Family Hotels in Spain: 32 We’ve Stayed In, Scored Out of 10
By Javier Sobrino
Travel expert and founder
Most “best family hotels in Spain” lists are assembled from booking sites by people who have never walked into the lobby. This one is not. Every hotel below is one we have slept in, and every score is ours.
We score twelve things separately — cleanliness, beds, bathroom, breakfast, lunch, dinner, pools, adult facilities, children’s facilities, staff, beach and extras — and average them. That is why you will see a 9 next to a hotel we love and a 7 next to one we would still book on the right week. Nothing on this page is a 10 overall, because nothing has earned one yet.
We have slept in more Spanish hotels than are listed here. These are the ones we have scored and written up; the rest arrive as we get through them.
If you are flying in from the UK, the fastest way to use this page is to pick your coast first. Most of it sits within an hour of Alicante or Málaga; the Costa Brava and the Costa Dorada are served by Girona, Reus and Barcelona, Oropesa by Valencia, and Majorca by Palma.
How to read the scores
An 8.5 or above means we would rebook it without thinking. 8 to 8.4 means very good with one clear weak spot. 7.5 to 7.9 means it does the job and the price should reflect that. Where a review publishes the full breakdown, you can see exactly which category pulled the average up or down.
Costa Blanca and Benidorm
This is where most of the water slides are, and where most British families end up. Alicante airport is 45 minutes from Benidorm, and the hotels here compete hard on facilities rather than on location. Fourteen of ours are here, including our highest score anywhere in Spain and the only two resorts where we have scored the children’s facilities a straight 10.
Benidorm, Alicante
Our highest score in Spain. Ten-metre pirate ships sitting in the water, ziplines running from one to the next, and theming that never once breaks character — we gave both the theming and the children’s facilities a 10. What you pay for it is the cabin, which is tight for five, and giving up the beach.
Magic Natura Animal & Water Park
Benidorm, Alicante
A zoo and a water park inside the same reserve, which nothing else in Spain offers. What you are actually buying is the ultra all-inclusive: we scored it a straight 10 and it is what changes the holiday. The catch is structural — the beach is a ten-minute drive away.
Hotel Cap Negret
Altea, Alicante
A cyclists’ hotel in Altea that turns out to be one of the best places we have eaten in any four-star: garage, workshop and bike wash downstairs, a 9.5 for the staff and a pool nobody shouts in. Two things to be clear about — the beach is rock rather than sand, and it is built for adults rather than for children.
Albir, Alicante
A medieval-themed resort rather than a hotel, and the most complete place for children we have stayed in anywhere in Spain — we scored the children’s facilities a 10. Rooms take up to seven, and laser tag, a climbing wall and a medieval show are all in the all-inclusive. The catch is that there is very little for adults, and no beach.
Hotel Villa del Mar
Benidorm, Alicante
The Benidorm hotel where you eat best, and it beats five-stars on this coast at it. A gourmet four-star directly opposite Poniente beach that does not compete on pools or entertainment and does not pretend to. Odd blind spot for a hotel selling ultra all-inclusive: the between-meal snacks are thin.
Benidorm, Alicante
The most reliable of the big Benidorm names we have stayed in, and the one we would pick if you want gardens and space rather than theming.
La Nucía, Alicante
Worth it for a quiet couple of nights if you find a deal. For a full holiday expecting a clear five-star experience, there are better options on this coast.
Hotel Alone Benidorm
Benidorm, Alicante
The value pick in Benidorm. A renovated three-star that beats higher categories on food and on cleanliness, with slides, jacuzzis and free run of the hotel next door. The catch is the calendar: it sells out and roughly doubles in price in summer.
Camping Benisol
Benidorm, Alicante
A bungalow that sleeps six, with its own kitchen and bathroom, for €70–90 a night, plus a covered heated pool and a water park. You pay for that in two ways: you need the car to get to the beach, and the bungalows go early.
Finestrat, Alicante
Three slide towers, a splash park with buckets and jets, and an all-inclusive with a huge snack bar and food trucks. Built to keep children fed and wet all day.
Benidorm, Alicante
Completely renovated in 2024. We went specifically to check whether the refurbishment is real or just fresh paint.
Benidorm, Alicante
The Benidorm hotel British visitors ask us about most. We stayed several days to work out what holds up and what does not.
Albir Garden Resort & Aquapark
Albir, Alicante
One of the most popular family hotels in the Alicante area, and the aquapark is the whole reason people book it.
Benidorm, Alicante
A three-star on the Benidorm sea front, directly across from Levante beach. Location first, everything else second.
