Barcelona is very much a family-friendly travel destination. For example, the Antonio Gaudi Parc Guell is a great exploration spot of funky proportions. La Sagrada Familia church is sure to send a child’s imagination soaring. Take a funicular tram to Tibidabo (tibidabo.es), an amusement park perched atop a hill in kid-friendly Barcelona with rides, puppet [...] [...more]
Barcelona is very much a family-friendly travel destination. For example, the Antonio Gaudi Parc Guell is a great exploration spot of funky proportions. La Sagrada Familia church is sure to send a child’s imagination soaring. Take a funicular tram to Tibidabo (tibidabo.es), an amusement park perched atop a hill in kid-friendly Barcelona with rides, puppet shows and a museum of old toys. Visit the zoo or ride the rowboats at Ciutadella Park. You can take the kids to Papa Bubble (papabubble.com) in the kid-friendly Barcelona where you can watch as candy is made and inhale the sweetness.
Make your way out to Barceloneta where you will find the Platja de Sant Sebastia beach, an aquarium and a maritime museum. Explore Girona on an excursion about an hour north of kid-friendly Barcelona. It was formerly a Moorish city that still boasts the style of the medieval times. If you drive another 40 minutes further, you can go to Figueres, the biggest surrealist wonder, Theatre-Museum by Salvador Dali. Save some money and get a spacious, multi-room Barcelona vacation rental that will provide your family with all the comfort they need.
Those who have been to Amsterdam know that there is a lot more to the city than sex and legalized marijuana. A big part of Amsterdam is a wonderland for children. For starters, Kinderkookkafe, a kid-friendly Amsterdam playground and café combo, is a place where kids under 12 call the shots regarding meals from their [...] [...more]
Those who have been to Amsterdam know that there is a lot more to the city than sex and legalized marijuana. A big part of Amsterdam is a wonderland for children. For starters, Kinderkookkafe, a kid-friendly Amsterdam playground and café combo, is a place where kids under 12 call the shots regarding meals from their kid-sized chairs and tables. They can make foods such as pizza, sandwiches, smoothies, cookies or cakes. Kids ages 2 and older can arrange their own meals and wait in the indoor/outdoor play area until they are called to the kitchen to pick up their ready-to-eat meals.
Vondelpark is Amsterdam’s version of a kid-friendly Amsterdam Central Park. It has several different playgrounds including the recently renovated Groot Melkhuis (Great Milkhouse) which was built with colorful swings, rides and slides and sits near a café where adults can supervise children as they sip on espressos or a glass of wine. Do as the locals do and get around the city with your children on a bicycle.
Visit one of the 75 kid-friendly Amsterdam museums. The kid-friendly Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum offers audio tours for kids; on the weekends, there are live tours followed by painting workshops. The kid-friendly Amsterdam Anne Frank House presents its exhibits in a child-friendly style with plenty of pictures and quotes from the diary. The Woonbootmuseum is a small Houseboat Museum. It served as an actual houseboat from 1967 to1997. Its purpose now is to give all the curious minds a peek into life in one of the 2,200 houseboats that float in the city’s canals. Inside, there is a bright yellow kids-corner where kids can color drawings of houseboats.
In the kid-friendly Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum, kids can follow cartoon drawings through the exhibits which offer descriptions and encourage kids to play instruments. TunFun is a playground that boasts large slides, trampolines and electric scooters. Artis is a quality zoo that is home to Sumatran tigers, giraffes and an aquarium. The newly expanded Hermitage Amsterdam was reopened in June with Hermitage for Children, the largest children’s museum in the Netherlands.
The kid-friendly Amsterdam Centrale Bibiotheek, the new public library, has an entire floor dedicated to children. There are weekly story times (in English or Dutch) for smaller children and there are 600 free computer spaces for older kids. The Nemo is a science center which has a structure similar to that of a ship from the future. It has four floors which are filled with interactive exhibits catering to children and teenagers.