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Your favourite place for family fun in Europe?

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Your favourite place for family fun in Europe?

Hi, all! I am in the midst of planning our summer vacation and am looking for suggestions for a fun side-trip. We will be meeting up with family in Montelpuciano, Italy for the first week but want to spend the second week somewhere else.

Just to be annoying, we'd like to avoid Paris/London... and also Venice as we did our second week there, last year. We are travelling with our young kids (4 years old) so ideally, a place that has a few things to do that are interesting for the younger set is ideal. Based on my google research, both Barcelona and Amsterdam seem like good options but would really love to hear about your experiences... places you enjoyed as a family (without a great deal of stress!)

PS Would love to try the Iceland stopover but it doesn't seem to work out well with Florence as an initial destination.
PPS Also--curious to know your favourite site for booking multi-city fares. I have been using momondo but perhaps there are better options?
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Perhaps a beach area?

Check out the Algarve in Portugal. Pretty beach areas... Nice resorts. English speaking. Tons of water parks and zoo. Lisbon is not far and has a neat aquarium. Seville (Spain) is nearby for some sightseeing as well.

The southern coast of Spain also has a few nice towns that also have water parks and lots of family geared activities. You could combine that with Barcelona.
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I love Barcelona but really, keeping a 4 year old entertained is more a parental issue than travel. Little kids are happy with their parents, be it on the beach in Barcelona or, Parc Guell (lots of colours, birds etc) or, the aquarium and I really like the Spanish Village, so will the kids.
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona/barcelona-for-kids
http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/kids-act ... -barcelona
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Not that I've been to these places, but a trip to Croatia seems to be fun & economical & logistically/geographically easy way to spend another week.

Split, Plitvice Lakes (think Avatar the movie), Dubrovnik ... According to google map, there may even be ferry service from Ancona, IT to Split.
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BrunetteGirl wrote: Perhaps a beach area?

Check out the Algarve in Portugal. Pretty beach areas... Nice resorts. English speaking. Tons of water parks and zoo. Lisbon is not far and has a neat aquarium. Seville (Spain) is nearby for some sightseeing as well.

The southern coast of Spain also has a few nice towns that also have water parks and lots of family geared activities. You could combine that with Barcelona.
Thanks, BG! I hadn't thought of Portugal.. but Lisbon does have that awesome aquarium that I've been to and we could probably spend a day or to on the Beach in the Algarve. Also, Portugal is very easy to navigate (at least not overflowing with crazy drivers!) so that is a plus. I am going to do some google'ing on this.. really appreciate your post :D
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Pete_Coach wrote: I love Barcelona but really, keeping a 4 year old entertained is more a parental issue than travel. Little kids are happy with their parents, be it on the beach in Barcelona or, Parc Guell (lots of colours, birds etc) or, the aquarium and I really like the Spanish Village, so will the kids.
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona/barcelona-for-kids
http://www.kidsinbarcelona.com/kids-act ... -barcelona
Hmm... PeteCoach, your post sounds like a thinly-veiled parenting criticism.. but as the EXCRUTIATINGLY hands-on mom of two four-year olds, I can say with absolute certainty, that even staring at the chiseled penis of David in Florence gets dull for a four-year old, no matter how amusing it is... :D Kids need adventures. Speaking of which... I've never heard of Parc Guell tho and wow--it looks amazing! Barcelona seems like a very compelling choice so thank you for that...
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jl001 wrote: Not that I've been to these places, but a trip to Croatia seems to be fun & economical & logistically/geographically easy way to spend another week.

