October minibreak with kids

[lisbapalea]

Can anyone recommend a good place for a 3 night, non UK, minibreak for DH, me and our two girls (3 and 7) at the back end of October half term.

I love the idea of a city mini break although am happy to be talked out of that if anyone has better ideas. Things I have been thinking of:

Florence (we went on honeymoon and always said we wanted to take the girls there one day)
Stockholm
Somewhere in Portugal - Lisbon / Porto
Amsterdam?
South of France?

Where would we be able to make the most of a 3 night break and that would be fun / interesting for kids as well as us?

I really want to go to Stockholm but airports are making it unlikely (our nearest only flies to the airports 100km from the city) but I would definitely recommend:

Valencia - easy to get around, beach if desired, science park is really good fun with aquarium and science museum so lots to do in rainy weather.

Lisbon - lovely old city, trams are great fun, beach 20min train ride away, good science museum and excellent aquarium (can you tell what we do on holidays?!)

Thank you for the Lisbon pointers - made me feel like that's the key contender!

I am now busily researching flights and have found some OK ones (albeit with Ryanair so they will probably double if I have the temerity to take any luggage), and have found some fab apartments on airbnb!

Thanks!

How about Iceland - it is an amazingly interesting country and the kids would love the geysers, the blue lagoon, waterfalls and volcanoes.

Barcelona? Good chance of ok weather, loads to do

Actually the place we stayed in was airbnb and I'd recommend it. It was near a park and the basilica and right on the most popular tram route (28?) There was also a kids bedroom already set up - handily with a kura bed the same as ds has at home!

Porto is a great place for a weekend break, although not sure that there is much for the kids.

Porto is a great place for a weekend break, although not sure that there is much for the kids.

We are now set on lisbon so I am now obsessing over airbnb places so if you have any recommendations of where to stay / not to stay it would be great.

This is a selection from my shortlist:

abnb.me/EVmg/N4V7MZ0ckG
abnb.me/EVmg/hUnIov3ckG
abnb.me/EVmg/HOEE3R5ckG (Dd1's favourite)

The first one is very swish! Campo de ourique is the neighbourhood we stayed in and it was lovely. Well located with a fab market. The third one is in belem which is a train or bus ride into central Lisbon. It's a nice area we thought but I'd rather be central. I don't know the location of the second (alfama) but I do remember the location of the castle it's near to is very hilly!

I'll try to find the place we stayed if helpful? Although it looks like your budget is a bit more than ours :)

I'm not really sure on our budget tbh - probably not much but haven't done airbnb before so got a bit overexcited to see what was out there!

Would be great to get any recommendations you have!!

I have sent you a pm :)