Where to go in Europe with 3 kids for 7 days over spring break?

When is your spring break? Are you looking for warmer weather or does this not matter? Is access to pools or a beach important? Are you or your children into art, museums, or a particular period in history? What are you all looking forward to doing?

Without having answers to those questions- I would think children that age would enjoy an England/Scotland trip. And if it is your first trip abroad, it is less stressful going to an English speaking country (although English is widely spoken no matter what country you go to).

I agree with flying into London and going to Paris on Eurostar. Then, fly home from Paris.

Or, Rome.

Better get moving if you're talking about THIS Spring break.

kimberly,

It would help to know where you're travelling from? If you're from the west coast, you'll lose two of those seven days in flight times and will be jet lagged for a day or two. You may not see as much as planned.

I agree with others that maybe you can give us some idea of what you are hoping to get out of your trip. How many days do you have (would it be from the Friday before break to Easter Monday)? Are you looking for somewhere tropical, historical, etc.? What background information are the kids coming with? Do they have some interests that you could tap into?
I have a spring break trip planned with my kids for London-Paris-Amsterdam (two-weeks), and we have been prepping by reading age appropriate books that highlight those cities (it's amazing how many there are!), and renting apartments close to a park.
Maybe a coastal town in Portugal or Calabria, Italy for warm weather fun, or just spend a week in Paris.

It's so hard to know what to do with kids in Europe! I completely understand why you asked. Here are a couple of things we have done as a family that have gone over well...
Paris - there is so much there to see with kids. The Paris catacombs with their spooky skulls and bones stacked very decoratively. Hanging out in Luxembourg Gardens and sailing little boats in the fountain, playing tennis, or watching the puppet show (your younger ones will like this more!). There is a great rock/meteorite/fossil shop, Alain Carion, on the Isle St. Louis that my son loved with he was younger - just happens to be a few doors down from Berthillon, the famous ice cream shop. Of course you can go to the top of the Eiffel Tower and watch it light up at night from the Trocadero. Take them out to Versailles and rent bikes by the Grand Canal and ride all over the vast palace grounds. Go west of Paris to Chateau de Thoiry to see the collection of exotic animals and walk through the lion enclosure's plexiglass tunnel to see the lions up close.
The southwest of France is something different that has lots your kids might enjoy! There are all those ruined Cathar castles that you can walk to, some of which have actors in costume "living" as people from that time period. The fortified city of Carcassonne is a great place to take kids. Coullioure is a really nice seaside town with a nice beach for swimming. Farther west you have the Canal du Midi where you can bike along the old towpaths. Up in the Cevennes there are a number of amazing caverns to explore. The Gorges du Tarn in the Cevennes have great swimming and kayaking, and the old village of St. Guillaume le Desert is a nice little place to have lunch or dinner. You can watch the water jousting in Agde and see the flamingos in the Camargue.
If your kids like the outdoors, Chamonix is fantastic! Great skiing and you can go up to the top of Mont Blanc.
I could go on and on but I hope that some of this is helpful!

Nowhere did kimberly3 indicate she has no ideas of her own. Sure, a little more information would be instructive, but there’s no need to be “deliberately provocative” in one’s reply. For all we know, kimberly3 has lots of ideas, is weighing options, and would like a few suggestions from everyone here. Some suggestions have been made already. If better weather is important, you may wish to consider Italy (Florence, Venice, or Rome), Greece (Athens or maybe the islands), or Spain (Barcelona and Madrid by AVE train). Then again, London & Paris is a sure bet one-week trip with kids (equally great for adults).

kimberly I really feel that if you are coming from west coast you would be pushing it to do such a trip in 7 days.. but I know its shorter from east coast so it may make sense.

There are personal travel styles.
For me. with three kids and only 7 days.. I would visit either London OR Paris.. three kids on your own ,, its like herding cats sometimes.. keep it simple and fun.

I have taken my kids to both cities and they enjoyed both cities a lot ! Climbing the Towers of Notre, Dame and going up the Eiffel Tower.. and my 13 yr old son loved the Louvre enough to request a second visit.( my 1 1yr old dd preferred the Orsay) both kids loved visiting Versailles ( you would have time for this great daytrip if you visit Paris for 7 days.. I would not recommend leaving the city if you only have 3.5 days there to begin with though ) .. The Tower of London is a must see.. kids usually find the included Beefeaters Tour very interesting ( they do try and keep it history lite and funny) ,, and we all enjoyed visiting the Natural History Museum and of course the Royal British ..

As for costs.. I think Paris gets the nod as being slightly cheaper. First off the pound is painful for us.. and second off central London accomadations are expensive.. I am going again this summer and what an effort it took to find something decent, central etc for 2 people for under 100 GBPS.. while I find it much easier to find same in Paris for about 100 EUROS... so you see the currency difference price difference.

Museums in Paris are free to kids under 18.. The Eiffel Tower however is not free.

Museums in London are free to everyone,, BUT the Tower of London is pricey!!!
Its kind of a toss up.

Kimberly I would post your hotel budget in euros and pounds too.. it will help get an idea of places they should be suggesting.

Maybe those 7 days are 7 days in Europe, exclusive of travel,time. For many of us "spring break" means nine days: 2 weekends and the 5 weekdays in between.

We took our two girls to London and Paris on spring break when they were that age. Flew from the US west coast to London. We spent one night then took the train to Paris and spent four nights. Then train back to London for two more nights before flying home. It was a great trip. The girls preferred London to Paris and wished we had more time there.

Options other than London likely involve more travel time, although there may be direct flights into other cities ( Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome) depending where they are starting from. Other places would be less expensive than London. Spain is particularly good.

