The Best Family-Friendly Hotels in Spain
When it comes to family-friendly European destinations, Spain is one of the most popular, and for good reason. Whether it’s the rolling hills of Andalusia that pique your interest, the crystalline waters of the Mediterranean sea, the buzz of a city, or the islands’ bohemian sensibility, there’s something to suit all styles. Accommodation is equally plentiful, though finding the right hotel to suit your family can feel like a challenge. To help, these top family-friendly hotels in Spain prove that traveling with children needn’t mean a compromise on location, style or comfort.
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Benoit LinerohotelPetunia Ibiza, a Beaumier Hotel
Best for: Multi-generation groups
Legend has it Es Vedra, the most magnetic point on earth, is why people return to Ibiza. Petunia’s hilltop perch offers one of the island’s best views of the rock. Perhaps that’s what makes this hotel feel magic. Or is it the combination of family-friendly elements, beautiful interiors, a raw fusion rooftop restaurant, and divine poolside cocktails? Looking around, every guest seems happy, regardless of their age. After a buffet breakfast featuring all the Spanish delicacies as well as trusty classics, set up poolside on plush, double-sized sun loungers that don’t just look good, but make finding space a breeze. The pool itself is a simple rectangular design with steps and a shallow end, but every inch of it can be seen from the water’s edge—something you don’t realize is a plus point until you need full view. What’s more, the unpretentious vibe at Petunia means kids can enjoy themselves without parents feeling like they’re making too much noise.
If you’ve got active youngsters, pack outside games and head to the garden’s shaded lawn to take a break from the sun before refueling at the poolside restaurant with sandwiches, burgers and salads. For adults and teens, the outdoor gym and indoor boutique-slash-lounge space are like secrets to be found. If that is, you can tear yourself away from the far-reaching views. Families should book a ground-floor suite with a pool view, so darting back to the room feels as effortless as possible. Added benefits include a separate living and bedroom area, as well as a free-standing bath, and a mini kitchenette with a sink and empty cupboards for supermarket hauls. Anyone with a pram will notice the smoothness of the pathways that wind between Petunia’s buildings—another often overlooked bonus but one that makes a difference when it comes to getting from A to B. Hire a car and venture to nearby Calla Vadella for the day to experience one of the quieter Ibizan beaches.
Prices: From around $670 a night
Courtesy Puente Romano Beach ResorthotelPuente Romano Beach Resort
Readers' Choice Awards 2021Best for: Everything in one place
Puente Romano is often described as an adult’s playground, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a child that doesn't love it here too. If you’re looking for a hotel that you can settle into and never have to leave, this is it—with a village-style design that covers villa-style bungalows, a tennis club, water sports facilities, botanical gardens and a Six Senses spa. The La Casita Kid’s Club is a particular highlight for parents in need of some R&R—open daily between 10a.m. and 5p.m., and where lunch can be pre-ordered from a varied yet child-friendly menu, so everything is taken care of. The club has an outdoor pool and a garden with a climbing frame and swings, as well as an al fresco dining table.
Elsewhere, there are five more swimming pools to choose from, so those looking to keep things fresh can try a different sunspot each day. The shallow children’s pool neighbors the healthy food, smoothie and coffee hotspot, Rachels. there’s also a great alternative close to the beach with a waterfall and four-poster cabana beds. From here, take a short stroll to the shoreside water sports facilities where teens can ride the banana boat or try paddle boarding. Restaurant-wise, Nobu and Coya are the on-site stars of the show, while the more laidback Sea Grill and Chiringuito have beautiful sea views and offer fantastic children’s menus featuring seabass and fries, tomato pasta and mini burgers. Anyone keen to venture off-site for lunch should take the five-minute (pram-friendly) stroll to Marbella Club, where kid’s menus double up as coloring books. Back in the Puente Romano rooms, find a wealth of gifts for little ones, from branded baby towels to notepads and toiletry sets for bath time.
Prices: From around $1,517 per night
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Six SenseshotelSix Senses Ibiza
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Hot List 2022 Readers' Choice Awards 2022Best for: A truly relaxed family holiday
The understated, haute-bohemian Six Senses is one of the most significant Ibiza hotel openings of recent years, and it raises the game for the entire Balearics with its legions of staff, immaculate interiors and impossibly cerulean views. Set in the far north, it is not just physically removed from the action, but feels a world away from the posadas that pump out poolside techno. Merging with lush gardens bursting with pomegranate, pomelo and quince trees, the family-friendly junior suites (which can fit up to two children) are prepped with bespoke midcentury-modern furniture to please the adults and a fenced terrace that will contain crawling babies.
