European city with DC - unusual recommendations welcomed

[Sparklyblues]

I'm looking for half term end of Feb. Having looked at flight/hotel deals I can do a few nights to many places under £800 for all of us.

Tempted by Florence. I think DC will enjoy wondering around pretty sights, they always love hotel stays, tiny manageable bit of art, lots of pizza and pasta. But they could also be bored.

I looked at all the main cities but there might be lesser known destinations that could work.

Lisbon, Prague

Barcelona, Budapest, Berlin, Valencia, Malaga,

I'd second the suggestion for Lisbon.

I was there in Feb for work a few years ago and the weather was ok. Not too cold (temperatures in the teens), no rain and some nice sunny (but cool) days. You can go to Belem and the LX Factory, check out the Time Out food market and eats loads of yummy custard tarts

Just had another thought - Tallinn is lovely.

Many European cities will be having carnivals that week because it’s the same week as Shrove Tuesday. The Cologne carnival is amazing. Munich’s carnival is relatively subdued compared to Cologne but it does offer the atmosphere and more manageable crowds. Of course, there’s the famous Nice carnival as well which is meant to be one of the best in the world, but I’ve never been brave enough to take kids.
Both Cologne and Munich are brilliant for kids. In Cologne there’s a chocolate museum, a decent zoo, a perfume museum, boat trips down the Rhine, the cathedral and there are special puppet shows during the carnival. There’s also an amazing indoor water park which we didn’t have time for www.aqualand.de/en/pool-area/
Munich has several good museums with sections aimed at kids. You can get a bus trip from the city to Neuschwanstein Castle, and the Bavaria film studios are worth visiting too.

Spain is a good shout esp Seville. Went to Barcelona one January and weather was fab, cool but sunny. We def sat out a bit.

Spain is a good shout esp Seville. Went to Barcelona one January and weather was fab, cool but sunny. We def sat out a bit.

Lisbon
Antwerp
Madrid

We went to Seville in February last year with the dc.

We had very mixed weather, a lot of rain, but also one lovely day.

We got an apartment and did one touristy thing per day, got the dc to choose from a list.

It was good, we missed out on the wine bars and stuff like that, and had pizza in front of the tv one night, but it was a good compromise.

Went to Bolognia in February, on the Sunday there was a Childrens Carnival (carnival bambina) and all the children of all ages (not just little ones) in the city were in fancy dress, great floats as well. It was a lovely atmosphere. Think next years is 23rd february. It is in the morning as we saw it all and caught afternoon flight home,

I cant spell Bologna

Barcelona? We went in Jan and it was sunny and fine to sit outside with a jacket/coat. Parc Guell, the chocolate museum, Sagrada Familia, and pintxos to nibble on.

I second Berlin, my kids loved it and it's cheaper than Amsterdam and Copenhagen, mind you the exchange rate was much better when I went.
I am judging you a bit thinking it's too much hassle getting Eurostar, we live in Scotland and managed a trip to Leiden at half term which involved the overnight ferry from Newcastle!
I highly recommend Leiden by the way, liked it much better than Amsterdam but also a good base for getting to other cities, the Dutch rail system is super easy and efficient.
Were hooked on city breaks by train now, saving up for a multi city one, probably London, Paris and Vienna.

Madrid - we went in February and it was perfectly reasonable weather for jeans and tees

I suppose it depends on whether you mind the cold or not, I like wrapping up and then drinking mulled wine or hot chocolate in cafes and like the less crowded streets in the off season. Wroclaw in Poland has been recommended to me for a city break.

Love the idea of catching a carnival. wiggly do I sound lazy?! It's just that for 3 nights it makes sense to minimise travel time. Lesson learnt from a summer trip. I'm also not bothered by bad weather.

I haven't done a lot of travelling outside UK with DC but I found a recent trip quite hard work partly because everyone started off tired. Then navigating a new place, ordering food in a different language with two hungry children. Determined to get the hang of it.

How about Reykjavik? We went years ago (pre-child) early Feb. It was bitterly cold but they are well suited to it, and lots of day trips to do (blue lagoon, geyser). It’s totally different so as long as they are happy to try new foods it would be great.

Brussels is a lovely city. There's a chocolate museum, cartoon museum, a huge car museum and a musical instrument museum, all of which would be interesting for kids.

How about Malta? You've got prehistoric sites, the WW2 War rooms museum, lots of church architecture, the Grand Harbour, the Craft Village, lots of Knights Templar history. And they do carnival in Feb on Gozo which is a short ferry ride. Pizza and pasta in abundance. Weather could be ok but could be cold and rainy but not northern Europe sub zero temps. It's fairly cheap too and easy to get around which isn't surprising since the whole country is smaller than some cities lol!

Admittedly I am a passionate Carnival hater, but there is absolutely no way I would go anywhere near Cologne/Düsseldorf/Mainz during Carnival season, it’s absolute mayhem!

Any other town in Germany will be fine. Usually lots to do for children at reasonable prices.

I did Rome at the beginning of Feb and it was definitely coat weather but it wasn’t freezing.

Was amazing. Empty-ish (although the queue for the Vatican was something else), it rained and the streets just shimmered. So much to see and do.

Have a look on the British airways website. I got a great deal. £140 for three nights and flights.

Lyon, Bordeaux, most places in Italy apart from Naples. How about Venice?

@SparklyBlues maybe a tiny little bit lazy ? However, my kids are almost grown up, we tended to do UK city breaks when they were little ( believe it or not they have fond memories of a trip to Nottingham!)
I am jealous of anyone who lives anywhere near St Pancras as Scotland has no direct non flying connection with the continent. I understand it's not as feasible for only three days ( unless you were going to Paris), we go less often for a bit longer, I love not having to do airport transfers and being able to take more luggage, I guess I have learned to love traveling a bit more slowly (as long as it's not sitting in a car on a British motorway) so get the urge to sell the idea to others.

Bruges or La Rochelle. Neither will be warm but lots to do in both.

We were in Barcelona in the summer and the Science Museum there was great (CosmoCaixa), gothic cathedral (not the sagrada) was relatively cheap to go round and let you go up on the roof, got reduced price tickets to go round the aquarium with a voucher from McDonalds over there.

You'd have to check if some places were open (like the cable cars up the mountains or the Tibidado)