Family City Breaks

[BeksLaw]

I really want to start taking the kids (5 and 7)on some city breaks, but I'm not sure where to go. Love to hear everyone's tips on best and worst cities to visit with kids... Somewhere where they can learn about other cultures, not just lie on a beach or go to a theme park (although we do love doing that too!)

I have a 7 year old. In the last 18 months we have been on a few city breaks as a family.

To Venice, Valencia, Gibraltar (if that counts, it was a long weekend) and Porto.

We chose them either due to their proximity to a beach, or things to do such as lots of travel options, boats, cable car, buses etc. Valencia has a great park called Gulliver Park which my son loved.

We are going to Brussels at Easter for the weekend.

We did Barcelona last year and it's great for kids - lots to see and do, plus a beach as well.

Check out Valencia, loads to do with kids, you can cycle most places and a lovely beach!

Munich.

DH is from Hamburg, we went several times sightseeing since DD is a toddler. It's really great and lots to do and see.
A short train trip is Lübeck with an amazing Hanse Museum, Marzipan or going a bit further for a day trip is Travemünde at the Baltic Sea.

When DD was 7 we went to Paris, was absolutely great. Lots of parks to play around for a break between.

Bruges, Ghent are lovely medival cities.

We have done loads of city breaks with our kids, the ones most enjoyed by the kids are the ones where you can combine something of interest to them with conventional sightseeing. So when we went to Paris we did 4 days in the city doing Versailles, Louvre, Eiffel tower etc and then 2 days at Disney. Valencia, Porto, Lisbon and Pisa/Cinque Terra we mixed up sightseeing days and beach time and that works well. We have also done cities like Rome, Budapest, Gdansk and Madrid, these were all winter trips and were quite sightseeing heavy. I wouldn't rule these kind of places out but they are perhaps less favoured by my kids.

Both my children loved Budapest. Lots to do/see in the city and around the castle.

@BeksLaw We tied breaks into the curriculum. Romans - go to Rome. Greeks - Athens. Van Gogh - Amsterdam or Paris. History was always a useful starting point. We didn’t do theme parks and dc didn’t ask for them. They also liked Berlin, Venice, Nice and St Petersburg when they were teens.

Valencia is great - beach, science and technology, riverbed .. we loved it.
Krakow. DS's favourite

We’ve had some great experiences in Scandinavia: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and Bergen all hits. I’ve found there tends to be a lot of children’s play areas scattered about the cities - in Bergen we kept the children entertained all day just finding as many playgrounds as we could!