Summer European trip with 6 and 9 year olds...where? why?

Personally, I think it's too early by 3-4 years. I'm prejudiced by our family experience. We did a lot of travel within the USA, hitting many of the national parks. We went from the Midwest to the Southwest and mountain west on several trips. We went camping several times with the kids. These are good memories.

When the kids were 21, 21, and 24, we went to Europe for a 3 week trip. We could all have a glass of wine (or 2). We could all take pictures. We could play a lot of cards in the bars and restaurants. It was a great time.

There are many here who are very up on the travel with kids, and every family is different. If it were my family, I would travel within the USA first. Do Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Grand Staircase, the Great Circle, Big Bend, Yosemite. Camp and listen to the wolves at night. Make s'mores. Do Europe when they are a little older.

YMMV

We took our boys (12 & 15) on their first trip to Europe last June. We spent 3 weeks in Germany, Austria, Slovenia & Italy. This was the sixth Europe trip for my husband and me. We waited to bring the kids until we thought they would “appreciate” it. I’m glad we waited.

We’ve travelled a lot with them domestically, and we generally focused on stuff that’s fun for them (us too!): amusement parks, water parks, national parks, a cruise. There’s a lot of beauty in this country and you avoid the long flights, sometimes strange food and unpredictable lodging.

I would recommend that you go before your oldest turns 16. This is when they get charged as adults in some countries (including Germany). Save money where you can!

If you don’t want your kids to miss school, go as soon as school gets out. Not July or August. It gets hot, crowded and people get cranky!

I love Austria for its natural beauty, castles, lakes and beautiful towns and villages. Slovenia is a nature-lovers paradise also. Tons of activities for families.

It depends somewhat on the kid. Until our youngest was 9, he would not reliably walk distances while my daughter would do so by 6.

But still we did not even tour around the US when our kids were that age. We tended to rent a house near the water and make occasional day trips.

Personally, I would try out similar pace and activities in US before attempting Europe. One of my friends took a jogging stroller to DC when her son was 6. Most 6 year olds just can’t keep up with an adult pace of travel.

I would guess that you would better of waiting.

It depends on how willing to walk your 6 yr old is. My husband did a sabbatical in London when our daughter was 4 and it was no problem-she walked the 10 blocks from our flat to the tube station, lured by Skittles from the grocery store next to the tube station. Of course, we also took her to Paris and Italy when she was 15 months old, as well as trips in the US, so traveling on a plane was nothing unusual to her.

We haven't done this, but I bet your sons would like the day-long Rhine boat trips and maybe a castle.

As a retired teacher, I can't believe I'm suggesting this, but if I were you, I would consider ending their school year early so you can leave earlier in the summer. Our schools always got out before Memorial Day, so we took our trips to Europe then instead of later when everyone else was out of school. I would not recommend this for older students, but the last week of school in elementary school likely doesn't involve teaching them anything new.

I think it is too early. They will enjoy it at the time perhaps, but not really remember much later on. I'd wait a bit.

I think I’d wait a few years as well. Let them have some time to learn some European history and geography in school. A European trip will be expensive and they probably won’t remember it very well.

You can still expose them to new things in the USA. I think it’s a great idea to expose them to different food instead of the typical burgers, fries, and chicken nuggets that kids love. You don’t give your location, but I’d suggest trips to USA big cities and let them start to learn about public transit instead of driving everywhere. As they get older, you can slowly start to mix in more cultural activities while still leaving plenty of time for play and to do kid things.

Anyway, that’s my long winded way of saying I think they’re too young to get much out of it versus the cost of going to to Europe.

I took my 8 and 11 year olds last year. They did great and want to go back. We did a couple days in Barcelona, then a Disney Cruise around the Med, then finished up with a few days in Switzerland. It was perfect and I think the cruise really helped ease them into Europe better than a land vacation would have. We hope to do a land-based vacay with a short cruise in the middle next year when they are 10/13.

I don't think it's too early, especially if your kids are ok with walking a lot. If you budget well for this trip (doable!) you can take them again as young teens.

Here's my typical agenda when I took each of my kids to Europe around age 13, and it worked great, and was cheap.
We'd spend about about 4-5 days in Paris, where they'd enjoy the Metro, Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower (cheap to walk up, no reservations necessary), the Catacombs, the Sewer Tour, the unlimited chocolate mousse at Chez Janou, and the trampolines at the Tuileries. https://mannaparis.com/why-dont-you-visit-the-trampolines-in-the-tuileries/

Then we took the bullet train down from Paris Gare du Nord (about 3 hrs) to Geneva (or otherwise Basel, or Zurich, see www.seat61.com). You may be able to rent a family room there for a night at City Hostel, 3 blocks from the train station. Geneva has free bikes for rent (www.geneveroule.ch), and they could also climb the bell tower at John Calvin's church. Next day on to Lauterbrunnen by train (3.5 hrs).

You can rent a trailer there for a week, with a kitchen, meaning you can save a lot on meals. www.campingjungfrau.swiss
Or, if you love camping and want to save a LOT, come in with a couple of "backpacker tents" and it's about 15 euros a night to camp in their field.

To see what there is to do around there, click on my name for a list our dozen favorite trails (kid-tested) in the area, with maps and pics. There are playgrounds at the Mannlichen and Almendhubel trailheads, plus cows to pet there. Also, there is a Rodelbahn (summer luge) at Pfingstegg.

We used the Berner Oberland Pass (Google it) which covers all trains and cable cars south of Bern and Lucerne, and the kids are free with a very cheap family card for about 20 euros.

If you get over to Lucerne (Luzern), your kids will enjoy the mirror maze at the Glacier Gardens, next to the Dying Lion monument.
https://gletschergarten.ch/en

Finally, they speak German (and lots of English) in this section of Switzerland.

