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Post by lisamnz on Jul 20, 2023 16:32:03 GMT -5
This is kinda exciting.
We are 90% definitely going to come to the UK/Europe next northern hemisphere spring. Depending on how much time the kids take off school, we will have between 4 1/2 and 6 weeks. late march to end April.
The kids will be straight back into school as soon as we get back. so we are planning to spend at least 4/5 days of that time somewhere closer to home on the way back - probably south east asia somewhere that is warm, relaxed, and we can partly adjust to the time difference before getting home.
We obviously will have to spend some time in the UK visiting with TOH's mum, as she is a very difficult person to travel with and the best option will probably be getting a holiday let somewhere near her for a while (East Cornwall/South Devon, so not an unbearable place to be).
But otherwise, TOH's dad and his partner are very happy to travel and we are very happy to travel with them. We will probably plan a few days in London at the beginning or end, and the kids will definitely want to spend some time at museums (different ones though!!) And doing London things like taking buses and trains and tube journeys.
Otherwise, we are pretty wide open on where to go! so... where?!
Things to consider: it would be nice to be warm. So probably southern Europe really.
The younger child doesn't do too well with loads of moving around and being in new places all the time, so what would work best is having two or three places we are based in where he can spend time just hanging out if he needs to, while the other child can be off doing all the adventures she is going to want to do (doing ALLLL the things)
Travelling by trains is going to be a big hit with all of us but we don't want to use up all our holiday time sitting on trains either
Two of us get travel sick so ferries need to be kept to a minimum.
While I'd love to go back to some of my favourite places, like Barcelona, Porto, Cadiz - this is the kids' first time in Europe so going places they'd enjoy are more of a priority (although I think Barcelona ticks both boxes really, and possibly Porto also)
TOH will probably have to do a few days work trip while we are there, to Austria, but he will probably go do that by himself while we are settled elsewhere (somewhere warmer lol)
Oh and TOH will want to be able to get good food. But I'm not sure somewhere like San Sebastian (also one of our favourite places) is going to be that much fun for the kids.
Thoughts?!
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 21, 2023 5:27:29 GMT -5
Whee! I've never been to any of those warm places in Europe so I have no opinion, but: have fun. Tempting to fly over there and meet up.
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Post by wombatrois on Jul 21, 2023 5:38:54 GMT -5
San Sebastian and Porto would be ideal I think for kids - there are beaches! And plenty of other things to do there too. What do they like to do? (e.g. I can't imagine you would want to go to Disneyland!). We spent time going north of Porto which was beautiful - there are fabulous rivers, walks and the little towns are gorgeous. They have river beaches too! Greece would be fabulous too - you don't even need to go to an island if you don't think that would work. Although they are fabulous - choose one with a proper town (we went to Syros). This blog reckons San Sebastian is Europe's best family friendly city: onetinyleap.com/san-sebastian-with-kids-family/ |
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Post by sophie on Jul 21, 2023 9:17:53 GMT -5
I know it was decades ago, but the Greek islands were wonderful with my 5 year old.. we spent almost 2 weeks on Crete.. have fabulous memories of him climbing around on the ruins of Knossos, picking seashell on beaches, watching fishermen catch octopus… and he still remembers much of it.
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Post by romily on Jul 21, 2023 9:53:07 GMT -5
Late match and early April will not be warm warm in southern Europe...not beach weather anyway, so check temperatures for places you want to go. I recall gong away before I had my surgery and it was all in the mid teens Celsius.
But hey - London - meet up? Exciting plans!
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Post by Queen on Jul 21, 2023 10:07:45 GMT -5
How about Lisbon? Warm, great food, lots of culture, lovely people, masses of history and a nice bit of ocean is a train ride away. It won't be beach weather at that time of year, but it'll be nice. I'd probably choose Lisbon over Barcelona. Obv solid vote for the Netherlands as well  |
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Post by Webs on Jul 21, 2023 17:12:17 GMT -5
Barcelona and then Figueres, Lloret De Mar, Tarragona, Valencia...
The whole Spanish coast thing.
Just throwing it out there.
Italy is great by train because the rides are short (1hr and half from Rome to Florence) and then you can go to places like Bologna, Verona, Pamona, the whole shebang.
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 16:22:22 GMT -5
Whee! I've never been to any of those warm places in Europe so I have no opinion, but: have fun. Tempting to fly over there and meet up. YES PLEASE! |
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 16:26:38 GMT -5
San Sebastian and Porto would be ideal I think for kids - there are beaches! And plenty of other things to do there too. What do they like to do? (e.g. I can't imagine you would want to go to Disneyland!). We spent time going north of Porto which was beautiful - there are fabulous rivers, walks and the little towns are gorgeous. They have river beaches too! Greece would be fabulous too - you don't even need to go to an island if you don't think that would work. Although they are fabulous - choose one with a proper town (we went to Syros). This blog reckons San Sebastian is Europe's best family friendly city: onetinyleap.com/san-sebastian-with-kids-family/Oh, interesting. I wouldn't have thought so, based on my memory of it (eep, that was 15 years ago!), but that's great news for us, cos we love it! I will do some more research. And actually, both the kids are quite excited about the idea of a Disneyland. But I think we could fob them off with some other kind of theme park, given that they will only be comparing them to the ones we've been to on the Gold Coast. Heck, even a decent Alton Towers-type experience would probably satisfy them. The list from the kids so far is: big old buildings. Venice (canals, maybe Amsterdam would suffice?!). Museums, lots of them (but different ones). Go karts LOL. London. Paris (I think we have ruled that one out and could do the things they'd want to do elsewhere, except for the Eiffel tower) Oh, also Greece appeared on their list. |
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 16:27:45 GMT -5
Barcelona and then Figueres, Lloret De Mar, Tarragona, Valencia... The whole Spanish coast thing. Just throwing it out there. Italy is great by train because the rides are short (1hr and half from Rome to Florence) and then you can go to places like Bologna, Verona, Pamona, the whole shebang. The downside of city/town hopping is that it doesn't go down well with the younger one. He does much better having a base where we stay for 4-5 days minimum and doing lots of day trips. |
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 16:33:29 GMT -5
LOL. It was around 16C yesterday, but very sunny, and we went to the beach. TOH went surfing and the younger one spent hours playing in the stream & sand.