Split, Plitvice Lakes (think Avatar the movie), Dubrovnik ... According to google map, there may even be ferry service from Ancona, IT to Split.
Thanks, jl.. I appreciate you sharing that with me.. this is one of the few European counties I've not visited but it sounds like there is an adventure to be had.. I will check it out!
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CanadaSweetheart wrote: Hmm... PeteCoach, your post sounds like a thinly-veiled parenting criticism.. but as the EXCRUTIATINGLY hands-on mom of two four-year olds, I can say with absolute certainty, that even staring at the chiseled penis of David in Florence gets dull for a four-year old, no matter how amusing it is... :D Kids need adventures. Speaking of which... I've never heard of Parc Guell tho and wow--it looks amazing! Barcelona seems like a very compelling choice so thank you for that...
There was no veil, thin or thick. My point was that a 4 year old can be entertained by anything the parents do. I think you read waaaay to much into a simple sentence...David's penis??? Really? It was no criticism and I think you are a bit paranoid if you thought that.
My further suggestion of Barcelona and what can be seen and done there should have given you an idea I was trying to help.
Sorry, and I will make no further suggestions.
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+1 for Croatia. So many things to see and do for families and its extremely affordable compared to other European sun destinations.
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Pete_Coach wrote: There was no veil, thin or thick. My point was that a 4 year old can be entertained by anything the parents do. I think you read waaaay to much into a simple sentence...David's penis??? Really? It was no criticism and I think you are a bit paranoid if you thought that.
My further suggestion of Barcelona and what can be seen and done there should have given you an idea I was trying to help.
Sorry, and I will make no further suggestions.
Ugh... clearly something was lost in the internet translation. your post came across as, "if your kids can't have fun wherever you take them, then there's an issue with your parenting." Which I would have to take issue with because all kids, of any age, have their limits. My penis comment stemmed from the conversation I had with my husband wherein if we stayed in Italy, the kids would probably have a good time looking at the "nudie" statues for a little bit but it would stop being entertaining at some point and then what would we do. Anyway, sorry to have offended you--thank you for your contribution.
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Aircanada18 wrote: +1 for Croatia. So many things to see and do for families and its extremely affordable compared to other European sun destinations.
Have you been to Croatia? I am looking into it but would have some questions for you if you've taken kids there :)
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CanadaSweetheart wrote: Ugh... clearly something was lost in the internet translation. your post came across as, "if your kids can't have fun wherever you take them, then there's an issue with your parenting." Which I would have to take issue with because all kids, of any age, have their limits. My penis comment stemmed from the conversation I had with my husband wherein if we stayed in Italy, the kids would probably have a good time looking at the "nudie" statues for a little bit but it would stop being entertaining at some point and then what would we do. Anyway, sorry to have offended you--thank you for your contribution.
Having taken a 6 & 8 year old through the Vatican Museums, I can say with full assurance that their boredom level didn't peak until a few hours in - we did okay LOL I'm pretty sure there were comments about penis statues as well! We had no trouble keeping us all amused in Rome for a few days when we visited.

We haven't taken our kids around Europe all that much but do travel a lot with them, and we find that we always try to mix 'touristy' stuff (whatever that may be) with finding a local park to just play. Your question is kind of like "where in North America is best for a 4 year old" - its a hard one to answer! Pretty much any country would offer something that would amuse your little guy -- our guys would have probably enjoyed something like a night on a ferry so perhaps a little 2 day trip would be good (?), any kind of climbing structure - be it a playplace or just a park, or heck, a giant hill to run down; they enjoy hiking and camping so we usually try to incorporate something like that - even if its just a hike to get a break from the car on a longer drive. For us its all about timing .. making sure nothing goes on too long or is too far away without building in adequate breaks.

Lonely Planet has a pretty good set of books for kids too - and books about travelling with kids - may give you some good ideas as well: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/kids/books.

Croatia sounds like fun though - never been but its on the list!
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wirebound wrote: Having taken a 6 & 8 year old through the Vatican Museums, I can say with full assurance that their boredom level didn't peak until a few hours in - we did okay LOL I'm pretty sure there were comments about penis statues as well! We had no trouble keeping us all amused in Rome for a few days when we visited.