It would help to know where they are flying from and how much time they actually have. But like others I fear Kimberly may not be back after that "don't you have any ideas of your own" comment.

I can't imagine you are planning on going to Europe, this spring and you haven't planned earlier than this. Seven days is too short of time for London, let alone adding in Paris. Both cities have so much to see. We have been to Paris three times and London five times. We have stayed in both places for anywhere from 7 days to two weeks, each trip. We can't wait to go back to London. In 7 days, you and your children will fall in love with London. Seeing all the bridges, riding the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, the Horse Guards Parade, seeing Windsor Castle, maybe taking a boat ride on the Thames, going by boat over to Greenwich, taking numerous rides on the Tube, taking the hop-on, hop-off bus rides, taking a day tour around London (we used Gray Line/Evans/Evans bus day tours). I would think the kids would have so much fun on the Tube. You also can see so much from the London buses. I live to go back there. We have stayed at the Crowne Plaza (South Kensington area) four times. In 2012, we stayed at the Doubletree (in Westminister area). The Crowne Plaza is in a beautiful area of London. It is directly across the street form the Gloucester Tube Station. The Doubletree Hotel is within walking distance of the Horse Guards Parade (Whitehall Street) Big Ben, Parliament, the Tower Bridge, the Thames, Kew Gardens, We thoroughly enjoyed both hotels. Our breakfasts were included in our price at the Doubletree. The Crowe Plaza is part of the IHG Hotel Group (Holiday Inn, InterContinental, etc.). You earn hotel points for staying at any of their hotels, worldwide. The Doubletree is owned by Hilton. You earn hotel points there also. I'm sure you will have a great time, even though you only have a week. You should realize that you will all have jet lag for the first couple of days though.

There are other cities beside Paris and London for a vacation.

Well of course there are other cities besides London and Paris.

But . . . . If one has only a week, and is traveling with kids that age (11, 12, and 14), and maybe hasn't been to Europe before, and maybe is traveling as a single parent with those kids, . . . Then London is an obvious place to start, at least many of us think so. No language barrier, so many sights that will be relevant to kids from their history lessons, and other sights that are just plain cool. And most museums are free, so it doesn't take a major commitment to pop in and make a short visit.

Some of us think they could also fit in Paris since it is so close and easy by train, but I suggested that only if their 7 days are 7 on the ground in Europe.

@Keith For a random set of starters, how about one of these as a base city? Edinburgh, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome.

Thanks everyone for your comments. My kids and I have been to London, Paris and Amsterdam and would love to take a trip perhaps from Paris to somewhere in Germany and maybe Belgium ? Maybe Fly in to France and out of Germany ... I don't want to spend all of our time traveling on trains since our time is limited. our spring break is the first week in April . We are very open to any and all suggestions.. Thanks so much!

I love Berlin and Munich but I would only go to one of those cities with just a week. Have you thought about Austria? Salzburg or Vienna are great choices too.

Hi Kimberly,

Since you're of somewhat limited time with only 7 days and, as you note, you don't want to be on a train the whole time - I would consider doing Paris and Brussels (since you mentioned Belgium). They aren't too far apart and you could do Day 1-4 in Paris, Day 5-7 in Brussels (that's assuming you have extra days to travel on each end - if you are leaving on day 1 and arriving day 2 and only have 7 days total, I would probably stick to Paris with a day trip or two outside of it). On the other hand, since you've already been to Paris maybe stick to Germany for the entire time - choose one or two cities to see there.

If you are serious about doing this the first week of April you should decide very quickly so that you can find accommodations for you and your children. With four people - especially if you decide to stay in one city the whole time - an apartment might be the best bet. It can be cheaper than a hotel for four people and gives you a little more flexibility on meals.

Paris and Munich are 6 hours apart by train. If you want to start in Paris and spend a couple of nights, you could then head to Munich but break up the journey with an overnight in Strasbourg ( Alsace). Then you would have 3-4 nights for Munich, and could visit the castles from there. ( We haven't done this trip ourselves but I am trying to plan it out for our next Europe trip and this is what I have penciled in).

How about Sicily? Beaches, archeological sites, even a volcano. You could easily spend a great week here.

Or Venice? Riding the vaparettos. Eating gelato. Maybe combined with Verona?

Would you consider driving or all by train? I took one of my grandsons (15) to Paris and then we got a car and went to Normandy. Visited Bayeux, St. Malo, Mont St. Michel (spend the night) and he loved it. Also spent some time in Reims. But, I think those areas are best seen by car. I also took another grandson to Paris and from there we went on to Germany. He was 14 at the time and we spent time in Frankfurt and Heidelberg which he loved. We did a 'castle tour' and it was fun for him to do a little research ahead of time. I liked the mix of France and Germany and did that part of the trip in about 7 days. We did have longer so went further south and then to Salzburg, but would have felt comfortable with him seeing just a bit of Germany.

Just a suggestion... I always make the kids write in a journal/trip log when they travel with me. I devised my own 'fill in the blank' so they remember what they did each day. I have them write where we stayed, special moments, memorable meals, the route we took, hotels, etc. I have one page for each day, then blank pages in the back for sketching, additional notes, etc. I make them
do it every night, and now a few years later they love those journals. So many things happen they often forget what they did the day before.

Based on their ages and the fact that you've taken them to London and Paris, my suggestion is take them to Rome for 4-5 nights and then a nearby "fun", coastal destination for a couple of nights.

Thanks everyone for your great ideas. I really appreciate it! We are going to give northern italy a try.