Spain with kids

Still unfinished after 140 years, and the inside is a forest of stone with coloured light pouring through. Book the timed slot weeks ahead.

Mosaic lizards, a wavy bench and gingerbread gatehouses on a hill over the city. Twenty-three dollars, timed entry, and it is a steep walk up.

A house with no straight lines, a scaled roof and a stairwell like being inside a fish. The audio guide is genuinely good with children.

The rooftop chimneys look like armoured knights, which is the sell with a child. Twenty-eight dollars.

Gaudí's first house, tiled in green and white, and far quieter than the other two. Twenty-eight dollars.

A hospital built as twenty-seven pavilions in a garden, and the largest art nouveau site in Europe. Twenty-one dollars and rarely busy.

A concert hall with a stained-glass skylight like an inverted sun. Twenty-three dollars for the tour.

Gothic, with thirteen geese in the cloister — one for each year of the martyr's life. Twenty-two dollars.

An eighty-metre shark tunnel at the old port, thirty-five dollars. Central, and the obvious wet-weather answer.

In the Ciutadella park, twenty-seven dollars, with a farm area and plenty of shade. A full day with a young child.

A village of replica buildings from every Spanish region, built for the 1929 expo, with craft workshops. Seventeen dollars.

A hundred and forty Catalan landmarks at 1:25, plus a small adventure park. Half an hour out and seventeen dollars.

Banksy, Kusama and modern names in a Gothic-quarter palace. Fourteen dollars and the most child-legible art in the city.

Bright, simple shapes on Montjuïc that young children read more easily than most galleries. Twenty dollars.

The bullet-shaped tower, with a mirrored dome at the top. Nineteen dollars and a short queue.

An hour of flamenco on Las Ramblas, forty-one dollars. Loud, percussive and much more gripping for children than it sounds.

A century-old funfair on the mountain top with a plane ride from 1928 that still runs. The views are the reason adults go.

Tilted rooms and optical tricks, seventeen dollars. An hour, and it fills a gap between Gaudí houses.

Three museums in one — illusions, chocolate and upside-down rooms. Twenty-nine dollars and shamelessly built for photographs.

A set of playable, photographable rooms — a ball pool, a rain room. Seventeen dollars.

One of the biggest theme parks in Europe, an hour south at Salou, with a Sesame Street area for younger children.

Next door to PortAventura, with Europe's tallest vertical accelerator. Height minimums on most of it.

Up to the castle over the park, fifteen dollars. Pair it with the Miró foundation on the same hill.

Across the harbour from the beach to Montjuïc in a 1930s cabin, high and slow. Twenty-five dollars return.

Forty minutes round the port for ten dollars — the cheapest thing on this list and children like boats.

Three routes covering the Gaudí sites, which are further apart than they look. Thirty-five dollars.

The trophies and an immersive tour while Camp Nou is rebuilt. Thirty-five dollars, and check what parts of the stadium are open.

The cable car alone, twelve dollars, if you are going up under your own steam by train.

A monastery wedged into a mountain of round rock pillars, an hour out, reached by cable car or rack railway.

Medieval walls used in Game of Thrones, plus Dalí's own surreal museum at Figueres. A good day for an older child.

A choice of the city's paid attractions. Barcelona's individual tickets are dear, so this one often does pay.

Velázquez, Goya and Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, which is the one a child will stand in front of. Twenty-one dollars.

Picasso's Guernica, and it needs explaining before you stand in front of it. Fourteen dollars.

The largest functioning royal palace in Europe, 3,000 rooms, with an armoury full of child-sized suits. Twenty-six dollars.

Zoo, aquarium and a dolphin area in the Casa de Campo, thirty-one dollars. A full day, and there is a cable car to it.

A nature park arranged as ecosystems, including a polar zone with real snow. Thirty-five dollars.

A smaller aquarium in a mall at Arroyomolinos, twenty-one dollars. Useful on a hot afternoon.

A football museum in the centre with shirts and trophies from everywhere, not just Spain. Thirty-three dollars.

A historical show park near Toledo — falconry, cavalry and a night spectacular rather than rides. Forty-two dollars.

A tablao that has run since 1960, thirty-three dollars. Shorter than a theatre show and the right length for children.

The city's own funfair in the Casa de Campo, twenty-eight dollars, with a proper zone for younger children.

Looney Tunes, DC and a Hollywood backlot half an hour south, with transfers included. Bigger rides than the city park.

The Madrid branch, nineteen dollars. An hour, and the same idea as everywhere else.

A sugar-themed set of rooms built for photographs, seventeen dollars. Frivolous and effective.

The rebuilt Real Madrid stadium with its trophy room. Forty-three dollars against $251 for a match ticket.

Twenty-seven dollars, and the two routes cover the museums and the palace.

The Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen on one card, thirty-eight dollars. Cheaper than two of them separately.

A walled city on a rock in a river loop, half an hour by fast train. Three religions' architecture in one small maze.

A Roman aqueduct standing without mortar since the first century, and a castle that Disney borrowed from. An hour north.

A Moorish palace city above Granada, with courtyards of water and carved plaster. Nineteen dollars, and the Nasrid slot is fixed.

The same site with a guide, sixty-two dollars. Worth it here — the carvings are Quranic poetry and unexplained they are just pattern.

Whitewashed cave houses on the hillside opposite the Alhambra, lived in until recently. Seven dollars.

A working royal palace with gardens of orange trees and peacocks. Used as Dorne in Game of Thrones, which sells it to some children.

The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, with a tower you climb by ramp rather than steps — built for a man on horseback.

A giant wooden lattice over the old city with a walkway on top. Thirty-four dollars with the VR, and the walkway alone is the point.

On the river, twenty dollars, following the route of Magellan's voyage. The indoor hour Seville badly needs in August.

Eight hundred striped arches of a mosque, with a cathedral built in the middle of it. Thirty-seven dollars guided.

Twelve planted courtyards in one Córdoba house, ten dollars. Cool, shaded and a relief in the heat.

A caliph's palace city built and destroyed within seventy years, now being excavated. Twenty-nine dollars.

Vast chambers with the tallest stalagmite in the world, on the coast east of Málaga. Eighteen dollars and cool inside.

A small crocodile park on the Costa del Sol, twenty-one dollars. Straightforward, and children like crocodiles.

A mall aquarium on the coast, twenty-four dollars. Useful filler on a beach week.

The flat he was born in, five dollars. Small, quick, and it makes the paintings elsewhere mean more.

Ninety cars and a century of couture in an old Málaga tobacco factory. Fourteen dollars and a genuinely odd pairing.

A zambra in a cave house, which is where this form of flamenco comes from. Thirty-three dollars.

The Costa del Sol water park, forty-five dollars, with a section for small children. Summer only.

A little road train up to the Albaicín, eight dollars, which saves a very steep walk in heat.

A metre-wide walkway bolted to a gorge wall a hundred metres up. Utterly safe now, utterly terrifying to look at — minimum age eight and mean it.

Over the border for the day from Seville — the Rock, the cave and the Barbary macaques, who are wild and will take food from a bag. Do not feed them; it is illegal and they bite.

A town split by a hundred-metre gorge with a bridge across it. Seventy-three dollars from Seville.

The largest aquarium in Europe, arranged as nine marine environments including an Arctic one. Forty-three dollars and a full day.

Hands-on across three floors, eleven dollars, in a building shaped like a whale skeleton. The best-value science museum in Europe.

An IMAX dome in a building shaped like an eye, ten dollars. Forty minutes, and it pairs with the museum next door.

An animal park arranged without visible barriers, plus a water park in summer. Thirty-eight dollars, an hour south.

A restored palace of contemporary art with Roman remains under the glass floor. Fourteen dollars.

Thirty dollars. Mainly useful for the stretch between the old town and the science complex.

The longest navigable underground river in Europe — you go through it in a boat. An hour north.

Transport plus museum entries for twenty dollars. Genuinely good value in a city this compact.

Fifty-five tanks and the deepest shark tank in Europe, thirty-five dollars. There is a splash area outside.

A smaller cave system on the edge of Palma, fourteen dollars. Twenty minutes and no boats.

A sandstone cathedral over the harbour with a rose window Gaudí worked on. Thirteen dollars.

Moorish water gardens in the mountains north of Palma, twelve dollars. Shaded, quiet and full of fountains.

His academy and museum at Manacor, twenty-nine dollars, with interactive sports challenges. A hit with any child who plays.

A western-themed water park at Magaluf, forty-four dollars. The park is fine; the town around it is not for families.

An underground lake with a live classical concert performed on boats, then you row across it. The best thing on the island.

A large animal park with parrots, gorillas and a big aquarium. It still runs orca and dolphin shows, which many families now choose to avoid — decide before you buy.

A newer aquarium at Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, thirty-four dollars, with a very large curved viewing window.

The largest aquarium in the Canaries, nineteen dollars. Small island, useful indoor hour.

A thousand-year-old dragon tree that bleeds red sap, on Tenerife. Six dollars and the story sells it.

Routinely voted the best water park in the world, Thai-themed, on Tenerife. Nineteen dollars and a whole day.

A volcano-themed water park on Lanzarote, thirty-five dollars. Smaller than Siam Park and much closer if you are based there.

An outdoor activity park on Gran Canaria, fifteen dollars. Aimed young and cheap enough not to mind.

Both parks on one ticket at thirty-three dollars, which is less than Loro Parque alone. The same caveat about the shows applies.