See the full Costa Blanca guide →
Andalusia
Quieter, prettier and generally better value than the Costa Blanca, with the trade-off that the good hotels are spread between Málaga, Granada and Almería rather than stacked along one strip. Nine of ours are here, including the biggest hotel water park in the south and the best hotel food we have eaten anywhere in the country.
Torremolinos, Málaga
The highest we have scored in Spain. It works best for children up to seven or eight, the food genuinely surprised us, and the all-inclusive does not leave you feeling overcharged.
Almuñécar, Granada
The best-looking hotel on this list, with an infinity pool on a clifftop and a 32 m² room that genuinely sleeps five. The beach below it is the catch.
Zimbali Playa Spa Hotel
Vera, Almería
The best food of any hotel we have stayed in in Andalusia — a 9, with entrecôte cooked in front of you and seafood zarzuela on a four-star buffet. Low buildings, gardens, a proper spa and the beach through a gate. It is not the cheapest option in Vera and you can see where the money goes.
Servigroup Marina Playa
Mojácar, Almería
The best-reviewed hotel in Mojácar, and for once the reviews match what we found. The cleanest hotel we have stayed in anywhere in Spain at a 9.5, a 9 for the staff and food above the local average. Its ceiling is age: past six or seven there is not enough here for them.
Holiday World Polynesia
Benalmádena, Málaga
The biggest hotel water park and beach club in Andalusia, and 60 m² rooms that a family of four never fills. Children’s facilities scored 9.5; the pillows, the gym and the spa are where it gives ground. Ownership moves to Meliá during 2026, so expect some of this to change.
Mojácar, Almería
The best hotel water park in Mojácar, with the beach directly across the road. If you are travelling with children, that combination is what sets it apart.
Mojácar, Almería
Enormous apartments, which makes it the pick for large families or for parents who want a bedroom of their own. The children’s facilities scored a 9.5 and the beach an 8.5, its two strongest marks.
Mojácar, Almería
Pool and beach directly opposite, and it works well with young children. The rooms and the food are what stop it scoring higher.
The Place Alegría Palacio Mojácar
Mojácar, Almería
The adults-only option in Mojácar, and the one to look at if you are travelling without children.
See the full Andalusia guide →
Costa Brava
Girona airport is twenty minutes from Lloret de Mar, and Lloret is not the town its reputation still suggests: the council has spent years pulling it away from stag weekends and towards families, and you can see it. Three hotels, and between them they cover the local trade-off exactly — two of them buy you more hotel for the money and charge you for it in metres from the sand, and the third sits right next to Fenals beach with thinner facilities.
Htop L’Azure
Lloret de Mar, Girona
A four-star superior that gets close to luxury: an adults-only rooftop with an infinity pool, one of the most complete spas we have used and a buffet good enough that we did not eat out once. It suits younger children — the water area is a paddling park with no slides — and the beach is an eleven-minute walk. Parking is limited and paid.
Evenia Olympic Suites
Lloret de Mar, Girona
The best hotel water park on the Costa Brava, split into three separate zones so that toddlers and twelve-year-olds are never in the same queue, plus 30 m² suites that sleep five where the local standard is 20 m². The buffet is the weak spot and we are blunt about it: the hotel is a 4.4 out of 5, the food a 3.5.
We were hosted on this stay, and the Spanish review says so.
Hotel Htop Amatista
Lloret de Mar, Girona
The buffet is why you book it: paellas and fideuà that would pass in a proper arrocería, and the cleanest hotel we have stayed in on this coast. Fenals beach is next door. What holds it back is everything else — facilities at a 7, no spa, a kids’ club only in high season and no parking at all.
These three are not reviewed in English yet
We have written all three up in Spanish but not in English, so there is nowhere on this site to send you for the full detail in your own language. It is on the list. In the meantime, everything above is first-hand.
Costa Dorada and Salou
Reus airport is twenty minutes away and Barcelona about an hour, but the real reason families pick this coast is PortAventura. Three hotels, all squarely mid-range, and a shortlist that goes wider than the three of them.
Best Sol d’Or
La Pineda, Tarragona
Refurbished from three stars to four and it shows — new furniture, spotless throughout, food better than its category and an unusually large floor team. Wide sand three minutes away. The water park runs out of road at about ten years old, because the slides top out at three or four metres.
Best Cap Salou
Cap Salou, Tarragona
Slides for every age with the beach one minute away — small, sheltered and used mostly by hotel guests. Two things to know before you book: the pool music is loud all day, and parking around Cap Salou is a genuine problem.
