European city break

[Littlesticklebrick]

I’m wanting to do something different for our summer holiday this year. It’s only myself and my 12 year old son. Does anyone have any European city ideas? I’d considered Barcelona for a few nights as we could do a beach too? I’d try anywhere & would possibly like to link 2 breaks together?
If you have any ideas that would be great & if you’ve done with a similar aged child too. I do wonder if it would be too hot in August to have them going around a city?

My favourites are:

Cologne
Budapest
Munich
Krakow

Prague also gorgeous

You’ll have to choose carefully so you don’t boil! If it was Feb half term you were talking about I’d PM you itineraries for Seville, Barcelona and Rome but you’d bake in those in Aug, especially Seville. Sorry, that was not a very helpful post!

I personally avoid Southern Europe in the heat of summer and don't have kids, so possibly not the best recommendation, but what about Northern Europe?
Scandinavia or Iceland?

Iceland has hot springs which children can go into. From Reykuvik, there are multiple tours which cover geysers, the massive Gulfoss waterfall and other sites. DH and I walked all around Reykjavik, the museums, massive lake in the centre etc and it was easy to get around. There are likely more child friendly places I'm not aware of, but summer would be a good time to visit.

In August I think any city too far south will be baking, including Barcelona. I’d look at cities further north as Waitingforspring suggests

For a two centre holiday - if you went somewhere like Salzburg or Llubljana you could easily combine with a few days in the mountains. Or Verona combines easily with Lake Garda, but that will be busy. Annecy and Morzine/another bit of the Alps maybe?

For August I would stick with northern Europe, Spanish cities will be horrendous at that time of year. ( I live near Valencia and don't leave my AC in August). Amsterdam gets my vote, so much to do.

We did Barcelona in August for 4 nights then took the train down to Cambrills for a beach break. It was hot but manageable doing Barcelona in August. We got a hotel with a pool so after a day sightseeing. it was lovely to be able to cool off. We flew into Barcelona and out of Reus home which worked really well. My son is 13 and loved the holiday.

We are doing similar this year and doing lisbon and porto ( staying out of porto in a beach resort ). Again we can fly in and out of different airports so you aren't having to travel back on yourself.

Copenhagen - visit Tivoli Park & do boat trip.
Amsterdam - you could head up to Efteling.
Berlin - there is a city beach there I believe & some outdoor Freibad, Ritter Sport chocolate making & lots of history stuff to see.

Ghent is lovely. You could take the train from London. Maybe combine it with Amsterdam?

What about a trip to Antwerp? It's a beautiful city with lots to do and see, it's spacious with plenty of parks and squares. The food is interesting and different enough so you will get the feeling of being abroad.
There are plenty of museums, a huge market, boat trips on the River Scheldt, chocolate shops......
You could easily add a trip to the coast at Blankenberge by train, for the golden sands, seafood and waffles.

We stayed last year in Scheveningen which is a beach suburb of The Hague, our kids loved it and we had lovely weather (mid 20s). There are lots of beach restaurants, pier, big wheel, lego discovery centre, madurodam model village etc and an easy tram ride into The Hague for bigger city shopping. The weather can be a bit more unpredictable than further South but it’s great if you get good weather. We combined it with Rotterdam but you could easily combine with Amsterdam or other cities like Utrecht, or even Antwerp or with the Efteling theme park. Good thing about Holland is that lots of places are close together and easily reachable by train.

What are your son's interests?

We did Bilbao and San Sebastian in August last year, and previously have done Porto at the start of the school summer holidays. Someone else said Slovenia, there you can combine Bled, Ljubljana and the coast, that was one of my favourite European trips.

Copenhagen and Berlin would be my picks at that time of the year. Depending on budget, Stockholm too - it's a brilliant city but it IS expensive.

Venice is our all time favourite but I definitely wouldn't go in August.

April/May or September/October are great but summer I find too hot in certain cities for trailing about with DC. We did Paris, Athens, Barcelona, Malaga and Porto before we learned our lesson. Paris was particularly hard in 41 degrees (July 19).

Ghent, with a train ride to Bruges for a day was really popular with our teens. Copenhagen was great too but very expensive. Berlin is the one I would go back to as they loved the zoo, museums, tour of the Olympic stadium (where the Olympic were held during WW2) - food was great and reasonably priced.

We’ve done a few with our son of similar age. He loves footy so we did stadium tours. Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. All great for general wandering and sight seeing too.
We’ve also done a few 1 week (and surprisingly not expensive) cruises from the UK to Spain, France and Portugal so we’ve seen a few cities in a short space of time, but relaxed/went in the pool/got involved in the entertainment on the ship while travelling between destinations

We are doing Ghent and Antwerp in August, going on the Eurostar to Brussels then local trains.

We went to Budapest in August with teenage sons. It wasn’t too hot. Was fun - we went to two different spas and they really enjoyed the indoor and outdoor pools. Margaret Island in the river in the centre of the city was really nice and we hired bikes. They liked the caves as well. Food was good and reasonable and there’s quite a lot to see just wandering around.

We did Berlin last year in August for 5 days, yes it was 30 degrees but we found it actually fine.

You should be able to find waterparks and lakes for swimming and watersport as well.

Amsterdam is a great city at that age and it's easy to add a couple of days at the seaside.

Id go for Lisbon. LOVE IT. Then you can go to Sintra in the mountains as well. Absolutely beautiful.

Berlin should be good, as it's surrounded by swimmable lakes easily reached by public transport, and has loads of stuff of interest to older kids.

One of my favourite cities is Genova (Genoa)- it's on the sea and has some beautiful beaches in its suburbs, plus you can get to others easily by train. And it's backed by mountains that you can get up to easily. Even though it's northern Italy it'll still be pretty hot though.

Most of the spas in Budapest don't allow under 14s though (have just been researching for an upcoming trip with a 15 and a 10 year old).

Yes Genova is lovely. You could stay in Camogli or visit the Cinque Terre

We were in Gellert spa in Nov and there was a young child there, maybe only 5yrs. He was paddling on the steps with his parents, not sitting neck high in hot water. I'm unsure if they signed a disclaimer, but can see the website does say over 14s only.

Lots to do in Berlin for that age.

Or you could combine Munich and Salzburg very easily.