SugarPlum

During our spring break, April 3-11, I am considering taking a trip with my 9 year old son and 11 year old daughter. Dad can't travel with us at this time due to work considerations. I have been to London, Edinburgh, and Paris, but have never travelled internationally with my children.

I am considering returning to London or to Paris, and possibly renting an apartment for the week. Which city would you consider to be more interesting to pre-teens? (The kids in question are, of course, split on their interests: son votes London, daughter votes Paris) I do speak French, so language wouldn't be a problem in either location.

Alternately, would you pass on this rather short European trip and take the kids to a domestic location instead (i.e. return to Disney...)?

If you have travelled with kids around these ages, what did you do and what did they enjoy?

Thanks for all advice!

janis

In all honesty you can't possibly go wrong whichever you choose. Paris is a wonderful city as you know. My gut reaction though is that London might be a slightly better choice.

You speak French - but do your kids? It would be easier for them and they'd probably feel more comfortable if they didn't have to rely on you for interpreting everything - and London has sooooooo much of interest to Kids.

Then after they have "gotten their feet wet" with foreign travel - next time you can be more adventurous and go to France or Italy or someplace else.

mamc

Paris is my very favorite city in the world so it pains me a tad to suggest London. I think there is more to do for kids in London than in Paris.

Susan56

Our kids are now 16 and 13. We have taken advantage of cheap winter fares to Europe and this year (coming up soon!) will be their 4th yearly winter trip to Europe! I should preface this by telling you that my kids have grown up going to museums (we live in NY and take them to city museums often) and they both have a great knowledge and love of history. And, we have never (and will never) visit Disney. That being said, our kids have loved all of our Europe trips. London is clearly the easy trip. The kids can understand all museum exhibits and signage at the historic sights. The common language is a plus! Also, the theater in London is wonderful. We see a show almost every night we are there. Paris was a hit, especially Versaille and the Louvre. Last year we traveled to Italy and the kids had a great time. We visited Rome, Florence and Venice. Of the three, the kids favorite was Venice. Rome was a close second. We have stayed in hotel rooms and in apartment hotels. The apartment hotel is my choice as then we can all hang out together at night as opposed to visiting each other's rooms, and we can have snacks for the kids. Between London and Paris I would probably go with London just because it would give you the theater option.

BaltoTraveler

You could opt for Amsterdam. The flowers will be starting to bloom by then; you could go on bike trips in the absolutely flat countryside; everyone speaks English; and an apartment overlooking a fabulously scenic canal is very do-able. You could even do a side-trip to Paris... or London!

With those ages, though, I'll bet Disney World would be the winner of a family vote.

mclaurie

Well if you went to Paris you could also spend a day at Euro-Disney. There's a recent thread here about it. I was surprised to see how many people really liked it & said it was very different than the Disney places here. Price & weather are other considerations. Airfare during that time will be high in any case but there are some sales right now. BA is having a sale that's particularly good if you can fly Mon-Wed.

You don't say where home is, but if you're having a bad winter, someplace warm might sound good to everyone. How about San Diego? Was recently there for the first time & loved it. It's a great place for adults & kids.

Wherever you choose, the kids are sure to have a great time.

wsoxrebel

I vote for going to Paris and taking the train 1-2 days to Paris Disneyland. We did and it worked great.

Anonymous

I have to agree that for a first trip, they would get more out of London because of the language issue. There's plenty to do and they won't have to rely on you for interpretation/translation. Half the fun of traveling is interacting with the locals, reading signs, understanding theater and even a little TV!

Anonymous

Disney is the opposite of playing in a sandbox -- it's a canned, passive experience. No interest here, either. My kids would rather visit real places and see real things.

