Can europe be fun with children?

[elaineandmichaelsmommy]

Dh and I would love to take a vacation to europe someday and would rather not wait till reteirment. We're considering spain,ireland or anyplace else that speaks spanish or english. I'll admit that I'm scared of taking the children since I really didn't enjoy schlepping dd around nyc when she was 11 months old on our last BIG vacation, and neither of the children like art museums. Any suggestions or should we just wait until they're older or till we're much,much older. tia

[Marisa6826]

Jenn-

I think you wanted this in the Lounge and not Bitching Post. :)

-m

[jbowman]

I might not be the best person to answer, since I've made a career out of visiting art museums, and my DDs have spent a lot of time in them. I'm not sure if they like them or not. ;)

We took our DDs (my older DD had just turned 3, my younger DD was 11 months) to southern France at Christmas. We stayed for a week. We had an amazing time, and I am so glad that we went. Was it exhausting though? Absolutely!

We were lucky in that we had a lot of family with us, and we rented a house (rather than staying at a hotel). The girls had a lot of room to run around, and we made sure to do a lot of fun kid things throughout the day (in addition to dragging them to museums and ancient Roman sites). We also drove around a fair amount, which is when the girls napped.

Go for it! I come from the life-is-one-big-adventure school of thought. We only go around once, KWIM?

[ciaobella]

We went to Italy last April / May for 2 weeks with our DS right before he turned two. We would do it again in a heart beat -- yes it was exhausting but worth every moment of it.

We made wonderful memories on that trip that he might not remember in the future, but we certainly will. We also plan on going back someday, so maybe the boys (now we have 2!) will be old enough on that trip to remember it.

Our philosophy - life is too short to put off things that you want to do.

With all of that said -- we spent a lot of time outside exploring instead of inside at museums. We did hit some of the can't miss museums but we were in and out ... but not to sound uncultured, we are not particularly museum people. Example, we sped through the Vatican museum to get to the Sistine Chapel. You could literally spend days in the Vatican museum, so we hit the high notes and that was enough for us.

We replaced long, romantic dinners and museums time with exploring the cities, chasing pigeons and bouncy balls around the squares and just trying to appreciate the culture of each town we visited.

HTH - good luck!

[denna]

Jenn-

I think it is very, very possible. We have been on several trips with DS (who is just now 13mos) from Rome in December (at 8mos) to Munich, Germany and Cinque Terre (Italy) a couple of weeks ago. We are going to Sicily in a couple of weeks as well as Athens, Greece. Needless to say it is doable (though we have just one).

The great part about Europe is (1) They LOVE kids here and are really understanding about noise, etc. You will never see (at least I havent) a European be mean to a parent or child. (in regards to the childs behavior). And (2) if you go to big tourist areas odds are they will speak English (at least a few of them). We have been to several different places throughout Europe and have rarely found a language barrier.

HTH, Let me know if you have any more questions...Im currently residing in Europe and would love to help if I can.

ETA: Most big tourist spots have kid friendly activities as well. And some muesums are doable, but most of Europe is experienced through the walks and outdoor activites as well as the food and culture.

[KBecks]

I was in Spain in May/June about 5-6 years ago, during the feast of Corpus Christi. What was really nice about it is that families were out and about at night with the kids at the outdoor bars and restaurants. It was a very nice atmosphere.

Your vacation will be very different with kids than with just adults, so you're wise to research this well.

[hillview]

I agree with pp -- we've taken DS to Germany and England and I think you just need to be flexible and allow time for kid activities (going to the park etc). Have a great time!
/hillary

[JulesinChicago]

Well, we haven't attempted a European trip yet, but just decided we will go next summer (2008). At that time, we will have a 3.5 year old and a 1 year old.

Our plan: to rent a house in a village somewhere in France. We both speak passable French and love traveling in Europe. The benefit of a house is a kitchen, a separate room for the kids to sleep in, and a good "base camp" from which we can venture out for day trips (we'll rent a car). We've traveled enough in France that we don't need to do the touristy things; we just like to poke around in small towns, eat amazing food, go on long walks/hikes, practice our French, and soak up the different culture. This approach, I'm hoping, will make the trip more kid-friendly and less exhausting for all of us.

