July holiday with toddler

[RubyrooUK]

Desperately need a holiday. Due to both our work commitments, DH and I can only go away for the first two weeks in July. We both have very very busy stressful jobs (four between us!) and could really use the break before we fall apart.

We have a toddler who will be 22/23months then.

Where can we go abroad that:

• is not so hot that my poor pale baby will frazzle?
• has culture for me (not good at sitting on beaches)
• is somewhere a toddler can run around and not drive everyone mad
• has lovely walking opportunities.

Any suggestions appreciated! Before birth of DS, we lived in South America, honeymooned in remote Asia....since his birth, we had an awful holiday in Cyprus (too hot, not enough culture for us within a good drive) and a wonderful holiday in Madeira (lots of cobbled streets and toddler hair tousling, bit dull but nice).

So...I've been really picky here. Anyone got any ideas? Thank you so much.

How about Cape Town? Not so much culture but lots of great days out and good food and wine and a pleasant temperature.

Cape Town?! What the hell do you do with a toddler on a 10 hour flight?

Thanks for the suggestion. I know South Africa is beautiful but I really need the culture stuff and I don't want to go anywhere you have to stay in compounds at any point.....

Sorry, picky picky.

Copmpounds?

I was going to suggest the Netherlands, but you said culture....? What are you after? Plenty of walking opportunities, and very child friendly, but museums and castles are a bit thin on the ground.

Germany? In a campervan maybe?

Talking of the Netherlands, we have stayed at Hoog Vaals with www.landal.com a few times. There is LOADS to do nearby. It is the highest point in Holland so lovely scenery. Visits to Aachen, Monschau, the Eiffel Mountains, Valkenberg etc. Lots of castles and zoos. The Drielandenpunkt where you can stand in 3 countries at once. Maastricht is lovely. Liege and Spa not far away. The site has a pool and is spotlessly clean. Indoor/outdoor playgrounds. A lovely terrace to drink wine on. On site beautician, sauna etc. You can rent villas with a hot tub.

Or this year, we are renting Gites in the Dordogne and the Loire. Both on complexes so hopefully friends for dd, shared pools. Again LOADS to do in the general vicinity.

Austria. We had a wonderful holiday with dc (5 and 2) last summer. Mountains aplenty, culture in the cities (stay between Innsbruck and salzburg, or further away and less good mountains but more culture near Vienna). It was warm, 25 degrees ish at altitude in late July. V family friendly.

Loire and the Dordogne would be great - but maybe too hot in July for a fair-skinned toddler? You'd need to cover up and use sun screen. We were in Bordeaux last October and it was 25+ then. We were at a wedding and DH's fair-skinned relatives all got burnt.

We're looking at Carcasonne but at the end of May, only I'm not sure I can face the drive with my 2-yr old DS. :( Hoog Vaals sound ideal but is only 90 mins from where I currently live so not so much a holiday for me! Actually, I seem to remember that we once drove to Spa just for lunch.

I never think of the Loire as being hot - we have gone to the Med every year since dd was a baby...having a change this year. We normally go the first 2 or 3 weeks of July and have never melted . I think you have to acclimatise a bit - swimming in the morning, late lunch, snooze, another swim, stroll and dinner.... Oh I can't wait....

Sound bliss! DS went to bed about 3 seconds ago: dinner in a restaurant is not going to happen for me. And he NEVER naps in the day.

Brittany is good. Overnight ferry (get a good cabin and it's actually quite enjoyable) if you have a car (and you can bring all the toddler clobber you need). Great food and we found that going out for lunch (stuffing our faces with the 3 course menu of the day) then eating back at the gite worked well. Lots of good markets as well.

What kind of culture are you after?

How about somewhere Scandinavian? Copenhagen, Malmo, Stockholm?

Oh, we were looking at Malmo earlier! Have you been there, MegBusset?

I haven't but I knew someone who lived there and they raved about it.

Oh thanks everyone for the ideas. I was out earlier and missed all your replies.

For whoever asked about compounds, I've been to South Africa before and loved the scenery. But sometimes to see interesting stuff in Jo'burg, it meant staying in compounds rather than walking about freely. Or that was my experience some time ago - might be totally different now or I just went some unusual places!

In terms of culture, I like museums, archaeology, old interesting buildings and historic stuff. My favourite places are Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Eastern Turkey/Syria - bit far away for this trip though....

I'll have a read through these suggestions properly tomorrow. Thank you all again so much for replying.

Sicily could be a good choice.

Or Lisbon.