Absolute must-do holidays for kids

[MrsDePoint]

DC1 is 10 now and we figure we've got five more years of holidays with him while he still wants to be with us. We're trying to figure out what holidays will have the biggest impact or will create life-long memories. I'm thinking (in no particular order):

• Paris / Eurodisney
• Grand Canyon / Mount Rushmore
• Disney World / Cape Canaveral
• Disney Land / LA
• Australia
• New York / Washington DC
• Rome
• Edinburgh / the Highlands
• Japan / Hong Kong

Are there any holidays you had as a kid that really stand out or any other ideas?

belgo brilliant, that's what I'm really hoping, we're going to take three overnights on the way to the alps and I want us all to really appreciate the changes as we go. We set off three weeks today and I can't decide whether I'm a genius or deranged. I used to go on holiday once or tiwce a year with my parents but as my mum used to pack bachelors savoury rice for our meals I'm hoping to experience a little more of the culture! (we went to Brittany with them when DS2 was a baby and my mother packed dolmio sauces and even their microwave pasta )

We're going to Brittany soon camping and am packing various dried pasta meals!

The more I've seen of the world, the more I appreciate how fantastic Europe is and I want my children to see as much of Europe as possible.

The only holidays we would go out of Europe for the children are Egypt and possibly Morocco.

I'm getting some great tips from this thread.

My link was a bit out of date. Try this one instead.

Pompeii is also fantastic.

Can you imagine their ennui as an adult if they have been to all those places as a child?

I think instead of worrying about impact and memory-making (because I think that memories tend to make themselves - I remember learning to swim in the sea and strawberry picking , simple pleasures) you should ask you DC where they would like to go. Unless of course you are looking for an excuse to go to those places yourself. I quite fancy a few days in New York.

Ds would probably say Butlins.

We took him to London for a few days recently and he really enjoyed it.

We are going to disney later this year and we want to take him travelling across Europe next summer for the 9 weeks holidays.

Also New Zealand in a motorhome, but not until he is around 10.

I didn't get to go anywhere when I was a kid but dh remembers travelling across California in a motorhome and through Norway as some of his best holidays.

They still like holidays with you past 15 you know! Mine have been to the Grand Canyon when we lived in the US. The bit they remember? The hotel swimming pool! They were 11,10 and 9 and are now 19,18, and 16 and still go on about that pool!
Apart from that the only holidays they have had have been camping at home educTor things. Playing with sticks and goi g off all day without adults figures bin in what they remember.

Oh, and washington DC is dull hot and sticky. We lived there! New York is dull for kids too.

The world is a big place - just because you've travelled a bit as a child doesn't mean there is nowhere left to go as an adult.

DS (12) has travelled a lot more than most boys his age, and has now decided he wants to be a travel writer when he grows up (he's been reading quite a bit of travel writing). He keeps coming up with new places he wants to go once he leaves school, and is already saving all his birthday/Christmas money for gap-year travels.

But that doesn't mean that far-flung holidays are any better, more fun or more memorable for children than ones closer to home - see what everyone else has been saying about beaches and PGL (DS also loved the PGL trips he's been on with school, and would be very happy to go on one of the family ones).

My family travels a lot because it has always been an important part of my life, and also because, having lived abroad for much of my adult life, most of my best and closest friends (and quite a few relatives) are scattered all over the world, so holidays are the only time I get to see them.

Riven - New York isn't dull for kids! My two loved it. Though I think their favourite bit wasn't anything educational or any of the big sights - probably travelling on the subway (DS) and the big floor piano thing you can dance on at FAO Schwartz (DD).

PGL is fantastic for kids, I went 6 years in a row.
The best part really was meeting new people and not being around parents for two weeks!

Thanks to those who offered suggestions. I love the idea of Pompeii and the Pyramids so those are on the list.

I've taken the DCs to cities before and I don't think they are grown-up destinations. There is always fun stuff to do. The kids loved Seattle (horse carriage tour, flying fish market, waffle maker in the hotel) and Paris (they loved the audio tour in the Pompidou centre and chocolate croissants from the local market for breakfast). We have outdoors activities in spades through the regular year so I'm trying to plan something different.

sounds great Goldtinsel I would love that

I want to take my DC's here in a few years.

My lads two fvourite holidays to date have been Holland and Abu Dhabi.

We spent a week based in Amsterdam last year and travelled about by train. We went to the Artis Zoo, Cooks cafe, watched England play Holland, aswell as going to Den Hagg to the miniture village (Madurodam) and a theme park. He said it was better than the week we spent at Eurodisney. Holland is great for families.

This years holiday was something of a one off, but we went to the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi - THE most luxurious hotel we have ever stayed at. He got to see the F.A. Cup (at the City store in AD), met an old City player, Mike Summerbee, met John Terry and his family and played football on the same pitch as the Man City team train on. For him, that was a total dream holiday. He also loved swimming everyday, camel riding, looking round the hotel, going to the fun centre's in the Malls and having the staff make a huge fuss of him.

We are off to Butlins in August, so we'll see how it compares lol.

Ds1 is 14 and last week told he that he "hates culture" and didn't enjoy it At All last year when we dragged him away from Centerparcs in Cumbria and forced him to see Wordsworth's house!
I do remember telling my mother that I hated "views" and would prefer to continue reading my book rather than look at another one if it was all the same to her!
I think culture and views can be acquired tastes

Camping.
Save the fancy exotic places for when they're older and appreciate it - and they're paying.

I want to take ds1 to the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian in DC, he would LOVE it.

Want to take him (and dh, and ds2!) to Timbuktu, magical mystical place that it is, take them on a pinasse down the Niger visiting the small villages. Might wait until they're a bit older for that one though (currently 7 and not-quite-2).

As a kid though I just loved that we had both our parents with us for 2 solid weeks or more. Dad worked ridiculous hours so to have that time, wherever it was, was just fab. Usually we went abroad, for a long while it was France, then villas in Spain, Portugal, Greece. We'd do stuff that we didn't normally do too - Dad and I hired a speedboat in Corfu and went off for the day and nearly sparked an international incident one year, then the next we canoed down the Dordogne.

Most adults would be lucky to be able to do half the holidays. My parents NEVER went on holiday when I was a child. We just went to grandparents who just stayed at home or sometimes went to Weston super MUD!

As soon as I earnt my own money I went all over the UK, right up to Unst in the Shetlands to the Scilly Isles. And since then I've been to most continents apart from Australia and Asia.