Big4Flyer

What are some destinations that would make for an enjoyable 1-2 month trip with young kids?

I have the chance to take an extended 1-2 month vacation anytime during the next year. While I'm excited to have this much time off work, I've never taken a vacation longer than 2 weeks before with 3 kids (between ages 1-6). We have plenty of experience traveling as a family, but the biggest thing I wonder about is what places could remain interesting for that long, since our style is to hop around and do things when we travel, rather than just staying at a resort for a week.

One of our biggest limitations is cost, because while I have enough miles to fly us anywhere, I don't have enough points for that long in hotels since with 5 of us we'd need to book a suite or 2 rooms. We'd like to keep our lodging price below around $75/night. Some options we've looked at include splitting our time between the Yucatan Peninsula and Oaxaca in Mexico, or going to Panama, and then working our way back to the US through the Caribbean for a couple weeks.

I'd love to visit Europe, but lodging seems like it would add up over that period of time, especially in the places we'd like to visit (Switzerland, Italy, France)

Has anybody ever taken a trip of this length before with young kids or have any recommendation for places to visit?

erik123

Just go to Spain. It can be very inexpensive (even with the high Euro) and is wonderful with small kids. A month will fly by.

Big4Flyer

This was actually one of the places we considered, if for no other reason that I would love the chance to fly into Gibraltar and visit Morocco during our time there. Are there particular places in Spain that would be recommended with young kids?

Redhead

The Spaniards love kids and you'll see them in all kinds of restaurants and happily playing in the plazas while you enjoy tapas.

You can take a few trips around Spain and I would recommend maybe renting an apartment and using it as a base.

Spend some time along the Costa del Sol to get in beach time.

Then rent a place in Madrid and do day trips to Toledo, Segovia, El Escorial (maybe skip that one since it is a huge very interesting castle and museum but not totally cool for kids). Go hiking in the nearby mountains. Sail toy boats in El Retiro

erik123

Spain will be better and easier with small kids than Morocco which is too hot in Summer but wonderful in Spring. For Spain I very much enjoy late September when the package tourist are all gone.

AsiaTraveler

If you really want to visit Europe, you may want to do some research. I haven't done it with a family, but I did travel with my parents and my husband to Switzerland/Germany/Austria in 2010 and was able to find fairly reasonably priced lodging options. It took *a lot* of research, but I was able to find lodging most nights at what I considered a reasonable rate. This was a combination of bed & breakfasts (some of which had a very affordable suite that we could share), business hotels on the weekends (cheap rates), and hotels on points. This was in late May/early June. I found booking.com very helpful in finding smaller hotels/pensions to stay in.

If you have some time, you may have time to build up *some* hotel points, as well. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in small-town Austria that was 10,000 IHG points/night. Bigger cities will likely be more.

So, yes, Europe would be more expensive, but if it's really what you want to do, I wouldn't write it off without a bit more research. It would also help expenses to spend some time in small town/rural areas rather than big cities all the time. Depends on what you want to do.

VickiSoCal

A friend of mine went to Europe for 6 weeks with three kids and rented an RV. They had a great time.

roknroll

My biggest tip with young children is to not force something just to do it. Just because you have 1-2 months off, don't feel you need to go overseas for that long. Like you said, it will get expensive in terms of hotel, food, activities, etc in another country. Think of what there is to do in the area. If going purely for leisure, in 2-3 weeks you'll likely be able to see what you want to see, take some side trips, move at a leisurely pace, and with plenty of down time. Your children may get home sick and may not be as thrilled with the daily activities. Unhappy kids can turn what seemed like a great adventure into a chore.

We haven't traveled much with multiple children, but have been to Paris, Prague, London, Ireland, Barcelona, Mexico, Hawaii with our son who is now 4 and the trips were when he was between 11 months and 3 years old.

Barcelona was probably my favorite in terms of getting around, stuff to do, kid friendly environment etc. We rented an apartment through Friendly Rentals which made for a great home base with our son. We could walk to the local market (both a big farmers market type, and typical supermarket type) and get plenty of fruit, snacks, and other meals. That cut down on the cost of always eating out and we had a full kitchen to prep in. The apartment had a washer/dryer in it as well. We spent a week there, and saw what we wanted to see with a day or two of rest. I think 2-3 weeks there would be great. You could also do a few day trip excursions, or check out Marbella, Seville, or Madrid. We also (by chance) went in september during the La Merce festival. It was a lot of fun to see all that was going on, and our son loved it. The weather was great that time of year: warm enough for the beach but not too hot when walking around outside.

