21 – 27 November 2026 · two adults and a ten-year-old
Barcelona,
then Madrid
Gaudí, and two workshops with your hands in things. A train across the middle of Spain, a day in Toledo, and a dinner you cook yourselves.
21 – 27 November 2026 · two adults and a ten-year-old
Gaudí, and two workshops with your hands in things. A train across the middle of Spain, a day in Toledo, and a dinner you cook yourselves.
Part one · three nights
Barcelona is two cities stitched together at Plaça de Catalunya, where you are staying: the medieval old town running downhill to the sea, and the Eixample, a nineteenth-century grid of wide avenues running uphill, where the rich of 1900 had Gaudí and his rivals build their extraordinary houses. Three days: a quiet arrival; a Sunday that follows Gaudí's broken-tile mosaic from a house front to a chocolate workshop to the bench at Park Güell; the Sagrada Família on Monday; and your own mosaic before Tuesday's train.
Three nights · 21–24 November
Catalonia Plaza Catalunya, Saturday 21 – Tuesday 24 November. Carrer de Bergara 11 is a one-block street off the west side of Plaça de Catalunya, between Ronda de la Universitat and Carrer de Pelai. The Catalunya metro entrances (L1 red, L3 green) are two minutes away on the square, and the Aerobús stops on its far side.
Part two · three nights
Madrid became Spain's capital in 1561 and grew around the royal palace. Its oldest streets — Madrid de los Austrias, named for the Habsburg kings — run between the palace and the Plaza Mayor, and your hotel is at their edge. You arrive on Tuesday evening with the Christmas lights on; Wednesday is Toledo; Thursday is one museum, a rest, and dinner cooked with your niece; Friday is a slow morning and the airport.
Three nights · 24–27 November
Urban Hive Madrid, Tuesday 24 – Friday 27 November. Cuesta de Santo Domingo 9, a short sloping street between the Plaza de Santo Domingo and the Ópera. Santo Domingo metro (L2 red) and Ópera (L2 red, L5 green) are each about three minutes away; the Royal Palace is a 6–8 minute walk.
Before you go
Everything is booked. Two replies to wait for, and a few things to check nearer the time.
The practical layer
Tickets and booking numbers are on your phones, not here. Keep them downloaded rather than in an email or behind a link — you will be scanning in at the top of a hill and inside a stone basilica, and signal is not guaranteed at either.
The AVE to Madrid is booked on the Elige fare: one free change and a 70% refund if plans shift. Tickets are QR codes in the Renfe app; show them at the luggage X-ray and again at the platform gate.
The Avant to Toledo, if you go, you buy on the day. Over breakfast, open the Renfe app (or renfe.com) and buy a return: 10:15 from Madrid-Atocha, back on the 16:25 from Toledo. Every seat is reserved, so check the evening before that both still show seats. At the station you can also buy from the red Renfe machines. If the 10:15 is full, the next Avant is about an hour later — or take the ALSA bus from Plaza Elíptica (metro L6/L11), about every half hour, an hour's ride, tickets at the bus station.
\1Sagrada Família, Monday. Its rules ask for a national ID card or passport, and your tickets are in the names you booked with — so bring all three passports, including hers. A US driver's licence is not on its list. Staff often only scan the barcode, but it is not worth finding out.
Park Güell, Sunday. The tickets are named and staff may ask for ID. Bring the passports that day too.
Every other day. The US State Department advises leaving passports in the hotel safe and carrying a photocopy or phone photo of the photo page. Spanish law expects foreigners to be able to identify themselves, so keep that copy on you.
She pays full fare on both metros. Barcelona only lets under-4s ride free; in Madrid free travel ends at 6.
Barcelona. A single ticket is €2.90, so one journey for three is €8.70. A T-familiar (€11.50 for eight journeys, shareable, plus €1 for the card) brings that to about €4.30 for the three of you. A T-casual is cheaper per trip (€13 for ten) but it is one person's card, so you would need three. A taxi across the centre is about €9–13 on weekdays and €10–15 at weekends and after 20:00. The airport is €35–40 by taxi against about €22 for three on the Aerobús.
Madrid. A single ticket is €1.50–2.00. The 10-trip ticket (€7.30, plus €2.50 for the card) can be shared — tap it once per person — so a journey for three is about €2.20. A taxi across the centre is about €7–11 by day, a little more at night. The airport is a flat €33 by taxi.
So: for three people, a short taxi ride costs about the same as three single metro tickets. With a shared card, though, the metro is roughly a third of the price in Barcelona and a quarter in Madrid. What to buy: two T-familiar cards in Barcelona (sixteen journeys between you) and one or two 10-trip tickets in Madrid, from the machines in any station. Take taxis with luggage, up the hill to Park Güell, and home from late evenings.
A taxi between Barajas and anywhere inside the M-30 ring road — your hotel included — is a flat €33, day or night, with no supplements.
Allow three hours before a transatlantic departure. T4 and T4S are a separate terminal from T1–T3, so check yours in the airline app the night before.
Spanish kitchens open for dinner at 20:00–20:30, and 21:00 is normal. Make lunch the big meal — the €13–20 menú del día — and bridge the gap with a merienda of churros and hot chocolate around 5:30.
The trick that works with a child is to eat at a counter, not a table. Barcelona's tapas houses — Ciudad Condal, Cervecería Catalana, Tapas 24 — serve straight through the afternoon, so at 7:00 you walk in, while at 9:15 it is a forty-minute wait. In Madrid, Casa Labra starts dinner at 18:00, and the Mercado de San Miguel serves all day.
Each hotel section lists a few places within a short walk of your door.