3.5 wk Europe itinerary w/ 12 year old twins

Hi Sachivids

My wife and I are in Europe right now with two 13 year olds, and we have similar travel likes, more experiences and food than checking off sites.

We have travelled to Europe with kids every summer since 6 years old.

A bit of of advice regarding amusement parks: there are some very good ones in Europe that aren't Disney. They are European, and so a fun new cultural experience. The best ones are in Northern Europe, Europa Park in Germany, Efteling in the Netherlands, Tivoli in Denmark. I'm sure in the countries you are targeting there are plenty of local amusement parks.

We don't fill our itinerary with items that are directly geared towards kids, but we do schedule some kid-centric stuff here and there. That way they have things to be looking forward to and don't mope.

Europe has really good water parks, with dozens of super fun crazy slides, huge wave pools, spa areas for the parents. Fun afternoon all around.

I would also recommend mountain coasters and rodelbahns. And in general I would recommend that on a trip of your length if you go to continental Europe maybe go to the Alps. As a natural landscape the Alps will be wildly different than Hawaii, and are for sure the most striking natural feature in Europe. Great food and lots of folk culture as opposed to grand cities and great museums. Alpine vacation areas (and Alpine culture in general) is intensely family focused, with tons of stuff for kids and parents to enjoy.

Which area of the Alps is another question. The scale generally slides between ultra-spectacular scenery but quite expensive and somewhat buttoned down, to great scenery cheaper and more lively and warm.

On a different note, we have found that the Netherlands is very interesting for both parents and kids, and is really supremely easy to travel to as an English speaking. Close to the UK too. The Dutch have a sense of humour and a bit of the same type culture of respect as Hawaii. Less smiley, but maybe closer to how people interact at home for you than most of the places in Europe. Except Ireland of course, nearly identical to Hawaii in the premium on nice and clan-based culture of respect.

Have a great trip!

3.5 wk Europe itinerary w/ 12 year old twins

We would like to take a trip w/ our 2 yr old twins

Which is it ?

I'm assuming the twins are 12 because of the Harry Potter reference.

I don't have children, so my advice on kid-friendly activities is suspect, but: If you include London in your itinerary, you should check out the long list of walking tours offered by London Walks (www.walks.com). In-town walks last about 2 hours. They cost 15 GBP for adults (less for seniors) and 5 GBP for children the age of yours. Each tour meets at an Underground station entrance. The guides are all licensed, and many are under-employed actors, so their delivery tends to be very lively.

The calendar of walks is under the picture on the right side of the web page. They tend to have one calendar for summer and one for winter, with only the current calendar available. Although the dates and times of tours will change from year to year, I still think it would be useful to print out this summer's calendar as a general guide for planning your 2023 trip--say, for a random 7-day period. If you take a walk early in the trip , you may be able to get a printout of the full summer schedule from your guide. They used to have a download-it-all button on the website but I don't see it now.

I’m going to suggest England. Maybe Switzerland.

In England at least 10 days not including arrival and departure. London deserves 4-5 days: free museums, riding the London Underground, historic buildings, street markets, theatre, royalty, parks, and Thames River path, Maida Vale canals.

Things to research:
Tower Bridge Experience
Tower of London
Warner Bros Harry Potter Tour
Climbing the O2
Emigrates Royal Docks Cable Line
Pub lunches
Hampton Court Palace
Theatre
Covent Garden Performers
Cruising the Thames
Postal Museum underground train
Mudchute Farm
London Walks www.walks.com
London Transport Museum
Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Royal Horse Guards
Portabello Road Market
Crystal Park Dinosaurs
Tour Highgate Cemetery
Biking in Hyde Park

Get out of London day trips: Whitsable or Rye or St Albans

From London by train or by air you could visit Paris, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Switzerland….etc…..

Going depend on cost. Also on their input. Would they want to see Stonehenge? Learn about the WW2 code breakers at Bletchley Park? Climb the Eiffel Tower? See the Matterhorn?

Garner input. Be flexible. Definitely consider flying open jaw. Enjoy planning.

Be sure the kids are involved in the planning. Not to say they should run the whole show, but the more invested they are in the planning the better the trip will be for all involved. Not that 12 year olds are ever a problem.

sorry, 12 year old twins.