We haven't taken our kids around Europe all that much but do travel a lot with them, and we find that we always try to mix 'touristy' stuff (whatever that may be) with finding a local park to just play. Your question is kind of like "where in North America is best for a 4 year old" - its a hard one to answer! Pretty much any country would offer something that would amuse your little guy -- our guys would have probably enjoyed something like a night on a ferry so perhaps a little 2 day trip would be good (?), any kind of climbing structure - be it a playplace or just a park, or heck, a giant hill to run down; they enjoy hiking and camping so we usually try to incorporate something like that - even if its just a hike to get a break from the car on a longer drive. For us its all about timing .. making sure nothing goes on too long or is too far away without building in adequate breaks.

Lonely Planet has a pretty good set of books for kids too - and books about travelling with kids - may give you some good ideas as well: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/kids/books.

Croatia sounds like fun though - never been but its on the list!
Thanks, wirebound... very helpful info! My problem is, i have two sons (both 4) and so keeping them engaged at the same time can be a challenge. For instance, I'm sure they would enjoy Herculaneum or Pompeii for a little while.. but after how long would one of them decide they needed to run under the ropes and pick up an urn? My kids are extremely well-behaved, don't get me wrong, but the thought of something like that happening makes me feel utterly tense. The first week we are spending in Montelpuciano but at a very isolated "cottage".. so for that week, we will already be doing stuff like playing at the park (which requires a drive!), swimming, playing catch and all that.. so we were hoping to do something different the second week. We just got home from Whistler/VAncouver and they so loved the aquarium, science centre, taking the aquabus, etc.. so doing something like that in a different city would be awesome. I wasn't aware of the kids' series of Lonely Planet books!!!! I am going to amazon right now to order :D
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CanadaSweetheart wrote: Thanks, wirebound... very helpful info! My problem is, i have two sons (both 4) and so keeping them engaged at the same time can be a challenge. For instance, I'm sure they would enjoy Herculaneum or Pompeii for a little while.. but after how long would one of them decide they needed to run under the ropes and pick up an urn? My kids are extremely well-behaved, don't get me wrong, but the thought of something like that happening makes me feel utterly tense. The first week we are spending in Montelpuciano but at a very isolated "cottage".. so for that week, we will already be doing stuff like playing at the park (which requires a drive!), swimming, playing catch and all that.. so we were hoping to do something different the second week. We just got home from Whistler/VAncouver and they so loved the aquarium, science centre, taking the aquabus, etc.. so doing something like that in a different city would be awesome. I wasn't aware of the kids' series of Lonely Planet books!!!! I am going to amazon right now to order :D
Your kids might still be a little young but we used this book series for a trip to Peru with the kids - there's one on Pompeii - keeps them a little more engaged too (they can hold the book instead of smashing the urn from 79 AD) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/952 ... om-pompeii
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+1 on Croatia. Cheaper than Western Europe and lots of outdoor fun. We took our 1.5 and 3.5 year old there in the Fall. It pairs nicely with Slovenia, which is an underrated tourist destination with lakes and caves, etc. Neither country gives the big city experience though you will find stuff to do in Ljubljana, but kids as you say aren't as interested in that city/museum stuff anyway. (Our home base was Budapest/for that trip which was also great).
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Thank you so much, all, for the great suggestion of Croatia.. I never would have looked into it otherwise... I can't believe how picturesque it looks and there seems to be a ton of interesting things to see and do... we're going to go for it :) Looks like we'll have a fun adventure..
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After having your wife charmed non-stop by eager Italians, seems to me a week in Scandinavia to admire the, um, personality of Danish women is only fair.
Also, Legoland!
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Really good choice, you will not regret it. I have been to Croatia with family several times so if you or anyone have any questions feel free to pm me. :)
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CanadaSweetheart wrote: My penis comment stemmed from the conversation I had with my husband wherein if we stayed in Italy, the kids would probably have a good time looking at the "nudie" statues for a little bit but it would stop being entertaining at some point and then what would we do.
How long can even adults remain entertained by it?

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