We are a family of four planning to travel somewhere for 7 to 10 days this June, July, or early August. One kid will be age 4yrs and the other will be 18 months old at the time of travel.
Other considerations:
* My wife favors going farther away than our home country of the US; we visited Canada in Oct, so that's off the list for this trip.
* We're not the types to hang out at the beach or by the pool so that eliminates a bunch of places people often recommend for families with young kids.
* I'd like good weather as much as we can predict based on historical averages and by that I mean not pouring rain, not cold (so we're deferring Argentina) and not unbearably hot (not 90+ F).
* Once we get to the destination, we'll put the little one in a stroller or a car seat if we're driving around. I prefer taking trains (or planes) to driving though.
* My wife and I prefer some place we haven't been to. Over the years we've seen a lot of western and central Europe (Paris+Loire+Code'Azur, London, Munich + Bavaria, Switzerland, Austria, Prague, Krakow, Slovenia, Italy, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo...) as well as SE Asia, Japan, Peru..but there are always some new places to see.
Here are some places I've thought about:
* Dubrovnik -- Not sure about stroller-friendliness.. Maybe we should save this for a year or two from now?
* Ireland -- spend a few days in Dublin then drive around. This seems to be a safe bet and it's a new to us, but somehow I haven't gotten excited about this.
* Italy -- Rome, Siena, Venice. Cinque Terre maybe/also? We've been to Rome and Venice before but it has been over 10 yrs.
* Berlin -- Seems really spread out though. Also what could we combine this with to make a week+? Maybe fly to Dubrovnik or Talinn or Helsinki?
Thoughts? Suggestions?
I certainly appreciate any perspective.
daregale
May 8, 12, 1:52 am
Dubrovnik would be difficult with a stroller--gorgeous, but crowded in the summer and very narrow old streets. Plitvice Lakes area might be a better choice in Croatia, and you can combine Croatia fairly easily with Venice (or Trieste or Ravenna) on a ferry. I'd also recommend the Italian lakes region with kids for another option.
Berlin can be great also, but the public transportation isn't much fun with a stroller--so many of the stops don't have elevators--and the city is fairly spread out.
nacho
May 8, 12, 3:13 am
What about the down under? June july won't be too hot down there, and it never gets too cold.
Our oldest is 6 and started complaining a bit about seeing landscape, so I can imagine it will be nice to go down there and drive around and see things.
manket58
May 8, 12, 6:52 am
We just got back from 10 days in Tuscany with a 22 month old (rented a 9 seat van with 6 adults and him) it was amazing!! We also did the Lakes region (centered in Como taking trains from MXP, hoping on ferries each day or the train to Switzerland) when he was 11 months and that too was perfect for the age.
erik123
May 8, 12, 8:03 am
I very much like the UK with kids - tons to see and do and very kid friendly. I particularly like the Southwest (Dorset/Bath/Glastonbury, etc.) - easy to reach from London. Hard to predict the weather though (rain is a certainty but June can also be wonderful). Ireland would be quite similar I suspect (haven't been there in years). We have taken the kids all over Europe and for some reason they always put England on the top of their list.
On the way over (or back) I'd stop a few days in Iceland. Great heated swimming pools and extremely kid friendly also. If flying Iceland Air you can take a day flight in summer from JFK and stopovers are free.
pintsizepilot
May 8, 12, 2:32 pm
Funny I don't get excited about Ireland either but there is certainly some good value there right now (economic disaster). My second choice on your list would be Italy.
On the Australia comment from "nacho" above, we spent some time on Kangaroo Island in South Australia with our two kids last May and it was fantastic (planes and cars). See blog link (http://www.pintsizepilot.com/2012/02/21/kangaroo-island-south-australia-with-kids/).
Good luck with your planning. It sounds fun !
pintsizepilot (http://pintsizepilot.com)
pintsizepilot
May 8, 12, 2:32 pm
Funny I don't get excited about Ireland either but there is certainly some good value there right now (economic disaster). My second choice on your list would be Italy.
