Family Travel Guide: Europe with Children, Part II

This is Part II of a three part guide to help families plan an exciting European trip the children will rave about for years. Part I discussed how to design an appealing and child-friendly travel itinerary. This part, Part II, provides the essential steps to maintaining a child-friendly pace. Part III will focus on engaging the children and encouraging their artistry.

When traveling abroad, it is tempting to pack the itinerary with nonstop activities. With children, this does not work. To ensure a child-friendly pace for your family trip, plan only a few "definite" activities for any given day. Beyond those definite activities, have some possibilities in mind in the event the kids can handle more.

Intersperse activities that are primarily of interest to adults with those that have high kid appeal. Spread the adult "must-do's" over several days amidst more expendable activities.

Plan the structure of the day according to your children's biological clocks as much as possible. If they are highly active in the morning, try to avoid quiet places. If they tend toward sluggishness as the afternoon wears on, make sure the most important activities happen earlier in the day.

Include a treat stop and a relaxation stop in every day's itinerary (but be prepared to stop and relax a bit whenever the need arises.)

Keep adult activities short and focused. At art museums, for example, go immediately to one or two pieces of major interest. Resist the temptation to browse en route. Advance research will let you share facts kids can relate to about the chosen pieces or their creator such as what the artist was doing at their ages or something unusual about his life. Keep these facts simple and present them just before or on location. Be willing to leave after seeing the selected masterpieces, or be willing to have one parent take the kids to a pre-planned, nearby alternative activity of greater interest to them.

If choosing among museums, try to select museums with special children's activity programs. Museum programs that have special scavenger hunts for children tend to allow the adults more time without complaints from the children.