This year, my husband and I took our 8-year-old daughter to Europe for a 7-week vacation — overlapping with her school break and a few weeks of term. We started in the Greek islands in early September and made our way slowly by train from Italy to Germany by the end of October.
We tried to plan the trip around experiences and activities that our daughter would both enjoy and learn from.
And while there was a lot we loved about the trip — staying on Greek islands and swimming in the Mediterranean, visiting Pisa and Venice for the first time, and discovering the history and food of Prague — there are three things I would do differently if we did another long holiday abroad with my kid.
I’d find more chances for her to play with other kids
As an only child, our daughter is very used to her own company and is a voracious reader, which is handy at the airport, on a train, or when she has downtime without a screen.
She still likes to play with other kids, and to give her time to do so, we planned a weekend with friends from the UK. We booked a large house in a town just outside Como, Italy, where we could all spend the weekend together. However, their flight got canceled, and they couldn’t make it. We were left in a large house with an upset daughter who had been looking forward to playing with someone other than us.
There weren’t many children her age at the playgrounds and the beach because it was during school term. It was also difficult to find resorts in Greece and Italy with a kids’ club. Family campgrounds were too far outside major cities.
We made up for it by playing lots of card games together, doing family movie nights, going to as many playgrounds as we could find, swimming, and visiting kid-friendly attractions like the butterfly house in Vienna and the Berlin Zoo.
If we take another long vacation, I will plan the itinerary to include visits with friends or family with children and more family-friendly accommodations.
I would stress less about food
For me, eating new foods is one of the main reasons to travel, and while my daughter will try new things, she can sometimes find it a bit overwhelming, preferring to stick to her favorites like chips and pizza.
In Greece, she was happy to eat kebab meat, cucumber, olives, bread, and chips. Italy was easy with pasta and pizza, but some of the cuisine in Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, and Germany didn’t appeal.
Breakfast was another issue. She would not eat pastries, which we had been banking on as our cheap and delicious start to the morning. We carted around a box of cereal to most places. We also resorted to cheese and salami sandwiches with fruit for lunch.
Visiting the local stores and markets was a highlight of our trip — picking out various bread, meats, snacks, and fruits to enjoy. This did help give our daughter some control over what she wanted to eat.
Next time, I will try to stress less about my daughter trying new things and eating enough vegetables and protein. I will also do a better job of utilizing places with kitchen facilities so we don’t have to eat out as often.
I would skip some museums
Our daughter was very patient as we dragged her around various museums and art galleries in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Vienna, and Prague.
She loved exploring the archaeological finds at the Acropolis in Athens and the Colosseum in Rome.
The museums that held her attention were more modern and featured exhibitions tailored for kids, including the Mythos Mozart in Vienna, which was more like an art installation.
It was at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, on the fifth week of our holiday, when we all hit our limit on old churches and museums. There are only so many stained-glass windows, religious-style paintings, and marble busts that one can see on one trip.
On our next trip, we’ll pare back visits to traditional museums and galleries. Instead, we will fill our time with more family-friendly tours, experiences, and free activities.
While our trip was one to remember, and I’m so grateful for the experiences we gave our daughter, tweaking a few things will make future trips even better.
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