Holland/northern Germany for young family in July

[DitaVonCheese]

Evening! Have just been invited to a wedding in Berlin in July and am very excited. Am thinking of flying to somewhere nearby and taking a few days either side but no idea where to start

Will be me and DH and 3.5 yo DD and nearly 1 yo DS.

Needs to be cheap also - have just looked at getting ferry to Rotterdam and driving but was super expensive.

Any suggestions for places to stay/go/see much appreciated :)

Landal Greenparks look good www.landal.com/

We stayed in Holland at De Katjeskelder - here in Holland but is probably too far away for you. However the same company may have something suitable elsewhere.

These northern European parks are great as ideal for families. In Holland we had a special family house with toys for children and the area of 8 or so family houses was enclosed with no cars, lockable gates and play areas/sand. It was excellent and we booked it direct so found it cheaper than using Hoseasons etc which also used that park.

Enjoy your trip!

We've stayed with Landal a few times and I would also recommend them highly.

Thanks for the help - they look great but go up to £800+ in July! Now thinking of camping (but getting stuff over is a problem) or staying in youth hostels.

Did come up with a very good plan of getting the ferry+train from London to Amsterdam (DH and I both hate flying and DD would love sleeping on a boat), spending a couple of days in and around Amsterdam (trips to Dutch coast etc) then train to Berlin for wedding. Is a fairly time/effort-intensive way of getting from the UK to Berlin though.

Also been looking at Germany's Baltic coast, but finding it hard to get too excited about a holiday in Germany even though I've liked it when I've been before

Holland is quite far from Berlin. Go for the Baltic coast, it's beautiful! I think there are flights with Ryanair to Luebeck. Or fly to Berlin and take the train or hire a car. The island of Ruegen is great and actually very well known. Usedom (right by the border of Poland) is lovely too!

Sorry, just realised you don't like flying.. Take the Eurostar to Brussels, then change into Talys to Cologne. Not sure about connections to Berlin but you can check out www.bahn.de.

yes I was going to say have a look at one of the north sea or baltic islands. Water can be cold of course.

If you find yourself anywhere close to Nuremburg I would highly recommend the playmobil fun park and staying in the playmobil inn next door.

Thanks!