Greek Islands. For the past 10 years, we’ve spent June in some combination of Crete, Santorini, Mykonos, and Rhodes (avoiding Athens and environs whenever possible). The ‘party scene’ is limited to nights, most prevalent on Mykonos, and is easily avoided. The beach clubs during the day, except for those catering exclusively to adults, are very family friendly. There are plenty of hotels and beach resorts that cater to families on all islands. It gets hot and crowded, especially in July and August, so go as soon after the end of school as possible. Mid to the end of June is perfect.
Hi Eric
Italy is getting better for vegetarians, though for years there was an attitude that a little prosciutto didn’t really count as non-vegetarian! These days there are even Vegan restaurants and Vegan gelato in Torino.
Considering the likely heat, and the need to ensure a vegetarian doesn’t get lumbered with limited choice, would you consider hiring a villa with a pool. In that way breakfast , lunch or dinner and maybe a light supper can be a moveable picnic feast, mostly at the apartment (but a packed picnic becomes easy), with maybe 1 meal a day out. It’s very much our normal approach, and humours my love of Italian food shops, but also my partner’s fear of successive large meals out. The pool gives you the chance to refresh when arriving back, or start the day with a fresh morning swim (I loved this when I first went to Italy on the Amalfi coast). Such an idea could work in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. etc. FWIW my Avatar picture is of one such place in Piemonte, about 10-15 mins drive from Verduno and maybe another 5 to La Morra. Pool, lovely gardens, well-fitted & spacious lounge/kitchen/diner taking the ground floor, two bedrooms, BBQ/Patio area, a decent local alimentari and a handful of restaurants in walking distance (though one had a slope up to it that we thought was crazy). No connections etc. Plenty of such places depending on where you want to be.
Regards
Ian
I was mainly referring to Mykenosand Santorini. Again, only going by what people tell me, but have been told that Athens is a day trip and not to spend more time there.
Thanks Ian. Great suggestions.
We just took our kids (4 and 2) to Lake Como (Bellagio), Paris, and London. We had a spectacular time–especially in Como.
My main advice is Airbnb. We had killer places in all 3 for a fraction of the price of a comparable hotel room.
If it were me, I’d do smaller coastal towns somewhere–Como, Amalfi Coast, Portofino area, Croatia, or something like that, sprinkled with some time in larger cities.
I also think San Sebastian area would be fun w/ kids and I plan to do that soon.
For what it’s worth - VRBO is effectively AirBNB/“renting a villa,” hence my suggestion. I’m typing this note on my cell phone… in a Corsican villa with a pool 
Great minds think alike!
You are obviously getting lots of great suggestions for places. I’ll add my name to the list lobbying for spending your time in a single country.
When it comes to using your points, if you want to use your points for flights, rather than hotels, now is the time to get them booked. If business class is what you are after, your best deal is with Korean Airlines (80k round trip N. America to Europe. ANA is the second cheapest at 88k). 200k SPG= 240k Korean miles (or ANA miles, for that matter). Korean is a SkyTeam member , so you can use them on Delta, KLM, Air France, etc (ANA is Star Alliance). Korean is a bit quirky and you will need to do some reading before you commit your points. You will need to sign up for a Korean mileage account and you will need to add your wife and daughter to your account, with proof that they are who you say they are (marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc.). One of the other quirks of Korean, is that you can put award seats on hold, even without the miles in your account. This gives you time to make the transfer with the comfort of knowing that the seats you are after aren’t going to disappear. If you google Using Korean Airlines miles, there are plenty of explanations out there that will walk you through the process.
After all suggestions and research. I think I am going to do Mallorca and Barcelona for 10-14 days.
Nice! You could squeeze in another city or two in 14 days, but Mallorca and Barcelona for 10 days would be an amazing trip.
Not sure if you collect Chase Ultimate Rewards points but they transfer 1:1 to Hyatt. The new Park Hyatt Mallorca is only about a year old and AMAZING! Great value for a Park Hyatt at only 20k points a night. The standard rooms are huge, more than enough room for our family of three with a rollaway. Best use of technology I’ve ever seen in any hotel and all rooms have a balcony with a sofa and table.
