To think city holidays are for everyone including families with young children?

[WhatAboutSecondBreakfast86]

Just thinking back to my childhood, once I turned 10 my parents scrimped and scraped to take me away for a week to 10 days every summer to go on European coach holidays which involved visiting various cities across Europe. One holiday was in holland, another gemany, another Italy and so on. I was the only child on the coach as it was mainly older people and I remember regularly hearing tutting from the other travellers and one even pulled me aside and said 'this isnt really for children is it'!
I didn't fully appreciate them at the time as most of my friends went off to Turkey or Tenerife for an all inclusive because my parents thought those sort of holidays were vulgar. I was jealous of them but now as an adult I am really grateful that I learnt so much! Although a swimming pool would have been nice!
Still never been on an all inclusive.

To be honest, it doesn't sound great for children but I'm glad you had fun.

10+ is a particularly good age for sightseeing, museums, history etc.

I wouldn’t personally take my own young kids on a holiday like that because it would be a nightmare and stressful for everyone. I’ve not braved taking them out of the UK yet let alone on a coach holiday.

DH used to go on holidays like this as a child and he hated them and wished they could just fly there instead.

Sounds like you enjoyed them though so not unreasonable at all. Also, I agree that cities and culture are not and should not be adult only environments. Many European countries are far more child friendly than we are in the UK and I’m looking forward to travelling to some of them as my children get a bit older.

city breaks can work with kids 10+ yes but being on a coach with a load of old people sounds... horrendous tbh?

just sounds like you think Tenerife and Turkey are vulgar in the same way your parents did?

maybe not toddler age but I loved them! I think I was just grateful to be going on holiday abroad.

I don't think a lot of moving around and time on a coach (or any vehicle!) is necessarily good for kids but agree that cities can have a lot to offer in the way of historic and cultural sights, museums etc. I live in a major tourist city and my friend's kids have loved coming to visit from being toddlers! I'd rather have done that as a kid than a pool holiday.

I was and still am petrified of flying but do it when I have to as don't live in the UK.
My first flight was age 15 to LA.
thrown in the deep end! 😂

I think it depends on the family / child.
My now 14yo (and myself) would despise city break / touring / sightseeing holidays. We prefer activity holidays (waterparks, swimming pools, theme parks, etc).

The idea of going to a museum would drain the life out of us and I couldn't imagine saving all year round for that.

However I know plenty of people who hate all inclusive or sun holidays etc.

We love a city break, kids have a great time. I would definitely hate a coach tour holiday though and my DC would too, far too many hours sitting down.

Different strokes for different folks though!

I'm more into pretty coastlines, mountains and sleepy villages these days, I just couldn't imagine laying by a pool all day every day for a week without exploring anywhere local not even a town.
My parents have always been culture vultures though and i am thankful for the experiences.

I’ve only encountered on here the idea that going on holiday to cities is some kind of adults’ affair, and that children need a pool and children’s activities, whether that’s on an AI on the Costa Brava or a Cornish campsite. I would find the latter kind of holiday as enjoyable as being hit on the head with a hammer, so we don’t do them.

You might be seeing it through adult eyes now.

My ds as a child would hate that sort of holiday. He'd have been bored and restless. He liked climbing, hiking, swimming, rock pooling, surfing, skiing. As a teen he'd hate a holiday with a coach full of oldies.He'd rather stay at home.

Yes I mean the driving around was boring as hell! Most of the people was around 50+ so not decrepit but we didn't drive.
We take our kids on outdoorsy holidays as that is what DH and I like but we do explore the odd lesser known city.

We generally do holidays where we: go to the beach, stay at the hotel pool, go to a waterpark, go to a theme park / amusements, eat out at local (not touristy) restaurants, take walks around the towns or if there are interesting sights that we might all like to see.....

But a museum would 100% be a failure.
We did Anne Frank's house last year and the teens just huffed the whole way around and "completed it" in record time!

I wouldn’t go on a coach tour if you paid me, but I took my kids to cities, often combined with other places/activities. Cities aren’t just about museums and high culture - they have parks, and climbing centres, and water based activities and loads of other fun stuff because of all the families that live in them.

Dh did coach trips with his non driving parents across Europe and UK as a teen - they also did beach hoildays and pools ones.

They took me on one with DH - it was good bit rushed at soem palces and lots of sitting on coach and everyone else was decades older than IL.

We've done city breaks in UK oursleves with older teens via trains - they like mususms and old buildings and tourist stuff. I was surprised and pleased our 20 year old wanted to come on last city break TBH.

My kids have been to more museums than theme parks and more city breaks than poolside holidays! This is just normal for us... I thought it was normal for most to be honest but maybe I'm wrong.
Most of our holidays include a bit of what everyone like, so museums and sightseeing plus some pool time or a theme park.

I'm very grateful to have swerved coach holidays though!

Plenty of young children get coach sick, which would be a nightmare if they're on one for hours every day.

But city breaks can be fun for DC and you can often swim in rivers/lidos/lakes, go to city parks and interact with child friendly exhibits at museums.

It's not an either/or though. There's loads of other types of holiday than 'coach trip' or 'all inclusive in Tenerife involving nothing more than laying by the pool only getting up to fight over chips at the buffet'.

When I was 10 I would have loved European city breaks with museums, sightseeing and culture but my parents did not have the means for that kind of holiday. They would not have been interested either. Holidays for us were a week in a caravan in Wales. Not that there is anything wrong with Wales or carvans (if you are into that sort of thing). My sister loves them. I never went on holiday with my parents after I turned 16. My first holiday abroad was to Morocco at 18. I told my parents we were gong to Gibralter (and missed out the bit about crossing over on the Ferry to Tangier). My friend married a Moroccan so I had regular trips to th country long before it became a mass tourist destination.

Believe me we were far from wealthy! Tiny HA home and most of our furniture was either handed down from grandparents or bought second hand but they prioritised travel once I turned 10. Before that we just had lots of day trips and a week in the midlands to visit my gran once a year.

An all inclusive with yards of children under foot would be my idea of hell. Never been into beaches and pools.

I have never done anything like that. The closest I did was when my friends grandmother signed us up on a coach trip to Stratford, we were teens but clearly the youngest on the coach. It was fun to go out in a new place with a friend but i'm not sure I've would have wanted to do something like that abroad or even every year. In primary school my parents took us to France every year, stayed in our favourite gite, visited lots of interesting places, that stopped in Secondary school cos my brother and I both went to expensive schools. They scrimped and saved to take us to Italy when I was 14 and when we finished school the extra funds were used for a 4 day jaunt to New York. Now my husband and i have ideas of where we would like to go but we can't afford to go on holiday every year. We used wedding gifts of money to pay for a honeymoon in Spain, inheritance paid for a cruise in 2024 and a hardship grant from the MCF has paid for a cruse next year. I prefer holidaying with my husband than I did with my parents although I knew little different when I was young. We have thrown about the idea of going for an all inclusive one day.

We've always done a mix. We took the kids interrailing when they were 6, 9 and 12 and we had a whale of a time. Did it a couple more times plus a trip to the USA to see NY and San Francisco as well as Yellowstone.

We have swim in local outdoor lidos across Europe, cycled round Stockholm and various Dutch and German towns, been to local theme parks, Roman amphitheatres, played tennis at a German sports centre...

You can do all kinds of things with kids as long as everyone gets to do something they like at least some of the time.