Hellobee Boards

Barcelona? Great weather, amazing food, plenty to do and explore with LOs. We went for about 10 days when my LOs were 10 months and 3.5 years. My DH was working and we tagged along, so I was alone during the day with the kiddos, but we had the weekends together on both sides of the trip. It was easy enough by myself during the day to get out and take them to the beach or museums and playgrounds.

We just did Great Wolf Lodge. It was nice to check that off the bucket list and my 5 year old loved it. I did not. My advice is to spend your money on a vacation that is a little more relaxing and scenic!

Great wolf lodge is fun for 2 nights or even 1. Kids loved it but not a relaxing vacation!

My kids loved everything in Florida

@Pollywog: your list of potential places is amazing, but also made me chuckle. I can't believe you have great wolf lodge on the same list as Ireland, London and a Disney cruise! Am I missing something about great wolf lodge? I have one near me and have had no desire to ever go. Please tell me what I'm missing about it!

We took our then-4yo on a "babymoon" to the Omni Rancho Las Palmas for five nights last April. We had a great time. We did a different activity in the area each morning (Palm Springs Aerial Tram, Living Desert Zoo, Joshua Tree National Park, etc.) and spent the late afternoon in the kid-friendly waterpark-style pool complex.

The hotel was totally kid friendly but also nice enough for the adults to enjoy. I have generally found Omni to be good for this.

Hmm, the criteria is hard... they like climbing but you suggested London. I can't contemplate where in London do they "climb". It is a lot of city, navigating and street walking and hand holding. They like playgrounds but you want to avoid disney, or I would have said Florida...

Also don't forget about jet lag and think about how well your LOs handle them.

I personally love Disney Cruise but my DS is probably more mellow as we can be on the beach all day.

SF actually is nice. They will get a kick out of riding the cable car! Again not sure where they can "climb"... I imagine you can find little city playgrounds and parks and kids museums if need be.. and then you can stay in a hotel that has pool facility.

How about somewhere they can actually climb and hike, like grand canyon / hawaii? You can put the 2 yo in a carrier and the 4 yo can hike with you all where you find comfortable. We just came back from an arizona trip, DS loves hiking and can hike/climb to places (with DH) that I couldn't even go. But then he's older (6 yo then). Hawaii has a lot of very interesting places to hike but then you also said they don't like the beach lol

Coming to think about it, I remember we were at a very nice resort at Tucson Arizona a long time ago. There was a large outdoor pool area where they have a gigantic screen and the kids and families watched some Disney movies they played on the screen at sunset at the pool. I didn't have a kid back then and I was thinking I wish I could come back when I have a family! Different scenery (cactus everywhere). But don't go in summer, wayyyyy too hot. Feb - April (more like March-April) would be perfect, I think.

I can see Paris working with a lot of open areas everywhere for them to walk around but there isn't much kids playground or climbing.

No to iceland. Miserable to go with a baby/child. We went back then and DS (2 yo then) somehow got hand foot and mouth the 2nd day we got there. 102-103 fever and yet we were switching hotels every day because of the massive amount of driving needed to get from one site to another. Gahhh. One of the most terrible but interesting experiences ever lol

It is hard, traveling with kids seldom comes to a perfect vacation

@irene: I disagree about Iceland. We had a great trip with our 2yo there, and we drove the entire Ring Road. The main downside was the tremendous amount of planning and prep that went into the trip, and the fact that Iceland is outrageously expensive. But it was great at 2.5 since my husband was still juuuuuuust able to still carry our son in a frame backpack so we could hike around. And their culture is very child-friendly.

@ElbieKay: True, I think it would have been good if DS didn't got very sick completely out of the blue! But DS was also pretty mellow with car rides and our thought was he could nap during the long car rides so jet lag wouldn't be so hard. DH invested in a very nice baby carrier for hiking, poor guy (as we canceled a lot of things at the end). That was all planned very well. Then he got sick the 2nd day we were there, he was napping throughout the car rides, and screamed and cried every night at the various hotels we went to. It was horrific, the walls were paper thin and we felt so bad for our neighbors. We were also frantically trying to find a doctor and Iceland was very remote once you leave Reykjavik (which we did). I wish we could go back one day. That aside, according to OP her LOs seem to be more energetic so I thought long car rides may not be for them.

@merriment: I was going to suggest savannah too! I can imagine the kids can run around forsyth park, cute playground too. But a week would be too long I thought 3-4 days would be more appropriate...

@POLLYWOG: SF make sure you go to the fisherman's wharf and watch the seals! The kids will love it.