Best trips with a 5 & 7 yo
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Anonymous
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We are belatedly looking to plan out our 2020 travel - usually do one week at Spring Break, one in summer, and one after the winter holidays. After what feels like years of driving distance trips (I hated flying with gear) and a LOT of beach vacations, we are finally at a point where we can go a bit farther.
But for someone who loved to travel pre-kids, I'm having the travel planning equivalent of writer's block. I absolutely loathe theme parks (although we'll get to Disney someday) and DH gets bored really easily, so we need somewhere with a good amount of activities, largely kid-friendly. DCs are good little travelers but my 5 yo especially can get worn out and whiny if he's trapped in "grown up land" too long. And I love a fancy hotel 
Thinking about San Antonio / Austin for Spring Break, and would love to go overseas for at least one of the other two trips, budget permitting. What have your favorite trips with kids these ages been? |
Anonymous
| Paris and the Loire Valley. Kids had a great time. We only stayed at places with pools. |
Anonymous
| Costa Rica, San Diego |
Anonymous
| Perfect age for London or Paris. Also agree w/San Diego rec--lots to do with kids that age. |
Anonymous
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London was the first place that came to mind.
Also Japan, but that's pretty ambitious. I found the activities there very appealing to kids, but you may not want to undertake the time expense and jet lag it takes to get there. |
Anonymous
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New York City
Puerto Rico (split time between San Juan and a resort area) Maine - Acadia and Bar Harbor Also, I hate theme parks put loved Legoland Florida and the Legoland Hotel when we went in off season (February, before water park opened, and also before some new park areas were going to open later in the year) |
Anonymous
Thanks! I should have mentioned that we have family in CA & AZ, so we have done San Diego and Phoenix/Scottsdale pretty extensively. Agree that they are great trips but in my mind they are "not vacation." 
PP who went to the Loire -- how did you split that up? Did you do it all on trains? |
Anonymous
| Acadia National Park in the summer. Tons to do, warm days and cool evenings make it the perfect location! My fantasy is to summer in Maine, winter in AZ, and spring and fall in the DC metro area. |
Anonymous
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National parks
Banff San Juan islands |
Anonymous
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Not exactly a big trip but if you've never been here, you should go:
http://virginiasafaripark.com/ Literally one of my favorite memories of growing up with my kids. |
Anonymous
| Tyler Place in Vermont during the summer. Best vacation you'll ever go on as a family. |
Anonymous
| Denmark is great with those ages! Tons to do for kids and your DH. Only downside is that Scandinavia is somewhat expensive, especially in the summer as compared to Central/Southern Europe. But we did nine days with 2 adults and 3 kids for about $5k all-in *excluding flights,* so it can be done. We mostly airbnb'd but I snuck in 2 nice hotel nights for a break. |
Anonymous
NP. That sounds good to me. Which airport do you use for that? Logan? |
Anonymous
| We had a great 4 day visit with similar age kids in San Diego (Coronado area)... lots of beach areas, the San Diego Zoo, good restaurants, an aircraft carrier tour, lots to do |
Anonymous
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I think my favorite trip at that age was Tucson/Scottsdale. I got the idea from DCUM years ago and had just a wonderful time. I love Arizona. I'm planning Scottsdale/Sedona/Grand Canyon trip for my now 3 children. We only had 2 back then.
San Diego was another great trip at that age. Legoland is not as crazy like Disney. You don't need to do any planning, just show up and walk around with relatively low waits. Seaworld was also really liked by my kids. Perfect mix of kiddie rides with no waits, plus animal interactions and shows. My kids are getting older so I feel you should do the kiddie vacations when they are younger. That's just me though. Disney Cruise XCaret Mexico (never been but on my list) Costa Rica Italy Spain |