Europe Spring Break Thoughts
As a family we really liked Brussels and Bruges. Both places were really walkable and felt very safe all the time. I have heard people say that Brussels isn’t worth your time, but it was great with kids and a very fun city to explore on foot. I will say that we had a hard time finding playgrounds for the kids to play on in the city center. Overall it was a mellow city and any place that has French fries and waffles everywhere was a big hit with the kids. All the chocolate shops didn’t hurt either.
Amsterdam was fun. Though I recommend staying a little further out of the city center and away from the red light district if you are traveling with little ones. In the city center, we felt like we ended up walking the long way around a lot to avoid walking past inappropriate locales with the kids. There were a good number of parks further away from the center and transportation was pretty easy. Next time, we would rent bikes and ride more, assuming we were there when it was a bit warmer. Also, we might consider staying on a canal boat for the novelty of it.
We have always loved Paris. It was great to take the kids there. It is a beautiful city to walk around and lots of architectural interest in many buildings. You can tell it was a well-planned city. They are small parks and playgrounds everywhere and it was easy to relax and have some downtime with the kids. Paris is a great city for walking but very big so fortunately public transport is very easy to use. The food was fantastic all over Paris and we didn’t really have a bad meal. Most places don’t have a kids menu like they would in the US, but we ended up getting an adult entree for the kids and having them share it. We loved staying near the Bastille area and would consider staying there again. The market made it feel very local and like it wasn’t in the center of a huge city. The kids loved crepes in Paris and it was a close tie to decide if they liked the waffles of Brussels or the crepes of Paris better.
Overall, we felt that pace of the trip was a bit too fast for our family and would have preferred to spend an extra day or two in each location. Had we taken the extra days, the kids would have missed a few more days of school, which wasn’t ideal. Obviously the trip would have cost more had we been gone longer as well. However, with an extra day in each place, we probably would have visited the comic museums in Brussels, done a biking tour of Amsterdam or the area just outside of Amsterdam, and either spent a day in Montmartre or day tripped to Versailles or Giverny. 3 cities in 10 days with kids was aggressive. The kids did great, but it was tough on them on the travel days. I think this pace every once in a while on our Round the World trip will be ok as long as it is followed up by a longer stay of 7-10 days in one place for everyone to recuperate.
