AIBU? Kids, culture and EU city break?

[SaplingNurturer]

DH and I went on a few proper cultural city breaks before kids — historical sites, galleries, museums, all the grown-up stuff. Since having children we haven’t done any of that.
Now the DC are 4, 8 and 10, and we’d really like to start bringing them into that world. And — being totally honest — we’d quite like to actually enjoy ourselves too, rather than only doing things aimed specifically at kids.
AIBU to expect children this age to come along to galleries, monuments and more “adult” museums? We’ve done the Science Museum/NHM type places as a family, but we’d like to gently push them a bit and are thinking of a European city break for a long weekend.
AIBU? What would you recommend?
Do you take your kids to museums or galleries that aren’t especially child-focussed, and how have they coped with it?
Our interests are broad — I’m into history, arts and ethnography, DH is more science/tech/machines/space — but we’re pretty much up for anything.

I think you need to find things which everyone would enjoy. That might be different things that are enjoyable for different over the course of a weekend.

I think this highly depends on the children in question, particularly the 4 year old. While I love taking my 5 year old to exhibitions and museums that are interactive and interesting to him, there is no way I’d plan a weekend of back to back art galleries and museums in Europe. Alongside getting bored he’d likely also get quite tired as well. To be honest a weekend, even a long one, abroad sounds like a lot with 3 kids of that age - would you not be better going for longer and combining adult stuff with some more classically kid friendly stuff and downtime too?

Absolutely you should be able to find the balance between what you enjoy and they enjoy. Like I’d plan to do your choice of museum, lunch, then afternoon visit a playground or something like that.

Yes I've travelled all over with mine. They've all been interested in museums, historic places of interest and stuff like that since they were little. Just mix it up with fun stuff. Eg: a museum in the morning, picnic in a park, then a fun tourist attraction in the afternoon (an aquarium, trip up the Eifel Tower - that kind of thing).

Try a UK city they haven't been to first. If they get bored or don't like it, it's easier to come home and you haven't wasted money on flights.

It helps loads with their education. Countless times things have come up at school and they already had some knowledge because they'd been somewhere or seen something on a trip away.

We always took ours to galleries, museums, theatres .
Now as adults they always go to those places.

Agree with PP - most cities have child friendly activities you can mix with museums etc. Barcelona has zoo, aquarium, park, cable car and Gaudi buildings are fun for all ages. Paris, mix the Musee D'Orsay with a boat trip and the Eiffel Tower and Jardins du Luxembourg. Brussels has some great museums, Science, Art, chocolate and Mini Europe and the Atomium. Berlin, the roof of the Reichstag and TV tower along with more traditional sites. We took dd all over since she was tiny. Normally she could persuaded to do more adults sites if followed by a McDonalds or Ice cream.

Not sure if you are looking for specific recommendations. We had a great weekend in the Hague. We visited 'proper' galleries but they were quite child friendly e.g. got an activity pack to work on. We also did a few kid focused activities e.g. the model village.

I have an excellent pic of her sulking in the Roman Amphitheatre in Arles when she about 11 mind. She went on to do a history degree. Rome is another great city where the history is just everywhere and very accessible. Probably wouldn't recommend a long visit to the Vatican for a 4 yo though.

Oslo was another big success.

I just took the kids to Copenhagen - that was great for kids but we mostly did things which worked for them rather than us (we had been before so this worked for us). Recommended but v expensive. TBF if you want to enjoy a gallery or museum properly I find it's difficult to do that with kids. Maybe just set the ground rules before you go (like we are doing one activity that is mum and dad's pick and you will all behave) and/or one of you go off for a bit if needed. We also enjoyed Paris.

Of course you can explore more. Build in we loved Rotterdam! Go in summer so you can fully enjoy the watersplash area at Plaswijkpark

• Historic tram ride
• great hands-on maritime museum which was a highlight for me - it has a play area indoors and boats outside where you can do activities like work out how pulleys work,
• take the short tour of the huge dock by pleasure boat - the container vessels are huge and the view of the city skyline is great
• beautiful food hall
• cube houses
• take public transport and a picnic to Plaswijkpark which is a brilliant cheap park on the edge of the town - we spent a whole day there very happilY

Yes definitely! We took ours to Florence/ Paris/ Berlin/ Amsterdam since they were 8, 4 and a newborn and it was amazing. Mine are older now and I really think it's set them up well, it supports their cultural development, language skills, problem solving, resilience and is just great fun sharing your interests with your kids!

We take ours (6&3) to museums that aren’t specifically children focused but we go to ones that have “children’s trails” etc where they get a map and can hunt for specific things. We do not expect to experience the museum like we would if they weren’t there.

Athens, walk up to the top of the Acropolis, spend time in the museum, stay in one streets nearby. My kids loved it, even at 4 and 9

We tend to do a mix of outdoorsy/city holidays with the DC (9 and 5). They both love a museum or castle.DS2 did not enjoy Rome much last year though (too hot and no more pushchair).

I think as long as you don't try and pack too much in one day, city breaks can be great for children. We like to break things up by finding big playgrounds/parks in the cities we visit.

Thanks all — these are really helpful suggestions, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

We’re not planning to do cultural sites back-to-back, but I do remember that some museums in Europe aren’t very interactive for kids (e.g. the Prado or some of the sites in Rome). That’s not necessarily a problem — they can learn to adapt — but I wasn’t sure how others had found it.

@MissAmbrosia That’s brilliant! How did you keep her interested as she got older? Did she just grow out of the sulking stage and get used to the visits, and then one day it clicked? I’m always interested in how kids go from “not this again” to really enjoying it — especially ending up doing a history degree!

@ShesTheAlbatross That sounds really helpful. How do you usually find out which museums have children's trails? Do you just check the website beforehand or is there another way you figure it out?

In Paris, mine loved this:

https://www.cite-sciences.fr/en/explore/permanent-exhibitions/cite-des-enfants

Have loved city breaks with my two from when they were fairly young - DD2 would have been about 4. I always found them easy holidays to do as a single parent. They loved castles, museums, a city bus tour and being in charge of a map! We still enjoy them together - last one we did was Berlin. Copenhagen was fantastic when they were little - they loved seeing the Crown Jewels, boating a palace, Tivoli, eating hot dogs, and we went to Roskilde (spelling?!) to see Viking boats. What kid wouldn’t enjoy that!!

Budapest is fabulous for kids. Amazing sights and things to do and wherever you go there are green spaces, fountains for kids to splash in and play parks.

Also, Greenwich springs to mind!