Travel with Children - Best European cities for a 4-5 Y.O ?

Hi all -

Hoping FTers will have some good suggestions. My wife and I hope to travel to Europe next August with our son (he'll be just short of his 5th birthday then). We're planning to spend about 2 weeks away, and finish up the trip with a few days in London before flying home from there. My wife and I have each visited western Europe several times, but this will be the first for the little guy.

We plan to use Star Alliance award tickets for an open-jaw, then divide our stay in or around 3-4 base cities, to minimize packing/unpacking. I expect we'd look into one or another of the railpasses, but could rent a car wherever that makes more sense.

We'd like to see and do things that are more distinctively European than we'd get at home (for example, castles and scenic rail journeys rather than beaches and children's museums). But we don't want to run ourselves ragged.

With that in mind, can you suggest:
An arrival city, distant from London, well served with Star Alliance seats
Another city/region that would be a good base for exploring


Thanks!

My wife and I recently took our two daughters (ages 4 and 1 at the time) to Europe. We had a great time and there is plenty to do that your child will enjoy too. London was by far the best city for kids in my opinion. Despite what I have heard elsewhere about kids not being welcome in English pubs, etc. we found everyone to be very accomodating and a ton of things that interested our older one. The British Museum was also a hit. We also drove up to Warwick Castle. Its interesting from an historical perspective, but (owned by Madame Tussauds) is a little manufactured for my tastes.

Paris was fun but restaurants were tough with the kids. We did a lot of cafes and street vendors, plus we rented apartment an aparmtnet, allowing us to cook on occaision.

I haven't been there with my kids, but Madrid is pretty child friendly IIRC. The Retiro is great on a Sunday.

Keep in mind though that all European restaurants will have smoke - lots and lots of smoke. Its not as big an issue over there as it is here. Also, you will end up taking twice as long as you think you need with a little one. Getting through train stations, buses, exhibits, parks, is a much slower process. We had to seriously revise our list of things to do once reality set in over there.

All that said, it was definitely worth going. We had a great time and so did our daughters. I am sure you will have a great time too. Good luck!

Switzerland, specifically - Zurich & Luzern my 2 year & 5 year olds loved the boat ride around Lake Zurich and going up to the top of Mt. Rigi on a tram. They also enjoyed walking around the stores and seeing things they have never seen, (coo coo clocks etc.). They enjoyed more choc. than they have ever had before in their lives. Coming back to the USA they wanted to know 1) Why Hershey's doesnt have a store on every cornor and 2) How come the choc. in Europe tastes a lot better. Enjoy

Hi all -
(snip)

We'd like to see and do things that are more distinctively European than we'd get at home (for example, castles and scenic rail journeys rather than beaches and children's museums). But we don't want to run ourselves ragged.

Thanks!

Have you thought about staying in a bungalow park? Or doing a farm stay? We've done both with our son, and both worked out great for us.

In the Netherlands, we love Duinrell: 10 minutes from Den Haag, about 30 from Amsterdam. We get a 2 bedroom bungalow w/ kitchenette in the heart of an amusement park complete with playground and water park, with tons of other kids around for ours to play with. We also were an easy day trip from fabulous museums, gardens and fascinating things like canal boat rides and windmills.

Copenhagen is also a city that worked well with our son: we did a guided bicycle tour of the city (very Danish thing to do!) and visited several castles. Some of the great museums, like Louisiana, have special rooms for kids to learn about art while the parents take turns wandering around.

Near Legoland (Billund) we stayed on a farm (booked through Danish tourist board) - definitely something different than our average American vacation.

Thanks, some great posts and fun ideas.

SptCA - Copenhagen sounds particularly interesting - how old was your son at the time of your trip?

Thanks, some great posts and fun ideas.

SptCA - Copenhagen sounds particularly interesting - how old was your son at the time of your trip?

He was just under 3, so he rode on the back of one of our bikes around town. One of the things we liked best about Denmark is people in general are very welcoming to small children - very different from what we've experienced in some other travels.

Now, nearly 2 years later, he's still asking (at least weekly) to go back to Tivoli - so I should have put it on the "Copenhagen - fun things, very European" to do list. (we went 3 times)

The bike tour was through http://www.citysafari.dk/ - they welcome kids, which some companies do not.

We also found a sitter agency we were *very* pleased with - www.hh-baby.dk which gave us some wonderful parent-only evenings out.

Now I'm wishing we were off to Europe again soon!