kukujaan

Hi Everyone,
This is my first time in this blog. Have been reading this site for advise but can't find the right one.
Pls help -
1) first time travel to cold countries with 2 kids-1 and 7 year old
2) have been used to living in hot countries only

We are planning to visit
Amsterdam , Iceland and Sweden with a visit to Santa clause village in the second week of April 2012.

Ideas needed on :
1) itinerary - kids friendly travel and apartments to stay
2) activities would be skiing, visiting zoos, fishing, science museum sledging
3)clothing to pack

Lastly any kind of useful advise and information would be of great help.

BTW, we are traveling from Malaysia.

Thank you and waiting to hear at the earliest.

Luv n happy traveling,
Preethi

bilboburgler

Welcome to Fodors Preethi

If you are trying to do this all in one week then you could be a fair bit rushed (others might say crazy but not me). First I'd have a look at WIKI to see what the average temperatures and rain fall will be like in your four targets. It is only a clue but it gets you to see the differences between them and where you are.

April Skiing in Sweden is possible but you need to be certain it will be happening. Even with private tuition you need around 5 days to get reasonably comfortable on skis or board and if you are skiing you will hate the boots. Sledging on the other hand is easy and anyone can do it. Alternatively, anyone can also go dog sledging and I'd try and get a half day tour included in this (you need heavy outer clothing but that should be in the rent) and you might also like Ski-doing

The clothes you are ging to need are very different on the outside but inside you need a concept of multiple layers so tshirt, out shirt and then heavy wind and waterproof jacket, while trousers need to be either thick jeans or better padded trousers from companies like Rohan.

Amsterdam is a big city so there will be lots of places to nip into a warm up and many museums (there is a great technology museum with kids sections etc down by the docks as well as all the european art) You may also like a visit to the dutch bulb fields

Iceland really has only one city and that sprawls over a peninsula. Weather varies a lot during the day but they have spas open to everyone (yes you pay) and hot pots up to 40C though having snow falling around you is a bit odd.

I have no idea what a kid would do in Iceland as the banking museum is a little dry.

Now let us see what others will advise

hetismij2

Amsterdam could be warm in late April (20C), it could be cool (12C) (cold to you). Pack layers - or buy some warmer clothes when you get here. You will need a wind and waterproof top layer.
Amsterdam has a good zoo - Artis www.artis.nl/en/artis-royal-zoo/and a great science museum www.e-nemo.nl/en/.

I thought the Santa Claus village was in Finland not Sweden?

I think you are trying to do too much, if you really only have a week, or even two, given the large distances between the places you wish to visit. You will have to fly between them all.

kukujaan

Thanks a lot for the reply.

Well as for the no of days and countries we are planning to visit might be a bit crazy but allow me to do some explanation and let me hear the gurus spk for or against it

Firstly the intended dates are 5/4/2012-23/4/2012
Order,places to see and no of days in each country-
Amsterdam -3 - zoo, museum, canal ride, corpus,tulip garden
Brussels - 1 - comic strip
Iceland - 4 - geysers,whale watching, waterfall
Sweden - 3-icehotel, reindeer sledging, skiing, fishing
Finland -2- santa clause vllage

Back to Amsterdam - Depart to Malaysia.

i would need help in finding airlines to book across these countries(need nearest airport to the places of interest so i dont waste a lot of time travelling)
Apartments or farm houses in each country near attraction places.
Thank you once again.

nytraveler

For winter sports I;m afraid you're going too late in the year.

April in the Netherlands is tulip season - with all of the famous gardens in flower - and while temps may seem chilly to you it is NOT snow weather.

Have never been to Iceland - and it is a definite outlier - taking a long time to get there - but snow in the rest of Scandinavia will only be in the far north - it's spring too in the more southern areas.

Also - you really cannot do all of those places in one week - if that is wht you intend -- certainly not with 2 small kids.

And agree - to even begin to learn to ski requires several days of lessons - and the first couple of days often are very physically demanding - and obviuosly not for an infant.

I really think you need to reconsider this trip. If you really want to ski in April you should probably head for the Alps - since they have skiing all year round at the mountaintops - but you will need to watch the web sites to see how far into the mountains you have to go.

Perhaps I have misunderstood and you have several weeks for this trip - but as it is planned I don't see how you could do it - and learn anytng at all about how to ski - in less than 3 weeks.

bilboburgler

http://www.skyscanner.net/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/sn...best-snow.html

reindeer sledging is rubbish, go with the dogs

Whale watching in April
http://elding.is/

corpus means what?

annhig

you can do this [i work out that you have 18 days from 5th to 23rd April] but you will need to get your skates on, as you've only got 6 weeks til you start the trip.

your main "outlyer" is Iceland - are you sure you can get there from Brussels? it might be better to go there straight from amsterdam and fit Brussels in at the end of the trip.

actually I just looked and according to the icelandair website at http://www.icelandair.com/ you can fly to iceland from Brussels, but they are doing offers from amsterdam and paris - i still think that the trip has a better feel and will be easier with small children if you cut out your one night in Brussels and go straight to Iceland from A'dam.

in iceland, i suggest staying just in Reykjavik - there are plenty of companies there offering the sorts of trips you are talking about and there are several museums, particularly the National museum, which your 7 year old might like - you can dress up as an Icelander, for example. and all the exhibits are in English!

I have never been to Sweden or Finland, but again, you need to get it booked SOON!

good luck, and have a great trip!

nytraveler

You really need to look into the travel between the various cities. Not sure where in Sweden you will find what you are looking for - but it's not Stockholm - you need to go much farther north (I don;t know where or exactly how to get there) - but you have a hue amount of work to do for a trip coming up in only 2 months.

kukujaan

Thanks everyone for the advise and yes i do have a huge work to do in terms of bookings across all these countries.
I will try to keep the trip easy and fun for both the kids.

I am yet to hear about accommodation - as in apartments or farm houses etc.

bilboburgler

We used appartments on Iceland but it depends more where you want to be rather than which one. I would try the following

Look at Tripadvisor.com which is perfect for this sort of thing, or google a map of Reykavik then "appartment" in the search.

At Are I'd google the tourist info for the town and chose from their large list.

annhig

We used Icelandic farm holidays to book our accommodation there:

http://www.farmholidays.is/

even if you decide to stay in Reykjavik, they still have some god links to tour operators who might interest you.

annhig

oops, that should be "good" links.

kukujaan

thank you once again. will look into these and get back if more info needed.

c ya soon!

bye