Large cities (London/Paris) were my lease favorite. They were the most expensive, and toughest with the kids. I'd also recommend limiting the major moves and destinations with 3 young children. I think something better would be to pick 1-2 places that have lots of day trip type excursions. We did London and Dublin together on a trip, and navigating the train/ferry to Dublin with luggage and kids is manageable but not fun. Having to do that 5-6 times with 3 kids under 6 might get draining towards the end (on you and them).

kryptogram

I think an extended trip with kids is a fantastic idea! We took our kids out of school and traveled for 5 months with them when they were 9 and 11. We went on safari and traveled around Africa for a month, stayed in a villa in Lucca for a month, drove around France and Spain for a little less than a month and spent 6 weeks in the UK. We budgeted $150/nt for lodging and that was right on the mark for Europe. The dollar has gained on the euro since then, so you might be able to hit $75. In general, the further north you go the more expensive it is.

Traveling Europe is amazing, but the focus is on architecture, history, art, wine and food - not your average toddler's idea of a fun day. Getting around Europe with no car is way more expensive than it used to be - those Eurail passes aren't cheap. With a car, you'll pay north of $10/gallon for gas and the highway tolls are super steep. It's actually cheaper to fly between major destinations (easyjet or RyanAir) than it is to take the train.

If you can get your family to Asia (for around the same cost as getting to Europe), the lodging and food rates are much cheaper. Thailand could be a great experience for all of you. Beaches and animals and temples seem like fun for everyone.

Central or South America might be a better way to go. It will be cheaper and you will be able to hit amazing ruins and beaches and see monkeys.

Australia and New Zealand are easy because of the common language. They both have fantastic beaches (if you can take the frigid water in NZ). You could see kangaroos and cockatoos in Oz.

People worldwide love kids (as long as they aren't crying or kicking the seat during a flight) and you will have fun no matter where you go. You know your family best, research it and you'll find the right thing. Just do it!

PWMTrav

If you're going to do 1-2 months with kids, get an apartment. Hotels will get stale and inconvenient after a while, as you're basically locked in to eating every meal out or cold snacks in the room. Having a kitchen and some separate living space to spread out into will make it better, since 1-2 months isn't as much a vacation as it is living somewhere else for a while.

Personally, I'd echo what some of the other folks in the thread have suggested - Spain or Southern Europe in general. Spaniards, Italians (probably Portuguese too, but I have no first hand experience) like kids and they're welcome pretty much everywhere.

Big4Flyer

Spain looks wonderful. It looks like it would be surprisingly affordable to get an airbnb on the Southern coast of Spain and use that as a base. Are the cities set up such that that once we got there we could get around without a rental car, or is as much a necessity as it is here in the US?

Tchiowa

I think you're overestimating the importance of that. A 1 year old child can find endless joy playing with a cardboard box. And even a 6 year old is not really going to appreciate that they are in The Alps as opposed to Omaha.

Move your points to a hotel account and take a car trip from one coast of the US to the other and use points for hotels. Hit both Disneys. Kids will love that. Plenty of zoos and parks in the US.

LAX/HKG

I went to Madrid a couple years ago with my then 6 & 1-year old. We never got a rental car as the public transit was super easy and convenient. We took day trips from Madrid by high speed trains.

Big4Flyer

I agree that kids don't really care where they're at, and frankly I don't care about going somewhere just to go there either. What I do care about though is having experiences with my children that they couldn't have at home and opening their eyes to what's out there in the world. This is a great opportunity to get to truly experience a new place, instead of just visiting for a week.

I love the idea of a trip across the country, but at this point we've visited most of the places we'd like to go in the US so we want to take this time to experience a new and different culture.

heraclitus

^^

You're doing it right

FWIW I'm planning a trip to Poland next year (about 1.5 years away) with kids that will be 4 and 2... I'm going because I have family roots there, but in some respects it's a good choice for an extended trip given that it's Europe but outside the Euro zone, and costs are far lower. You can easily find nice Airbnb type apartments for under 75 EUR/USD, and hotels are also inexpensive as is food. Poland doesn't have the rail infrastructure of other western European countries but there are some high speed trains and reasonably fast/frequent regional services. We will be renting a car too.

We're going for 2 weeks and change but we could have easily filled a month up if we had time.

You could always do 3 weeks in an affordable place like that and then move on to one of the places at the top of your list like Italy for another 3?