Family Travel Guide: Europe with Children, Part I

More and more families with children are traveling from the United States to Europe. Traveling with children in a foreign country can be tricky. The differences in languages and customs can be unnerving at times. The sense of "we're here, no telling when we'll be in Europe again, so let's do it" can overwhelm the family with too many activities. And many essential tourist sights are less interesting to children than to adults unless a special effort is made to accommodate the children. This three part guide will help a family plan an exciting trip to Europe that the children will rave about for years. Part I discusses how to design an appealing and child-friendly travel itinerary. Part II provides the essential steps to maintaining a child-friendly pace. Part III focuses on engaging the children and encouraging their artistry. In planning a trip to Europe that is to include children, keep these words in mind: variety, novelty, simplicity, and, most of all, flexibility.

Choosing the Destination(s)
Choose destination(s) with high appeal to children. In choosing child-centric destination(s), take into account any child-friendly aspects of the location's history. Some destinations, such as the FairyTaleRoad in Germany, or Copenhagen, the longtime home of Hans Christian Andersen, offer an immediate way to connect the trip to children's interests. But if it's Paris you want to visit, stop and think. Make a tie-in with the character Madeleine; or, if it's Switzerland, think Heidi. Identifying storybook characters and real people whose names are household words who have a connection with a destination can help children relate to it. Don't wait until you've arrived to think about these connections. Learn about them in advance and read stories or biographies together to prepare for the trip. There is nowhere in Europe that you cannot make some connection between the locale and something familiar to your child, although some destinations require more research than others.