Europe with Kids — The Ultimate Guide

Updated: May 9, 2012

A guide to the best attractions for kids and families in 9 fantastic European destinations.

London with kids

London attractions for families..

Hotels

Highlights:

Further Reading:

Cornwall & Devon Counties with kids

Cornwall attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

  • The fantastic beaches of Southwest England: Kid friendly beaches can be found up and down the coasts’ of both counties.
  • St Michael’s Mount, Marazion: Walk during low tide (or ferry during high tide) to Cornwall’s most important historical landmark.
  • National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth: The huge maritime collection of boats and artifacts is perfect for slightly older kids.
  • Rent a cottage: Stay in a self-contained cabin — on a farm, near the sea, or in a small Cornish village.
  • Dartmoor National Park: Camp, hike, and explore this beautiful park.
  • The Eden Project: An amazing all-weather destination focused on nature, the environment, the arts, and having fun.

Further Reading:

Edinburgh with kids

Edinburgh attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

Further Reading:

Dublin with kids

Dublin attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

  • Dublin Zoo: One of Europe’s best zoos. Easy access with the hop-on hop-off bus.
  • Kilmainham Gaol Historical Museum: A great introduction to Ireland’s history. Located out of town but on the hop-on, hop-off bus route.
  • The National Museum — Archeology: Features items pulled from the bogs (including mummified bodies) and a viking exhibit that are very popular with kids.
  • The Natural History Museum (a.k.a. the Dead Zoo): An amazing collection of animals that kids love.
  • Viking Splash: Tour Dublin and get a (small) spattering of history aboard an amphibious WW II vehicle.
  • Take the DART train to Howth (north) or Bray (south): Get to the coast, go for a walk, play on the beach, and take a break from the city.

Further Reading:

Amsterdam with kids

Amsterdam attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

  • Boat tour: Hop on board a canal tour or rent your own pedal boat (from the same shop) to see Amsterdam’s famous canals. There are 3 lines for the canal tours and 14 stops. Day passes are available and most of Amsterdam’s major sites are easily accessible from the
  • Bike tour: Amsterdam is famous for it’s bike friendly culture and visitors will feel quite comfortable getting around it’s compact center on 2 wheels. Numerous shops rent bikes and little ones can hop into a bakfiets — the local version of a bike trailer.
  • Science Center NEMO: Lots of hands-on fun at the Netherlands largest science museum for children aged 6 to 16.
  • Visit one of Amserdam’s beautiful parks: Both Amsterdamse Bos (cheese farms, watersports, and horse riding) and Vondelpark (walking, biking, an open air theatre,  playground, and near to Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and Van Gogh Museum) are great parks that could keep the kids busy for hours.

Further Reading:

Paris with kids

Paris attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

  • The Eiffel Tower (of course): Great views are often dismissed by kids as boring, but not from the Tour Eiffel. The city looks small far below but never feels distant. If your kids are old enough walk the stairs instead of wait in line for the elevator.
  • The Catacombs: Run this by your kids first — you’ll descend 20 metres below street level where you’ll be able to explore 1.7km of corridors walled with the remains of long dead Parisians. They’ll either be thrilled or terrified and you can make your plans from there.
  • Musée de Louvre: It’s a huge intimidating museum that can make for a long visit for kids or an enthralling cultural journey depending on how you approach it. Read and discuss some of the paintings and sculptures before you arrive. Buy postcards of famous paintings and hunt for them during your visit. (There’s also a Workshop for Children available for kids 4 to 13.)
  • Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris: France’s best science museum could fill a whole day. The highlight for kids is usually the Galerie de l’Evolution.
  • Notre Dame Cathedral: Climb the 422 steps to the cathedral’s towers and you’ll be face to face with some fierce Gargoyles and an incredible view of Paris. Kids will recognize the scenes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Further Reading:

Provence and the Cote d’Azur with kids

South France for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

  • The cities of Arles, Avignon, and Aix-en-Provence — Three cultural giants that are beautiful, walkable, and packed with cool attractions. Each is overflowing with art and architecture and all are within an hour’s drive of each other.
  • Beaches: The southern coast of France is known for it’s fantastic beaches with the best found between St Tropez and St Raphael.
  • Monaco: A small city state whose narrow winding streets are fun to explore. Highlights for the kids will undoubtedly be the fantastic Oceanographic Museum, the Prince’s collection of antique cars, and the parks and gardens that fill the city.
  • Le Pont du Gard: This Unesco World Heritage Site is a wonder of Roman planning and architecture. The kids program for 5-12 year olds is enriching, well designed, and describes in detail how the aqueduct was built and used.
  • Carcassonne: A remarkably well preserved medieval city. Le Cite can be painfully busy during July and August but as it’s one of Europe’s largest city fortifications it’s probably worth enduring the crowds.

Further Reading:

Barcelona with kids

Barcelona attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

Further Reading:

Rome with Kids

Rome attractions for families.

Hotels

Highlights:

  • Colosseum and Roman Forum: the highlight of a trip to Rome (likely for the whole family). Visit early to avoid the heat and crowds.
  • Villa Borghese Gardens: rent row boats and bikes, have a picnic, hop on the #3 tram for a tour of Rome, and visit the Cinema dei Piccoli for afternoon and evening children’s movies. This large park can easily form the basis of an entire days activities.
  • Explora: Rome’s top notch kids museum has lots of hands on fun, a outdoor play area, and ice cream shop. Visits are limited to 90 minutes.
  • Tivoli’s temples and gardens make a great day trip out of the city. The nearby Aquapiper water park make it all worthwhile for the kids. (Hydromania is another water park option closer to Rome.)
  • Visiting the Vatican and the Vatican Museum probably won’t be a the tope of you children’s to do list. If you decide to go anyways a private tour will allow you to skip the long entrance lines and will pick out the highlights of the museums extensive works.

Further Reading:

Traveling In Europe – More To Read

My Favorite Websites

I get lots of questions about booking hotels. These are my favorite sites.

HotelsCombined.com – The absolute best for finding hotel deals and discounts.

Agoda.com – A great resource for hotels in Asia.

12 Comments

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  1. Julia, KidsTravel2

    Great list and links, thanks. Taught in Spain near Barcelona for a while and several years, a marriage and 2 kids later am planning to return with family – looking forward to exploring the city from a child’s perspective

    Reply
  2. Jim from Chicago

    We’ll be flying from Chicago to Europe in the fall and are wondering what you’d recommend for a family trip itinerary. We’ll have almost 2 weeks (probably 12 or 13 nights) and are open to anything. We’re a family of 4 with an 8 year old and 13 year old. My wife went on a school trip to France in high school but other than that this will be our first trip to Europe. Thanks for your time.

    Reply
    • David

      Hi Jim. That sounds awesome. Europe is a fantastic destination for kids – especially slightly older ones that will enjoy the history, castles, hikes, and urban attractions. There are so many places to visit it’s hard to pick one perfect itinerary. You’ll always be left feeling like you didn’t see enough.

      My first recommendation would be to fly into one city and out of another. This saves time, effort, and money. Though “open-jaw” tickets, as they’re called, usually cost a bit more it’s more than made up by the savings in a return train ticket, one night in a hotel, and the wasted time spent retracing your steps.

      So with that in mind, I’d look for flights into London and a return flight from either Barcelona, Madrid, or Rome. Spend 4 nights in London, then take the train under the Channel to Paris. 3 or 4 days there – perhaps with a day trip to Versailles – should keep you busy and happy.

      Both Paris and London have some wonderful museums for kids and the subway systems in both are an easy and exciting way to get around the city.

      I’d spend the end of the trip in either Rome, Madrid, or Barcelona – probably favoring Barcelona if you wanted some beach time, Rome and Madrid if the kids were really enjoying the historical sites. Train connections from Paris to all 3 of these cities are great – though you should book in advance, especially if you plan to get a family sleeper.

      If you had a few more days or shortened your time in some of the cities, then a few days at the beaches of Provence and the Cote d’Azur would be a great option.

      Also, IcelandAir has some great prices on trips to Europe with free stopovers in Reykjavik. It breaks up the trip and allows for a day or 2 to explore the city and maybe visit the Blue Lagoon.

