Germany. Travel with tweens
 

I am going to Germany with my 11 and 12 year old daughters. I would love to stay with a family with children the same age or maybe a hotel or farm where other tween children are staying. I'd like them particularly to meet kids from other countries. I'm not looking for an American type hotel. We are American. Any suggestions? Another country maybe?

"...maybe a hotel or farm where other tween children are staying."

Germany's youth hostels are almost guaranteed to have what you're looking for. They cater to families and to groups of school-age children on week-long school outings. Many hostels are sometimes purpose-built structures but often historic buildings, castles, or villas that have been reworked into family-sized accommodations with 4-8 beds. You will find hostels in every corner of the country, in cities and in rural spots; Germany is home of the youth hostel concept and has around 550 of them. In most hostels you'd have your own private room and bath, but you'd also have access to common areas (breakfast room where all guests are served, ping-pong patio, TV room, in-house cafes, etc.) where your kids would be around others.

The hostel in Diez is a very nice one - it's in the middle of town in a former castle/palace:

http://www.magazin.uni-mainz.de/Bild...seele_diez.jpg

Here's the cafe/bistro:

http://www.magazin.uni-mainz.de/Bild...ele_bistro.jpg

And the breakfast room:

http://www.diejugendherbergen.de/cms...1dd1dec970.jpg

A typical family room:

http://www.diejugendherbergen.de/cms...4d9e59fbdf.jpg

English pages for all German youth hostels:
http://www.jugendherberge.de/en/

Germany's campgrounds are even more likely to have fdamilies with kids that age by the scores - I have stayed in zillions of German hostels and most kids I saw were older than that - middle-school-aged or higher school groups but not many families stay in hostels IME

So consider camping and driving around a bit - camp overflow with German-speaking kids that age - either rent a camping car (as they call our RVs) or a tent and car tent - there are so so many campgrounds and you will pay a fraction of what you would in any other kind of accommodation.

"I have stayed in zillions of German hostels and most kids I saw were older than that - middle-school-aged or higher school groups but not many families stay in hostels IME"

You must have started many years ago to have stayed in that many hostels!

School groups are the bulk of hostel business. More recently, DJH has marketed aggressively to families, offering discounts and family-oriented services, and according to a DJH spokesperson, family bookings have grown and represent 20% of the clientele.

This Die Welt article (in German) from last year should update you on the changes in hostel clientele, Palenque:

http://www.welt.de/reise/nah/article...Angeboten.html

The 162-bed hostel on the Nordsee island of Föhr, like many DJH hostels, is designated as especially oriented towards families. The hostel management says rooms for the following summer are bookable the September before - and typically get booked almost immediately.

Whether school groups or families, you are looking at a LOT of kids in hostels. The "Einzelwanderer" (solo hikers) that helped found the hostel movement many decades ago are a somewhat rare anachronism now.

But agreed my take on Jugendherberge may be outdated but I think with groups there is very little interaction with kids outside that group - at least IME - I say campgrounds are an even better sure bet of individual kids interacting with any other kid on the camp playground or in the camp's swimming pool.

Campgrounds are probably good too. Maybe there are dozens and dozens of kids at campground play venues like there are at youth hostel play venues. I imagine that depends on the campground. Maybe Penelope was thinking about camping as well. But since she asked about more standard accommodations options, and since camping generally means setting up well outside of towns and cities and requires a completely different approach to the question of what to pack (tents, stoves, etc,) how you're going to get around, what you might be able to see and do in Europe, etc., camping might be a bit more trouble than she had in mind. She might want to just look into spending a half day here or there at a swimming pool, waterpark, or other such kid-oriented facility for the same social opportunities.