Lapland / Orlando / Skiing / US fly drive - which is your best holiday with kids ever?

[frogswimming]

Which is your favourite holiday you've had with kids? Not just the above - any holiday. It's been such a shit miserable year, we're stuck at home self isolating with covid. What are your most fun holidays, hopefully to look forward to? What were the best bits and why did you love it?

whachatalkinaboutwillis my family all really enjoyed LA Universal Studios and Disney and another park which was next to Disney. We did those and then went on a cruise along the Pacific coast of Mexico.
Your trip sounded amazing.

We've been very lucky and travelled widely with our children on lots of different types of holidays to over 20 countries and we loved Lapland. Our children were old enough to remember but still young enough to believe, you've probably missed that window with your eldest. We went really far north to a small village on the Swedish border. It was great. Reindeer on the roads, frozen rivers you could skate on, sledging, dog sledding (our favourite) snowmobiling through the forest with mini snowmobiles the kids could drive, a million stars in the sky and reindeer sledge ride through the forest to see father Christmas in a tiny cabin in the woods. It was brilliant. The place we went to was tiny, with only one small hotel and just one tourist tat shop with a little hot chocolate counter in it. It was minus 30 one day but we were fine in our snow suits. The only thing we didn't get to see was the northern lights.

Amsterdam is easy to get to - a short flight or a Eurostar journey- and really easy to get around too. We used the trams which the children loved. My two especially loved the zoo and the science museum, but there are plenty of other things to do too. They liked the novelty of all the canals and staying on a houseboat was very exciting for them. Food is different, but not too different, which is a good thing if they are picky eaters. And generally the Dutch are pretty friendly and helpful. Also easy language wise as so many speak English. Dutch is a bit of a niche language to learn if you are English!

I guess it's pretty, easy and as said efteling is the real deal, no fake fibre glass cute fairy tale houses it's all properly built real wood etc.

It's not far to travel around, Amsterdam is charming, unusual and easy to navigate.
I've not been to durinell but people combine it with efteling etc. It's not too far to get too and easy to drive in.

However... You can't guarantee the weather!

Lapland
5 days there
Walked through the snow to find Father Christmas
Skiing
Tobogganing
Saw the northern lights
Went to a husky farm
Went on a sleigh ride
Hotel had a water park
Magical

I can see that skiing would be great if you’re a good skier. If you’re a beginner it’s hard work and not that much fun IMO and ski holidays tend to be almost all about skiing so if you get there and you don’t like it you’re kind of stuck with it.
Neilsons beach club holiday was amazing with kids. They had so much fun in kids club that we barely saw them so loads of time for the adults to do whatever they wanted (which quite often was lie by the pool!).

Oh, and my friends kids (who are better travelled than I am!) absolutely love Dubai. They’re big on swimming so I think winter sun and water parks / pools was a big hit with them.

@LittleMousewithcloggson

Lapland 5 days there Walked through the snow to find Father Christmas Skiing Tobogganing Saw the northern lights Went to a husky farm Went on a sleigh ride Hotel had a water park Magical

This sounds lovely - could I ask who you booked with? We're considering for 2023.

Dc love skiing holidays, they are fun but not my favorite.

I like road trips across America but dc wouldn't vote them as their best holidays.

A trip to Costa Rica was our best family holiday. We rented a four seat, 4 wheel drive pick up truck.
This meant we could get most places.
There was a fantastic amount of wildlife, activities like zip lining and the pool at the hotel for chilling sometimes.

Disney was great for dc aged 7/8 but not very relaxing.

Where to start….
My DC are now in their 20s and with us have visited many places around the world with many different experiences.
We all love Disney and have visited Florida many times, it was magical when they were small and a completely different but still fun experience with them as adults.
They love to ski, but I don’t
Our most memorable holiday with them was 3 weeks self drive in NZ

Our dds were water babies from very early on, so until they were late teens and beyond, anywhere with warm sea/pool/snorkelling/water skiing, etc., was ideal, they were never bored. Dh and I also love the sea, so those summer holidays were perfect for all of us.
We always stayed in hotels, where there would be other kids - they invariably found friends very quickly.

Skiing was also popular but we didn’t go until they were maybe 9 and 12, and then not every year as a family. They would sometimes go with school trips or friends, though.

We did Florida one year - we could only afford it once, and had a marvellous time.

We bought 14 Disney passes, but also went down near Miami for a long weekend in the middle.

And we have had lots of really good Eurocamp style holidays. Our firm favourite is Berny Rivière, an hour or so from Paris, which offers the option of adding in Disneyland Paris.

*14 day passes