Sounds great. Also does give you two different experiences.
My temptation would be to weight more time towards Mallorca, and probably start there, with it being better to get over jet-lag away from a city, plus with it being hot, a pool there will be one you can happily use to ease the acclimatisation. Finish with Barcelona for when you are used to the heat and over jetlag, plus you don’t have to lug any shopping (including wine bottles) through a transfer.
So clubbing in Magaluf then…? ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
If starting in Mallorca, whats the best way to fly in? Barcelona and take a puddle jumper or boat to the island?
What should our day trips or possibly one overnight from Barcelona be? Huge Dali fan so Figueres is a must. Where is a must go? And now that the cities are set, any dining recs or other sight seeing musts on the trip in Barcelona or outside?
Norwegian air flies direct to Barcelona. It’s their 787 Dreamliner and great metal to fly in. I highly recommend premium seats in front of you can swing the extra cash as the extra legroom and recline is well worth it IMHO. Tons of flights to Mallorca from Barcelona and about a 30 min flight. I would do Barcelona first only cuz I wouldn’t want to wait and hop on another plane after 11 hours of flying but really up to you.
For Barcelona, the must do’s for me were Familia Sagrada and Park Quell. Both need advance tickets, especially Familia Sagrada, like months in advance. Park Quell, you can get a couple weeks in advance. If anyone in your family is a soccer fan, FC Barcelona tour and experience is a must and if you’re lucky and timing is right, go watch a game if one is scheduled, just a tremendous atmosphere. Most ppl will want to go to Monserrat near Barcelona, but we skipped it as we were short on time and soccer was more important to us. Restaurante Montiel was one of our favorite restaurants on our entire trip and a rec I picked up on one of the Barcelona threads here. But honestly, there are so many good restaurants in Barcelona. We really wanted to go to Tickets restaurant but they were closed for their own vacation. The metro is easy to navigate and how we got around as well as walking.
You will need a car in Mallorca. The island is big. There’s a couple of beaches I highly recommend and pm me when you get closer to your date to get the names. Palma is the major city and where lots of people stay but I really recommend you start collecting Hyatt and Chase UR points to stay at the Park Hyatt. That hotel is around ~$600-800/night so 20,000 points per night gets you excellent value. The best meal we had on our whole Spain trip was in Mallorca at this small restaurant called Es Pati in a tiny village called Sant Llorenc and we loved it so much, we ate there twice. Only restaurant we repeated.
Anyway, you have tons of time to figure these things out but feel free to post here or pm me. We absolutely loved our Spain trip!
Was looking at St. Regis in Mallorca and Cotton House or W in Barcelona. I’ll check out Hyatt, but SPG/Marriott points likely used unless we use points for flight.
Or you can day trip out of Barcelona to Sitges and Girona on the train 
Beach and food in Sitges are great, old city in Girona and the walls are fun to see. Easy train ride for both!
St. Regis Mallorca would be an amazing place to stay at. Forgot that you had SPG points. St. Regis is usually a category 7, so most likely it would burn most or all of your points but a great way to use them. I like using my SPG points on St. Regis also.
Sounds like a great plan, Eric.
Barcelona is a great city. I’d agree with Joe’s comments about Sagrada Familia and Park Güell (not Quell). Our kids loved the Park. I’m pretty sure there is a way to buy Sagrada Familia tickets so you can jump the line. We are definitely a soccer family and we also did the Camp Nou tour. My then 11 year old, who is knowledgeable about nearly all things footy-related loved it. The rest of us were lukewarm about the experience and I felt like it was horribly over-priced. If you are soccer fans, a Barcelona match would absolutely worthwhile. If you are not soccer fans, it might be considerably less expensive and every bit as fun to see an Espanyol match. It is Barcelona’s other club and they are also in the top tier of Spanish football.
La Boqueria (the market right off of Las Ramblas) is also on the “must do” list in Barcelona. Pinotxo Bar is awesome.
Finally, our kids’ favorite restaurant from our trip to Spain was Tapas 24. Very solid, interesting tapas.
There are some great apartments to rent in Barcelona. Works great with a family. Did it there, San Sebastian and Madrid.
George