What has been your teens' favorite Europe destination?
 

We've now done London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Sorrento with our 2 teens. Looking for our next European destination. Any recommendations from fodorites on what places your teens liked most?

We were in Paris and Amsterdam
with our 15 year old daughter last
summer and much as she liked Paris
she LOVED Amsterdam.

I think she found the scale of the
city more manageable.

Rob

My teens have also liked the smaller towns in the countries that you have already visited. The general areas that really stand out are Cornwall, North Wales, the Loire Valley, Brittany, Dordogne, Tuscany & Sicily.

One year we did a mostly city trip including Prague & Vienna. Both kids said they wished we had included some time to actually hike in the mountains or more time at the little lake resort that I booked us outside of Salzburg. Next trip I will get us back to spending 1/2 time in cities and 1/2 in countryside/smaller towns.

Mine have done Paris, Venice and Rome as well.

They loved Barcelona.

Didn't particularly like Budapest.

DS #1 - Azores
DS #2 - Benelux, Germany (castle tour) and Venice
DW - Venice

Ooops, That DW should read DD

The beach destinations please all teens in Spain, France and Italy -- as long as they are not under constant surveillance.

Apart from that, I know that the absolute paradise for many teens is Avignon during the festival (3 weeks in July), where they can wander with total abandon, hear music, eat souvlaki, drink beer and see street artists in pedestrian streets until dawn.

Oh, I guess it's better if the parents are not there at the same time.

Talk to your family, including your kids, about what they've enjoyed the most about their previous travels, and what they want to do more and less of. Our son (a very young teen) really enjoys art, particularly modern art, as well as history and older castles. Luckily, DH and I like all of those things (except for the modern art).

So we've tried to include those items in our trips to Europe with him:

London, the Loire Valley, Paris (this was his first trip to Europe). Castles, of course, in the Loire Valley

Barcelona, Spain, the Dali Museum in Figueres (near the French border), the Languedoc and Dordogne areas of France (many, many older castles), Paris.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary. On this trip, we didn't get to see as much art, but spent a lot of time in the countryside visiting castles. Interestingly, he preferred Budapest over Prague, because he said it was more of a "big city."

If my son had his way, his next trip would be to Germany and Austria, and would include some hiking. Us grownups have been to Italy a lot, but not with him - yet. But I know he'll love Italy as well.

My son loves big cities, so I was a bit surprised that he loved the small towns in the Dordogne region so much.

Barcelona and Seville were hits; Normandy was also very well received.

I traveled with groups of my highschool students to Italy, France and Spain. They loved Venice, Rome,the Amalfi Coast and small hill towns in Italy. Paris was the big favorite in France. They all really enjoyed Barcelona along with beaches and Segovia in Spain.

Our two teenage daughters have been to Lake Como, Paris, London, Vienna, Prague, cycling in the Wachau Valley, St Gilgen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen ......(3 - 7 days per place), and their best stay ever was 7 nights in Lauterbrunnen! They LOVED Switzerland. We had a car, so we were able to do day trips to places like Montreaux and Gruyeres. We also travelled a lot by train and all kinds of cable cars etc. They LOVED the Jungfraujoch and most other mountain excursions we did. We travelled there in summer and had picture perfect weather. They would go back again tomorrow if they could. However, I guess it depends on what your teens are interested in.

How about Berlin ?

Great energy,and lots of history and culture.

We stayed with friends and had a teenage(14 yr old) tour guide who was allowed to travel around the city on his own day or night because they considered it to be very safe.

It's just a great city with a great atmosphere and I can't wait to take my 10 and 8 yr olds(who may be teens by the time we go back there).

Edinburgh during the August festivals is fantastic, and it was very popular with my teenage daughter.

Her favorite cities have been Amsterdam, London, Edinburgh, and Cologne. Her least favorite are Bucharest and Madrid (both visited in August, and both with temperatures exceeding 100F, which I am sure did not help matters for her, but the main problem for her was the "foreign-ness" of those cities).

My 17 yr old said London then Paris. She also like Zurich, tho we were only there a day.

Out of our several trips, she particularly liked:

London (of course, fact that her aunt, who lived here for 5 years, always took her on shopping trips probably has nothing to do with this choice!!!!)

Paris

Milan

Brugge

Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona!!!!! My three kids loved it. History, culture, great shopping (fantastic shoe stores!), good fun food (tapas, hot chocolate and churros!) and a very cool vibe.

If you'd like a break from the terrible exchange rate, consider Costa Rica. The kids really liked that as well.

missypie, can you tell me what your itinerary/activities in Costa Rica were when you went?

Why is everybody naming cities. It seeems to me that many kids love the Swiss Alps, and why not?

Within the last few years, we've started visiting Greece a lot. My kids have been to many other places in Europe, but these days, Greece is at the top of the list.

I have older teens ( 19 and 17) so their interests range from beaches, shopping, historical sites and ruins to yes, even some museums in Athens. Especially the fabulous archaeological museum.

On top of everything else that's so wonderful about Greece, the food is amazing- lots of fresh salads, fantastic grilled meats and fish, etc.

Go! You'll have a great time!

In Costa Rica we spent half of our time in the La Fortuna/Arenal area. The highlight was the very long zip line adventure. We also hiked the hanging bridges, hiked near the volcano and enjoyed the hot springs. There were lots of other things we didn't do-rapelling down waterfalls and horseback riding come to mind. Then we drove to the beach at Manual Antonio....played in the water mostly...saw lots of monkeys, sloths, etc. Costa Rica is the most beautiful place I've ever been.