Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
1 week in Europe with toddler
We live in England, so travel to Europe is fairly easy and cheap. We are trying to decide what trip to do for spring, and want to spent $2000. I have only been to Eastern Europe, Paris and the UK, so would like to try something new. DD will be about 18 months and is very active, but travels well. I just don't want to spend a lot of time traveling, so I'd rather rent a house somewhere and do day trips or spend most of my time around one area. Depending on where we were, we could rent a car to get around. I would love to go someplace warm and maybe close to the beach (or at least a day trip to the beach). We don't need any night life, just lots to explore and easy to do with an 18-month old.
The first idea was to go to Holland and see the tulips in the spring. It doesn't seem like there's much else to do, and I'm worried we would be bored. Has anyone done this trip? Was it as beautiful as I'm picturing?
The other idea DH is throwing around is doing a cruise. It would be very easy since we don't have to worry about meals or traveling to and from places. DD would probably be taking 1 nap a day, so it would be fairly easy to do some excursions and see some things with her. I just don't know how well a cruise would work with her.
Other places I was thinking of are Tuscany area (Easy Jet flies into Pisa), somewhere in Spain, or Croatia. Where should we go?
Re: 1 week in Europe with toddler
Kinderhotels!!!!
http://www.kinderhotels.com/en-index.htm
We have been to one in Austria and my boss went to one in Italy. We both have nothing but good things to say about them.
Also, from England, look at Thomson Travel for ideas:
http://www.thomson.co.uk/
We did a ton of travel with our son in Europe: Dublin, Holland, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Istanbul, champagne region of France, Santorini, lots of Germany to name a few.
We lived in Holland and while the tulips are pretty and I do recommend you go, a week is a long time in Holland. You could fly into Amsterdam and drive to a bunch of different cities though. You could do 3 days in Amsterdam, a day in Den Haag (there is a beach there but it is COLD even in July/August), a day or two in Bruges (Belgium it is about a two hour drive).
Good luck!
I know you want to visit somewhere warm, but last spring, we rented a cottage in Cromer { North Norfolk } and it was brilliant. Our son was almost 3, so a bit older than your daughter, but there was so much to see and do. If you check out the National Trust website, you can see what there is on offer in the area. It was also very inexpensive, and the travel {by train} was a snap. Plus, spring in England is so, so beautiful.
We have also taken our son to Switzerland { based around Geneva } and France { based around Dinard and then around Carcassonne } and they both have great day trip options. Carcassonne would be warmer, but we liked Dinard better.
We're in the process of trying to plan something similar and I'm just checking for the cheapest flights from our regional airport and then googling for day trips in the surrounding area. It usually works out well
I grew up in the Netherlands and to say you'd be bored in a week is a bit offensive. There is so much to see and do, even if you spent two weeks there you still wouldn't be bored, especially if you head outside of Amsterdam and explore the countryside.
Going in the spring you'll be a bit more limited as the weather might be rainy, but since you live in the UK you're probably used to that. But if you were to go to the Netherlands you could easily stay at a hotel or rent an apartment or vacation home in Bergen or that area. It's close to Amsterdam, Haarlem, Volendam, Zaandam, even the Hague and Delft are not too far away by train. Besides tulips you can see the windmills at the Zaanse Schans, the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen, rent bikes at any small little railway station and buy a map with local bike routes. They probably have bike seats for toddlers too. Some bike routes have windmills on the way or a small ferry to cross. It's great to get out and bike on the dikes or in the forest.
Madurodam in the Hague is great for kids. De Efteling is a little bit further by train but it's a wonderful theme park for kids young and old. In Utrecht you have the Nijntje museum (Miffy, a favorite character from toddler books in the Netherlands). You can have lunch at any pannenkoekenhuis. Kids love that and so do adults. Check out poffertjes, they are small round little pancakes with powdered sugar on them. Perfect bite-sized! And for you have an Indische rijsttafel at an Indonesian restaurant. And lots of smaller towns have a kinderboerderij. It's a tiny place with farm animals that kids can touch and feed. They often have goats, sheep, sometimes pigs and whatnot.
We loved this place in Tuscany:
www.cornacchi.com
We took our son there...he was almost 3. They had high chairs and nice cribs. The property had a pool and the views were amazing. We even took our son to the cooking class with us. Photos of the property in my supermom blog I believe. Of our three trips to Italy, this was our favorite place! We would love to go back....Oh and they will serve dinner in your room if you like or on your patio which is nice if you put your little one to bed early.
We took DS to Rome when he was about 18 months old and we had an absolute blast. I still consider it one of the best family vacations we've ever had. Even the Vatican Museum worked out well - there were plenty of courtyards to stop in when DS needed a break and to run around. And the riposo (a.k.a. siesta) culture of southern Italy is great for kids - we took DS back to the hotel for a little snooze for part of each afternoon and we still felt like we got to see everything we wanted to
Also Malta was fabulous with him (he was just over 2 when we went to Malta). Mdina is a great old city to run around and get lost in - great for letting your son practice his walking/running and letting him burn off some energy. And there are the beaches too. Boat rides have always been a hit with DS and there are plenty of those to be had in Malta if you want. Also, he loved the hop on/hop off bus tour. We sat on the top deck and he thought it was tons of fun