Advice on booking a holiday that doesn’t involve sitting around a pool....

[Lovemusic33]

Hi, looking for some advice. I have never taken my dd’s abroad and haven’t travelled much myself, both my DS’s have ASD which is why we haven’t travelled but they are now teenagers and we would like to attempt a holiday abroad.

I have no experience of booking a holiday so no idea how to find what I’m looking for. I looked on tui but all holidays seem to involve apartments, pools and sun loungers, this would be dd1’s idea of hell. We don’t really do sitting by a pool, dd1 hates water and dd2 would need constant supervision so wouldn’t be much of a break for me. I’m probably looking for the impossible but ideally would like to go somewhere that’s not too busy, somewhere with culture (historical places to visit?), somewhere where we can go shopping and move around easily without using busy public transport and somewhere not too touristy 😁. Ideally a short flight as it will be the dd’s first time flying though I’m sure the plane wont be a problem, navigating through the airport will possibly be the hard bit.

Any suggestions?

Copenhagen? We are going there next year. Short cheap flight and Tivoli gardens looks fun for all ages.

Berlin is great - lots of history, shopping, zoo, great food, really easy to get around. We got a local train to the Lakes area about an hour away and hired bikes etc.

PS we also have two autistic children - DS5 and DS4 so I totally empathise!

How about ireland - the West is fantastic and very easy to get the ferry
I've got lots of tips if it appeals?

Are they ok with car journeys? We drive from SE London to Germany in 1.5 -2 days, depending where we go. It may be another day for you so it depends how much time you have.

You have lots of nature, towns with shopping, lots of history (museums, castles), zoos and wildlife parks, outdoor activities.

Copenhagen would suit you, as long as you can figure out the airport issues. It has great shopping and very different to the UK. Lots of lovely, quirky independent shops with fun things to look at. There is also a big aquarium and lots of nice hotels. You can take the train to the Viking Museum in Roskilde (which is fabulous and not busy - the trains are spacious and double-decker), and on another day you could go north on the train to the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek and/or the Karen Blixen Museum in Rungsted Kist. We did both in one day in August and were able to do the whole thing by train and on foot. The Louisiana Museum was a bit busy getting in, but once in it was fine and a beautiful setting overlooking the sea. Copenhagen is quite low key tbh. It's not a busy city like London - much smaller - a lot of people cycle - it's flat and easy to get around by bike, tram or on foot.

Re: accommodation - if you book an apartment through Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway, etc, you can always find ones with stairs rather than lifts. Older buildings in many European cities have stairs, so just search until you find what you need. Bear in mind that apartments with lifts often have stairs too (fire escape).

Driving in France is much easier than in the UK. There are campsites in pretty much every town ranging from all-singing and dancing to small municipal ones. Or there are gites across the country (Gites de France has an English-language website and has gites everywhere or Brittany Ferries have gîte+ferry packages if you prefer the Western side).

You can't swing a cat in most parts of France without hitting a medieval town/village so plenty of sightseeing and all the big towns will have plenty of shopping. There are swimming lakes, rope parks, cycle trails etc all over.

Jersey would be a good starting point. A mixture between familiar british and abroad. You can also do a day trip to St Malo from there,

You can get a ferry to jersey from Weymouth..if you don't fancy flying. And you can take camper van or car so avoid public transport...
Although jersey airport is not big am sure u will have stairs but easy to phone and check

If you don't want to drive too far and go to France then euro tunnel is quite straightforward and you stay in your own vehicle.. somewhere like sun parks ouistdunkirk near Bruges?