London will be great! Granted, it has been years since my kids were little and we were there, but they loved London. There is so much there for kids, from boat rides on canals to fabulous parks, markets, the V&A museum and theaters. They especially enjoyed the theater.

They also loved The Netherlands. You have been to Amsterdam, but what about the rest of the country? We bought wooden shoes in different sizes at the factory. They clumped around in them for years, even wore them to school a lot, and still have them. They loved Madurodam, small towns and the food.


They liked Germany a lot. Garmisch is lovely. Castles and good food.

They really Iiked Herrenchiemsee, but you would need to have a couple of days stay there. They spent the day playing in the lake (likely still too cold in May though) and we took the boat over for an evening concert. The castle was all lighted with about a thousand candles. See if you can plan for that. It was a highlight of one of our trips. Berchtesgaden has splendid landscape and a lake where you can rent a boat for rowing.

We stayed with local families near Chiemsee, another highlight of the trip. Try to do that.

Of course riding the London Eye Observation Wheel will be a hit with kids.

We stayed with local families near Chiemsee, another highlight of the trip. Try to do that.>

You talking about B&Bs or airbnb or what? Sounds great but how???

No, not B&Bs or Air B&B, although in many places they may be changing over. I couldn't make a link work. Will try later, but, in Germany, they are called privatzimmer, or private rooms. There will be signs saying zimmerfrei. That means they have a room or rooms available, not no cost. These are popular in Bavaria.

You can contact or go to the local Tourist Information Office where they have a list of people offering rooms. Sometimes they are older people with larger homes and kids all grown up. Sometimes, the family makes more space. Towns have websites and the TI office is listed in the web site. There are farm homestays also.

Sounds like a B&B without the 2nd B. Yes many B&Bs are also airbnbs now and makes sense. Great idea sass. Great to find a family with kids those ages. I assume there is no self-catering?

Sometimes, the host family does offer breakfast. It really is more what old fashioned b&bs were in places like Ireland, just the spare room for cheap when no one else needed it.

Now-a-days, b&bs seem more formal and/or commercial with rooms purposed or reserved just for that, with private baths, etc.

One family we stayed with near Chiemsee had a two story chalet style house with a third floor loft. We realized only after we arrived at the house and settled in, that the whole family had moved to the loft to give us their three bedrooms. We felt a bit uncomfortable at first, but, "no, no." That was how they always did it. The lovely Mom made hot chocolate for our kids and a nice breakfast every day.

Another place in a small farm village, I think just about everybody in the village did the same. We had a big room with two double beds. The kids bunked in the hay loft attached to the house.

Do you think that a family farm near Salzburg would be a good base for the week? Or would you suggest splitting it between somewhere else like Garmisch?

We stayed at this farm outside Salzburg www.neuwirtgut.at

KSOILES: If you are eager to see both the 1.) B'gaden + Salzburg area and the 2.) Garmisch area, you will need to split your time between the two. Each area requires 2+ days minimum, and each is too far from the other for a day trip anyway.

Farm stays can often be arranged for as few as 3 nights, but this varies - each owner has his own policy. Breakfast is sometimes included, but often not; in this case, owners will normally offer to include your family when they order their own family's fresh daily Brötchen (breakfast bread rolls) from the local bakery.

If you want to spend a full week in just one of the two areas, that makes perfectly good sense too. Both areas are full of fun and interesting things to see and do.

Here are some things to do in the Salzburg/B'gaden region that you might not yet have come across:

Eisreisenwelt (ice caves) - https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...rian_Alps.html

Hohenwerfen Castle: http://www.markmarissink.com/wp-cont...n/DSCF0697.jpg

https://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/ho.../openinghours/

Burghausen Castle: https://www.visit-burghausen.com/en.html

I think Salzburg area has more variety and interesting day trips -including Salzburg itself of course. Farm stay near it sounds marvelous - has me singing to myself Sound of Music songs.