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.

We're struggling with this right now, trying to find a side trip at Christmas while visiting family in Germany. Right now we have it narrowed down to Prague and Vienna. I asked the kids what they want to do, and "snowboarding in the Alps" is what they came up with.

I think it depends on what type of travelers you are. We've come to the conclusion that we are a family of "do-ers", not "see-ers". We are also more nature-oriented than city-oriented. I can only drag them to so many museums, castles and cathedrals. They are not shoppers and don't enjoy sitting in outdoor cafes for hours. Ask them their favorite parts of their last Italian vacation and none of those activities will be mentioned. What they do remember fondly: water sports in Lago Maggiore, playing soccer every afternoon beside the lake with the local and other European kids,(DS's very favorite part of the trip), hiking the villages of Cinque Terre, then swimming in the sea at Monterosso, riding bikes along the wall of Lucca, etc.

I agree with the poster who suggested renting a place for a week or more in an area where great day trips are possible. It's difficult to decide to do this, as our temptation is to pack as much sight-seeing as possible into a European vacation. But our last vacation convinced us that this is the way to go with our family.

Oh, and they also loved Costa Rica. Our itinerary was very similar to missypie's.

lago di garda for windsurfing, lago di como.

div

Second for the Swiss Alps. We travelled through 4 countries with 12 and 15 year old girls a few years ago. Zermatt was the favorite by far.

lammom -

My older daughter (17) loves everything Italian. I think she would rate her favorite cities:

Florence (wants to live here)
Rome
Paris
London
Venice
Salzburg

Of course she loves Zurich which is where we live. She only spent a quick minute in Amsterdam but would like to return.

Neither of my kids go crazy over the Swiss Alps but then wouldn't that figure when they're so close?

They had a fantastic time hanging out for a full week in Santorini and are pushing for another sun vacation. Mom is boring and likes to incoporate "culture" so we'll see...

My younger daughter (14) is not much of a city gal but I think the trip she was most fascinated by was to Morocco. It was perfect for the non-museum type because just walking around is an education in itself. She also loved Salzburg. I think all teens love it there.

Good luck!

gruezi

Two children (now 14-girl, 11-boy)
2004 - Normandy (D-Day beaches, in particular); Gimmelwald, Switzerland; Burgundy; Paris.

2007 - Cinque Terre (Vernazza and the hiking trails); Rome; Hilton Garden Inn at the Rome airport.

We just went to Istanbul in April and my daughter loved it (age 17). She loved the culture, mix of old and new world, and especially just loved the people- she thought that they were among the friendliest of places she has been. She really wants to go back and see more of Turkey.

But...she also dearly loves Italy (especially Rome) and Israel.

Next on her list would be Paris, then Prague.

She has been to Vienna, London and several cities in Spain

Barcelona is manageable, and has a great beach.

In addition to places you have visited in Europe, our kids enjoyed

Munich/southern Germany and Provence

For a next trip in Europe, my younger son would pick Pompeii/Paestum/Amalfi Coast.
His older brother would pick Spain including both Barcelona and Andalusia

They also both enjoyed trips to Mexico and Peru very much and the younger one really liked Costa Rica. We are doing a trip to Guatemala next year for more Mayan ruins

Cinque Terre, Venice.

My son has pretty much enjoyed all of our trips through the years, for this reason or for that reason. Although probably at the top of his list were the "beach" trips, once to the Amalfi coast, and once to the Cote D'Azur, he just loved the Scandinavian countries trip we took a few years ago, especially seeing a midnight sun.

Daughter (now 22) loves Lisbon, Barcelona and Prague. She's studying abroad right now and has skipped trips to Paris and Amsterdam--she's been twice with the family and said that was enough. DO NOT let your kids go to Ibiza in season--drugs are like candy (serious drugs). She does not like Brussels and thought Berlin was ok.

Son (19) loves Madrid, Prague, Berlin and Paris. His favorite country is Spain--all of it.

Son (15) hates to travel. I believe he was switched at birth.

The older two liked Krakow, but mainly because of our visit to Auschwitz so for them I don't think they would want to go back.

12yr old DD loved Switzerland , Wengen specifically,, wants to grow up and live there forever.

Then Paris, followed by Rome.
Wasn't thrilled by Florence.

Had to smile at your post bozama. A friend and her family visited Switzerland a few years ago and her youngest daughter loved it so much she ended up going to a boarding school in Switzerland and graduated this year.