If you'd rather be in a big city (London, Glasgow, Madrid, etc) perhaps you could rent an apartment for a week?

[Sandra]

We live in Istanbul and have done quite a lot of traveling in Turkey as well as in Europe, both pre and post kid(s). My advice is to plan on eating lunch out and dinner in your room or where ever you are staying. My kids (even the eight year old) are generally much better behaved at noon than at dinner time. This could be a particular problem if your kids are used to an early dinner or if they are jet lagged.

By renting an apartment and eating there or just by picnicing in your hotel room you'll save yourself the stress of being out in public when your kids probably are crankiest, or when one wants to sleep. You can find some nice bread and cheese, a bottle of wine, fruit etc.. and have a nice quiet dinner. My kids love fresh markets, just make sure there isn't any slaughtering going on.

We lived in Ireland about 10 years ago. Two things to check out -- pubs allow children, and generally serve great lunches, but can be super smoky (like you open the door and clouds of smoke roll out.) Also the castles and historic sites are great to visit, but when we lived there there were no/no guardrails. It was nice to be able to climb on the walls, but there was frequently nothing to keep you from falling off the walls.

Irish B&Bs have great breakfasts and you ought to be able to find a guidebook that shows which ones welcome children (not too many fragile knick knacks maybe even kids of their own in the house.) The landlady may even be willing to provide dinner.

We've been traveling with our kids since the oldest was an infant and now we have three -- ages 8, 6 and 1.5 -- and they do remarkably well. Good luck on your vacation, you certanly don't have to wait until you're retired!

Sandra

[american_mama]

I did a lot of traveling with a toddler while living in Europe. I kind of like art museums, but completely bypassed them during all my travels with DD, and never went to a large art museum in my whole 18 months there. Instead, we did things like bicycle tours, walking tours, visits to overlooks (viewing decks, church towers), visits to small museums (Battle of the Bulge museum, London Blitz museum, Rodin Museum, toy museum), and outdoor events like markets or outdoor historical sites (city walls, church ruins, etc).

There are indeed Europeans who are very UN-friendly towards children. In particular, I have met many British mothers who said London is very child UN-friendly, and none of them were surprised when I told them my family had been refused service in a London restaurant because they had a no children policy. (Ironically, our toddler was sleeping soundly in the stroller at the time.) France, especially Paris, and Belgium can also be very child un-friendly, particularly regarding children in restaurants.

If you are at all interested in adding Scandinavia to the list, it's a pretty child-friendly place. I studied abroad in Sweden and visited there with DD, and it's got the facilities, space, attractions, and attitude that make it good for kids. Swedes have great English ability too.

If you do a search on this topic, you'll find some other posts on the subject.

[kozachka]

We just did the opposite of what you are contemplating, took DS on vacation with us from Europe to the States. And while it is doable, I did not enjoy chasing DS up and down the plane for many hours. Yes, he watched cartoons, draw, even napped but it was one of the worst tiring flights I've ever taken. There was simply not enough for him to occupy himself with for 11 hours. And the worst part was when he was screaming while other passangers slept on the plane after me asking him to keep quiet.

Don't even start me on the jet-lag. It was baaaad. We managed to have just one decent meal in the whole week, that was when DS pulled together 3 chairs next to our table in a restaurant, layed down to rest and got asleep. Next time if we do go together (DH swore this would be our last trip together), we'll go to a resort with children's activities and baby-care, something along the lines of ClubMed. Bottom line, DS had a great time, we did not.

[mamicka]

Yes. Absolutely. Definitely try to find out about the specific country you will be visiting because as american_mama said, some are kid-friendly, some are not. Spain is one of the most child-friendly places I've ever been regarding the attitude of the people. Kids were welcome anywhere & people will totally go out of their way to help parents with kids.

Have fun planning a trip! As soon as we can swing it again financially, we'll be doing it again.

Allison
Surprise #3 due 7/07