Hotel Jaime I
Salou, Tarragona
The pools, the slides and the entertainment team are probably among the best in Tarragona. The buffet, the organisation and half of the rooms are not. It works if you book it properly: half board, a renovated room, and children under about ten.
Best Hotels for Kids in Salou →
The Costa Dorada option, next door to PortAventura.
Costa del Azahar
The stretch above Valencia, and the one British families almost never look at — Valencia airport is about an hour and a quarter from Oropesa del Mar. Both of ours sit inside Magic World, the enormous resort complex that used to be Marina d’Or, where the ultra all-inclusive lets you eat, drink and use the facilities across the whole site rather than at one hotel.
Hotel Magic Sports
Oropesa del Mar, Castellón
The clearest recovery we have documented anywhere: a shambles when it opened in 2024, an 8.5 by 2026 across three separate visits. Three water zones and an ultra all-inclusive we scored a 10 and never managed to exhaust. The food is the one thing that has not come up with the rest.
Magic Fantasy
Oropesa del Mar, Castellón
The one where the room is half the holiday: mermaids, unicorns and pirates, and for a small child that is the trip. Everything else — pool, spa, gym, shows — sits outside the building and is a walk away, so what you are buying is the theming and the ultra all-inclusive rather than the hotel itself.
Majorca
One hotel so far, and it is the one that has surprised us most in over a hundred stays. Palma airport is about twenty-five minutes from Santa Ponsa.
Pirates Village
Santa Ponsa, Majorca
The best shows we have seen in a family hotel, performed in English and Spanish, and a pirate castle with slides that start with the very youngest. It is also the only hotel we have found that lets you leave the buffet and come back in for a second round. Santa Ponsa is the other argument: a proper village, three or four minutes from the beach and well away from Magaluf.
Best Family Hotels in Majorca →
Written for families flying in from the UK.
The Benidorm shortlist
If you want the Benidorm hotels compared side by side rather than one by one, this is the guide that does it.
Best Family Hotels in Benidorm →
Our full Benidorm shortlist, hotel by hotel.
Spanish cities
If you are adding a few days inland, these are the neighbourhood guides — including the areas we would not book.
Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and the areas to avoid.
A day trip from Madrid that is worth a night.
Where to sleep near the aqueduct.
Questions we get asked
Which airport should I fly into?
For the Costa Blanca, Alicante (ALC): Benidorm is about 45 minutes away. For Andalusia, Málaga (AGP), which covers Torremolinos in 20 minutes and the Granada coast in a little over an hour. Almería (LEI) is the closest for Mojácar and Vera but has far fewer UK flights, so most people fly to Málaga or Alicante and drive. For the Costa Brava it is Girona (GRO), 20 minutes from Lloret de Mar; for Salou, Reus (REU), also 20 minutes, with Barcelona about an hour away. Oropesa del Mar is about an hour and a quarter from Valencia (VLC), and Majorca is Palma (PMI).
Will there be English-speaking staff and shows in English?
In the big family hotels on these coasts, yes — the Costa Blanca, the Costa Dorada and Majorca all run their entertainment in English as well as Spanish, and Majorca in particular is full of British families through the summer. It is less automatic in the smaller Andalusian hotels, where the entertainment is often Spanish-first even though reception speaks English.
Do I need a hire car?
On the Costa Blanca, no — the hotels are close together and everything is walkable or a short taxi. In Andalusia, usually yes, because the hotels are spread out and some of them sit above the beach rather than on it. On the Costa Brava and in Salou you can manage without one, but check the parking situation before you drive: two of the hotels here are awkward on exactly that.
Is all-inclusive worth it in Spain?
It depends on the hotel rather than the concept. In Benidorm the all-inclusive hotels are built around it and it generally pays, and at Magic Natura the ultra all-inclusive is the entire reason to go. In Andalusia several of the best hotels do half board better than they do all-inclusive, and the town restaurants are worth leaving the hotel for.
When is the best time to go with children?
June and September are the sweet spot: the sea is warm, the pools are open and the prices have not peaked. July and August are the most expensive and the most crowded, though that is also when the water parks, shuttles and evening shows all run at full capacity.
Do you get paid by these hotels?
No. We pay for our own stays so we can say what we like. A small number of older stays were invitations from before that policy, and where that is the case we say so — on the review itself, or on the card above if there is no English review yet. We earn a commission if you book through our links, at no extra cost to you.
Every hotel on this page is one we have slept in. We pay for our own stays; where a stay predates that policy and was an invitation, we say so on the review itself. If you book through our links we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.