Recommendations for a family holiday in May half term, not beach-based

[Chilly80]

Looking for holiday ideas for next May (June) half term for a family of 4. DD 13 and DS10 for a week. Not looking for a beach holiday. Have been pondering Italy, Denmark, Sweden amongst other places but would be interested in personal recommendations.

Hill walking in the Scottish Highlands.

Sweden is brilliant that time of year because the days are so long. It's really fun to wake up in the night and it still be basically light. They also have some fantastic water parks and you can go husky sledding but on go carts rather than sledges.

We went to Mull in the may halfterm when DD was 13 - so much wonderful wildlife including otters, puffins, whale and dolphin watching. It was great, she asked to go again the next year.

Bavaria or cadiz/jerez

Thanks but can't think of anything worse 🤣

I would like to go to Germany but did northern Spain this year.

Iceland?
Black Forest?
Krakow?
Depends what sort of thing your family enjoy.

Good thing we are all different!

We did Venice one year, that was lovely but a whole week would be expensive.

My kids are theme park nuts, so for this age group Phantasialand and EuropaPark were big hits - you can combine with a visit to Cologne or Strasbourg respectively (although in both cases we drove as part of a longer trip, and to reduce air miles). We also enjoyed Copenhagen but for us that’s a summer destination.

If you visited Berlin, you could also tack on a visit to Tropical Islands waterpark. Berlin is a fantastic city

We also go to theme parks a lot so not sure if I want this holiday to include them too. We'll be going to Florida in October.

We went in May to Belgium and toured some WWI cemetries, the museum in Ypres and Paschendale plus Bruges and Ghent.

Otherwise how about Munich and surrounding areas? Lake Constance? Hamburg? Not a full week maybe but a good couple of days with a trip to Lübeck or Travemünde if the weather is good (Baltic sea resort).

We loved Denmark this summer. We had a hire car so did three bases

Pisa and Florence

They will be very hot.

We went over August bank holiday for 4 days and still very enjoyable even with heat and with more time might have added Livorno on the coast. Kids 8 & 10 just made sure we had enough stops for refreshment and gelato!

We loved Denmark and Sweden. When with kids age 6 and 2. Flew to Copenhagen (3 nights) , train to Malmo (2 nights) and then train to Stockholm (2 nights) and flew home from there.

Poland has something for everyone - krakow, gdansk and wroclaw are all worth a visit