Pirate Trail and Adventure Trail with Children

Peñíscola Turismo publishes two routes for exploring the old town with children, each with a character who acts as guide, a downloadable PDF map and a video at each stop in Spanish Sign Language with subtitles. They are free and done independently, at your own pace. Peñíscola was the first coastal destination with the Family Tourism Seal of the Spanish Federation of Large Families and is part of the Tour & Kids club of the Comunitat Valenciana.

Pirate Trail, with the pirate Mar

It lasts 1 h 15 min and goes through the lower, seafaring part of the rock. It has ten stops, in this order: the Portal de Sant Pere or Papa Luna gate, the Bufador, the Sea Museum, the powder magazine and the Casa de las Petxinas (House of Shells), the Santa Ana spring, the walkway round the wall, the Font de la Petxina or Font de Fuera, La Porteta, Les Fontetes and the Font de Sant Pere. It is the most entertaining for little ones: the Bufador tunnel, the shell façade and the passage down to La Porteta are full of adventure.

Adventure Trail, with the knight Roque

It lasts 1 hour and climbs towards the castle through the upper part. Its nine stops are Santa María, the Portal del Desafío, the church and the Governor's House, the town hall, the Philip II ramp, the old schools, the castle gardens, the castle itself and the Ermitana. It combines well with admission to the Papa Luna castle, which according to the tourism website opens in winter from 10:30 to 17:30 and in summer from 9:30 to 21:30.

How to prepare

Download the route PDF and the videos at home from the family tourism page of peniscola.es: they weigh between 21 and 45 MB each and can be saved on your phone, so you don't depend on coverage between the walls. At the tourist office, on the seafront promenade, they also give information on the routes. Both call for comfortable footwear: there are slopes, steps and stone paving, and with a pushchair they get complicated. The website doesn't state a specific age; they are designed for small and primary-school children.

If you are short of time, do the Pirate Trail in the morning and the castle with the Adventure Trail in the afternoon, when the heat drops in summer.

More plans with children

The Sea Museum, a stop on the Pirate Trail, has free admission. On Playa Sur, next to the port, there is a pirate ship among the play equipment, and Playa Norte adds climbing-net pyramids, children's areas and a floating water park. To see the rock from the water, the boat trip around the rock lasts only half an hour. And for sleeping with children, Camping Ferrer is 800 m from the old town.