Family Christmas/New Years: Paris and ...

I'd do Andalusia. I took my 21 year old niece there last Xmas New Years; it was a great way for her to use Spanish language class requirement skills and she was personally interested in going with her own goals of what she wanted to see; and the weather was sunny every day for 10 days no rain. We spend Xmas in Chicago so the weather in Spain after that was a big treat.

Being there in the winter, I would try to find as many Christmas markets as possible. My kids really enjoyed them! The Germany ones will be closed by Dec 23-24 but others stay open later ... Vienna was my favorite market of all time - I think they close Dec 26. We are also thinking of visiting Paris and they seem to have a lot going on after Christmas.

With 12 days, and going in and out of paris, and with kids, I would focus on places I could get to via short train rides (4 fours or less is usually my plan)... Strasbourg, Lille, Amsterdam, London (but I see you say you will have been).... If you piece it together by train I would even do 3 places in 12 days if you want....

If you want to fly, Prague after Christmas was really nice, and yes it was cheap. You could try Madrid/Barcelona since I think they have a lot still going on after Christmas day.... but honestly, I would not be too keen to take another flight and then go back to Paris....

Have fun!
Kim

kim, TheIdahoan has 10 full days, not 12.
With 10 days i’d keep it at 2 places, as you said TheIdahoan, considering that you have 4 young kids. If it were me, i’d choose London. Easy to get there and wonderful at Christmastime/New Year’s. That said, all your choices are great.

I myself will be heading from Paris to Seville on Jan 1st--if you decide to go the Andalucia route, we just got €34 one way plane tickets on Transavia so that could be a good, cheap, and quick way to get you down to that region!

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Those of you with experience in Andalucia, do smaller villages like the Pueblos Blancos shut down over the winter/holidays to the extent that we’d need to stay in larger areas, or could we effectively visit or even stay in them over, say, the 27th through New Years?

Re: Christmas Markets, yes, we’d love to see some. It looks like there are a few that’ll still be going on in Paris during our dates, it would be happy to catch more if that’s an option.

It’s likely that we’ll spend the first half(ish) of our trip on Paris and then go to destination #2 after, unless there was something particularly special happening on Christmas there (e.g. midnight mass in Rome).

Re: travel, yes, I totally agree that someplace we could reach by train would be ideal. Way more relaxing than the whole trip to the airport/security/flight experience. But, I’ve also been impressed with the availability of affordable direct flights on budget carriers (and even some traditional carriers which aren’t that far off once you add outrageous luxuries like choosing a seat).

I wasn’t too worried about the weather when I booked tickets, but then I was taking with a Parisian who said, “the weather in Paris is pretty s****y over the holidays. I wouldn’t stay there for your whole trip if I could help it.”

Andalusia does not shut down. The public transportation is running to those pueblos blancos where you don't need a car to get too.

Be warned that there is NO public transport in London on Christmas Day apart from cabs (which charge extra high fares that day), so don't plan on arriving or leaving there then. Every so often we get someone who booked a flight that day because it was cheap and got a nasty shock.

Hmm, i’d take what the Parisian said about Paris weather with a pound of salt.
The French can be negative (i grew up in Paris, go there often, love the French and Paris). While true that the weather can be typical winter weather, living there and being there on vacation for a few days are very different. So many fun things to do and see as a visitor no matter what the weather is.

Edinburgh is THE place to be for New Years...or Hogmanay as they call it there. There are MANY different activities for a few days before and after New Years, and New Years Eve is a complete hoot. There is a drunken street party with multiple stages (not my thing but the young folk like it) but there are lots of other things that night to do that are great. Fireworks over the castle at midnight, a traditional ceilidh, and many other things. We attended the torch procession through the city into the park behind Holyroodhouse, a concert by one of our favorite Scottish bands, the fireworks, shopped and ate at the huge Christmas market, and lots of other less formal events. The weather was cold but fine and we had time to drive up into the highlands, ate at The Witchery, hiked up High Seat, saw some castles, and saw the sights of the city. We had a great time!
Right now the Hogmanay website only has the street party listed for 2019 but as the year goes on they will add many more events nd you can buy tickets for what you would like to do.

Thanks Anita - we'll be in Edinburgh for a couple days this summer, so we'll get at least a taste for the city then.

That brings up a good point - how late is "too late" for us to book accommodations at these destinations? Is it an ASAP situation, or could we safely wait 'till later in the year? As far as I'm aware, nothing we're considering (except for maybe Vienna and Prague) is a real holiday hotspot.

Would we be smart to book right away, or could we wait until after our early August trip to London and Scotland to make a final decision?

We did Paris (7 nights) and Strasbourg (3 nights) with a day trip to Colmar from Strasbourg just this past Thanksgiving. Many of the chateaus an hour or so away from Paris have special holiday decorations up, and are very family friendly. We love to visit the Musée des Arts Forains that's open in the winter - your kids will love it. Plus, lots of small (1-4 performers) family oriented circuses around Paris. And if that's not enough, each arrondissement has their own special holiday displays with free carousel rides.