One 14 year old and Two 11 year olds - where to go?

London is it! The perfect city for your kids' ages. So much to see and experience. 3 kids out vote one reluctant dad. Just remember the travel opportunities with your kids is a short time span. You can take the Eurostar from Amsterdam to London, and fly home from London. We really enjoyed it as a family with young teens! Now they are taking their own young adult international adventures.

We are heading to Belgium and the Netherlands in the spring, so if you are only adding 4-5 additional days, there is plenty see and do within these countries. But I still think London would be wonderful family time.

Bruges, Northern France by car including Mont. St. Michel, Loire Valley or Head by train down into Germany to rothernberg ob der Tauber or the Rhine gorge.

Since you are just starting to plan, if you have not yet done so, consider getting the kids actively involved. Assign each of them to do research on their own, then get together as a family and see what commonalities there are. Engage in a little give and take and come to a group decision. That's not to say the tail should wag the dog, but the more input and involvement the kids have, the better the trip will be for everyone.

Why not something closer to Amsterdam. Maybe another city in the north. There is plenty to keep you busy in Amsterdam, especially if you take a few day trips.
You can take a day trip to Kinderdijk to see working windmills in their original state, there is the Zaanse Schans open-air museum, and there is the Let’s Go Dutch, (localbus.nl) bus trips, 3 different routes from Centraal Station, also Madurodam miniature park (the entire country miniaturized.).
In the city is the Dutch resistance museum which is so important and geared towards young adults, across from there is the zoo. Anne Frank house (prebook tickets), bike riding in Vondelpark, a canal boat ride. Etc.
Maybe for a few nights you could rent and sleep on a houseboat. My daughter did this some friends a few years ago.
Once you start researching you will find you don’t need to travel to another country. Make this trip easy on yourself.

EuroDisney?

It’s unfortunate you have ruled the UK out. We visited London and Ireland last year with our grandchildren. They loved it and parents, grandparents and kids, all of us had a wonderful time. London has plays, teas, the Natural History Museum, the Globe theater, rib boat rides and the Tower of London just to name a few. Ireland was castles, falconry schools, rib boat rides on the ocean, jaunty cart rides to waterfalls and sheep dog demonstrations.

Can you give us an idea of exactly how many nights you plan to spend in Europe? That helps to define how many days you have to explore. The typical way to count is that to have a full day somewhere, you have to spend 2 nights there. So 4 nights gives you 3 days and 5 gives you 4.

With 5 of you, renting an apartment may be your best housing solution. I've rented apartments with my husband and by myself in many countries including The Netherlands. My favorite source to locate them is Booking.com. Keep in mind that a listing might say it's a 2 bedroom, but is counting a sofa sleeper in the living room as a bedroom. The genders of your kids may affect how many bedrooms you actually need.

If you decide to search for hotel rooms as well, it is highly unlikely that you will find one room for all 5 of you. When you do your initial search on Booking.com, you will put in 2 adults and 3 kids. You will then be required to put in the ages of the kids. That's to help determine the bed sizes required. The 14 year old will definitely be counted as an adult. If the 11 year olds are not 12 at the time of your trip, they may not be considered adults, but they'll still need normal beds of some kind.

I've frequently flown from Seattle roundtrip to Amsterdam nonstop both ways and that's worked well for me. I hope you mean nonstop when you say direct. I love flying from the Pacific Northwest because it's a relatively short nonstop flight. However, if the kids haven't done an overnight flight before and possibly for the adults too, jetlag may be an issue.

I totally agree with the person who encouraged you to have the kids get involved in the planning. Many years ago our son took his 2 oldest daughters to Paris. The 10 year old took an active part in the planning. The 12 year old didn't. Can you guess which one had the most fun?

There are some good resources right here on the Rick Steves website that the whole family would benefit from exploring.

Travel Tips has the basics of European travel in the major categories. If you haven't looked there, the information is great for learning about things you didn't know you needed to know: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips

Explore Europe has specific information on countries and the cities within them. This link is to The Netherlands, but from it you can get to other locations: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/netherlands

For all things train related there's the Man in Seat 61. This link is to information for trains to and from Amsterdam, but there's much more you may want to learn there: https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Amsterdam.htm

I'm sure you'll get lots of recommendations for places the family could enjoy together. I'm going to suggest the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem: https://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/?taal=en This is a place I've never been that I would absolutely love to visit.

It's not a long train ride, but there's enough to do and see in the Arnhem area that spending 3 nights wouldn't be overdoing it. And in October, the De Hoge Veluwe National Park nearby should be lovely: https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/nl/ontdek-het-park

I must admit that Arnhem is kind of a special place for me. I had my first taste of Nutella at a hostel I stayed at there on my first trip to Europe in 1977-78. I went there specifically to go to the Kröller-Müller Museum: https://krollermuller.nl/ It's in De Hoge Veluwe National Park. I did it all by public transportation, which is much better now than it was 47 years ago.

Finally, at least for now, I'm assuming that you're planning this trip for this year, October 2024. It's obvious, but our son almost screwed this up for his 2nd trip with daughter #2 -- make sure everyone’s passport is current by whatever rules apply for Canadian citizens.

