Where to go in Europe with an 8 & 10 year old who love history?

[Ladyofthemanor11]

A sort of city break type holiday. I'd like it to be very child friendly & interactive. Thanks in advance!

Vienna is lovely

Rome? (History, great food and ice cream)

Rome - take them to the Coliseum, the Forum, the Trevi fountain, the pizza shops, the ice cream parlours

Rome or Paris

My boys loved Rome. Berlin is also good but might be better a bit older. Or Naples, Pompei, Herculaneum and Vesuvius are an easy train ride.

Rome, Athens, Paris. The WW2 cemeteries in N France. Turkey is excellent too.

Berlin

I think it depends on the type of history possibly. I remember visiting Carcassonne when I was roughly 13 and being really impressed with La Cité

Thanks for all the quick responses. I'm excited they're at the age we can do city breaks & proper sightseeing!

Seville or Munich

And then you can play the game!

Venice is so "other world"-like?

Rome is fantastic.
Paris we found to be more art, museums, etc. rather than 'history'.
Battlefields in Belgium?
Luxembourg for castles.

We went to Caen.
You can see the tomb of William the Conqueror (I think)
You can go to Bayeux for the tapestry.
You can do WWII war graves, and Normandy beaches.
And the trams are fun.

Great suggestions! My 10 year old wants to go to Amsterdam to visit Ann Franks house but I'm not sure...

Ours loved our trip to Rome earlier this year. We stayed at the human travel site and it was the perfect balance between pool activities and cost enough to go to the colosseum, Vatican etc. we went in June and it was BOILING hot , so much so we cut short the colosseum despite it costing a fortune. So it might be better to go earlier in April/May or later September/October.

I think I went to Anne Frank's House when I was about 10. I'll be honest, I think I just took it as some hiding in the attic, it isn't until you are older that you really understand a genocide.

The Netherlands is awesome for a child friendly holiday - all the cities are easily connected by train, the museum card covers the whole country so museum going is a bargain. And there is De Efteling.

My other suggestion is Puy de Fou which looks utterly amazing.

DH has pointed out the bigger issue with Amsterdam is not Anne Frank's House which is small (although the queue is enormous) but avoiding all the sex shops and mass displays of gimp masks.

I honestly think I'd rather explain the Holocaust to an 8 yr old than some of the sex stuff we saw, and we were v much not looking for it.

Avignon + Arles

I got very upset and burst into uncontrollable tears at Ann Frank’s house. It’s not overtly upsetting it just got to me. It’s perfectly suitable for children, I would definitely go especially if your child has requested it. That said I would also suggest Pompei, Herculaneum, Vesuvius. Very easy to get around and you could do a two centre with Rome depending how long you want to be away for.
York is great for a short historical break.

@JanglyBeads I don't understand, what game do you mean?

I don't think anyone's mentioned Athens or Florence yet. Avoid at the very hot times of year. If our experience was typical, also avoid Italy in the autumn as mosquitoes are a problem at that time.

Google Carcasonne game - brilliant (sort of-) board game!

Rome

And take them on a trip down to Pompeii if you can

There's a board game called Carcassonne.

Took mine their and they got a great deal out of it ( book tickets though as there is generally a big queue)
prague is stunning and full of history as is Krakow, salt mines aren’t too far and fascinating to small and big people!