If you were going to Italy with young children, which seaside towns stand out for you as being really nice? We are going to Rome plus i would like a week at a laid back seaside town, preferably wih a beach.... Soma place in sardinia is an option, any others? Also, we are going in April - can you swim in the ocean in April in any places in Italy?

Thanks for your input!

Too cold to swim in the sea in April. At least for me. If you want beach time at that time of year, look in the south-Amalfi area, Cilento, Puglia, Sicily, (or Sardinia) etc--and hope for good weather.

Well we are from Canada, so I guess it is relative! Haha! Point taken, though. We are also considering catania, on the island of Sicily. But I know almost nothing about this area.... Thoughts? Anyone?

Catania is a grim industrial city with a few old Baroque and earlier buildings in the centre, it is hardly a seaside resort.

April is a bit early even for Sicily.

If you fancy a city, then Siracusa is nice. Or a beach resort, then Giardini-Naxos on the east coast (easy access to Taormina, but lots of beachy things will probably be closed), or Cefalu on the north - it has a nice old town and Norman cathedral which is worth seeing.

Ok perhaps seaside might be out that time of year. Will rethink.

For April your best bet is to head South; Calabria Region, Sicily or Sardinia. I recommend Calabria; ypu could also fly into Palermo from Rome (even ferry over!) and stay at Cefalu. I was in Cefalu Mid-April 2011 and there were plenty people sun bathing and enjoying the beach coast.

We have been in southern Spain in late April and it was warm - temps in the 80s, hotel pools were open and the sea wasn;t cold (to use - used to the North Atlantic). But others didn;t seem to be going in.

In all honesty travelkip don't do it.

Do as all other Canadian snowbirds do : head for The Bahamas or The Caribbean. The weather systems in Europe (even as far south as Siracusa) are very different to the other side of the Atlantic. Late April might just be beach weather if you are lucky but the sea is very cold and it just isn't much fun with children who will be shivering after 10 minutes.

I spent £10,000 on a holiday last year and didn't listen to people. It was good fun but as predicted (by others) the weather was cool and beaches/sea were out of bounds.

There is a very definite reason why many northern Europeans head over the Atlantic for Easter. It costs us a fortune and in reverse it should be far cheaper (than heading for Sicily for you to do the same.

You can only be really safe with good reliable weather in late May.

travelkip,

in May I went to a little visited area of the coast of southern tuscany, where some of the beaches are on a lagoon so are very warm and sheltered. even so the sea itself was pretty cold, [and I come from cornwall so i know about cold water] and you would find that your kids were not very happy being in the sea.

Definitely head further south if you are determined on the beach [what about the Red Sea or Tenerife?] or rethink the whole trip.

"In all honesty travelkip don't do it"

Sorry I did mean, do not go expecting a beach holiday. It could be a great time to visit Rome without the heat.

Humpty: Where did you go last year? (that you referenced above..)

eks

Abaco, The Bahamas in February.

This following a steaming trip in May the year before. I was convinced that we wouldn't be hit by lows, anybody with any experience (and the locals) said other wise and the statistics said a 50/50 chance. Moral of the story is don't take chances but do take advice.

Some days it was warm(ish), others it was just plain cold (bit like Scotland in July), which isn't what we went for. We were lucky it hit freezing point in north Florida.

We had a double hit last year. Following that trip we went sailing in the Ionian in early May an again it was just plain cold 55s to 60s and windy.

Damn these school holidays, how we dream of Italy in late June and early September.

Thanks for all the input, I have decided to forego the beach part of the vacation. We've never been to Italy so are thinking perhaps Rome-Florence-Venice or some easier variation of this. I have heard orvieto, cortona or siena are nice as well. Any thouts on these with kiddies? The kiddies area used to travel.

If you want to be by the sea but forgo swimming, Sperlonga and Gaeta, south of Rome, are interesting seaside towns. Anzio, the site of the D-Day landings in Italy, are just to the north of Sperlonga.

Orvieto, Cortona, and Siena would all be nice in April.

Thanks, Humpty. More than a little annoying! We had a string of bad weather in Piedmont, followed by mostly cloudy days in Ischia a few months later.....I guess it is always a bit of a gamble. Better luck next time!