I think it depends on the children and on your family's style of traveling. You might try 4-5 days in Quebec City or Montreal instead if you want to take a practice trip and see how they do.

My husband and I took our two boys on a three-week four-country trip starting in mid June when they were 8 and 11. The flight from DC wasn't pleasant (especially when the youngest woke up with pain in his ears as we descended). Everywhere we went we looked for Italian restaurants because the youngest ate nothing but pizza and spaghetti. But we had some lovely experiences getting outside our comfort zone including a 2 on 2 pickup soccer game in a park in Munich (with the German dad as referee and scoring counted in German) and trading Magic cards with a sharp youngster in Amsterdam.

With just 13 days on the ground and sticking with trains and buses I'd encourage you to pick two or three locations and settle in, maybe even rent apartments where you can do some cooking. Try to avoid spending too much time moving from place to place. Consider Paris and Amsterdam, or Munich and Salzburg (just throwing out a few pairs to show you what I mean).

For more ideas, check out Cynthia Harriman's Take Your Kids to Europe (2007). Use it with another guidebook because it's 12 years old and occasionally museums move or close or undergo renovations.

Hope this helps!

My first trip to France I was 7 or 8 , my sister was 5 -6 . We had our grandmother who lived just outside Paris and other relatives in the city .

My recollections :

Loved my granny’s house , large garden , the kids in her neighbourhood, taking the metro and trains everywhere.
Loved having a Peche Melba ( dessert ) for the first time .
Loved going to playgrounds that seemed to have cooler equipment to play on .
Loved when we spent a week at a Freud de house in the country , and the other week at another family friends house on the sea ( beaches are always a hit )
Liked going up the Eiffel Tower .
Liked Luxembourg Gardens in Paris ( nice playground )
Didn’t mind a little bit of museums - an hour or so max - and my mom was food at explaining some exhibits to me .

Did not like the crowds and business of Paris at all .
Too much traffic .
Too much having to behave ( kids are not allowed to be noisy or bothersome in city restaurants.

I felt this way on repeat visits till I was about 13 when Paris finally clicked for me ( and when I was given some independence- I had relatives who had a tabac shop on Place du Madeleine and my grandmother would drop me off there for an afternoon while she went to do business - my aunts would give me 20 francs ( which I thought was a lot of money considering my alloawance at home was 50 cents ) and tell me to go wander around by myself for an hour or two - in Paris - that is what finally had me fall in love with the city !

Thank you all so much for the replies. Your ideas and experiences are really helpful. I'm not sure what we'll do, but your suggestions of discovering more of the US or Canada are helpful, and we'll take your suggestions for keeping locations to a minimum given our travel time constraints. I may post again about potential specific locations if we decide on Europe. Thanks again, and of course if there are any other experiences to share that may help, I'm all ears.

I was lucky enough to travel quite a lot with my parents as a child, but the first trip I really remember was when I was 8, and even better, when I was 10. So I'd wait until the little one turns 8-9!

do it now!!!! My earliest memory was in Amsterdam in the Van Gogh Museum, was about 5 I think. By the time I was 18 I was not interested in travelling with my lovely parents, but off with my friends and boyfriend, Your kids might be the same, so do it while you can ;-)

Go for it! You know your kids best and if the idea of taking them to Europe now is appealing, you should do it. Just like us, all kids are different. While some wouldn’t be ready for it or enjoy it, others most certainly are. We took our kids to Europe for the first time in 2016, when they were 7 & 8 and they loved it. We did England first for them, mainly because we found great flights but also because we thought it would be a nice way to try out Europe for them, with the shared language, etc. Three years later and they still love their time in London riding the Tube and the history they learned.

We found out that b&bs in England were wanting us to rent 2 rooms for our family of 4 (contacting places in the RS guidebook), so we ended up renting places I found on homeaway.co.uk. We did the same in Italy as well - a mix of Airbnb and vrbo and found really cool apartments and converted barns, etc where our family could stretch out and for good rates.

Involve the kids in the planning so they get the most out of it once they’re there. There are lots of Who Was and Magic Treehouse books about European cities and leaders, etc. I have my kids read those ahead of time so it’s more meaningful when you’re there. There are some great travel guides for kids too. My kids really like the “Mission:___” series. They have them for a number of cities on Amazon and they’re really fun.

We’re planning France, Germany & Austria ourselves next year so I can’t advise on specific destinations but I would advise to think of a minimum of three nights per location. I think that makes it easier on kids, the less packing/unpacking to do, the better.

Forget the naysayers, go for it. We took our kids to New Jersey and NYC when they were 5 and 3, the youngest still recalls certain parts of it and they continued to visit the US and Europe regularly every year since.

Some people underestimate the memory capability of young children or the ability for them to enjoy travel but as long as you incorporate child friendly activities rather than drag them between museum after museum then you'll be fine.

We took our kids on their first trip to Italy when they were 5 and 3. We had a nanny with us so that allowed us to get a couple of days on our own to hit the museums my wife wanted to check out. However, for the most part, the kids stayed with us, kept up, and enjoyed the trip as much as we did. They still have some memories of the trip at 9 & 11.

We were amazed at how well the kids did. In fact, we found the locals interacted with us much more freely when they saw we were traveling with kids. One waiter in Siena even stopped to feed our youngest daughter. That was a priceless picture. We stopped by playgrounds every day and always ended up chatting with local parents. The kids communicated in the universal language of play.

Now, our kids love traveling and look forward to every trip with excitement. We have promised each one that their high school graduation gift will be a family trip to anywhere in the world of their own choosing. So far, Singapore and Africa are the projected selections. They are not afraid of anything.