An hour and a half inland from Barcelona there’s a town called Igualada where you can fly three different ways — a paraglider, a glider, or a hot-air balloon. And in Barcelona itself, the municipal sailing centre will sell you an hour of kayaking a day for about the price of two cinema tickets a month.
Neither of those is in any guidebook. We’ve done both, and four more besides, with two children in tow. Here’s the honest version of each — what it’s like, what it costs, and who it actually suits.
The short version
- Cheapest by far: kayak or paddle surf at the Centre Municipal de Vela in Barcelona — a monthly subscription that includes an hour a day
- Best with young children: an hour of kayaking by the sea in the city. Start there, not with a full day
- The one nobody knows about: an initiation glider flight in Igualada — around €80, towed up by a plane, released at 500 m, then silence
- Most accessible adrenaline: tandem paragliding, also near Igualada. You run, you don’t jump
- Best day out of the city: kayaking at Pantano de San Lorenzo near Lleida — under two hours’ drive
- Best as a gift: the glider flight. We gave each other one for our birthdays
- The one thing to know: everything that flies is weather-dependent. Never book it for your last day
Tickets and where to stay in Barcelona
Generator Barcelona – private family rooms at hostel prices, five minutes from Passeig de Gràcia and metro Diagonal (L3/L5). Rooms are small and the bar downstairs is lively, so ask for a higher floor.
Sercotel Rosellón – two minutes’ walk from the basilica, with a rooftop terrace looking straight at it. Rooms are doubles and twins, so a family of four books two.
The Cotton House Hotel, Autograph Collection – the old cotton guild building on Gran Via, ten minutes’ walk from Casa Batlló, with a rooftop pool and connecting rooms on request.
These are affiliate links: we may earn a small commission if you book, at no extra cost to you.
Three ways to fly, all from the same small town
This is the part that surprised us, and it’s the reason this post exists.
Igualada — capital of the Anoia region, about an hour and a half inland — is a centre for air sports. Not by accident: the thermals over the Anoia countryside are good enough that it hosts Spain’s biggest hot-air-balloon festival. The same air that makes the balloons work makes the gliders and paragliders work.
So you can fly there three ways, and almost nobody outside Catalonia knows it.
1. Initiation glider flight — around €80
The one we’d send you to first, and the one almost nobody has heard of.
A glider has no engine. A small aeroplane tows you up, releases you at around 500 metres, and from that moment you are flying on nothing but air. There is no engine noise because there is no engine. It’s sometimes called an “aerial walk”, and after doing it that seems about right.
You sit in the front seat of a two-seater with nothing in front of you but the view; the instructor sits behind and flies it. My husband was allowed to take the controls briefly under supervision and said it felt startlingly responsive. I stayed a passenger and had no regrets about it.
The honest bit: we were both frightened before takeoff, and the flight was shorter than advertised — billed as 20–30 minutes, realistically 15–20 depending on the thermals. It was still completely worth it.
- Price: around €80 per person ⚠️ *re-check — this is from our visit*
- Duration: advertised 20–30 min, expect 15–20
- Weather: entirely dependent on wind and thermals
- Best for: adults and older children. A gift rather than a family outing
Full write-up of our glider flight, with the practical details.
2. Tandem paragliding — same area
The one people have heard of, and the one they misunderstand: you don’t jump off anything. The wing is laid out on a slope, the pilot inflates it, and the two of you jog a few steps downhill until your feet stop touching the ground. No drop, no freefall.
Flights run 15 to 30 minutes depending on conditions.
Our paragliding experience, and what to wear.
3. The European Balloon Festival — every July
You don’t have to go up to make this worth the drive. Spain’s biggest hot-air-balloon festival happens in Igualada every July, it’s a spectacle from the ground, and it ends with a Night Glow — balloons tethered in the dark with their burners lit.
We left before the Night Glow and regretted it. Don’t do that.
Everything about the balloon festival, including how to plan the day around the Night Glow.
Make a day of Igualada either way
Whichever you fly, you’ll have hours to fill around it, because these things happen at dawn or in the late afternoon when the air is calm. Igualada was a leather town and the REC district — a whole neighbourhood of old industrial tanneries — is strange, handsome and completely off the tourist circuit. It’s the right place to spend a hot afternoon between flights.
Water: and the €35 nobody tells you about
4. Centre Municipal de Vela, Barcelona — the best-value thing in this article
The municipal sailing centre at the Port of Barcelona rents kayaks and paddle surf by the hour. That’s useful. This is the part that isn’t widely known: there’s a monthly subscription that includes one hour of kayaking or paddle surf per day, with J24 sailing, windsurf, catamaran and cruise available on top for extra.
When we joined it was around €35 a month. ⚠️ *Re-check the current price before relying on this — ours is an older figure.*
If you live here, or you’re staying for a month, that changes what’s possible. An hour on the water before dinner, every day, for less than a gym membership.
And we’d lived in Barcelona for years before we found it. I only discovered the place when I went kayaking there with my sister and the children, which is a fair indication of how little it’s promoted.
5. J24 sailing — with the same centre
A J24 is a small performance keelboat, and the honest headline is that it never stops moving. Even tied up in port it shifts under you. Out on the water, tacking and jibing means throwing yourself from one side to the other — my legs and backside ached afterwards. It’s a proper workout and a genuinely good introduction to wind, steering and handling sails.
With a child aboard: we put ours in a closed, secure space until we felt confident enough to move around the boat ourselves. That’s the honest sequence — get steady first, take photographs later.