While grown-ups are enjoying contemporary Middle Eastern cooking at the open-air HaSalon or sushi at BondSt, the kids’ club offers the earthy activities one might expect from Six Senses, such as yoga and art made from recycled food, while older children can join apothecary classes where fragrant lotions are mixed from their home-grown herbs, or have a junior reflexology treatment in the spa. Hotel cars are available for safe passage on that first trip to Pacha. No, you are not invited. Just cross your fingers and hold on till dawn.
Price: Doubles from about $300
Casa MacaCasa Maca, Ibiza
Best for: Parents with babies
Casa Maca was once an ancient Ibizan farmhouse, and its inland, hilltop location overlooking Evissa makes it the ultimate spot for quiet escapism. It’s the kind of place you’d have loved to stay pre-parenthood, or maybe you did, and you’re keen to hold onto that life for as long as possible. Gladly, though, the hotel is set up to host children, and its hospitable staff treat families like guests in their homes.
Each of the 10 suites here offers ample space to comfortably fit cots and additional beds for kids, while glass doors open onto private, enclosed (read: safe) terraces. For new parents, it’s a chance to embrace how holidays can be before the need for a schedule of activities and a pizza buffet kicks in. Picturesque sky views make sunrise wake-up calls and al fresco evening room service feel like a treat, and breakfast is served until midday, so early risers will often have the pool to themselves until the afternoon. Here, there’s enough patio space to set up your own mini play area, and surrounding tranquil gardens make nap-time pram strolls a pleasure. From the morning menu, choose home-grown brunch-style offerings like scrambled eggs and acai bowls. Two dishes per guest make sharing with tinies easy, and older kids can try a bit of everything. In the evening, you’ll need to venture off-site, which requires hiring a car. If you’ve got older children, head into Ibiza town for streets lined with affordable tapas restaurants, or towards the Santa Eularia shoreline to choose from beachfront tavernas with checkered tablecloths and a relaxed vibe.
Prices: From around $400 a night in a low season
Yotam Sandak/Kimpton Aysla MallorcaKimpton Aysla Mallorca, Mallorca
Best for: Year round trips
One of Aysla’s key attractions isn’t mentioned on the website or by the concierge. Each morning, on the golf driving range adjoining the Mallorca hotel, a teenager trundles a buggy up and down, arms outstretched to scoop up golf balls. The Pac-Man-esque diligence becomes a daily fixture for me and my son, watching from the balcony sunbeds. “Yes,” we agree, “that would be an excellent job to have.” We’re on the southern side of Mallorca here, but not directly on the coast; instead tucked away on a residential hillside enclave beloved by local families, with the busy sands of Santa Ponsa just a five-minute drive away. Aysla is American group Kimpton’s debut opening in Spain, and the branding is subtle: designed by Mallorcan architect Guillermo Reynés, both the main hub (in the former hacienda-style golf club) and the clean-cut, modernist bedroom wing act as showcases for the island’s artisans.
Hammock chairs and bulbous ceramics here, geometric tiles and woven lampshades there, and a curiously feminine installation with layers of silk like an oyster shell sitting above the check-in desk. Outside, little paths wind past pomegranate and olive trees, punctuated by wicker seats and benches so that, at night, the garden resembles a fairy grotto. You can venture out on the hotel’s e-bikes to experience the cheap thrills of Santa Ponsa and the smart marina at Puerto Portals, where there’s a quieter beach, but mainly this is a place to lie back and let the island do its thing. This summer will bring T-shirt-painting and ceramics sessions, along with a Mediterranean grill, though the Asian restaurant is great for sushi-curious teens (there are seats at the counter where we watch chefs slice tuna and stir-fry bibimbap). We’ve never been to a small hotel with so many pools—two outside and one inside—which we hop between like Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer, playing skimball, and reading books in our cabana. Surprisingly for Mallorca, the island where modern tourism was invented, there are few other resorts open year-round, making this a no-brainer for quick-fix, out-of-season holidays. —Rick Jordan
Price: Doubles from $480
Maxime Massa/La PandillaLa Pandilla, Ibiza
Best for: Engaging activities
Something about the pool and beach combo ticks all the right boxes, so when chic French hotelier Sophie Berdah, of Paris’ hip Le Citizen, stumbled across a rough Salinas diamond—formerly Fred’s Finca —she pounced. La Pandilla (‘the gang’, in Spanish) is a clutch of 10 whitewashed casitas clustered around an oval pool just 10 minutes from the ice-white slick of Salinas. The creamy, curvaceous casitas sleep from two to 10 (or rent the whole lot and bring 65 friends) and have been designed with extended families in mind, and can be as private or as communal as you like. Terraces open onto lush tropical gardens stashed with mango, fig, and lemon trees. The pool bar, with its all-day, local-produce menu and roster of visiting DJs, is the heart of the whole affair. The standout at La Pandilla, however, is the cult of creativity—regular workshops range from the artistic to avant-garde, with local experts shipped in to teach theatre, flamenco, knitting, painting, photography, cooking, and ceramics in the two stylish studios. If games are more your thing, there are giant quoits and board games by the pool, or else hotfoot it down to Las Salinas itself for sailing, paddleboarding, and kayaking for the kids, followed by cocktails and DJs for the grown-ups at the newly revived ’90s beachside icon, Hostal Mar y Sal. —Maya Boyd
Price: Doubles from about $260
HEINZ TROLLhotelIkos Andalusia
Readers' Choice Awards 2023Best for: An all-inclusive stay
As you cycle along the boardwalk that leads to Estepona, it’s fun to peek over walls at the other hotels and villas—a Malibu-like jumble of architectural styles that track Marbella’s evolution. Ikos arrived in 2021 with a fresh approach and an aquatic symmetry—buildings are set either side of four main swimming pools, leading down to the beach—that would have the designers of the Alhambra tipping their hat. Dolphin inflatables and pool-side rosé appear throughout the day, the day’s newsletter perused—aqua aerobics at 9a.m., perhaps, with football for teens before lunch.
