Hi !

Our vacation is just over that we ar already planing our next year trip ! We are looking to get ideas/recommendations/ thoughts from you that all have been so helpfull in our last years trips.

Some informations:
- 2 kids (7 and 11 years old)
- Vacation in July and august (being teacher and scholl psychologist doesn't give us much room..so yes crowd, high prices and such..)
- My wife and I have been to Poland, Paris, Alsace, Belgium, Netherlands, Czech republic and Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice)
- With the kids we have done Germany (and Salzbourg), Portugal and Catalonia

For our next sumemr we are looking for a 20-25 days trip (more or less) that would mix cities, rural, nature, sights. food and kids fun! We dont like extensive heat, we can manage it but it,s not ideal. So I guess we could remove southern Italy and Spain from the bag. We have thought about Asia to give us a big change but weather seems to be awfull at that time of year .

Heres the option we have think about (you could put any ideas on that ! )

1) London, England and Scotland
2) Croatia + Bosnia + Slovenia
3) Southern France + Northern Spain (or one of those two regions alone)
4) Northern Italy + Toscana
5) Hungaria


What would be your choice ? Any ideas about all this ?

Thanks !

Well we got a heatwave this year the whole of july and up to now actually. Temps are dropping end of this week below 30C for the first time in southern France this summer and we still ahve 26C right now in Paris, with 30C scheduled tomorrow, temps get cooler end of this week and between 20 - 25 C next week.

Quite unusual but southern France is more normal, there is often above 30C in summertime. No idea what the temps were elsewhere but colleagues claimed northern Italy was also exceptionnally hot this year.

So I'd do 1 (UK is not known for being extremely hot for long periods but could have been the case this year), checking average and hot weather for Ljubjlana on wikipedia gave 37 C in july and 40 C in august as hottest temp; average about 80F.

We spent recently 10 days in Slovenia and stayed in the western part, I figure adding Croatia and Serbia (parts of) will keep you quite busy.

I would avoid Toscana in july and august : hot and overcrowded. We were in Firenze in may some time ago and it was already crowded.

My choice would be somewhere in Asia. We went with three kids in the summer. It was very hot in Tokyo but manageable. I suppose my question is will your schedule rule out Asia every year? Europe is great - our second is about to go to school there just as his older sister did - but Asia brings added variety.

What about west to the Dolomites, Sud Tyrol and around from Slovenia? Maybe into Austria? Elevation could help with the heat. When teaching I had to travel in summer and Asian destinations were killers for me although for this travel person they had to be done. The most pleasant in July/August was S. America.

I think your number 1 would be an obviously good choice, I can't imagine anyone in your family not liking that. And since you've never been there, that's what I'd pick.

then Northern Spain is possible, it's not that bad over on the coast and the NW part. I don't know why you are throwing in Tuscany or southern France since you said you don't like heat.

I'd go for the UK. Depending on your main interests . . . 5 to 7 days in London and the rest in Scotland would be fabulous. Or a few days in London, 3-ish days in Yorkshire, a couple of days in Northumberland (Hadrian's Wall, Alnwick, Bamburgh) and the rest in Scotland.

Something like that.

You'd get castles, and Harry Potter, and Romans, and beaches, and moors, and mountains, and amazing scenery, and LONDON.

What about Denmark? Either on it's own or with Sweden or Northern Germany.
Everywhere suffered from the heat this year, including most of Scandinavia, but there is nothing to say we will get the sam again next year.

Stockholm Archipelago
Sicily (yes hot, but I can give you an amazing and reasonable villa (film set))
Coast near Bordeaux
Scottish Highlands or Northumbria
Lofoten Islands, most stunning place in Europe Norway
Mallorca : middle income destination for families, never gets that busy and the heat is regulated as it is a smallish island. rarely above 30oC
Sardinia : best beaches in Europe, simply stunning and again rarely too hot. Easy to combine with Rome.

Cross off Southern Spain, it is regularly exceeding 40oC in summer. The peak this summer was 46oC.

Hotel or villa?

What’s your budget?

I'd chose Britain - probably not really hot and kids may enjoy being in an English-speaking country - and London is great for kids. In any case I would lessen the traveling around and use bases.

Thanks for all those answers , keep them coming !

Just some informations:

1) my kids dont speak english, we are french canadians do My wife and I know english at a certain extent but pour kids dont. Well my boy know some of it but not enough to have a conversation in english !
2) Budget ...in all our family european travel we have manage to keep it under 300 euro by day with airbnb, retsuarants and activities. we would like to keep it that way so I guess thar rules out northern Europe.

With kids? The Dordogne. Endless possibilities for recreation and nature and culture.

Bretagne or Normandie. Everybody speaks french there, food is great, theer is a lot more rain than in the rest of France, close to Atlantic, less touristy.

southern France

I'm a huge fan of Bosnia and Croatia, but from a point of getting the most impact for the kids you might save that until they are older. When you dive into some of the sites most impacted by the war I think it can be a huge learning experience. So wait a few years, have them read Zlata's Diary, and then make the trek to explore Croatian beaches and bombed buildings and memorial sites in Bosnia.

I just got back from 2 weeks in southeast Asia. Nowhere in Europe can compare to the humid misery of that area in August, although some parts are obviously worse than others. If you stick to more Japan or South Korea it won't be too bad (when I was just in Seoul it was unbearable, but they were also breaking 111 year heat records). I live in central NY, so I understand your aversion to heat.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of your ideas though! You might consider Ireland/N. Ireland. Maybe through Iceland in the mix. Northern Italy and Switzerland would keep things cooler.

keep it under 300 euro by day with airbnb, restaurants and activities. we would like to keep it that way so I guess that rules out northern Europe.>

Not really airbnb can be really affordable and kids would enjoy the high Alps but I guess Italian Alps may be cheaper.