Best vacations with young teens?
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Anonymous
| I feel like there was a recent post about bucket list trips with kids but I can’t find it. I have a 13 and 11 year old and I’m looking for vacation ideas. Our best trip ever was to Xcaret. |
Anonymous
| Maui- they loved exploring the island, surfing, snorkeling, and cliff jumping. |
Anonymous
| Agree on Xcaret being amazing for this age group. With slightly younger kids, we really enjoyed Munich, the Alps, and Austria. It was not a warm weather trip, but very active. |
Anonymous
| City kids or outdoorsy? |
Anonymous
They are both |
Anonymous
| Dcum loves Costa Rica for that age. |
Anonymous
| Or Hawaii |
Anonymous
For exotic things, would recommend the boat from Tahiti to the Marquesas Islands at that age. But honestly, trips at 11 and 13, a week at Deep Creek or the Outer Banks might be more meaningful. The more impactful trips to faraway places are better with they are a trifle older |
Anonymous
|
I think that’s a great age for almost anyplace and it’s fun to build it off their interests. Do they love fish or swimming? Hawaii or Carribean. Are they into Greek/roman myths or are they foodies? Rome is great or Sicily. Fans of Harry Potter or six? London! We e done great trips at that age on cruises; Rome; London; national parks like grand Tetons or Yosemite. Actually even the Florida keys were great.
One question to ask is how they are with time changes and sleep issues — if they have trouble adjusting, I’d avoid Europe and Hawaii. How are they with long car trips? If they hate them, Yellowstone or Yosemite are tough. Mine hated long car trips but really loved the high speed trains in Europe where they could read a book, watch scenery, stretch their legs, buy a snack, etc. a |
Anonymous
| People will scoff but universal is so fun and easy at that age. You can do other things in Florida too. We did Kennedy space center and cocoa beach. |
Anonymous
Do you have an itinerary for this trip to Munich, the Alps, and Austria? We're thinking about the same trip at some point with our kids. |
Anonymous
|
Iceland
Costa Rica Both were great at these ages |
Anonymous
DP, but we did Munich, the German alps, and Austria for spring break, and loved it! We rented a car at the airport in Munich and drove straight to Salzburg -- an easy, scenic drive, not too long, and Salzburg itself was good for a day or two of sightseeing. (For family trips, we really like starting off in smaller cities to get over the jet-lag and save the larger cities for excitement at the end of the trip.) Once over the jeglag, a few days of driving to picturesque small towns nearby, e.g. Hallstatt, but there are many others within easy driving distances. Then we drove in the other direction to the German Alps (Zugspitze), stopping off at Innsbruck on the way. We drove back to Munich for two or three days, where we parked the car, didn't use the car again until going to the airport. We spent about 10 days total, which felt right for us. We thought about adding on Vienna for another 3-4 days, but it's a longer drive or another flight, so we kept it simple. We really enjoyed the wines and food in Bavaria and Austria, and for variety, there are lots of authentic Italian pizza places too. Munich is an easy, not too big of an airport to navigate, which is a bonus when traveling with kids, and the same of the city. (For Zugspitze, you'll want to put in Garmisch Partenkirchen for navigation but continue south for a while; the roads were easy but smaller and windier, so allow plenty of time, even more than the navigation suggests.) |
Anonymous
| Rent a catamaran and spend a week in the BVIs. |
Anonymous
Was just coming on here to say Costa Rica! My kids all-time favorite trip and my two youngest were around the same age. They still talk about it. |