Susan56

Earl and tat - my kids are indeed well rounded, fun loving kids. They enjoy junk food, and have gotten dirty. However, they are not interested in visiting Disney for vacation! They enjoy traveling, history and yes, history and 'culture'. We avoided Disney when they were young mainly because we thought that they would much prefer playing on the beach (dirty sand) instead of waiting in line at an amusement park! Now that they are older, they have no interest in amusment parks, or laying around a pool for vacation - they love travel (US as well, last year they loved their trip to CA, seeing SF and Yosemite), and want to see as much of the world as possible. We see vacations as learning experiences, fun ones as well. I think that these experiences are wonderful for them and have helped them to be the intelligent, insightful kids that they are. They actually both read newspapers every day! Laying by a pool or going to amusement parks are not how we choose to spend our time or money.

nytraveler

I understand the parents who are concerned about exposing their kids to Disney. IMO as long as you treat it like an amusement park and focus on the rides its not bad for a mini-vacation. But way too many people confuse disney with real life - and I wouldn't think that something you would want to create in your kids. (On another board there was a grown person - honest - who rcommended the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas since "its exactly like Venice". Obviously this person had never been to Venice - and couldn't distinguish between real life and Disney or Las Vegas Venice. London.

And I'm not even really an anglophile. It's just that the sense of history (ancient up until 1940's/60's) seems to pour out of every building. Whenever I'm there I feel like I'm in a novel or a Shakespeare play or a Beatles song or? I don't know exactly what it is but its incredibly compelling.)

What a sad thing to do to your children when the real world has so much to see and do and learn.

jenifer

Wow, why so judgmental! Susan56 did NOT say that her kids won't go to disney because she's better than you. She only said that they won't go. Some people are opposed to disney for moral reasons, and some, as susan56 stated later, just don't like that kind of vacation, or are not interested in it enough to try.

You know, Tat, you've been given a hard time here by some for the strange questions you post and for your language skills. Both are undeserved. But lately I've seen you jump on people in an instant and call them names and degrade them. That's uncalled for, and I could understand if others simply chose not to have any dealings with you because of your inherent meanness toward people here. Not everyone is just like you, but that doesn't mean they have a bad attitude or have something wrong with them.

BaltoTraveler

My kids LOVED Disney World. They liked Europe too, but not nearly as much.

Disney has created an environment that taps into the psyches/fantasies/appetites of 6 - 14 (or so) year-olds with almost surgical precision.

Saying "it's not good for them" is like saying a gourmet meal at a fancy French restaurant isn't good for YOU... it's arguable true, but totally beside the point.

Susan56

Tat - sorry, but wrong! My kids have visited large amusement parks and have spent time at the beach. And, they vote on family vacations - they choose more travel every time!

jenifer

And this after you last post - If you asked your children would they like to eat liver (or something else - there's definitely something), would they say no way? I bet they would, or at least most kids have some food that they have no interest in trying. But how can they have formed that opinion? Children must experience everything in order to decide whether or not they have an interest in it, according to your post.

Or wait, maybe some children are different from yours. Maybe some children really don't care to do disney. Why is something so simple so difficult to understand? And further, even if you don't understand it, why on earth would you feel it's your place to berate susan56 on her parenting choices?????

jenifer

How does having popular threads make it OK to be really rude and mean to other posters here?

wsoxrebel

Tat, if you label somebody's behavior as snobbish, then insinuate he is a control freak, and then emphasize your opinion with excessive punctuation marks, people won't want to play with you.

Iregeo

wsoxrebel, well said. Only you left out those ever present, ANNOYING smiley faces.

VanHalen84

Tat-
I'm 16-Susan56's son. My mom told me that some people were acting a little hostile over a Disney remark, so I figured I'd drop by. Just to clear things up, I have no interest whatsoever in going to Disney at all, but you can have a great time there, I wouldn't mind. My mother isn't a control freak, I just don't like the idea of some Disney Advocate bashing my mother online...kinda disturbing. She didn't really want me to post here, but oh well. So just so everything's straight, I've got more interest in Van Halen (a rock band for the uninformed) then Disney World, more interest in the Louvre then 'Euro-Disney', and more intested in Yosemite National Park then Disney Land. So that's just one kids view on this Mr. Sunshine.

annettetx

OK -- to get this back to the original topic....
my kids are now 10 and 11, and have been to London 4 times and Paris once. We thought London was much more kid friendly, although, to be fair, none of us is fluent in French.
The kids' favorite places are the Tower of London, the National Portrait Gallery, Hampton Court Palace (don't forget the maze), and the National Maritime Museum in London. When everyone needed a break from museums, we had a good afternoon at the Trocadero or Harrods or Hamleys.
Enjoy!
Annette