Where can I go to a mini city break with young children?

[Nearlyamumoftwo]

Calling the hive mind.... where should we go for a mini city break during the Easter hols with a 5yo and nearly 3yo. I know we could anywhere but looking for recommendations from people. Where are there "fun" things for the kids to do - parks, playgrounds, kid museums etc. they probably don't just want to walk and drink wine all day! Could Amsterdam work? Love to hear your ideas!

My first thought would be Amsterdam if you want to go abroad. If in the UK, Birmingham has some fab things to do with kids - Think Tank museum is fantastic and there's also the Lego discovery centre and Sea Life centre. Those are all in the city centre and very easy on foot

I definitely agree with SchnizelVonKrumm.
I went to Amsterdam with my older DC this year and it was lovely. Boat trips, clog factories, cheese making tours, windmills etc. We had a great time.

In the UK, we went to Warwick and visited the castle there and then the short journey to Birmingham area for Cadbury’s world etc.

Both trips I would repeat!

In UK, Bristol is great. Lovely science museum, big galleons like pirate ship, little boat trips through the city, amazing playparks.

London is fun too. Diana's playground gets very crowded but there's loads to do at Science Museum (hands on area is great), Natural History Museum, Transport Museum, Museum of Childhood. They can 'drive' the driverless DLR trains by sitting at the front, ride the top of a double decker, have a boat ride down to Greenwich which has a lovely park and the Maritime Museum with fun things for children to do, a little, safe, shallow pedalo lake. There's the cable car if they are adventurous. And the Zoo at Regent's Park. There's several puppet theatres in London and some theatre shows that are suited to very young DC. M&M and Lego worlds if you want to empty your bank account.

Thank you @AnotherCustardCreamand @SchnizelVonKrumm, @Tonissister I should have mentioned we live just outside London so want to avoid that and ideally we would go abroad! I'll update the post. I'll definitely consider Amsterdam further!

We had a wonderful time in Ghent (Belgium). Some nice playgrounds, a terrific lake with a beach, an excellent children's city tour on an app with a prize at the end, boat tour, great museums, and you can get to the coast by train. We went by Eurostar, which was fun too!

Palma. Two hours flight from Stansted (or, if the dates work, Southend, which is the nicest airport in the UK). Take the wooden train to Soller, visit the castle, try the new Disgusting Food Museum. And it's right by the sea for if the weather is nice - take a harbour trip, or go to Can Pere Antoni beach which is only half a mile from the cathedral.

train to Edinburgh

Malaga. Honestly have a look, great city with a castle, beach, little parks etc. great food, cheap flights, close to the airport.

Paris is always good as the parks with the people sailing boats are a bit hot as well as the playgrounds. My dc liked museums as long as I didn’t linger too long, the museum pass worked as we could hop from place to place - the army museum went down the best bother loved the huge paintings in musee d’orsay. Being allowed fizzy drink meant that they loved cafes, fanta lemon!

Not a personal recommendation but know a few folk who raved about visiting Copenhagen with young kids.

Amsterdam is not cheap for central accommodation

London for all the free museums.

I did a mini break with my 5 year old to cardiff.
day 1 train over to Barry Island. Day 2- cardiff museum in the city centre- small but great for kids. Then the National museum. Massive and he loved it.
we also spent some time at Cardiff castle grounds and the park next to it before heading home.

Places we have enjoyed at that age are :
Barcelona
Amsterdam
Berlin
Palma
Gent
Brussels
Seville
Florence
Rome
Bordeaux

Any major Dutch city is fab for young kids. My personal favourite is Rotterdam, but Utrecht, The Hague, and of course Amsterdam. Also Flemish cities in Belgium like Antwerp and Ghent are great.

I just got back from Munich with my 3 DC aged between 1-7, and I was really impressed with how kid-friendly the city was. We stayed in a family hostel which had a kids play area! Bloody freezing though.

I don’t find large French cities very family-friendly, but had a great experience in Nancy, and also Lyon.

Amsterdam is meant to be good, with the science museum, playgrounds and chocolony place, although it’s still on our hit list. Our favourite is Italy however I’d say it’s better when your youngster is the age of your older one.

For somewhere warmer, Rome is a good option. Great interactive kids museum

We loved Vienna. Loads to do there :)

Copenhagen is great. We (me and 5 year old DS) also loved Oslo but we went in the height of summer.

Copenhagen is great with young children! Yours are a good age to enjoy Tivoli, the aquarium, zoo, boat trips etc - there’s so much to do and it’s very easy to get around.

Agree with lots of previous recommendations, though I think I’d leave Copenhagen for better weather and Vienna doesn’t fell kid friendly to me. We particularly liked Barcelona at that age - Tibidabo, aquarium etc, lots of playgrounds.

Bruges was wonderful with young DC - much smaller that Amsterdam (also a good suggestion), canal boats, horse and carriage rides, great parks, waffles and chocolate, chocolate museum, climb the belfry plus modules frites and beer for the grownups.

Barcelona, it has so much to do including a beach, it's brilliant.