Help with Family Trip in Europe

Should have added that our 3 weeks of traveling will be between mid October and early November.

Because of your travel dates, I recommend Italy, Portugal or Spain where the temperatures will be warmer.
Look at Andalusia in Spain- Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz, Portugal- Lisbon, Evora, Coimbra, Porto or Italy's Tuscany, Umbria or Sicily. Tuscany- Panzano, Montepulciano, Cortona, Pienza; Umbria- Spello, Montefalco, Bevagna, Perugia.
My first thoughts were the Dolomites or Switzerland for hiking but not sure of weather conditions late fall.
The Netherlands for biking but, again, the time of year may be a problem. Leiden and Delft would be very nice bases though. Lots of biking in Denmark too, hiking in Norway but too late in the season I'm guessing.
What a wonderful experience for your family!

I agree with Suki about the places to go for nicer weather. But, if you haven't seen a lot of England, outside of London, I would suggest at least one of your weeks spent exploring other areas of the country.

I've heard good things about both Croatia and Slovenia when it comes to outdoor recreation. Lots of mountains. hiking, scenery and such. Croatia also has a very well developed tourism infrastructure and you'd be there in shoulder/off-season so crowd levels would probably seem reasonable.

Ireland is a great outdoorsy place.

I have to disagree with the Slovenia-Croatia suggestion. While your interests sound perfect for the two countries, as does the amount of time you have, mid-October to early November will be a couple of weeks too late to properly enjoy the outdoor activities in this region, at least for the entire duration of your stay. Hiking and biking will still be possible as there won't be any snow yet, but the weather will not be as conducive and you would have to find something else to do on rainy days, of which there will be quite a few, especially as your trip progresses.

If you were to visit mid/late September to early/mid October, then they'd be perfect candidates. In the late October-November timeframe, however, I'd rather stick with the south of Italy, Spain or Portugal, unless you don't mind braving the rainy days in the outdoors.

You mention hiking but you also mention your children's ages as 13, 10 and 8. As discussed on previous threads hiking means a different thing to Europeans than it does to many Americans. Hiking here means strenuous walks in hills and mountains, not something that children aged 8 or 10 typically partake in. Asking for hiking recommendations is likely to result in suggestions that may not be what you are looking for (as has already been suggested) although I may be completely wrong in my assumption and you could be a family of experienced mountain climbers!

Thank you all for your recommendations! It has given me a lot of places to research. Do you think the Dolomites will be "out of season" in mid October? From what little I've read it looks like things "close up" and weather may not cooperate. As far as weather, most of you recommended further south for warmer weather...how warm are we talking? And when you say "weather may not cooperate"...do you mean rain? Or cold temperatures?

Thinking I may have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a healthy mix of outdoor activity and some cultural/educational excursions.

Thanks for the heads up on the definition of hiking...yes, we are that "mountain climbing" family 🙂 All three kids rock climb, one is an IronMan kid, all 3 are Scouts, and we camp, hike, kayak, and bike all over the US - from Maine to Colorado. This European adventure is definitely different than our standard vacations, but we are so excited for the opportunity.

Wunderground.com is a great source for hour-by-hour temperature data going back enough years for you to get a good feel for what may happen during your planned travel period. Don't forget to adjust for the effect of altitude if you find you need to seach for valley-city rather than mountain-village weather stats. Go to the website, enter one of your possible destinations, choose Historical and Monthly, select the appropriate month for 2016, 2015, etc., then scroll down to see the temperature graph.

I lived in Saudi Arabia for five years and Germany for four years and kids were with me. We took the kids to all the historical places and they absorbed quite a bit of it all. I would say that my Son doesn't remember much of the travel prior to age 10. Still, the things that my kids (preteens and teens) enjoyed were many.

Scenic places, like Switzerland were great. My Son was in awe of the Sistine Chapel at 7 and didn't want to leave. Forgot, you aren't going to Rome yet.

My Son, age 10 was fascinated with Egypt and the Aswan Dam.

The Eiffel Tower was a kid friendly visit, as was an Amsterdam Canal Cruise or Gondola ride in Venice.

My kids loved going to the top of the Duomo in Florence to see the city from up high, same with Acropolis in Athens. The 2000 year old Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, not far from Madrid was a hit..

Warwick Castle not terribly far from London will remind them of Harry Potter Movies.

If you are in late Fall, go to warm places. Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy are great. Biking can be expensive having to rent bikes and find a safe place to bike. European traffic is heavy and you would need to go on a bike trail, which would take away from your touring time.

A great River cruise would be the Rhone River in SW France. Great food and wine. Scenery is great.

Thanks for the weather website...it's been extremely helpful! Thank you to the other poster who detailed all the things her 10 year old enjoyed...I can see all of my children enjoying those things as well. Time to bite the bullet and make the itinerary!

At that time of year, I would suggest Spain and Portugal, as the weather will be better than most parts of Europe.

Are you surfers? Peniche would be a great location for surfing.

The clocks change at the end of October, when it will be dark at 4/4.30 in Northern Europe.

Walking in Scotland could fill a few of your days.

The third or last week of October is school holidays in many places, so accommodation will be busier.

Are your kids homeschooled ? If not, have you checked with their schools about a 9-week absence? When my daughter was younger we had to sign a "learning contract" for planned absences --some schools have a maximum number of days that can be missed without jeopardizing student's promotion to the next grade level.

Thanks for the info on school holiday break in Europe...we will keep that in mind. I am assuming Spain and Portugal are where most families go?

We all do a little surfing, some of us enjoy it more than others. Will have to check that out and see if it's for us.

Yes, we do homeschool...this will be our third year homeschooling. Unique opportunity for husband this year...lots of travel for his job, so the fact that we already homeschool made it easy for us to "tag along"

Talking with the kids, they seem to be drawn to Barcelona and Italy...specifically Pompeii/Vesuvius, Pisa, Venice gondola ride, and doing some hiking (maybe Cinque Terre?) and Biking (the walls of Lucca?). I'd like to spend some time in Florence again and I've never been to Portugal. Two children want to do Salzburg and Sound of Music Tour (our Austrian neighbor has them hooked!) and one has a huge interest in WWII and would like to see Dachau...not sure he can handle that at 13. Husband has been around the world extensively so he is happy to let us chose the itinerary. So many amazing places and so little time! Will have to cut it down and give everyone one of their "must go to" places

In the October/November time frame I'd probably go to Spain from London. You could conceivably take a ferry to Santander, if the kids would enjoy that, then rent a car for the trip. Alternatively, you could fly straight to Andalucia and start from there. The weather should be pretty nice in southern Spain.

There is so much to see, it really depends on what you prefer. You could center your trip around anything from outdoor activities to history/castles. My favorites (history is my main draw) Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca in Castillo y Leon. Toledo, Segovia and Avila near Madrid. Cordoba, Seville and Granada in Andalucia. Gibralter (UK) and Tarifa at the southern tip of Spain.

It's good you aren't looking for beaches, you won't really find beach weather in October/November.

I think it's a great time for Italy too, but a little further from London. I loved Venice and Tuscany in October. Rome and further south will be good in November - again not really beach weather but nice travel weather. Dolomites will be cold but open.