mangoMan

I am in the process of looking for hotels for a 10 day trip to Spain in July. So far, I have not found a single hotel that has a room that can house a family of four (2 adults, 2 kids ages 6 & 8). The cities I have been looking in are Granada and Valencia. Many allow a child to stay in a room with an extra bed for a nominal fee or even no fee. However, the max. extra beds always seems to be one.

Is there something I'm missing? How do other families with 2 young children handle this? Are adjoining rooms common?

I suppose I will just need to book two rooms and hope they are adjoining or at least adjacent. Otherwise I suppose my wife and I will have to split in separate rooms with one kid each.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Aviatrix

Rooms that will sleep whole families are relatively uncommon in Europe. Some chains (such as Travelodge here in the UK) have designated "family rooms" which typically consist of a double bed plus a sofa with a pull-out mattress underneath... but that obviously won't help you in Spain. Connecting rooms do exist but again aren't that common.

I think most European families tend to go for apartments or suites rather than conventional hotel rooms.

When my brother and I travelled with our parents (a few decades ago now) we just got put in separate rooms, without connecting doors. I remember sharing a room with my brother, down the corridor from my parents' room, when I was 9 and he was 6. I don't think it bothered us at all - we knew where our parents were if we needed them, it never felt any different from sleeping in our own rooms at home. But I guess that was then and this is now, attitudes certainly seem to have changed.

graraps

They get 2 rooms.

LapLap

When I was little and travelling as part of a family of four we never stayed in higher end hotels. We also never had any problems finding pensiones that would accommodate all of us.

For Valencia you might like to try the Novotel
http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-...sos/room.shtml
Their rooms are for two adults and two children

Granada doesn't have the abundance of high end hotels that other cities have, but here's just one pension/hostal that can accommodate you all in one room (there will be many others):
http://www.hostalviena.com/rooms.htm
If you want a more conventional hotel then http://www.hoteljuanmiguel.com/ has family rooms also. (You can book this hotel through Expedia if you don't have any luck with the hotel's own booking engine)

Aviatrix

Yes, you're right (and I had sort of forgotten), rooms with three or four beds do exist... at the bottom end of the market. I remember sharing a room with the whole family a couple of times as a child (once in Italy, once in Germany), though I recall that the rooms/hotels weren't all that nice. My aunt and uncle, with their five children, used to stay at youth hostels - i.e., hostels affiliated to national youth hostels associations for which you need a membership card.

LapLap

I actually have very different memories of staying at pensiones.
There are all kinds, but I've always found it much easier in Spain (and so did my parents, even in the pre-internet days) to find places that were clean and hygienic than in many other parts of Europe - particularly Britain.

The main downsides to sleeping in a Spanish Pension are
- shared bathrooms (and this isn't always the case, I've given a link to accommodation in Granada which offers private family rooms with ensuite facilities)
- bad sound proofing (usually from the streets, occasionally from other guests too). Take ear plugs.
- light leakage. Take eye masks.
- Basic facilities only and very spartan rooms. Take your own alarm clock with you as well as shampoo and toothpaste. The GOOD thing is that spartan rooms are much easier to clean, pretty much everywhere I've stayed at has the floor mopped clean on a daily basis.

Best way to check out a Pension/Hostal (and Hostal doesn't really translate into the same word with the same connotations as Hostel in English) is to visit a communal bathroom when you arrive.
If it looks and smells clean, then go ahead and check in. If it doesn't, go elsewhere.

I've stayed at my fair share of 4+*Hotels, but for economical and practical reasons, I'd rather have everyone stay together in a clean Pension than split up in more luxurious accommodation. I have wonderful memories of decaying, but regularly mopped, bourgeois residences with chandeliers, vintage lace curtains, exquisitely carved dark wooden fittings and fixtures, and high ceilinged, airy rooms in central Madrid. Thanks to these stays I got a peek at a life and lifestyle that is now practically extinct in urban Spain.

mangoMan

Thanks for all your posts. I will keep a lookout for hotels with family rooms (now that I know they actually do sometimes exist), but will probably have to go the 2 room route. For instance, I currently have 2 rooms reserved at Hotel Carmen in Granada (only 50 euros per night per room!), although I may change that if I come across something better.

iahphx

Check out the "hotel deals" forum (part of mileagerun) where we're discussing a great Melia sale offering rooms for 45 euros/night.

