Andalusia in April

April should be pretty lovely in Andalusia. If you look around, you'll see the big three cities to visit are Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba. My favorite is Granada, with the imposing Alhambra, a beautifully preserved Islamic palace, towering over the city. There will be crowds. It's absolutely worth it. Cordoba was the capital of the caliphate based in Europe (when Muslims had control of most of Spain/Portugal ~700-1200 AD) and there there's a gorgeous, gigantic mosque. Sevilla has an old Muslim palace, too, but the Alhambra's better, if you only pick one. If you REALLY want to avoid crowds, try renting a car and driving to smaller places, like the white hill towns around the region (ex. Ronda). Any of the capitals of Andalusia (sevilla, granada, cordoba, jaen, malaga, etc) should have something to do there, and the "lesser known" ones might be less crowded. There are gorgeous beaches up the west coast of Spain but I think Malaga is a popular beach town in Andalusia.

Also: given that you're going in spring and it's not Easter, the crowds shouldn't be too bad. Prebook tickets if you go to the Alhambra, but other than that it'll be way better than, say, June.

You can fill ten awesome days in Andalusia. The highlights are of course the Alhambra in Granada (buy tickets in advance!), Seville's Alcazar and Cathedral, and the Grand Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba. All of those are definitely worth seeing. Granada was my favorite of the larger cities; you can stay in a neighborhood called the Sacromonte built into the hillside and http://www.cuevaselabanico.es/english.html overlooking the Alhambra! I would recommend not driving into the historic center of town, though; find somewhere to park on the outskirts and cab it in. Other recommendations: - Ronda (https://www.google.com/search?q=ronda&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMIyN-rl6GsxwIVBDc-Ch1pywVQ&biw=1686&bih=855 - it's a very dramatic setting, and it's considered by some to be the birthplace of modern bullfighting with a big bullring you can tour, which your son would probably enjoy - Cueva de la Pileta - - this is a http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g608977-d276055-Reviews-Pileta_Caves_Cueva_de_la_Pileta-Benaojan_Province_of_Malaga_Andalucia.html you can tour with prehistoric cave paintings, dating back to 30,000 years ago. It's one of the highlights of my travel life to date. It's still privately owned and the tours are given by the descendants of the man who accidentally discovered the cave entrance on his property. - http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1064309-d4002306-Reviews-Fortaleza_de_la_Mota-Alcala_la_Real_Province_of_Jaen_Andalucia.html, which we ran across totally by accident trying to kill time before our hotel check-in in Granada. There are many types of ruins to explore, including a huge cathedral that was set afire by Napoleon's troops and never rebuilt. It's one of the eeriest places I've been - the fire burned away the floor, exposing Dark Age Visigoth tombs. And there was almost nobody else at this place at all.

April is nice because you'll avoid crowds and heat. In Granada (which is in the mountains) it might be chilly, not sure if you'd get frost or snow or rain. Sevilla has a cute old part of the city (barrio de Santa Cruz) - in the 20s or so the old part of town was revamped for the 1929 Ibero-America expo, so it's cute in a 20s tourism way. Good for wandering and tapas. We saw a good (non cheesy) flamenco show at La Casa del Flamenco. Seville also has a royal castle. Granada has a major Moorish citadel, the Alhambra. It's spectacular. Attracts crowds, try to go early. You could try to go to a bullfight, if that isn't too unattractive an idea for you. The most famous ring is in Ronda, I believe usually on Sundays starting in April. I think Ronda has a bullfighting museum, has costumes and stuff. Córdoba has an old mosque and one of the few remaining synagogues. Fairly impressive when you understand Spanish history, maybe not so spectacular for a child. I liked sherry tasting in Jerez; less appropriate for your 9yr old. The beach towns are pleasant, kind of playgrounds for English tourists. It might not quite be beach weather but the beaches are pleasant. Nerja is particularly nice. Tarifa is cool, it's really windy and known for windsurfing and kite-flying. Oh! A visit to Gibraltar is pretty interesting. You can take a cable car up the rock, see the views and walk down and you should see the macaques. People think it's a pain and overrated but I found it fairly impressive.

Fly into Madrid spend a day there seeing castley things take the train to Seville, rent a car -white towns - then Granada and Cordoba, fly back to Madrid and home. From the US unless delta started flying to malaga again Madrid or Bcn will be your first stops. Make sure its not easter.

So awesome info so far. But, uh oh...April vacation 2017 coincides with Easter. What does that really mean? Crowded everywhere? For like the whole week?

Yes, probably crowds and costs. And crazy processions and people in religious costumes. You probably want to book hotels well in advance, may want to strategize about where you'll be when. Spain does crowds pretty well, so it could be fun but it will be more complicated for the whole Holy Week (Semana Santa).

Sevilla and Malaga especially will be wild. Wild in a really cool way! But wild. Andalucia is fiercly religious (at least culturally). As vunder said, google Semana Santa to watch some videos of the processions.

I am so excited for you! I spent 10 days in Spain with my family when I was 11 and my sister was 8, and it's still one of my favorite memories of that time in my life. That age range is a really cool time to travel and soak up culture, and Spain is full of awesome castles and beautiful countryside. (I wasn't involved in the planning, but memail me if you want more info; my mom has this all in a scrapbook somewhere.) The Alhambra is definitely a highlight, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Alhambra could be a good book to read together before or after. Gibraltar was worth the day trip. You can go up the rock by cable car, and there's a very cool network of caves. There's a lot of interesting military history there, and of course monkeys (which are actually pretty aggressive), and you can get a new kind of currency and see across the ocean to Africa. Beyond the specific places, it was really amazing just being in a new country. We tried to do things on a somewhat Spanish schedule, and it was fun to take a break in the afternoon and then go out to dinner really late. Just walking around smaller Spanish towns at different times of day was awesome.