Holidays abroad with 3 kids

[AnythingNotEverything]

As the title suggests … I’m looking for accommodation, resorts and tips for holidays for families of 5. Kids are 12, 10 and 7.

We are adept at UK holidays and have eurocamped as well as Airbnb city breaks when the eldest was a baby and prekids.

We’d love to try some city breaks but the accommodation costs plus 5 seats on a plane are just brutal - I’m looking at this time next year and am struggling to find accommodation for under £1500 for 3/4 nights.

We’d love to visit Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, Seville or Barcelona.

Similarly, it’s £5-8k for a week all inclusive.

But every time the family room requirement seems to cause issues. In the UK we’re ok to book two rooms for the odd night but would rather not for an actual holiday.

Any tips? We don’t want to go in term time although are happy to miss a day if it saves a lot :-) Maybe we’re just being tight?!

Are you hoping to get a family room with all 5 of you staying in one room?!? You’d need a suite surely. Or two rooms.

All those places you mention are expensive…,why not widen your search to less popular ( and cheaper) but equally lovely cities

Also a family of 5, but we haven’t flown since being 5 ss like you we’ve found it too £££.

In my head now my youngest is seven too, I’ve been wondering about Inter railing. We’ve stayed before at a hostel type place in central Brussels that had a (private!) fsmily room of 6. We have a relative in southern Europe who to fly to wouod be £1.6k minimum (normally most of our main holiday budget) but to Interrail to them via several cities over lots of days would be less £ and we could do big cities with those type of hostels on the way.

we have also done European centerparcs and driven up to Billund.

Rail or driving.

You can go by car to the Netherlands, find an AirBnB somewhere like Utrecht or Leiden and take the train to Amsterdam.

Zeeland is a great area as well, beaches, plenty to do for kids and again, take the train to see other towns.

Rail to France or Germany.

My children are those ages.
We just stayed in Catania, accommodation was cheap for three bedrooms and we took a train to Syracuse. I shopped in supermarkets. It wasn’t Rome but we saw Roman and Ancient Greek architecture, amazing churches and a volcano!

Austria is good for 3 children. You can get a hotel in the alps with apartments attached.

We also have visited Sweden, Lisbon, Valencia.

I think try cheaper destination. Valencia is a lot cheaper than Barcelona, and great for kids.

You could get the train to Lille rather than Paris.

Oh! And Morocco is a good shout for cheaper AI.

We are a family of five so same here travelling.

I would go for cities less expensive than the listed. They are really expensive in flights, hotels and pocket money.

Or do houseswapping if you want to go these cities. It brings down the cost a lot.

We had a great room at the Tivoli hotel in Copenhagen - well, a suite thing with an adjoining twin room. Copenhagen was a great city break at Christmas time 😍

We like air bnbs too.

Currently at a centerparcs in Belgium which is nice and v cheap compared to uk. 3 hour drive once you get off Le Shuttle.

DH loves a hot AI resort, did Corfu this year but IMO it’s not worth it. Hot, expensive, too many people, the kids just want to swim which we could just do at home. But I’m a massive homebody.

I think this is just the reality of having 3 kids, it's expensive to travel!
For city breaks you really need to shop around for flights, or even look at flying into a less popular airport and using the train to get around (much of Europe has excellent trains!). Do self catering, there's an increasing number of SC properties on Booking.com these days as well as AirBnB and stay away from the most touristy parts of the city. Travel light and avoid paying as many airfare extras as you can! If you're near London check the Eurostar prices rather than flying.

You are really going to struggle to find a five-bed room in a European city, if none of the beds is a baby's cot - apart from anything else, there may be elf'n'safety rules against it.

Also, if you want a city break in those places that you listed (which are in everyone's top 10) without trashing the budget, you will need to compromise on something regardless of the 5-pax problem. We often compromise on location.

In that spirit, my Amsterdam accommodation "hidden gem" is the Ramada Amsterdam Airport Hotel, on the edge of the small town of Badhoevedorp. It always has great rates (Amsterdam can be very expensive) and there's a pool and sauna too. They have triple rooms, so you could fit your family into two.

Badhoevedorp ("baht-hoover-dorp") has a very Dutch atmosphere (unlike the middle of Amsterdam, which to me feels like generic-Airbnb-hipster-central, you could be almost anywhere in Europe with avocado toast, poke bowls, and flat white coffee), with just enough places to eat for a 3-4 night stay. You can get into the city by Uber (specify you want XL for a 7-seater van) or on the bus. Booking dot com has a couple of other places in the same town for good prices too.

Will your kids actually enjoy cities? I have 3 each year younger than yours and we reckon we're looking at Eurocamp type holidays for a good few years yet. We do road trips, don't fly unless we absolutely have to (e.g. holidays destination dictated by overseas wedding).

Yes they loved Edinburgh and Dublin and London too!

Thanks all. Good to know I’m not just missing something!

My eldest is 8 and we still do eurocamp -we've done croatia and italy this year, flown both times and it was less than 1k for flights for 5 of us. There are always cheaps Eurocamp options available so we look for cheap flights/dates and then book around that - we've done Croatia and Italy this year and have booked france and italy next year (we'll drive down to france). We've done the odd AI holiday which has been nice but it's double/triple the cost and it just isn't worth that to us. For UK breaks we tend to rent apartments (which we'll likely do when the kids are into city breaks- eldest would love it, younger two would be a nightmare right now!)

We rent apartments when we do city breaks as they’re just more convenient all around. We’re currently in Florence (going home tomorrow :( ) with our one and four year olds. This apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a utility, kitchen and living room and came with a daily continental breakfast. It was £1100 for a week 🥳

This sounds great - I find the extra bed/bedroom really pushes the price up :-/

It can be such great value. We have a week booked for May half term in France for £2000 flights and accommodation - we’re happy to self cater during the day and eat out or BBQ/make simple pasta in the evening. But I want to show them cities and galleries and museums etc. Actual France, not generic tourist towns.

For city breaks, find a Eurocamp type place on the outskirts of the city. Just as an example, we’re going to stay just outside Paris in May half-term next year at Sandaya Maisons Laffitte. It’s 12 minutes on the train into the centre of Paris. It sleeps 8, and it was £800 for the week. Flights were £150 each return Manchester to Beauvais.

Maybe look at less famous cities? I’ve just looked up Avignon where I had a lovely time and it’s much better value than Paris. You can get the train there too.

Can you tell me the appartment and where you booked it?

We are going next year and I am not sure if an appartment is better than a hotel.

It’s called La Firenze Sogna managed by a lovely lady called Francesca. You’ll get a cheaper rate booking through her than through Booking.com :) She has one two bed and one three bed apartment. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk to the centre but the walk along the river is lovely and there are also plenty of restaurants, trams and buses nearby.

https://la-firenze-sogna.florenceapartments.org/it/

Yeah! It always takes me a lot of searching to find something that works for us.

There are lots of apartments to rent in Rome centrally and it’s a very walkable city so you don’t have to spend lots on travel. If you all like history you can’t really beat it. You could probably find something reasonably priced, the issue is you might spend on regular gelato and delicious meals but with an apartment you can self cater. It doesn’t have to be expensive to visit places as many attractions are free for children if you book on the official sites. Eg the Coliseum.