The full J24 experience, and what a beginner should expect.
6. Kayaking and paddle surf with kids — how to actually start
This is the section for parents, and it’s the opposite of what an adventure listicle would tell you.
We go for an hour. Not a day. An hour by the sea in Barcelona is more than enough for our two, and the point was never to complete something — it was to make the water normal. We deliberately started small and kept the stress down.
The progression that worked:
- First times: calm water, minimal current. Nothing to manage except being in a boat
- Now we don’t check. Both children actively want more movement, which is the whole point — they got there gradually rather than being thrown in
- In the city, not on a trip. We can go after work and be home within half an hour of finishing. That’s why it became a habit instead of an event
My husband has taken up paddle surf as well. I haven’t tried paddle surf with the children yet.
The principle, if you take one thing from this post: an hour of something small and local, repeated, beats one big adventure day that nobody wants to repeat.
How we introduced our kids to kayaking.
7. Pantano de San Lorenzo, Lleida — the best day out of the city
A reservoir in western Catalonia, under two hours’ drive from Barcelona, and a completely different landscape — Lleida is the inland, mountainous side of Catalonia that visitors almost never see.
We rented two kayaks at Camping La Noguera, and the arrangement there is unusually sensible: you take the kayaks without committing to a duration, and they work out the price from the time you actually used them when you bring them back. With children, that’s exactly right — you can stop when they’ve had enough rather than watching a clock you’ve already paid for.
There’s also walking, climbing and hiking around the reservoir, and water birds if you’re quiet.
Our day at Pantano de San Lorenzo.
Which one should you do?
| If you want… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Something with young children | An hour’s kayaking in Barcelona |
| To do it regularly | Centre Municipal de Vela subscription |
| A gift someone will remember | Initiation glider flight, Igualada |
| Adrenaline without the fear of heights | Tandem paragliding, Igualada |
| A full day out of the city | Pantano de San Lorenzo, Lleida |
| A spectacle, not a ride | European Balloon Festival, July |
| A real workout | J24 sailing |
Five things we’ve learned doing these
- Never book anything airborne for your last day. Gliders, paragliders and balloons all depend on wind and thermals, and flights get moved or cancelled at short notice. Leave a spare day to rebook into
- Dawn or late afternoon. Not because it’s prettier, but because that’s when the air is calm enough to fly
- Start children small. One hour, calm water, close to home. The goal is a second time, not a story
- Ask what’s included. Photos and video are frequently a separate charge, and you will want them
- Check the real duration, not the advertised one. Our glider flight was billed at 20–30 minutes and ran 15–20. That’s normal, not a swindle — but know it going in
Where these actually are
- Igualada (glider, paragliding, balloon festival) — about 1 h 30 by car, inland. Reachable on the FGC from Plaça Espanya, but check the last train back
- Centre Municipal de Vela (kayak, paddle surf, J24, windsurf, catamaran) — in Barcelona, at the port
- Pantano de San Lorenzo (kayak, hiking, climbing) — under 2 hours by car, near Lleida
More days out: 20 day trips from Barcelona, compared · PortAventura with kids if you want your adrenaline on rails · Barcelona with kids
Prices are what we paid and are flagged where they need re-checking. Everything here is something our family has actually done.
Frequently asked questions
What adventure activities can you do near Barcelona?
Within about an hour and a half of the city you can fly a glider, go tandem paragliding, or watch Spain’s biggest hot air balloon festival — all three near Igualada. In Barcelona itself the municipal sailing centre does kayaking, paddle surf, J24 sailing, windsurf and catamaran. Under two hours away, Pantano de San Lorenzo near Lleida is good for kayaking, hiking and climbing.
What is the cheapest way to get on the water in Barcelona?
A subscription at the Centre Municipal de Vela, the municipal sailing centre at the port. It includes an hour of kayaking or paddle surf per day, with sailing, windsurf and catamaran available for an additional charge. When we joined it was around €35 a month, so check the current price — but it is a municipal rate rather than a tourist one and nothing else comes close.
Can you go kayaking in Barcelona with young children?
Yes, and the way to do it is an hour at a time rather than a full day. We started on calm water with minimal current and did short sessions close to home, so the children got used to being in a boat without any pressure. Both of them now want more movement, not less — but that came from going often, not from going far.
Where can you fly a glider near Barcelona?
In Igualada, about an hour and a half inland. An initiation flight puts you in the front seat of a two-seater with an instructor behind you: a small aeroplane tows you up, releases you at around 500 metres, and from there you fly with no engine and almost no sound. It cost us around €80 per person and lasted 15 to 20 minutes rather than the advertised 20 to 30.
Is paragliding or a glider flight better?
The glider is the stranger and quieter experience, and the better gift — being towed up and released is something most people have never done. Paragliding is more accessible, needs no airfield, and is less frightening than it sounds because you take off by running down a slope rather than jumping off anything. Both are near Igualada and both depend entirely on the weather.
Are these activities weather-dependent?
Everything that flies is. Gliders, paragliders and balloons all need the right wind and thermals, so flights are cancelled or moved at short notice and they run at dawn or in the late afternoon when the air is calm. Never book one for your last day in Catalonia — leave a spare day to rebook into.
What makes a good experience gift near Barcelona?
The initiation glider flight in Igualada. We gave each other one for our birthdays instead of a physical present, and it is the one we would recommend — around €80, completely unlike anything else, and something the person will still be describing years later.
