to ask for help to plan a trip with my DDs??

[GirlyMcGirlFace]

Quite clearly posting for traffic but please help hive mind!

Unexpectedly I have the opportunity to take my DDs (aged 13 and 10) away for up to a week over the Easter holidays. Just me and my girls.

Except I have no idea what to do or where to go!!

DDs are both young for their ages, countryside raised not city. I'm happy to stay in UK, I can drive, will happily drive a camper. Equally we have passports and i'm happy to travel abroad with them. Budget of circa £2k all in.

We love disney, harry potter, lord of the rings, pretty scenery, gorgeous houses/castles, tudor history, swimming, sunshine, simple food, books, art.

NOT: Disneyland Paris, not Harry Potter Studios, not city centre based although happy to day trip.

So hit me with your suggestions please! Where have you been that you loved for some r&r with your family?

What about Northumberland? Amazing houses HP castle at Alnwick, brilliant second hand book shop there Barter Books, great food.

So many places! Kids often love Venice. Is that too much of a city for you?

Obviously a lot will depend on your dds. My dc find going away more exciting than staying in the UK, so I'd start by looking for cheap flights from your local airport, and go from there. If you can get a really good deal on flights, you'll have a lot more options for your accommodation and activities.

If you don't want to be in a city, what will you want to do with your holiday? Are you thinking hiking and outdoor activities, or relaxing time by a pool?

Off the top of my head - Loire Valley is lovely, Finland and Sweden both have some good and affordable options (and you can day trip by boat to Talin with is quite magical). We had a lovely holiday in Rhodes in the old town once (which isn't countryside, admittedly, but isn't huge either and is very pretty with great access across the island).

so we'd be up for gentle strolls but I have a hip injury so no hiking.
Would happily have the odd pool day bit DDs wouldn't do that for a whole week (mores the pity)

small towns is fine or gentle cities (Bath for example) but wouldn't want something like central london!

Alnwick Castle looks an interesting option.

Venice is beautiful but not sure i'd want to travel around too much if leaving the UK and venice wouldn't work for a whole week.

We did Croatia last year in May half term and loved it with DSD 11, we hired a car so we could travel around. Based ourselves in an air BnB in a smallish village which was lovely. Highlight was exploring Plitvice national park, it was so beautiful. Relatively cheap out there for food, petrol etc. Everyone was really friendly so would have no worries about travelling there on my own with kids. We also did some time in Dubrovnik which has lots of history. There’s lots of outdoor activities, we did zipling across the canyon in Omis (I think that was the name). If you’ve got outdoorsy kids it’s a great option and we would definitely go again

1 week at that time of year, Tenerife with car hire (Autoreisen) if you can do it under budget. Half board package holiday type hotel as a base then days a mixture of touring around, natural rock pool snorkeling, zoo, water park, pool/beach. I like La Caleta in the south but keep meaning to stay in the north sometime. Its more local up there.