Easy city break with a 5 year old

[mynameiscalypso]

I have slightly itchy feet but, for work reasons, my DH can't book any holidays at the moment. I'm mulling taking my 5 year old away for the end of May bank holiday weekend (yes, I know it will be expensive). I have the Tuesday off and would likely be doing much of the childcare for the whole long weekend because of DH's work.

We live in London (close to Paddington so Heathrow and St Pancras are very easy to get to) and am looking for recommendations!

My initial thoughts were Copenhagen (easy flight and transport to city), Amsterdam or Paris (via the Eurostar) or somewhere else...?

I would like a beach holiday ideally but DH gets travel sick so I think the flights to Spain/Italy would be too long. We will hopefully go to Nice/Provence in August. He's also terrible in cars/taxis so I thought a city break where there's good transport links would be ideal.

DS is pretty chilled out. Loves art, museums, going to parks etc. A fussy eater but happy enough with most carbs. Fine with walking albeit very slow. A swimming pool would be an added bonus!

Has anyone done something similar and have any suggestions on location?

Thank you!

Copenhagen is a great idea! It’s a small city so you can get around easily, has a metro/boats/bikes. Easy to get from the airport to the city centre. It’s a very child friendly place - children’s areas in museums, parks all over the place, good selection of food. We’ve been a few times with our toddler.

Paris is too big and a bit overwhelming with small kids (although Eurostar is nice and easy).

Amsterdam is more like Copenhagen but the Eurostar there is 4/5 hours so actually a long journey. But once you get there it’s quite easy (although I would say less small child friendly than Copenhagen).

Our DS aged 5 had a wonderful trip to Valencia, or is that too long a flight?

Loads to do, huge huge park running through the centre on an old riverbed. Beach. Old town. Very pretty. Great food. Weather will be good, sunny but not too hot yet.

Bilbao

Why go abroad?Why not take the train to Liverpool? Plenty of museums and you can take a ferry across the Mersey.

What about Edinburgh?

We took our child there last August when he was almost 5. Went up on the train (although you can also fly) and stayed in an Airbnb just outside of the main touristy centre. You'd be crazy to take a car there as there's so many buses, and a tram going from the airport to the coast. It rained for the majority of the week we were there, but we had a great time. The Commonwealth Pool has family floats sessions plus a good soft play, we went to the zoo (which was great, even though I don't usually like zoos) plus we on the train to North Berwick for the Scottish Seabird Centre, which is a lovely scenic coastal town even if you don't go to the Seabird Centre. There's also Portobello and/or some of the costal towns/villages across the Forth in Fife for beaches. Then there's Arthur's Seat (we decided not to climb it due to the weather) and a few playgrounds on the Meadows, plus the Botanical gardens.

Caveat: I went to Edinburgh Uni so we a) know people still living there and b) knew where to stay etc, but you can also easily work all of that out even if you don't have "local" knowledge. We visited Stirling for the day to see a uni friend and her family (they drove down from Aberdeen) and the jail was a big hit with my son, as was the library (it had Lego!) and King's Park playground, but I would imagine if you're only there for a long weekend then there will be enough in just Edinburgh.

Forgot the Museum of Scotland too - again, my son loved how interactive it was... And free :)

My kids have been going to Paris since they were little. We live in the US so we fly into London, spend a few days and Eurostar to Paris. Amsterdam has less for kids.
We have always found Paris to very very easy with kids. Since you live in London public transport would faze your child.
We did the Centre Pompidou, bits of a Louvre, then go to any of the big parks and gardens. Jardin du Luxembourg was a favourite with everyone. We have done the hop on and hop off bus. We did a ‘kids tour’ at the Musee d’Orsay. But mainly just had crepes in cafes, walked along the Seine and soaked it all in. Minimal time difference from London also helps. Restaurants were fine with kids.

Barcelona is also lovely. Another favourite is Vienna. But we loved Copenhagen but found it a bit pricey and the weather was too changeable.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

@Sinkingfeeling952 That was my thought re Amsterdam too. I love my DS but such a long train journey doesn't appeal much and it would probably be the same length of time as a short flight to Copenhagen anyway. I agree about Paris too. I know it quite well but I think it might be one that I'd want DH there for as well.

@elQuintoConyo I would love to go to Valencia, that's a good suggestion. It's probably a bit longer of a flight but it would be perfect for a long weekend.

@Althenameshavegone I did also think about Bilbao although I have been there before. DS would absolutely love the Guggenheim there though.

@Rocknrollstar Liverpool is a great city but I'd rather go abroad for this one (we have a couple of other UK city breaks in the works too, sorry, I should have said).

@cardboard33 Edinburgh is a good shout. I've only been once for a meeting so haven't seen the city at all and the familiarity of it (language/shops/restaurants etc) might be helpful for DS as well as there being loads to do there.

Lots of brilliant ideas, thank you!

Madrid was great for kids.

Valletta, Copenhagen, Berlin (or another German city close to airport, I find large German cities great in general, lots of public amenities and pretty kid friendly), Edinburgh, Lisbon.

Not a City break, but what about Billund in Denmark?

Legoland, Lego House, Lalandia all just minutes away from the airport, and the May holiday in England does not clash with Danish holiday dates, so it won't be crowded.

Barcelona if the flight isn't too long for you.

Beach, loads for kids , food amazing.

Just coming back to this to thank everyone for the great options. I priced up a lot of them and ended up back at Copenhagen which was the best value for money even with splashing out on a bit of a fancy hotel. There were some brilliant suggestions and I'm going to start planning something in the summer and maybe in the October half term term as well. Thanks again!