What has been your best short family holiday?

[CaptainBrickbeard]

I have recently achieved a long-held ambition and received a significant sum of money and want to take my family on the first holiday we have ever been on as a four. Annual leave for my husband is tricky and we are looking at only having about five or six days in the Easter holidays available to go away next year.

We have a nine year old and a six year old. I’d considered New York but think it might be a bit much for the youngest, especially the long flight when we only have a short amount of time so I might leave that for a few years time!

We all love swimming, museums, zoos, castles and aquariums so I’m thinking a city break in a hotel with a pool would suit us. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Euro Disney or Efteling was amazing

In uk York or centre parks is fun. We also really enjoyed Liverpool. Great city.

Highly recommend Legoland in Billund, Denmark. A visit to the Legohouse would be great for this age - it's really amazing. They also have a waterpark/entertainment place next door called Lalandia.

There is a new centre parcs nearby to Disneyland Paris, perfect for a Mon-Fri trip

Somewhere with a heated pool, as it might still be too cold otherwise. There are some great looking aqua park hotels in morrocco which would be warm at easter. Greece and Cyprus would be warming up. Canaries?

Do you want it to be warm OP? If so, then bear in mind that Paris might be chilly at Easter, ditto Legoland and definitely ditto New York (which is not reliably warm until May).

We went to Lisbon for new year this year and had a great time, but we were lucky with the weather. Valencia was lovely in Feb last year too. Paris is always good (tons to see and do with kids), but it could be rainy/cold. Paphos in Cyprus would be great at Easter and there are loads of lovely hotels (check out the Almyra and the Annabelle).

Paris + train out to Disney, really easy to do.
Berlin. Lots to see and an excellent zoo. They have pandas and twin pandas were born in September, so should be on view.
Lisbon also lovely but haven't yet taken the children. If you like aquariums the one built for the expo used to be excellent, assume it still is.
Hope you have a wonderful time OP.

Barcelona with kids. You've got Parc Guell, Parc de la Cuitadella with a boating lake and zoo, cable car to Montjuic and the Miro gallery there which is v child friendly. And a beach.

It's my favourite city!

Barcelona!

Lalandia in Denmark.

Can't recommend it enough. Really close to Billund Airport where you get cheap Ryanair flights, and next door to Legoland. The swimming pool is amazing. We go as often as we can for the weekend.

Palma - majorca is such a good mix of beach, culture, beautiful scenery and nice food. Have never been in July, August but outside high season it’s amasing.

Venice - outside high season it’s fun for kids. Boat trips on the canals and so much to see and do.

The alps- my favourite place for a holiday. Beautiful scenery, lovely little towns, swim in the lake, do a bit of hiking and just such clean air. Bliss.

Iceland or Barcelona.

Disney cruise around the Med, it was so good.

Our best short break was at Bluestone in Wales www.bluestonewales.com/ We did a short break earlier this year and it was great and actually really affordable. Will go again when DD is a bit older so she could do more of the outdoor activities.

We are also books to go to Effteling next summer for a short break - heard really really good things about it and very very excited!

We went to the giants causeway in February half term for 4 nights and had the best time! We stayed in Port Stewart, hired a car and explored the coastline. It was wild and honestly, we all agree (me, dh, 6 yo and 14 yo) that it was the best time we've had away.

We also loved Nerja, but a very different holiday. They're our top two.

Best - Split (sea swimming, decent reasonable apartment, lovely old town), Verona (gorgeous city, great food, day trips to Lake Garda and Venice are easy) and Stockholm (great city built on a series of islands, much more attractive than I was expecting .. bit pricey though).

Worse - Bergen. Very pretty city but it literally rained the whole time and was incredibly expensive

Possibly our best ever trip was Cologne. It has a cathedral, a very extensive Roman museum, a chocolate factory tour and a truly wonderful zoo. You can also get the tram/train over to Bonn which we did for a day.

I agree with another poster though to go somewhere famous, and Paris is a great suggestion if you've never been. You could also consider Venice - less in the way of swimming and zoos but a truly magical place unlike anywhere else you can go.

I love Lisbon