Where do you holiday with a two year old if you aren't a beach bum?

[Turniptracker]

Dh and I used to love travelling and would love to know your fave non beachy places you've had a good time with your 2 year old. Ideally looking for places that are very child friendly or lots to do for/with a toddler

Farm with animals like hens & egg collecting, cows, sheep, ducks, alpacas, goats, ducks etc

We've had some great city breaks with our two year old - especially in Amsterdam/The Hague. Anywhere with big parks, good museums or art galleries with child friendly exhibitions etc. Also, kids love any form of new transport - trams are brilliant!

Anywhere they have space to run around and let off steam. We did Eurocamp on the Loire Valley and Dordogne when DS1 was that age and Exmoor when DS2 was 2.

Berlin!

We still did holidays we liked but found playgrounds for toddler breaks then plonk him in a pushchair and hit the museums! We only took his holiday wants into consideration when he was pushchair free (which for us was about 2 and 3/4)!

French campsites with plenty to do. We look for ones with beach, swimming pool, water park, other activities. Hire a car and go on day trips in the area too.

How about Copenhagen? Lovely city, easy to walk round and loads of child-friendly things.

Citybreaks! Lots of child friendly museums, a change of parks, and good food for the grownups.

We did a train trip around Sweden with our 2 year old, which worked brilliantly.

Eastern Slovkia - totally inland! look at the Tatra mountains and thereabouts, flying to Poprad or Kosice. Amazing castles, well preserved historical towns, mountains and caves with tourist routes - very child friendly, a lot of restaurants have a corner with toys, a small slide etc, and rustic restaurants, called a salas, often have outdoor playgrounds and some enclosures with animals like goats, chickens and rabbits, all very safe for children to wander around.

Inexpensive and not overrun with tourists.

Also interested in this! Has anyone done a mountain based break? Iceland/Norway etc? Have been loads before our DD but think it might be a different kettle of fish entirely with her! But might be magical also? Would love to hear experiences

Butlins tots breaks! Magical for 2 year olds with mini fairground rides, tots discos, swimming, soft play, shows targeted at family/kids and other kids activities all included, you can book various buffet or restaurant food options to get a holiday from shopping/cooking/cleaning and while the accommodation starts pretty basic (and very cheap) I understand there are also plusher options available. And no worries about plane travel, car seats abroad etc etc. It's all for the kids but if they're happy, you're happy, right?

We went to Dublin when my youngest was 2, oldest was about 5. First time in a plane. We did loads of dotting about in the hire car, went on a train, duck boat. Went to the aquarium, the zoo. The hotel had a pool. Went stone skimming on the beach. When sending postcards I asked the kids the best thing about the trip and they said the (very short trip on a) bloody double decker bus!
It was a lovely break though, I'd recommend considering it.

Honestly, just give it a few years and until then go to centerparcs or an all inclusive in Spain with a kids club. Toddlers are hard work, you deserve down time.
Our kids are now 8 & 10 and it's back to proper travelling, it just takes time until they can join in (and not have to go to bed at 7, and deal with jet lag without everyone crying).

We did an AI in the Alpes in the summer.

And Sorrento/Pompeii/Vesuvius etc.

thank you for all these ideas everyone. Excited to start planning our holidays for next year now with a bit more inspiration! @TadpolesInPool Out of interest where did you stay for this trip? Did you hire a car? It's one we keep saying we would like to do

British beach holidays. They tend to be more active than warm ones.

We went to the Isle of Wight a fair bit because of its transport links (we don't have a car) and the beaches are lovely. Plus there's so much for a LO to do. We stayed in a caravan in Sandown twice, and in a holiday home in Yarmouth once. The eastern side has much more going on though.

We also went to Lake Garda which was really nice. Italians adore children and eating out with kids is a pleasure.

The Hague has an excellent children's book museum

Slovenia, some great family hotels around lake bled

We used Kinderhotels and went to Austria. I was 5 months pregnant so we did some gentle hiking in the alps (got cable car to the top of various mountains) where there were playgrounds
We did lots of swimming in the pool and in the forest
We went to Munich which was lovely

Berlin is fabulous. There are the Summer bad (open air summer swimming pools) most parents bring their bollerwagens to the park with picnics for the day. The playgrounds are brilliant, and it’s easy to get around. Kids loved the zoos, some great small independent toy stores. Good food

Have a look at Zell am Ziller in the Austrian Alps, there’s a brilliant wooden castle/playground and a mountain luge plus small water play parks. It’s all very natural plus swimming pools walking etc etc. Fantastic place!

https://www.zillertalarena.com/en/zell/

On the basis of a trip to Berlin I ordered a bollerwagen as I had toddlers who were in and out of buggies. It was brilliant. I think the one I had even had an optional bottles cooler (whether for wine or milk I’m not sure 🤣)

Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, snow holiday in Swiss alps, Cornwall.

Following with interest.

our little one is 3 and we have done

• a trip every year to a Scottish sea side place (but the type of place that has a bit to do apart from the beach in case of bad weather also has nice restaurants etc
• all inclusive type place in Spain. Lots to do but really hated having to eat in the same restaurant all the time. My little boy found it quite overwhelming as well
• centre parcs - amazing fun

however I’ve been thinking about doing Paris or Amsterdam for a short break and this thread is inspiring me !

Another vote for the Kinderhotels in Austria. We had some great holidays there when our kids were younger. They’re really well set up for young families and the food is amazing.