This is the brand’s first hotel outside Greece, but it’s the smartest, an Ibizan-style chiringuito writ large in white walls, rattan, and straw lampshades. Ikos’s great idea was to redefine the all-inclusive concept for those who’d never normally consider it. Room service and bottles of Taittinger are covered, as is a round of golf if desired, and there’s an urban buzz to the many restaurants, mostly devised by Michelin-grade chefs (try the Spanish and Greek first), and bars (cocktails by Shoreditch-based Marian Beke). What’s more, guests are encouraged to connect with the region. A day’s Mini Cooper rental is thrown in and the all-inclusive perks are extended to local restaurants, meaning you never feel boxed in.
Price: Garden view room (sleeps 4), from $1,128 per night all inclusive (minimum five night stay).
Casa la Siesta, Cádiz
Best for: A boutique stay
The hotel is a grown-up hideaway of stepped lawns and terraces, winding paths and olive and citrus trees sunk into a cleft between dusty hills. Tables for two sit beneath draped vines and garden nooks are set with day beds for afternoon snoozing. In other words, a retreat where wheeling swifts are the only thing diving into the saltwater pool. For a few weeks a year, however, they elbow out the couples to let families in, with activities that stretch from circus skills and mobile-making to trampolining and pool games, all overseen by a tomboyish childcare whizz and her team. There’s an imaginative children’s menu, plus all the pool inflatables, bubbles, and glitter they could ever want (and someone else to clear it up).
Complimentary babysitters will relieve you of your charges for an hour or two so you can drink wine and read a sentence of your book before dozing off in the shade. These weeks are the brainchild of the hotel’s owners, Lee and Amelia Thornley, who run the design studio Bert & May—and being parents themselves—are well-versed in the challenges of family holidays. The nine-room finca has been deliciously restored in a restrained, rustic style, with tactile plaster walls, antique dressers, stone arches, iron balustrades, and airy rooms with balconies and bathtubs. For larger families, there’s the new two-bedroom villa, The Stables, set away from the hotel but with a direct phone line to reception, so room service can be ordered. Or there’s a three-bedroom casita with its own pool and terrace, and—better yet—a yurt for grumpy teens. This is a supremely clever choice for anyone with a phobia of big, all-singing-all-dancing resorts.
Insider tip: Baby monitors reach the courtyard, so you can eat under the stars without having to troop back to the room to check on little ones.
Price: Doubles from about $280
Mattia Aquila/BelmondhotelLa Residencia, A Belmond Hotel
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021, 2022Best for: Creative minds
The bohemian village of Deia is known to draw artists, writers, and musicians from far and wide. Set on its dreamy cliffs, La Residencia is an art lover’s paradise, with an on-site gallery and artist residencies across the year. So it’s no surprise that the hotel looks to cultivate creative talent among its younger guests with painting, drawing, and sculpture classes run by resident artists. The Smile Club also lets little ones get stuck into table tennis, t-shirt painting, and necklace making; foodie families can also take cooking classes together, with special cookie-making lessons for seven to 13-year-olds. While exploring the grounds, animal lovers can’t miss the hotel’s most adorable hosts—Chico, Fosca, and the other resident donkeys, who are always keen for a meet-and-greet with the kids. —Agnish Ray
Price: From about $814 per night
This gallery was originally published on Condé Nast Traveller UK.
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