First Trip with Kids, When to go December or Summer

I have been in Europe in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Of all the seasons I would not bring children in the winter. Do you really want them cooped up inside that much of the day. I would rather go when you can find a park where they can run, whoop and holler and maybe play with the local children. (We have 4 children 7 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.) Unless you are going to northern Europe I would avoid the summer because of heat and crowds. If you can work it out with the schools, late spring or early fall would be better for you and the children. That is our favorite time to travel.

I was 5 and 8 back when Truman was President, but at that age I think I'd have had a better time on a summer trip, at least in northern Europe. Maybe Sicily or Andalusia in winter. Besides the short days you have the cold, which will drive you inside, including (ugh!) museums. Much more fun with carousels and fountains and playing outside.

But you know your kids, maybe they're more sophisticated and/or cold-tolerant. Lucky kids anyway to have parents who introduce them to Europe. Let them, or at least the older one, pick some activities.

Suzann,
I lived in Augsburg, Germany, 50 miles west of Munich for four years and enjoyed the Christmas Markets, but sorry, I wouldn't
spend thousands of dollars to visit Germany in the Winter.

Christmas time in Germany, it gets dark at 4:30PM and it will be cold. Extended times outdoors will be not a lot of fun.

Europe is much better in the warmer months. Even in Summer places like Germany have mild Summers.

Also, I traveled with my kids a lot and first went overseas when my Son was 5 and Daughter was 11. My Son doesn't remember a lot of our travels prior to his 10th birthday.

What makes Europe special is the history, art, culture, dining and you can see many of those things all year round, but you will enjoy it much more during nice weather.

Have to agree with the others. As much fun as the Christmas markets are, then what? You can't spend your entire holiday at the markets, especially with kids in tow. And while it may not get as cold as here in Canada, it is also quite damp at times, so it feels colder than it actually is ( at least where we lived in Bavaria. ) The cities are good to visit year round, but again, not a lot for the kids to do as far as playing goes.

Going in summer ( early, as soon as school let's out) to those countries that don't typically fry during the summer (like those around the Med), will give you much longer days and many more options on how to spend your days.

Summer. Just think of all the extra clothes for winter. And how much fun parks and beaches are as a break for children.

Personally, even when the weather is pleasant, I don’t like to travel with short days. Well, honestly, I don’t even like shorter days even at home but at least I am not spending money to not enjoy them!

I’m biased for December and for starting your trip in London.

Why?

Kids will love:
Taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station
Paddington Station
Using the London Underground
Christmas tree and Christmas Carols in Trafalgar Square
Christmas at the London Zoo
Walking across Tower Bridge
Hamleys Toy Store
Dinner in a snow globe located on the Thames path by the Millennium Wheel
The Millennium Wheel
Christmas light trail at Kew Gardens
Ice Skating outside the Natural History Museum
The free Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park
Watching a Santa Run
The Great Pudding Race in Covent Garden
See A Panto
Spitafields and Portobello Road Markets
Walk along the canal path.
Visit Little Venice
See Santa at the London Transport Museum

From London it’s off to Paris via the EuroStar or fly to Germany or ....?

Are Spring and Fall totally off the table? I'd try to avoid the extremes- heat of summer and crowds of high season travel (of course, who knows when that will exist again) and the cold and dark and lack of some activities in winter. I LOVE Christmas Markets, but I think they are much more adult oriented than for kids.

Here's a little "locals only" secret - In Spain we also have authentic centuries old Christmas markets, but with better weather and food than our friends north of the Alps lol! 😉

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/12-magical-christmas-markets-to-visit-in-spain/

If you choose to go during the school year, please don't ask your children's teachers for "work" for them for the 4 weeks you will be gone. If you want to do "independent" work, great, just don't expect the teachers to come up with it for you.

I can't tell you the number of times over a teaching career when well meaning parents have asked for "work" so that they can go on a trip. I would spend hours preparing materials, and only 1 or 2 times has the work ever actually been completed. Europe will be your classroom. Read books, read maps, count, keep track of the weather. Enjoy yourselves.

I have to be honest, if it were me, I would push the time out as far as I could so they would be a little older and a little more likely to remember the trip.

I have to be honest, if it were me, I would push the time out as far as I could so they would be a little older and a little more likely to remember the trip.

At 5 and 8 they'll remember the trip easily. My children have been travelling since babies and they remember pretty much most of the trips from the age of 3 (the earliest they recall). Besides, it's not all about memories but enjoying life at the time, why wait for some arbitrary age just so they might recall the entire trip when they're older?

Personally most Christmas markets quickly begin to look the same so a whole holiday centred around Christmas markets would rapidly become a drag. Summer in Germany is so much better than the winter and that goes for pretty much of Europe unless you're into skiing or other wintersports.

Even in the warmer climes such as southern Spain, whilst the weather will likely be sunny and warm there won't be the opportunity to enjoy the beach and waterparks will be closed which will be very frustrating for the children.

Your children are still at the age where play is still a big part of their lives. Whilst museums, markets and old cities, towns and villages may be interesting it will soon wane and they will want to be playing whether it's parks, pools, beaches, theme parks or water parks, all of which will be impossible or dismal in the winter. We've spent several trips to the Costa Del Sol and Mallorca in the winter but we've stayed in resorts with heated pools. The weather is typically in the higher teens so it's fine for lounging round a heated pool and walking around in shorts and t-shirts but we're there for a relaxing break with the occasional day trip or daily visits to local restaurants with the rest of the time hanging around the resort, yours will be a different holiday so your requirements will unlikely be the same.

