Hi there,
I'm looking for some inspiration and thought this might be the place to find it :)
We want to go somewhere in Europe, or maybe northern Africa, for a week or two in April. We have two kids, 10 months and 3 years. The younger one does't like to move around too much so we want to stay in one place and maybe do some day trips. What do you recommend? Where would be a good place to go at this time of the year?
I'm very grateful for any tips and recommendations!
/Karolina
anywhere in europe will be good.
do you have any other requirements (weather, beach, museums, nature, city, country side,...)
this information might help in getting what you want.
last year we took our kids to the Algarve in Portugal in April. The weather was nice enough to play on the beach. the water was a bit cold, but our son didn't care too much. the sand was nice enough for him.
if you rent a car, there are plenty of little day trips to do. we stayed in the east of the Algarve and it took us about an hour to go to the west. very acceptable with a 6 month old baby (our youngest).
In April I'd consider somewhere in south Europe. Barcelona or Rome if you wanted a city, Sicily or Crete if you wanted an island and outdoorsy activities. You should be able to get some cheap flights from Northern Europe if that's where you're coming from. Good value at this time of year and not many tourists — especially on Crete or Sicily, where you should have good weather but not beach and swimming weather.
David Robert Hogg,
Publisher of My Little Nomads
I'm not sure whether you're looking for a place to go where you can spend lots of time outdoors or simply a place where both of your children can just have fun. We just came back from Brussels with our 3 year old and he had lots of fun at the Children's Museum there. It is somewhere your child can interact with locals because it is nestled in a residential neighbourhood but very accessible by bus. There is also a wonderful Museum of Natural Science that my son loved so much he asked if his friends (back in Canada :)) could join him. We have the ROM in Toronto, and it is significantly better for young children because of how interactive it is. What a treat. And for a place the whole family can enjoy, including your 10 mth old, you can visit Oceade -- an indoor water park.
Hope this is an inspiring suggestion if not for your trip in April, sometime in the future with the little ones.
We had a great time in Amsterdam and Brussels/Brugge with our 3 year old. Albeit it was the summer, but it was super hot so we found ourselves looking for indoor activities too. And there was plenty to do. The public transit systems are a great way to get around and that is an activity in itself when you have kids! Biking in the Low countries is super fun too. Pre-kid we had a wonderful non-rainy trip to AMS in March.. so you might luck out with the weather too!
This article might be helpful for more inspiration:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/travel/20kids.html
Copehagen and Malmo were lovely cities too and there was LOTS to do with our son. Malmo seems to have parks everywhere and each one has a theme - but not sure what it will be like in April and how expensive it will be (we were with friends in Scandinavia so that helped).
Have traveled in Morocco and Italy pre-kids. I am sure you can make it work and get ideas from TT. Good luck and have fun!