      Good luck.

      Reply
      • Jim from Chicago

        Great. Thanks David!

        Reply
  3. Rachel

    Hi David,

    We’re planning a trip to Paris and Rome in June with the kids. Right now, I see a fare for non-stop legs LAX-Paris-Rome-LAX for about $1450 on Air France and Alitalia. In your experience, is that fare in a reasonable range given that it’s June or should I wait a few more months hoping that price will drop?

    Thanks,
    Rachel

    Reply
    • David

      Hi Rachel. It does sound reasonable and if you’re certain you’ll take the trip then I’d book it. Could there be cheaper fares? Yes. But, at best, probably not less than $1300 or so. Whereas it could move in the upwards direction several hundred dollars. My only suggestion for getting a cheaper ticket would be to leave the Paris to Rome leg off your ticket and do this by train or a cheap budget airline. It likely wouldn’t save you a lot of money but you would gain some flexibility (maybe stopping in South France, Milan, or Florence on your way to Rome) and the kids would get to do an overnight train ride which they’d love. Good luck.

      Reply
  4. Jackie Moes

    Hi David,
    Love the blog! My family of 5 (kids 15, 13 & 11) are planning a 3-4 week trip with another family of same age kids. We originally were going to do a London/Europe trip as you suggested with flying into London and out of Barcelona, however now the other family is leaning toward trip to Bali. You’ve been to both- your thoughts would be so appreciated!

    Reply
    • David

      Hi Jackie. Both are great, but very different. Since you’re planning to travel with another family then I think Bali wins out as it’s much more easy going and chill-out friendly. Big cities are great for kids, but I think trying to negotiate all the challenges, planning, arranging that Western Europe requires would be too much for 2 families and probably result in some unneeded headaches. Go simple, go Bali.

      Reply
  5. Livvy

    GO TO DEVON IT IS AWESOME!
    (I may be slightly biased since I live here but when I first moved here I was amazed at how beautiful it was – now I kind of take it for granted.)

    Reply
  6. tina

    THANK YOU for such a great site. I just came back from two months in Europe with my two boys (6 and 11). My husband only joined us for two weeks because of work. I wish I had seen your site earlier. Now that I am planning a return trip for 2013 (9 weeks this time), I will be relying heavily on your site. I love your section on Greece. Thank you again for such great ideas.

    Reply
  7. Preethi

    Hi David,

    Wonderful site with loads of info.

    We are family of 4 with 7 and 1 year old boys planning to visit Europe from Malaysia for 2 weeks. We would like to visit- Amsterdam, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and London. I am interested to show my elder son places of historic interests plus some science centers and kids specific activities.

    Can you suggest how to go about? Is train travel cheaper?

    We are visiting Europe for the first time and would like to stay in apartments than hotels and keep the trip enjoyable and pleasant yet on a budget too.

    Tq in advance.

    With regards,
    Preethi

    Reply
    • David

      The easiest way to keep expenses down is to visit in the off or shoulder season, somewhere between late September and late May. That said, London is always expensive and the cities of Western Europe are never cheap. hotelscombined.com is an awesome site for finding good deals on hotels.

      Also, the more you move around the more you’ll spend. Train tickets are expensive and you tend to spend more in a place on your 1st day then on your 4th (when you have a better feel of where to shop, eat, and how much things should cost). You’ll often get better hotel deals for a longer stay too.

      To save money on trains book early. There are a limited number of cheap tickets and once they’re sold they’re gone. You’ll have to do the math to see if a train pass is worth it. Don’t assume that the train pass will be cheaper. The greater the number of stops you plan to make the more a train pass pays off. Also, check the websites of the individual countries when buying train tickets. So if you’re buying tickets for Italy visit the Italian train website instead of buying through the general Eurail site.

      Plane tickets can be cheaper than the train but they require more planning and the airports for the budget airlines often lie far out of town making even a short flight a half-day ordeal. The train is much funner, easier, and feels more European. Airports have a more generic, “I could be anywhere” feel.

      I hope that helps.

      Reply

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