place in the brochure, hope it lives up to expectations!