October half term - London, Edinburgh or York?

[babyblue2]

Planning 3 or 4 night break in one of the above. We've sourced hotels in all places and all are of a similar price. DDs are 2 and 4 and are fairly easy going. Which do we decide. Lots to do in London, fair amount to do in Edinburgh, not sure about York, but the hotel is more child friendly in York (outdoor playground thingy) but all hotels have pools. Drawback for London is distance (Cumbria) and the tube with a pushchair. What are your thoughts.

I recommend York. Its small enough that you can walk around it all in those few days. There's the city wall (you'll need to check opening times) and the Yorvick Centre which is great for kids. There are arts centres and cinemas and walks along the river - and boat rides. Its a friendly place, even though its officially a "city".

York is lovely and the Castle museum is fantastic; costs about £12 for a family if I remember rightly but plenty there to pass hours of time. Don't bother with Jorvick - overpriced and only takes about 40 minutes.

Oops, sorry Sleepfinder - just realised I've completely contradicted you {blush] - just mho so feel free to ignore!

We liked Jorvik. At 40 mins you must have run past all the hands-on archeological at the end, janeite!

York and Edinburgh both quite self-contained and small. London scares me.

Okay 40 mins may be a slight exaggeration - it was a few year's ago! But we definately found The Castle Museum much better value for money! We did like finding Matt from Blue Peter in Jorvick though!

Edinburgh is lovely too - the castle is nice and there's the zoo of course.

London is wonderful (am just back from a few days there with dd1) but I think I'd be scared with 2 little ones and would wait until the buggy wasn't needed before going to London. Having said that, we DID do it, when dd2 was about 15 months old but we ended up walking for miles and miles to avoid the tube as much as possible.

i think york might be a bit small for 3-4 days?

london is easy with kids to be honest - you just need to plan ahead a bit. there are loads of tube and train stations with lifts now so buggies can work - you can have a look on the tube website to find them and plan your day from there eg to go to tate modern/st pauls/south bank go to city thameslink and get the lift then walk the short walk - or jump in taxis - no where is that far away - you can fold up the buggy and put it on the floor and there will be space for all four of you

you could just plan things so you stay in manageable areas that only require walking eg one day/afternoon on the south bank (aquarium/tate/london eye/street performers). Then another in covent garden/traf square/galleries. Then another day say in regent park/london zoo. SO you minimize tube journeys and dont get too tired.

I would say there is enough in York for 3-4 days, but only if you're into history! London has a greater variety and as Newgirl says, you can plan so as to minimise stress.

We have just come back from a week in York and it was fantastic. My boys are 8 and 10 though, so old enough to appreciate some of the history and culture. We had 5 whole days and didn't have time to do everything we wanted to.

I have to say the people and shop staff in York were consistently far more friendly and helpful than when anything I've encountered whenever we've visited London and Edinburgh; it's also a very small city, so it's easy to get about everywhere without walking miles and miles.

Of course we've just had a week of beautiful weather - it could do anything in October!

I think that all these places are excellent for older children (say 7 upwards) who will appreciate the museums, history etc. With pre-schoolers I would go to the country to somewhere with a pool/play facilities etc.