You'll have to take 2 rooms, but it may be better than any other alternative.

The lack of "family rooms" is always an irritant when planning a family vacation in Europe. Europeans seem to take their families on week long holidays in vacation rentals, so I guess there's not much of a market for family hotel rooms. The Accor chain is rolling out a line of Suite Hotels that accomodate 4, but there are none yet in Spain.

What I usually wind up doing is seaching for small inns and b&bs at my destinations that will accomodate a family. You can google your city and "family room" to help find them. It is a tedious process, however, and you miss out on a lot of the more desirable places to stay. I've always thought a website devoted to family hotel rooms in Europe would be a useful addition to the web.

LapLap

I recommended a Novotel for Valencia.
It's an Accor hotel where all the rooms sleep four.

alamedadan

Our family of four will be spending 2 weeks in Spain next month. Here's what we're doing:
--2 nights in Segovia at La Casa Mudejar Hospederia (quad),
--a night in Lerma at the Parador (many paradors have rooms large enough for a family of four, but it's impossible to find them at www.parador.es so you need to contact each one separately),
--2 nights in Salamanca at the brand new Hall88 Apartahotel (all rooms sleep four),
--a week in our vacation rental in Madrid.

I agree, finding family rooms in Spain is tedious and largely unsuccessful. We had resigned ourselves to needing two rooms for most of our non-Madrid travel, but felt fortunate that these hotels showed up. The reviews on tripadvisor helped a lot during our research. Good luck!!

MADflyer

www.solmelia.com , the largest spanish hotel company asks right on their main reservation page , number adults , number children
after selection they ask the age of the children
search and rates come up including bedding options for family. Most of their hotels have childrens areas even.

http://www.nh-hotels.com/ Spanish owned and Europes 3rd largest hotel chain does the same and has even special family packages ofter during the summer months. (children are free up to 11 years.)

www.ichotelsgroup.com is the same booking engine in the whole world and they have holiday inn express hotels and others in spain.

www.accorhotels.com asks number of adults and then children under 15 on thier second page before quoting rates.

There are 1000's of self-catering apartments in every resort area and even apartment rental agencies in the major cities.

The largest charter company in the world operates many hotels with all-inclusive, self-catering or half or full meal plans at per person rates. they are very popular with families.
http://www.riu.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIU_Hotels

LapLap

It's a shame you didn't check these out a little more before posting. You make it sound as if there is no problem at all when it comes to booking for family groups.

Solmelia does indeed have a few hotels which accommodate families. However, one only needs to use the feature you mentioned (number of adults, number of children, ages of children) to see how few and far between those hotels are.
There doesn't seem to be any in Granada or Valencia. Madrid, which has the most number of SolMelia hotels, only seems to have two, Alicante two (one in the city the other in Benidorm).

The nh hotel chain only allows rooms to be booked with ONE child (after they reach eleven they are considered adults and then the booking page only allows you to select rooms for up to three adults, no children. Only parents travelling alone can select rooms that will accommodate two young children)

mangoMan

Yes, LapLap, I noticed the same thing as you did. Finding the hotels with family rooms still isn't easy. However, the Solmelia link did dig up a great rate at the Trypp Hotel in Valencia of only 45 euros per night. At that rate 2 rooms is no problema! However, it is a non-refundable rate, so I didn't book yet since I'm still early in the searching process for which hotel in Valencia I think would suit us best.

Romelle

In January I stayed in the Calella Top Palace hotel (north of Barcelona along the coast). I found it on hotels.com. It was a 4*, and for one person I was paying an incredible $30something. And that included 1/2 board! The room had two queen beds. It really was very nice. The hotels in the Costa Brava area are in pretty tough times right now, and the prices are reflecting that.

For kids, it could be fun to play on the beach and with the sand. Too cold to swim, but still interesting.

Trains ran about every 1/2 hour into Barcelona.

I don't know if this area would fit your travel plans, or how it would price out for more people, but might be worth a look. Hotels.com does let you enter the number of adults and children when looking for rooms.

Romelle

LapLap

Hopefully you're referring to the Tryp Oceanic.

The other two Tryp Hotels 'in' Valencia are not at all convenient. Please reconsider if you've booked the Tryp Azafata or the Tryp Almussafes (I have stayed at the Tryp Azafata, but that's only because it was convenient for the F1 tests at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, out towards the West of the city)