Europe summer holiday with DC6&2 - not too hot - Scandinavia?

[PocketsAndSedition]

Hello, I'm looking for some inspiration for our main holiday next year in late June/early July. DC will be 6 and just turned 2. The 6 year old hates swimming and kids club type activities (sadly!) so AI is probably wasted on us and none of us cope well with the heat so I'm thinking northern Europe. Younger DC gets terribly car sick so ideally also somewhere accessible by plane+train.

We're all quite outdoorsy but obviously the kids are still small so big adventure holidays will have to wait a bit longer. I'm thinking maybe an apartment in a city but with easy access to some nice countryside. I've been mulling over Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm but struggling to really fix on somewhere and start planning. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Austria - a kinder hotel! They are sort of AI, but you don’t have to use the kids’ clubs - we never did, everything else is just so easy though, and designed around being convenient with kids. They are usually in areas with walks designed for kids, beautiful mountains and cable cars.

Stockholm would be excellent. You could easily spend a few days at Skansen open air museum.

You could also consider Shetland and Orkney - an amazing part of the world.

We had a great holiday staying onsite in a bungalow at Beekse Bergen safari park in the Netherlands...think a smaller Center Parcs with animals on your doorstep. Also close to Efteling which is a magical theme park especially suited to younger ones (but also fantastic for all ages).

Lots of campsites, Airbnb and hotels nearby too including a choice of accommodation at the theme park.

Alps - Austria or Germany

Northern Germany - Baltic Sea. Plenty of things to do even if you don't like water. North Sea is more water sport/beach focused

Netherlands - good train set up, fly to Amsterdam and then get a train

Wow, thanks all, some great ideas.
@sundaysurfer2 would you recommend any particular kinderhotel? Or are there any you know of that you don't need to drive to?

@deplorabelle I'm going to look into the open air museum - thanks! I'm in Scotland and have visited the Orkneys pre-kids - glorious but unless things have changed a lot, not easy to get around the islands without driving.

@NCfor24 I had looked into Beeske Bergen but the minimum age for some the safari bits is 3 so I had thought we might wait for 2027 😊

@reluctantbrit I probably should have mentioned that we travelled round the Netherlands earlier this year and it was fantastic! Not averse to doing it again but interested to hear about alternatives too. The Alps would certainly suit DH so I'm going to look more at the kinderhotels.

We used to go here a lot: https://www.testerhof.at/en
the Tux valley is absolutely beautiful, totally set up for walks with kids and you don’t need a car. There’s a hiking bus which drives between the cable cars.
you can fly to Innsbruck and then get the train/ arrange a transfer.
if you like the idea of the area, but don’t want that kind of hotel, then Mayrhofen (which is between two valleys - the Zillertal and Tuxertal - is a good base it has two different cable cars up to the mountains. At the top of every cable cars ride along the tux valley there is always a kids playground, with water play, and usually other activities. The walks are absolutely beautiful in Tux, and there are many you can do with prams / small kids

(Sorry about all the typos in my previous message … can’t seem to fix them)

Here’s a link to some info about the valley. https://www.tux.at/en/summer-family-holiday/

There are loads of hotels / apartments. The key is to be in walking distance of one of the cable cars open in summer (so stay in Mayrhofen, Finkenberg, Lanersbach or Hintertux).

it’s the most magical place and perfectly set up for families with young kids.

Thanks so much @sundaysurfer2 I'm going to look into all of that, it sounds potentially really well suited to us!

Cruise.....
My three don't like the heat. We have done a Cruise to just Norway then a Cruise to Norway and Denmark. Mine loved them.

Helsinki, small enough to walk around, trains and trams. If feeling adventurous take the train to Lapland (overnight train) Santa is there year round! They have summer activities there, I’m going in mid June

I have had a similar issue to you, my four were terribly car / coach sick, but could cope on flights and on a train. Our favourites were a) Duinrell in NL, nice accom with lots of choice with SC, outdoorsy (in a forest and cycles for hire to the beach) and lots of theme park rides and a huge water complex, a lot of the rides are dispersed and pretty tame. Great village nearby walking distance. Main benefit, only 50 min flight to AMS, and then a train to Leiden from the airport (takes about half an hour) then there is either a dreaded taxi or bus to Wassenaar but it is 15 mins tops. Because mine were SO bad in the car, we used to stay at the Holiday Inn resort in Leiden which is great for kids (small farm, loads of kids activities) and it was halfway, so by the time they were in the taxi, they were out of it, if you know what I mean. Also good were DLP when they used to do the TGV from the airport to the door of Disneyland in 13 minutes (then just walk to the accom) DLP is horrible in school hols, but June is OK. Austria is good for trains to nice places. The only other place I would mention is Gdansk. There is an airport train into the City, a fairly cheap hampton in airport, and as well as being pretty / not to hot in it's own right, there are plenty of trains or trams out to the coast at Sopot which is lovely (beach, outdoorsy etc.) It is not as cheap as it was, but it is a fraction of the cost of Scandi. x

