Europe with Toddlers Summer 2022

What memories do you believe a 3 and 5 year old will retain from the trip?
In short, we refrained from international travel until minimum age of ten. This decision neither makes us right/wrong, but is what we felt comfortable in hoping to imprint their first memories of Europe (which worked wonderfully for us).

Lunatics? Certainly not! If you enjoyed a trip with an infant 2 years ago, having toddlers should be a piece of cake. That’s coming from someone who hasn’t had kids, but taught them for 40 years, so for what it’s worth. And your oldest will have been to Europe twice before he was 6 - how great for him!

Just checking - is Spain, and even Madrid under consideration for the 2022 trip? Or being under the “General Europe” heading, is anywhere and everywhere a possibility? You mention overnight trips ... are you thinking of leaving the house/apartment a few times for a destination not too far away, and then coming back the next day? Any particular interest in types of sights or activities, in addition to being good for kids?

These memories are for my husband and me. He will be finishing his training and will have a large block of time off, which we likely won't get again until retirement.

As every parent experiences, you're not going to do everything you would before children (trading dinners out for lunches out, spending time at museums and parks instead of bars and clubs, etc) but both of us find value in the experience of travel at every age. Definitely understand that the kids will remember more from future trips abroad, so we plan to take them again in the future.

Going to Spain with our son when he was 15 months was one of the best trips we'd taken, even if the flight is painful. :)

Cyn, thank you for being a teacher!

Anywhere Europe would be a possibility! We loved Spain and would be happy to go back, but are definitely open to any location.

I'm not sure about the trips yet - I was thinking that a day trip to an interesting location, relocating (but not bringing everything we packed) for a weekend, or even breaking the trip into 2-3 locations. We love food, history, and art (so won't go wrong with most anywhere :D) and the kids have enjoyed art museums, outdoor music, parks, as well as all of the typical kid-things (playgrounds, swimming, etc, etc)

Hi Elizabeth, you should be able to begin shopping for airfare in Sep (eleven months out), but low-cost carriers often times don’t load their fares until six months out.
When I think of kid friendly places, I think of recreational, amusement and water parks. If you’re not going to be on the water then head north to avoid the heat. This means your big cities would have more kid friendly options and the first thing that comes to mind is Paris and Copenhagen.
In Paris there’s the Luxembourg Garden, Aquaboulevard de Paris (water park) and Disneyland. In Copenhagen you have Tivoli Gardens.
If you prefer being on the water there’s Salema in PT that’s spectacular for families and not crowded at all.

If you want better value in July and August, then avoid coastal regions, where you would be paying a huge premium. You will find better value in smaller towns rather than large cities and Eastern Europe is more economical.

Are you concerned about heat? Many places in the south will be hot.

York in England has attractions such as the Railway Museum, the Viking centre, the Dungeon or walking the old city walls and possible side trips include Whitby on the coast, visiting Durham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Edinburgh by train.

Northern Spain is more temperate than the Med and interesting cities include Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela plus the stunning Picos de Europa mountains for walking.

For coastal France, Royan on the west coast will be slightly less busy than the Med. La Rochelle makes an interesting day trip plus the islands of Re and Oleron plus the cognac region is an hour’s drive.

The Algarve coast in July/August doesn’t have any quiet spots, but the western coast would be slightly quieter. Lisbon and Porto would make good side trips.

Sounds wonderful! We’ve travelled to Europe with all 3 of our kids when they were ages 4months to 6yo (our last trip was 2019 and we fly all The way from CA!). It really bothers me when people tell “what are your kids going to remember?” These trips are about family time and exposing our kids to new places, languages, people, and different experiences (even if uncomfortable!) plus our kids always remember parts of the trips. It’s exposure to new things! I don’t feel like families should have to “justify” their travels.
I would recommend Costa brava in Spain. It is so close to Barcelona so we did 3 nights there and took the kids to the aquarium and even Sagrada Familia. Aigua Blava beaches and the towns inland too are beautiful and easy by car.
We’ve also done Corfu in Greece and took a ferry to tiny Paxos for 10 day, got a simple Airbnb with a pool and just explored. We rented a Boston whaler once day and went around the island. So fun!
We’ve done Greece’s Peloponnese too but it was a bit too much driving for the kids. They loved Epidavros though and there’s a great family hotel at Costa navarino. Plus Greeks are so great with kids!
Ireland was great because there are so many little towns and outdoor places to explore. We even went horseback riding near Dingle.
Good luck and have fun! We hope to get back next year too so maybe we will see you on the road!

Denmark! Hopefully post-Covid there's Legos, Tivoloi, Hans Christian Andersen, ease of transport, rent bikes w child seats, and lovely summer weather! What an incredible experience for your family!

@jennifer - your guidance is fabulous! Northern Spain and Algarve sound superb.

@thesoups - what great experiences your family has had! Greece is shooting to the top of my list, I love hearing when people are great with kids (our son stole a ton of hearts when we went to Spain). Ireland and Spain also sound so lovely. And great call on limiting drive time

:) Thank you for sharing!

@karen - Denmark sounds so fun! And with bikes, there's none of the backseat discomfort of car rides :D

I would vote for Switzerland. When we were there a few years ago, I kept thinkning of my grandkids who were 3 and 5 because it seemed like every town had some kind of unique playground. And you can travel by train everywhere, which would have been a hit with them!

Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for creating this thread. I’ll be watching closely. We have travelled our fair share throughout the years. We took our son (at 7 months) to Rome & had an amazing time. Although I wouldn’t go to Rome in the summer, maybe an agriturismo in the hill towns with a pool. With that option, you could visit a village in the morning and let the kids swim in the afternoon.
We just booked a TA Disney cruise (relaxing for us but fun for him, who will be 3) for next spring that will put us in Barcelona. We want to go somewhere relaxing afterwards for a week. We’ve considered Switzerland to enjoy the scenery. I’m glad to see the comment about the different playgrounds.

Amanda