Europe with teens - where would you go?

[jaylea]

We are looking at April 2024. Teens are 13 and 17. Good travelers, adventurous eaters. We are on the East coast, and will have about a week (maybe a couple extra days), so just one destination, I think. unless it's fairly close by.

Im the only one who has been to Europe, and only Vienna and Bulgaria.

Kids have expressed interest in Greece, Portugal, Amsterdam, Spain, Italy and France (so really, they're open to a lot). Older teen js doing an exchange to Mallorca in the coming year.

any recommendations?

[Deleted]

Since they are open to several places I’d probably let cost dictate. Make sure you look at both airfare and lodging. I always let airfare dictate and it’s biting me in the butt for our trip to Germany/Italy next June. Because there’s a huge soccer tournament in Munich the weekend we had planned to be there lodging is hard to find and what is available is 2-3x the usual cost. So now we are only spending one night in Munich and then moving to Salzburg for the rest of our “Munich” time before moving on to Venice and Rome.

We have taken our kids to Europe a couple of times for spring break (end of March) and the weather is, of course tricky, at that time of year. One year we went to Croatia for spring break. That was an amazing trip and so very very reasonable being off season. Last year we went to Portugal for spring break. Again very reasonable being off season. Weather definitely had an impact though. The burra came through Split when we were there and it was very cold and windy.

[gardengal]

Those are all such great options. I’d look at costs (primarily airfare & if key things you’d want to do are speedy in one place vs the other) & flight options (I really prefer direct flights, especially when traveling w the fam).

[pittpurple]

What sort of things do they like to do? How important is sunshine? If it's over Easter you might want to look at the logistics a bit as some places are quite different / much more expensive. I'd personally rule out Spain just so your 17 year old goes to two different places but then I'd look at airfare, etc.

I also think Amsterdam would be much more fun for older kids 'without' their parents so I might focus on other trips for now. My kids love the beach so I'd look at Greece and Portugal first but I absolutely adore the food and atmosphere in Italy so that would be my pick - it depends a lot on what sorts of things your kids are into. Mine have 0 interest in art or churches and very little interest in cities so we tend to focus on places where we are just outside most of the time.

[wise_rita]

Wherever you can fly direct from home.

Will you be tacking this onto the study in Mallorca trip?

[erbear]

We've done the following with our kids (15 and 13):
- Iceland 
- Scotland
- Ireland
- London
- Paris and Provence
- Switzerland
- Austria
- Budapest
- Germany

Highly recommend all, honestly. London is the easiest, followed by Iceland (depending on if you want to do city vs. outside stuff). Budapest and Austria were really interesting to them. Ireland was very fun. Portugal is my favorite place in the world and I'd love to take my kids there. Italy and Spain are on our current short list. 

[jaylea]

Dec 5, 2023 14:27:39 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Wherever you can fly direct from home.

Will you be tacking this onto the study in Mallorca trip?

Can’t fly direct from home, but can drive a couple hours and fly direct.

Not tacking onto Mallorca because Europe in mid-July sounds too hot for me. 😂

[midwestmama]

Everything you listed sounds great! Could you have your teens do some fun research over their holiday school break (assuming they have one coming up) and maybe narrow down to a couple top choices based on things they would enjoy doing/seeing? My family and I have only been on one trip to Europe (last summer, when DS turned 14 and DD was 12.5), and what we liked the most was going to Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany) and Strasbourg, France.

[dulcemariamar]

Dec 4, 2023 15:03:54 GMT -5 jaylea said:

We are looking at April 2024. Teens are 13 and 17. Good travelers, adventurous eaters. We are on the East coast, and will have about a week (maybe a couple extra days), so just one destination, I think. unless it's fairly close by.

Im the only one who has been to Europe, and only Vienna and Bulgaria.

Kids have expressed interest in Greece, Portugal, Amsterdam, Spain, Italy and France (so really, they're open to a lot). Older teen js doing an exchange to Mallorca in the coming year.

any recommendations?

What kind of exchange program is your teen going to do?

I did some as a teen and one was to Spain.

[dutchgirl678]

In April, I would probably head to a country like Greece, Italy, or Portugal because the weather might be nicer that time of year. There are endless possibilities though. Maybe even Croatia? Wherever you go, just pick a few places and enjoy your time and don't spend too much time going from place to place. I suggest using the free version of Wanderlog.com to plan your trip and get ideas and let the kids have a say in it too. If you were tacking on to mid-July, you could still do that, but instead of the Mediterranean, you could do Switzerland, Bavaria (southern Germany) or Austria, the Netherlands can be very nice in the summer as well, or Scandinavian countries such as Sweden or Norway. We went to Iceland this year at the end of June, beginning of July and it is most definitely not hot . Our kids (12 and 15) had a blast there.

[nellywilk]

Czech Republic, Germany - not far from each other, so you can visit both countries at the same time.
For the first one you gonna need a vignette  vignetteczech.eu if you are traveling with the car. 
Germany - no speed limits on a highway and no tolls. Both countries have great nature and lots of entertainment in the cities. 

[pittpurple]

I agree pretty much everywhere is on the table in April - southern Europe is (often) particularly nice that time of year before it gets too hot (though the ocean will be colder than if you came after summer)

I'd look at flights and prioritise direct - layovers are such a nightmare right now, my mom had a hideous time getting to me (in Scotland) from the states last week. So when you have the short list, pick a place with something you've always wanted to see and built out from there. Greece is a particular favourite of mine but there's really no bad options on your list!