Summer vacation planning - june 2020

With only 12 days you don't have many options with starting in and ending in London. You would have been better off flying into one city and home from another. (like fly to London, but home from Rome).

I would do London and Paris, or if you really want to push it London, Amsterdam, Paris.

You don't have much time to do many day trips to beaches, lakes, hiking area, etc. Could maybe do Disney Paris.

You could also just spend your whole time in the UK via train/car and never leave the island :)

What do you mean by "nothing cultural"?

Belgium (some towns could be Brussels, Brugge - also known as Bruges, or Gent - pronounced “hent”) would provide the ultimate chocolate trail..they call their chocolate bon bons “pralines,” and you’ll find everything made with incredible pride and quality, with a surprising variety of flavors. It’s also the “French” fry capitol of the world - you get fries (“frites”) with every meal, even as a side with pasta! They also are fanatical bicyclists, and there are great rental bike rides available in a fairly flat country, but you could trek those routes, instead. Many old world master painters came from there, if you did want to pop into an art museum or two.

If you don’t already have a flight booked to your last stop, London, you could even ride the super-fast Eurostar train under the English Channel, thru the Chunnel, from Brussels to London - how cool is that?

Honestly we've found that deeper is better than broader. In 12 days we might--at most--do 2 countries (3 if we were content to graze the surface which is generally not our style). If you move every 48 hrs you will: a) risk not remembering anything; b) waste time traveling you could spend really seeing things; b) just hit the tourist stuff rather than getting to know anyplace.

If you are starting in the UK you could probably use your whole time in UK if you include destinations outside of London (London itself is a minimum 3 days imo). The Lake District is lovely. York in the North offers tons of history from Ancient Roman times through Vikings and into the War of the Roses all within a picturesque walled city, Scotland is marvelous . . . .etc.

If you want to split your time--Say 5 days UK and 7 days on the Continent, what I'd recommend depends on your interests (are you into history? If so do you favor this history of a particular period or country? art? What styles or eras? A particular language or food culture that would recommend one country over another? Once you've picked 1 or 2 countries at the most then you can focus on finding both the highlights and the hidden gems in them.

Thank you for all the suggestions.
The 12 days are solely for travel within Europe as we are staying post that in UK for a couple of days :)
Want to make this trip a super fun one.
We are open to train or flights from&to London.

How about Barcelona for tapas and the beach, Paris for onion soup (the only French dish that's Parisian) and Disney, and Belgium for french fries and chocolate?
From London, you can fly nonstop to Barcelona. Allow approximately four hours between landing and departing in case your flight arrives late (check Skyscanner and make sure you fly out of the airport you flew into).
From Barcelona you can fly nonstop to Paris (check Skyscanner) but keep in mind you may have to check luggage which will make the cost go up.
To get back to London depart the day before on Eurail. The further out you buy tickets the cheaper.
From Paris you can take a take a train to Brussels (1.5h) and take a day trip to Brugge.

My advice is not to ignore the cultural when visiting Europe. It can be a wonderful for teens to be exposed to the wonderful history of Europe. We lived in Germany for four years and have traveled with kids all over Europe. They grew up with an amazing understanding of other cultures, history, art and more.

Yes, you can still do some outdoor stuff. The Lake District (Cumbria), in NW England is great for hiking and nature.

Don't even think about renting a car to commute into London. The traffic within 35 miles of that city is awful. Take the train to visit interesting places.

As for beaches in Europe, you will be more likely to be disappointed with most of the beaches in Europe compared to California, the USA Gulf Coast and the Caribbean. The Greek Islands are wonderful, but some don't even have sandy beaches.

There are great and famous hiking trails that all end in NW Spain, at Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is largely a religious site, but much more than that. The Alpine region has some great vistas for hiking.
I took my kids on a two day hike up to the top of the Zugspitze mountain in Southern Bavaria, near Garmisch. We spent the night in a mountain hut.

My kids loved the gondola ride in Venice. Also, they were wowed by the amazing Sistine Chapel at St. Peter's in Rome. They also loved going up the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River cruise.

Many places to see, tell us more of what you are looking for outside of London.

I think Spain seems to be front runner on the list. Not sure if in 12 days we can club Portugal to that trip.
Starting point- Barcelona, would love suggestions

I love Spain. Be aware that southern Spain (Seville, Cordoba, Granada and other points in that area) can be brutally hot in the summer. Before falling in love with the idea of a trip down there, check out the actual, historical, day-by-day weather statistics available on timeanddate.com. Check at least the last three years; five would be better. I've linked you to last June's data for Seville. As you can see, the first three days of the month hit 97F, 100F, and 97F. Madrid won't be as hot, but I'd check on it, too.

From a weather perspective I can recommend northern Spain where hot weather is unusual and is pretty much guaranteed not to occur for more than a very few days in a row (unlike the south). You might especially like to take a look at the Picos de Europa area. It's a small, picturesque pocket of mountains where it's my impression there are some active-sport possibilities.

Do not attempt to combine Spain and Portugal unless you just want to do something like Barcelona + Lisbon. The ground transportation links between the two countries are shockingly limited, and you could easily spend all your time in Portugal and leave many interesting places out of your itinerary. Twelve days in Spain is going to be tough for you; you'll be making painful decisions as it is.

UK with visits to York and maybe Brighton. Paris for the chocolate part. If they're Harry Potter fans, Warner Brothers studios if it's not already too late to get tickets.

You wrote: "I think Spain seems to be front runner on the list. Not sure if in 12 days we can club Portugal to that trip.
Starting point- Barcelona, would love suggestions"

I loved Barcelona for the Gaudi architecture and the museums, but you said "nothing cultural" which I think means no museums. Take a look at posts in the Spain forum where those familiar with Spain have responded to similar questions. Also check the Trip Reports section to see what others did and whether they enjoyed it. Maybe check out a few guidebooks from the library.

Teenagers can help you plan this trip. My family used Cynthia Harriman's idea of having a person in charge of each day - choosing the activities, restaurants, etc (her Take your Kids to Europe is outdated in terms of descriptions of museums and opening hours, but your library might have a copy).

What languages are they taking in school? That might influence where you go.

Hope this helps,
Marty

You may know this already, but Spanish hot chocolate is a cup of almost hot pudding. It’s very dark, and intensely thick. Commonly ordered with churros to dip in it. Churros are like really, really long fried doughnuts. Get a spoon with your chocolate - you’ll want it!

I would do London, Paris and Bruges, especially with summer weather. Bruges has a high "fun factor" and is a major center for chocolate. There are canal boat rides, shopping and markets that appeals to teens and the Historium. It's very pretty and "fairly tale medieval" without the vibe of a history lecture. We also rented bicycles and rode along the canals and past windmills to a neighboring town for lunch one day when we were there. London, Paris and Brugges are also different enough from each other to make for a really interesting taste of Europe.