Thanks for the input! This is all great stuff. Love the idea of a visit to the Netherlands. Switzerland also sounds quite enticing. Would Scotland be worth it at all (Harry Potter train, friendly people, cool accents, loch ness)?

Yes, we will be flying open Jaw. I was thinking we'd fly into France then fly out of London. I figure France would be hotter since it’s more southern so if we hit that earlier in our trip it might be cooler for us. Thoughts?

Hank, how long do your yearly European trips w/ the 13 year olds last? Do you think we could all tolerate each other for 3 whole weeks or should we shorten to 2-2.5 wks?

I have done a few 3 to 3 1/2 weeks trips with 10 and 12 year olds and the length isn't the issue. We did a 7 week driving and camping trip across Canada to the Rockies and back through Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore. It is what is seen and done each day and giving the kids time off. Let kids be kids and play. What changes is where they play - badlands, old castle ruins, town walls, etc.

The Princess Diana Memorial Garden Playground was much enjoyed. Twice I ended up sitting on a bench in the playground for 1 1/2 hours while my kids played with other kids on the structures. It was generally the end of the day and it ended because the playground was closing. In both cases, supper was delayed until after the play time. This has happened in parks all over. The European concept of a central park with a large playground is much better than the Canadian approach of multiple small parks with small climbing structures.

The other think I noticed is my kids always have had enough about the time that school normally ends (3:30 in my case). They are ready to just play or have fun. They need a break.

You don't need kid activities; just pitch the activities from their point of view. Harry Potter fans will like seeing places where they filmed the movie (Glenfinnian Viaduct, Goathland train station, Millennium Bridge, St Pancreas and Kings Cross train stations). The Warner Brothers Studio is awesome. The Tower of London is fun as a medieval castle with a large moat, ravens, beefeater tour, and lots of old weapons. Dover Castle has the tunnels for Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk). My boys loved seeing WWI and WWII sights in France, but got little out of Paris. I was surprised to learn how much they knew about the sites. We had a tour of Juno Beach and one of my sons answered every question the tour guide asked correctly, which is more than I could have done. They loved Mont Ste Michel and still talk about it. I think you are getting my point.

You must go to Warner Brothers Harry Potter-but reserve months in advance. I also agree with the Tower of London, and the British Museum has much that should interest your kids. We took our daughter to England when she was 14 and again at 18. When she was 18, she wanted to go to the London Zoo and it was very enjoyable-I'm guessing that the reason they had some animals we haven't seen in American zoos is because of the days when "the sun never set on the British Empire".

York would be fun for a few days-you can walk on top of the city wall. It has the Shambles which is a Harry Potter place, and if you like cats, you can look for cat statues on the houses in that area.

We spent 3.5 weeks in France in June with our 12 and 14 year old daughters. It wasn't too long - so I say go for it!

We usually had an apartment with a bedroom for the parents and a sofa bed in the living room for the kids - or even a second bedroom. Being able to spend some of our downtime apart is a plus for us. Most of the time there was a washing machine in the apartment, but clothes were dried on a rack. The kids did chat on Discord with friends at home sometimes using the apartment wifi; we didn't have a great international text plan, so we discouraged texting. We had a few one night stops, but staying at least 3 nights is easier. Buy dried fruit for snacks (you'll see plenty of little grocery stores) if the kids aren't eating many fruits or vegetables with their restaurant meals. Bring acetaminophen or ibuprofen or motion sickness meds.

My kids are night owls like me so we didn't plan on being at museums at 9 am very often. Instead we were on the Eiffel Tower at sunset and went to see fireworks at the Versailles gardens. It will be light late at night in June and I think a higher latitude than you are used to (and yes, it's light earlier in the morning, too)

If you're concerned about too much together time, you might consider having some days when you split up for the kids to see different attractions or different galleries of the same museum.

We took and loved a couple of electric bike tours - one with a guide in Paris and one self-guided in the Provence countryside near Orange. You can probably find food tours or cooking classes that welcome families.

Great advice from responses above. I would simply caution you to not try to see all of the countries mentioned. Pick one or two and do them well. 3 or 4 night stays at a minimum so in 3 weeks maybe up to 6 places where you lay your heads. Personally I'd pick at least one stop where you spend an entire week. London makes sense given your interests and how much fun kids have there. Otherwise it will be a blur.