Belgium, the southern neighbor of the Netherlands, has been mentioned above, and would be an easy, nearby connection. The northern and western part of Belgium speaks Dutch, as they do in Amsterdam, and the eastern and southern part speaks French. Actually, in both Netherlands and Belgium, most folks speak fluent English.

History? Belgium was ground zero for World War I, and although that all happened more than 100 years ago, it had a major and continuing impact on the world. The In Flanders Fields museum (named after the poem by Canadian doctor and soldier John McCrae, who was killed nearby in the Great War) in Ypres/Ieper is a fantastic. The city also has a nightly memorial service with a trumpet, known as the Last Post, at its Menin Gate. Bruges/Brugge was also mentioned above, with fun canal boat tours, bell concerts in a medieval courtyard, and museums full of art by Flemish masters. There’s also Ghent/Gent, and Brussels/Bruxelles/Brussel (Capital of the EU), with the Manneken Pis and all the costumes made for the little statue, all the murals of comics characters, and the Atomium from the 1958 World’s Fair (you can go inside). Food? It’s the capital of waffles, fine chocolates (pralines), and “french” fries. Every meal comes with fries - they were even served with our spaghetti. Your kids should be thrilled!

But if you went north instead of south from Amsterdam, there’s Denmark, whose citizens are regarded as the happiest on Earth. The public transport system is fantastic. It’s former Viking territory. The Viking ship museum in Roskilde is amazing, and it would still be open, but they stop doing rides in their replica Viking boats at the end of September. Copenhagen is fantastic, too. We took an easy train ride north of there this late September, to Kronborg Castle in the town of Helsingør. It’s considered the inspiration for the setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and it had lots of things to appeal to kids - costumes, hobby horses, stilts, and a spooky walk in the dark among the castle’s foundations. If you haven’t tried liverwurst with beetroot dark rye bread, you’re all in for a treat. And then there’s actual Danish pastries!

Oh, both Belgium and Denmark are bicycle crazy countries. Even if you don’t rent a car, how about renting bikes for a ride or two in either place?

London was our tween grandkids favorite city. They preferred it to Oaris in every way.

I lived overseas for many years and traveled with kids from age 5 up to teens. At the ages of your kids, I would essentially treat them as adults.

Expose them to culture, history art and scenic places. I suggest that you have them read up on the history of the places you plan to visit.

There is a lot to choose from in Europe. The really expensive countries are Switzerland and Norway. Greece, Portugal and Spain are cheaper, as is eastern Europe.

Sorry about your husband lot liking the UK. It is wonderful and loaded with history and the people are helpful and polite.

If you fly into Amsterdam, you could spend 4-5 days in that city and then explore other places in Netherlands like The Hague or Delft. Brugges and Ghent. Brussels is worth a full day. Also, Luxembourg is a small but interesting country. If you want more, then I suggest the Rhineland of Germany.

I you have five persons, and wanted to rent a car, it would have to be large enough for all you luggage.
Still, taking trains will work, but you need to plan your itinerary and check out the cost of tickets.

Too bad you aren't interested in Italy, my kids loved Italy.

Paris, even with your doubts. I had the same reluctance to go back to Paris but my 11&12 year olds demanded it. Honestly it was better with kids! There is so much historical wonder that open their eyes in ways we may tend to overlook. There are easy day trips that will enthrall them as well.

I'm not a fan of Belgium. London is the best choice for children this age. Your husband may have to do what's best for the kids. If you do go to London, they have a great zoo.

I love London, but I’m not going to try and talk you into going there. So here are my thoughts. I think five nights is a nice amount of time to spend in Amsterdam, and gives you a day or so to get out of the city and visit other small towns nearby. The Netherlands has excellent public transportation so you will not need to rent a car.

For your second place, I would seriously think about Germany. It’s a different culture, and there are some beautiful areas to visit. If you like hiking, there are the Harz Mountains in the north. There’s the Rhine Valley area or the Black Forest in the southwest. Or there is Bavaria, home of Munich, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is probably one of the prettiest and quaintest cities in Europe, Nuremberg, even Salzburg, which is one of my favorite places in Europe. I don’t think you could go wrong at any of those places.

And most importantly, Germany, like the Netherlands, has excellent public transportation.

At that age range I found Paris, Rome, Prague, Salzburg, and Berlin (and Amsterdam) great. And of course I always found Hamburg to be at the top of my list ;)

I didn't get to London at that age, but it is still probably my close second favourite city in Europe. Having taken kids slightly older than that to London (and Dublin, Edinburgh, Berlin, Warsaw, and Prague) I can say that London was DEFINITELY a highlight. The kids had fun doing everything from figuring out how to navigate the tube (no public transport where we lived) and leading the group to the destination, liked exploring the British Museum, and had fun being spontaneous when we spotted a little street carnival. You can do spooky tours, Harry Potter or other movie tours, and so much more. And because it's all in English, it's less intimidating for first timers.

That said, all of those cities worked well for young people. I think asking the kids what they most want to see and researching as a family is a great bonding experience, makes them more vested in the process, and will help you all get the most out of the trip.

That said, all of those cities worked well for young people. I think asking the kids what they most want to see and researching as a family is a great bonding experience, makes them more vested in the process, and will help you all get the most out of the trip.

This. You can't go wrong getting your kids involved. I'm taking my 2 grandkids (ages 14 and 11) to London next year and they have been involved with a lot of the decisions (in fact, they're the ones who picked London).