On the Australia comment from "nacho" above, we spent some time on Kangaroo Island in South Australia with our two kids last May and it was fantastic (planes and cars). See blog link (http://www.pintsizepilot.com/2012/02/21/kangaroo-island-south-australia-with-kids/).
Good luck with your planning. It sounds fun !
pintsizepilot (http://pintsizepilot.com)
roknroll
May 8, 12, 3:38 pm
Ireland would seems like a great idea. We'll be heading to Barcelona this fall with our 1 year old, but Ireland was on our short list. Big pluses are that English is the primary language, which makes everything a little easie (especially getting around). Lots of stuff to do outdoors, and the weather should be pleasant.
We ended up looking into visiting a few cities in Spain, but opted to just stay in Barcelona since we didn't feel comfortable traveling around, renting a car, etc in a place where we don't speak the language or aren't as in tune with the local culture/customs. In Ireland, however, I don't think I'd have a second though about renting a car or touring the country side.
49er
May 8, 12, 9:03 pm
What about the down under? June july won't be too hot down there, and it never gets too cold.
Our oldest is 6 and started complaining a bit about seeing landscape, so I can imagine it will be nice to go down there and drive around and see things.
If by down under you mean Australia, we visited Sydney and Cairns + Great Barrier Reef in 2009. We loved it. Our next trip would probably include Melbourne and I imagine that it's colder there since it's on the southern coast?
We just got back from 10 days in Tuscany with a 22 month old (rented a 9 seat van with 6 adults and him) it was amazing!! We also did the Lakes region (centered in Como taking trains from MXP, hoping on ferries each day or the train to Switzerland) when he was 11 months and that too was perfect for the age.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into this. Do you mind sharing your itinerary or highlights of what you saw/did?
I very much like the UK with kids - tons to see and do and very kid friendly. I particularly like the Southwest (Dorset/Bath/Glastonbury, etc.) - easy to reach from London. Hard to predict the weather though (rain is a certainty but June can also be wonderful). Ireland would be quite similar I suspect (haven't been there in years). We have taken the kids all over Europe and for some reason they always put England on the top of their list.
On the way over (or back) I'd stop a few days in Iceland. Great heated swimming pools and extremely kid friendly also. If flying Iceland Air you can take a day flight in summer from JFK and stopovers are free.
I need to look into Iceland, too. Thanks for the suggestion.
Ireland would seems like a great idea. We'll be heading to Barcelona this fall with our 1 year old, but Ireland was on our short list. Big pluses are that English is the primary language, which makes everything a little easie (especially getting around). Lots of stuff to do outdoors, and the weather should be pleasant.
We ended up looking into visiting a few cities in Spain, but opted to just stay in Barcelona since we didn't feel comfortable traveling around, renting a car, etc in a place where we don't speak the language or aren't as in tune with the local culture/customs. In Ireland, however, I don't think I'd have a second though about renting a car or touring the country side.
We visited Barcelona when our older child was 1. It was wonderful. I thought the city was easily navigable with a stroller. There were some restaurants that served an amazing price-fixed lunch for 8 - 9 euros. Rick Steves mentioned them in his book. If you're into architecture it's a great city and it's nice that it doesn't cost anything to see buildings from the outside, especially when you have a young child that might squirm to get out of the stroller if you were to spend a lot of time inside.
Dubrovnik would be difficult with a stroller--gorgeous, but crowded in the summer and very narrow old streets. Plitvice Lakes area might be a better choice in Croatia, and you can combine Croatia fairly easily with Venice (or Trieste or Ravenna) on a ferry. I'd also recommend the Italian lakes region with kids for another option.
Berlin can be great also, but the public transportation isn't much fun with a stroller--so many of the stops don't have elevators--and the city is fairly spread out.
Thanks for the guidance here, exactly the information I needed.
I'm warming up to Ireland. Feel free to keep the ideas coming as I have a few more days to decide. I appreciate all the help!