We’ve visited Helsinki at that time of year and loved it. It is fairly compact with excellent public transport, loads of great museums and outdoorsy things to do. There are city beaches with lifeguards and changing facilities, plus playgrounds and outdoor space. Finland was a lot more affordable than Sweden and Norway, which we visited as part of the same trip. You could combine a Helsinki city break with a lakeside cabin rental out of the city for some down time.

Ooh some more great ideas! I think I'm on a three way tie between Austria, Finland or the Netherlands (again). DC1 is borderline obsessed with trams (!) which might sway it to Helsinki or the Netherlands.

Helsinki airport has a very modern underground station directly underneath the terminal which whisks you straight into the city centre. We loved Suomenlinna and the open air museum. Amos Rex was super cool - our teens loved it. www.visitfinland.com/en/articles/top-10-must-see-museums-in-helsinki-region/

@sundaysurfer2 hoping I might be able to pick your brain some more! Hotel Testerhof looks great but if I've understood it isn't in one of the places you mention with summer cable cars? Do you think it's well connected enough despite that or would it be better to look for alternative accomodation in Mayrhofen, Finkenberg, Lanersbach or Hintertux?

Gothenburg (Göteborg) would tick a lot of your boxes - really interesting and fun city with easy access to nature, and loads of trams!

We live in Stockholm, its a fairly small city so you can stay in a very quiet suburb and be twenty minutes from the city centre on the metro. Its also very safe and very child/family friendly.

You can also (like on many cities) buy a city pass, this gives free entrance to almost every museum, bus, boat and attraction in stockholm. I think the Abba museum is the only one not included, it does include Skansen and Grona Lund. A five day pass for a child is about £60, the two year old won’t need one. The adult ones are more pricey, about £140, but they’re regularly on sale, or you could pick places and just buy adult passes for those. Themeparks etc are much cheaper to visit here than themeparks in the UK.

The metro is easy to use and a similar price to the underground, its a lot less crowded and much cleaner. There are lots of lovely islands, you can get a guided boat tour, or you can get a very cheap boat ferry instead.

With Skansen both the children would be free, it would be around £20 per adult at that time of year, but for £30 each you could buy an annual pass if you want to go more than once on your holiday.

You could do a multitrip, the first time we came here we did five days in Stockholm and then three in Helsinki before flying home. You can do an overnight ferry, but it leaves at 4pm so takes up too much holiday time.

My kids loved Copenhagen at that age. Really easy city to walk around with lots of kid friendly places like Tivoli and museums. Can also easily have a day trip to Sweden. Can get a train to somewhere like Malmö in or otherwise travel through Denmark to Helsingør and then get a ferry to Helsingborg in Sweden which is a nice city too.

Testerhof is in Vorderlanersbach (part of Lanersbach) and about a mile from a cable car (Eggalm) so still walkable. It has the ‘play arena’ on site (a really large indoor play area for kids). The buses go from in front of the hotel every 30 minutes up and down the valley (it takes about 20 minutes down to Mayrhofen or up to Hintertux). They can be quite full in high, high summer but probably not late June or early July. One of the advantages of Testerhof used to be that they give you the zillertal active card for free (though it’s anyway free for your kids). It’s a small hotel, which is absolutely designed also around kids (for example, there’s a little half room open to the dining room full of toddler toys, where your kids can happily play while you eat) and a very lovely owner (Seb).

I simply cannot sing the praises of the Tux valley highly enough. Our kids are older now and we go to Stock resort (hyper luxurious but much, much more expensive) in Finkenberg most summers. There are similar family hotels in Hintertux - also a good location (at the deepest point of the valley).

The mountains are simply beautiful and there are easy, stunningly beautiful walks from the top of all the cable-cars (flat or downwards), and more ambitious ones if you dare ;-). The kids playgrounds are wholesome and fun (you just take a towel for the water play and some sunscreen) and there are mountain huts everywhere, often with their own buttermilk and milkshake.

Ooh some more great ideas - it sounds like we can't really go wrong, which is a great position to be in 😃

Cross-posted with you there sundaysurfer2 - thanks for such a detailed reply to my questions!

Just to add: we stay in Finkenberg these days (Stock) and never take a car. We did a year in Testerhof without a car when kids were younger and it was fine (we’ve been going on and off for 20 years and have gone with toddlers many times. If you can afford Stock, it is paradise.