MARIELLA FROSTRUP ACCESS ALL AREAS

A relaxing three-day stay at Barcelona’s Soho House was both a privilege and a reminder that my daughter is growing up fast

Divide and conquer tends to be the strategy of despots, but it also works well in a family context. Taking solo trips with children (or grandchildren) has to be one of the most bonding and illuminating travel experiences on offer. Absenting yourself from the day-to-day dynamics of family life and rediscovering your child as an individual can provide liberation and surprises.

I first stumbled on the virtues of such an escape a couple of years ago when my son and I left his swotting sibling and working father and ventured to Sicily for a mini-break. At Verdura, a seaside resort favoured by golfers but with so much more to offer including a sensational spa, I embarked on a four-day detox and orgy of treatments, while Dan embraced his favoured sports activities; football, weight training and even a spot of golf.

We’d meet in the outdoor Thalassotherapy pools and go for cycle rides around the estate that grows its own organic vegetables, olives and grapes. At mealtimes I’d munch on greens and juices while he gorged on pasta and spare ribs.

Cozied up in our room by 8pm, we watched the Godfather trilogy over the course of our stay before drifting off to sleep. Drives to school aside, we were having rare companionable conversations uninterrupted by edicts on room tidying.

I discovered a lively, amiable and very funny companion in my then-11-year-old, with whom I hope to have many more such adventures.

More recently events conspired to make a half-term journey with just my daughter the most sensible choice. We set off to Barcelona, a city I’ve neglected for over two decades and she’d feigned interest in.

This world relentlessly propels us forward so children offer a welcome opportunity to look back. Old haunts can be reinvented when you see them again through the eyes of your offspring. I hadn’t visited Barcelona since before 14-yearold Molly was born. Last time the Rolling Stones were playing and the whole city was in carnival mode with kites and balloons of the band’s signature red lips floating across the brilliant blue sky.

Our October visit was less blessed on the weather front but the more temperate climate made our primary activities, shopping and sightseeing, less of an ordeal. I don’t remember where I stayed first time around but I certainly won’t forget our accommodation this time at Soho House.

The membership club and hotel is a marvel of spoiling comforts. The generous array of toiletries alone could have kept my teenage girl busy for the duration. The FortiesManhattan-meets-your-stylishgranny’s-boudoir is seductive with no skimping on modern creature comforts. The curtains blackout, the in-room bar is a wonder of temptation and the giant jars of sweets in the main club room an attraction for kids and adults still living like them.

The latter seems to be an integral part of the appeal of this growing empire of hospitality. They may play classical music when you enter your bedroom, but in a cool, way. As Molly pointed out it’s hard not to suspect a selection process in play when every member of staff would be as at home on a catwalk as manning the concierge desk.

Parenting is a job that rarely offers endorsements, so seeing your enthusiasms passed down is rare confirmation that you’re doing something right. Molly was as transfixed by Barcelona’s most famous landmark, Gaudí’s Sagrada Família cathedral, as I had been my first viewing. We gazed up at the soaring heights and then tottered back to the hotel, buying macaroons en route to eat in bed.

Molly became a sophisticated art critic when comparing Picasso with Picabia at the

Old haunts can be reinvented when seen through the eyes of offspring

Fundación Mapfre, transported by Gaudí’s place of worship, decisive in Zara and the vintage shops off Las Ramblas and a toddler again, tucked up in our giant bed in her Soho House dressing gown.

Those three days in Barcelona offered me a precious and privileged introduction to the multi-faceted human being my daughter is growing up to be.

Soho House Barcelona

(0034 932 204 600; sohohousebarcelona.com/en) offers double rooms from £185, excluding breakfast.

easyJet (easyjet.com) flies to Barcelona from Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Southend.

Soho House Barcelona