Need location inspiration for a Europe trip next spring!!
- young family (4.5 year old and 8 month old at time of travel)
- prefer direct flight from YVR, maybe one stop
- 3 weeks
- 3/4 cities max
- travel within/between countries by train
Any suggestions??

With an open itinerary I might look at cheapest flights and start with that city. We got a great deal on air france so we are starting in Paris. iceland air has great prices and is non stop to Iceland from Seattle.

Italy is the bomb!!

Highly recommend iceland air. they offer a free layover, you pay the hotels of course but a very cool country and a nice break to get used to the time difference. Iceland offers a lot of beautiful and scenic things to see. I recommend staying here for 2 nights and then deciding where to from there. Iceland is a hub where you can get to almost anywhere in Europe. Rome was amazing but may be difficult with a lot of tourists and younger child. I would suggest Beach cities where you can divide your time between beach and play with city. Portugal, Spain, Greece, etc

Amsterdam is a good fly in and fly out spot. It is direct from YVR, about 9 hrs, and klm and air transat will land around 1 pm in the afternoon. Everyone speaks english better than we do, the city centre is only 15 min by express train so after a long flight with kids you can be checked in a half hr after you leave the airport. It is a good place to access paris 3 hrs, cologne in even less, and 5 hrs to Nice in SFrance.London around 3 hrs as well. Easy to fly out of as well to spain or italy.

Andy Amsterdam has been popping up quite a lot, wasn’t on my radar for this trip but it seems like it could be a good time!

Melanie Hi, probably because it fits with what you are asking - travelling with small kids, direct from YVR, you literally walk only 2 or 3 hundred yards to the middle if the city from the train stn, and from the train stn you can get pretty much anywhere in 4 to 5 hrs. I was there a couple months ago and it was a 6 min walk to my hotel from the train stn. Everyone is very helpful, it's very safe, same food as here, leaving YVR around 4pm and arriving around 1 pm is great with kids and it is an amazing city to wander around.

Melanie Amsterdam for the win

Italy , stay near Travis fountain, colosseum, very central, can walk to most sites 10-20 min. Then train to Venice, Florence. Need one week in each city. One stop, make it Montreal better airport for transit than Toronto.

Lawrence when we went on a European vacation with our kids (11 and
we did four days in the Toronto area before continuing on to France. I wonder if that helped a bit with jet lag.

Try to time flights so you avoid busy spring break and Easter if possible.

I can't imagine traveling with our kids that long when they were that age! Hopefully folks here have sage advice for you. Our now adult kids like to joke that we took them on a cycling tour of Brittany when they were 11 and 8 and they pretty much forget everything and why didn't we wait until they were older! But something sunk into their brains. (We are in Europe right now for a three month stay and the boys are traveling together next week and visiting us here in Seville for Thanksgiving.)
Hopefully you will be able to stay in places that offer trusted babysitting services so you can visit a few places for grown up time together as well. Have a great adventure, look forward to seeing how it went here when you return.

Alan we actually took our first to Portugal for 3 weeks when he was 6 months old. Just need to adjust your expectations, still can be such an incredible time! And if possible have family meet up with you along the way to give parents a night out here and there

Alan travelled from YVR to Japan with a 3 year old and nine month old - it was fantastic with very fee (if any hiccups). Kids adjust very well. My only complaint after the fact is my kids now want to travel the world and NOW it’s no so financially easy

Italy spring is amazing

We flew direct to Germany Munich then train to Austria or Switzerland, Italy. Stayed a couple nights in Munich to start.

Spain! Can fly into Valencia, Madrid or Barcelona with only one stop from YVR. Easy to only use public transit within cities and trains to go between towns so you don’t have to take any car seats.