Many of the German Christmas markets I have visited have been exceedingly busy and a 5 year old would get crushed. They all sell the same stuff, much of which isn’t locally produced.

Daylight hours are short in the winter. I wouldn’t travel in the winter unless you had to and I wouldn’t travel this year - wait until the Covid risk reduces and your children are a little older and will have more stamina for sightseeing.

Portugal or Spain for December? Or what about a break to the Canary Islands. I was on a cruise in those regions a few Christmases ago, and as said, they have markets, but beaches may be swimmable, and if not, offer hours of play. There is the Lisbon finuncular, the castles of Sintra. Cascais is a small flat coastal town.
Head to the Canaries, but know they are popular for Christmas break, so either book early or earlier in the month.
Santa has his throne out on the walking pedestrian streets. There is a tall peak with one of the biggest observatories in the world on it.
Spain has a history of model nativity scenes each hand crafted. Then there are the hundreds of pooping men figurines on display that are some Spanish Christmas tradition. ..what's not to love?

Summer hands down. The kids can spend a lot of time outdoors burning off energy. Northern Europe is cold and gray in the winter.

My parents took me on my first trip to Europe in the month of March when I was 11. Although we lived in location that was cold in winters with lots of snow, I thought England was the coldest place on earth. That damp cold really bites and can make even the heartiest kids pretty miserable if they aren't used to it. And now that I am grown up and live in the UK, I can say that British summers are the best... absolutely stunning in terms of flowers, weather, long days and beautiful countryside. Even in the city, London is fabulous in the summer for kids... loads of parks, walks, people watching and outdoor dining.

Some people have commented that you wait until your kids are older to go. But if 2020 has taught us anything, it is: don't wait! If you have the means and the desire then go for it! Who knows what's around the corner. We had saved up for lots of fun travels in 2020 (our last full year in Europe before we move back to the States) and it all amounted to nothing. I wish we had just gone the year before.

As a former high school teacher who almost never missed a day of school for any reason and applied the same standards to my own child, I think late spring is better than fall-it's better to take the children out of school at the end of the school year than at the beginning. Plus, we all know that the end of the school year is the time when students are least focused on learning. You could do some great "home" learning things on this trip to make up for the loss. If the school doesn't like it, withdraw them from school and re-enroll them the following fall. Of course, you should avoid missing that all-important(note the sarcasm) standardized testing that usually occurs in the spring.

I agree with CamKate about not waiting until the kids are older-we had to cancel 3 major trips last year and it doesn't look like we'll be able to take those trips this year either(a concern with all the unused plane tickets we have from last year).

Based on my experience of traveling with our kids, I say it doesn't matter what time of year. Figure out where you want to go the most, and then decide which season is best for what you want to do.

We first took our kids to Europe when they were 4 and 7, and that got us hooked on it. We never left the kids behind and have had many wonderful European family trips since then. The kids are young adults now and do a lot of European traveling on their own. That first trip set the stage for them.

The kids were 8 and 10 when we did a 3 week trip in February to London, Scotland and France. In Scotland we had a rental car, and headed up to the Grampians. The kids had a wonderful time! It was VERY cold and on our last day there, we encountered a blizzard. It was still sooo worth it!

I think no matter when or where you go, your travel will be much slower with your children than it was without them. I would suggest you Google something like, "Europe with Children" to get some really insightful suggestions.

Thank you everyone for your responses, I truly appreciate all the insight and advice. I am unable to take February-April off for an extended time so I think we will wait until next spring or summer for a 4-week vacation and then hopefully a 2-week vacation the following year in early December.

Thanks for the tips on the school schedule to do it later in the year. Luckily, their school has a pretty good independent study program when kids are out plus there will be plenty of educational activities.

I have gone to Europe every season, and taken my daughter may times.

I've done winter trips twice with her. I am WI so used to cold, snow.
First when she was 3. It was ridiculously cheap to fly to Warsaw (early March) and I had never been, so we flew there and spent two days exploring. Then got another cheap flight to London where we have friends. The weather was fine. We spent loads of time outdoors.
Second for winter when she was 8. We went to Paris for a week because for some reason at that age she was enamored with the idea of Paris. We went the first week of December. Again, flights were unbelievably cheap, but the catch was going in December. We spent hours outside every day exploring, but there was plenty to do inside as well. The weather was significantly better than at home in WI. There were Christmas markets, and at 8, she was very into Disney so we also went to Disneyland Paris, which was not so overrun with people like Disneyland/Disneyworld here and we never waited in line for anything.

Yes, it's colder and daylight hours are less. But the off seasons are cheaper and significantly less crowded. Being from WI our winters are cold and snowy anyways. I suppose it might depend on what part of CA you are from and what you are used to.

Other than the cold, my biggest issue with winter travel is that it gets dark so early. When my son was stationed in the Netherlands, I remember taking day trips to Trier, Amsterdam, and Brugge and it was dark by 4pm. While summer is busier and can be more expensive, with children I’d choose summer.