Suggestions: January Adventure with DS (3) and DD (6 months)

[Johnnietalker]

Hi all,

My DP and I are currently on parental leave for DD. DS is nearly 3. We are trying to plan a holiday for the beginning of January (before DP goes back to work at the end of January) when DD will be six m/o.

Our holidays to date with DS have included city breaks to Edinburgh, Paris and Brussels, seaside holidays (Brighton), and package holidays to Spain and Turkey. We haven't been particularly adventurous with travel so aren't looking to do anything super challenging with a baby + toddler, but would be keen stretch ourselves a bit!

Some thoughts:

• We like the idea of a rail-based trip (don't want to hire a car) although open to flying somewhere first
• We'd like to go for maximum of 2 weeks, ideally around 10 days
• Not looking for a "winter sun" type beach break (not averse to warmer weather, although unlikely in January!)
• Strong preference for short haul/Europe
• Would be keen to spend time in a few different places/cities via inter-railing or similar (bonus for mixture of city/nature/coast!)

Does anyone have any particular destinations/trips you'd recommend which have worked well with very young kids during the winter months?

Thank you - appreciate your recommendations!

Scandinavia for sure. When our kids were 1&3 we had a lovely week in Bergen - train from airport straight into the center of the town, air BnB by the aquarium, walk around, bus to IKEA 😄, fjord trip, up the fernicular to the viewpoint and playground. One of my faves! We’ve also had lovely family trips to Copenhagen and Holland.

There’s some cool bridge or tunnel or something where you can get from Copenhagen to Sweden I think? Fun! And surely a Lego museum or something in Copenhagen? We were there at Xmas so did Xmas stuff and the science museum mainly.

In January with little ones I would head to Malaga and/or Seville for decent chance of good weather and safe easy sights. Not sure how the rail links work in that area but believe there is a train Malaga-Seville and also Malaga-Cordoba.

You can get to Barcelona relatively easily by train - Lille, Valence, Barcelona - or there might be a direct train from Lille each day. From Barcelona you can travel everywhere in Spain. I'd do some like Lyon, Barcelona, Malaga, Seville and back.

Have a look at www.seat61.com for all details and how to book tickets / reservations. There is a 10% discount on Interrail at the moment. Kids go free - though you might need to make seat reservations for them.

Copenhagen is lovely and very child friendly. we've also had great family holidays in Finland. it is hard to do the whole trip by train, but there are v good trains and ferries within Scandinavia. you can even take the night train from Helsinki to Rovenami and visit Santa.

Bear in mind how cold it can get in January in northern Europe!!!! 🥶🥶🥶