So, there's that!
Also, of course we have checked temperatures. One of the first things we did.
We will not be going as far south as the Canary Islands, but one of the Greek islands is definitely a possibility I think.
I don't know that we're that fussed on having beaches accessible, to be honest, given that we live 5 minutes from NZ's 'most loved beach' (yes, it's official). Being in a city that had plenty of open space would be important though.
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 16:36:31 GMT -5
How about Lisbon? Warm, great food, lots of culture, lovely people, masses of history and a nice bit of ocean is a train ride away. It won't be beach weather at that time of year, but it'll be nice. I'd probably choose Lisbon over Barcelona. Obv solid vote for the Netherlands as well I have never been to Lisbon! And I don't think TOH has either. I will do some research. We are now pretty definitely going to take the 12 days off school, so we will have a full six weeks. Roughly: First week London (so from around Sunday 24th March) Second week Devon (this will be a struggle, we will need to do lots of day trips) Three weeks in and moving between three different main locations - maybe Spain, Portugal and then a Greek Island Last week in Singapore-ish Then home. |
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 16:47:50 GMT -5
bugger I'm doing my maths wrong. It's only five weeks.
I wonder if we can squeeze the Devon time a bit...
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 23, 2023 17:27:05 GMT -5
It also seems like it would be less crazy if you limited to Spain and Portugal, or only Greece?
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 17:33:50 GMT -5
It also seems like it would be less crazy if you limited to Spain and Portugal, or only Greece? I'm feeling more and more keen on a greek island. So maybe Spain and a greek island... Or, we take more time off school :-) |
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Post by kneazle on Jul 23, 2023 18:06:30 GMT -5
It also seems like it would be less crazy if you limited to Spain and Portugal, or only Greece? I'm feeling more and more keen on a greek island. So maybe Spain and a greek island... Or, we take more time off school :-) Greece is educational! |
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Post by lisamnz on Jul 23, 2023 18:35:02 GMT -5
ALL of it will be educational!
Including 'how to tolerate a narcissist's behaviour for a week' lol.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Jul 23, 2023 19:09:50 GMT -5
Amsterdam is great for kids (or at least it was when we took a small LC there)
Good parks, NEMO was entertaining.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 23, 2023 22:43:53 GMT -5
I have been thinking Greece. Athens itself lends itself to a stay of several days, as there are plenty of things to do around the city itself, and lots of day trips, eg island cruise or Peloponnese, which were the ones I did.
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Post by tzarine on Jul 23, 2023 23:09:20 GMT -5
San Sebastian and Porto would be ideal I think for kids - there are beaches! And plenty of other things to do there too. What do they like to do? (e.g. I can't imagine you would want to go to Disneyland!). We spent time going north of Porto which was beautiful - there are fabulous rivers, walks and the little towns are gorgeous. They have river beaches too! Greece would be fabulous too - you don't even need to go to an island if you don't think that would work. Although they are fabulous - choose one with a proper town (we went to Syros). This blog reckons San Sebastian is Europe's best family friendly city: onetinyleap.com/san-sebastian-with-kids-family/san sebastian/donostia is so kid friendly lots of pedestian areas in the old city & the most charming amusement park www.monteigueldo.es/homelove the funicular ride up & down lovely beach great pintxos buen viaje |
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Post by romily on Jul 24, 2023 2:44:40 GMT -5
More time off school. If you come all the way make it worth it!
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Post by wombatrois on Jul 24, 2023 8:48:09 GMT -5
We drove around the Peloponnese and loved it!
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Post by psw on Jul 24, 2023 13:55:37 GMT -5
I have been thinking Greece. Athens itself lends itself to a stay of several days, as there are plenty of things to do around the city itself, and lots of day trips, eg island cruise or Peloponnese, which were the ones I did. Hellis knows all about Greece, has been there several times. |
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jul 24, 2023 16:13:53 GMT -5
Yes. She’s written books about it, which are available on Kindle.
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Post by lisamnz on Jan 17, 2024 19:37:34 GMT -5
well, it's all getting very real. flights to & from UK booked, dates coming together, trains booked, acc'm in Barcelona. Plus the five days in Paris including disneyland. Anyway, more importantly, romily and whoever else - the days we will probably be around LOndon are: Sunday 24th March to WEdnesday 27th Then in Devon for a few days Back in London Tuesday 2nd April to Friday 5th Then Paris, then Barcelona (getting the TGV from Paris to Barc) Then back near but not in London 19th April to 22nd April, but probably not the best time to be organising anything as it is my only chance to see sister and kids, and FIL & wife will no doubt want all our time as well. So, if a London thing is possible, any of those dates suit? |
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Post by romily on Jan 18, 2024 4:43:51 GMT -5
Weekend days are best fro me, so Sunday 24th march would be great! It takes me a good hour to get into London, minimum, so a weekday with me working full time is tricky.
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Post by sprite on Jan 18, 2024 11:52:32 GMT -5
I can't do the 24th weekend, sadly I'll be cosying up to a woodburner in the Scottish Highlands! But I can like all the photos from that visit on FB!  |
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