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[quote=Anonymous]Um, how about not dragging them to museums?

I'm a 40 something year old who isn't fond of museums. I only had one day in Paris last June--took the train from London one day while over there on business. My BFF was with me. When we walked out of the train station, it was a beautiful sunny day. I told my friend, "I'm not spending this gorgeous day inside museums." She agreed. We hopped on the top level of a tour bus and quickly saw the key sites and got our bearings. Hopped off at Notre Dame and quickly walked through--they were saying mass in French, and it was lovely. Walked over to the Eiffel Tower and decided we had to make it to the top---if only to say we had done it. Spent the rest of the day walking the streets, eating in cafes, and shopping.

If I had more time there---and if my kids were with me---I would focus on seeing the city and then venturing off to other parts of the country. Go see Versailles---it's not a museumy museum ;0)

Visit the coast. Visit the countryside. Charming villages with amazing old architecture and local cafes are like living museums (and much more fun).

If your kids like to shop, carve out time just to do that. Ask them what they want to do. I once read a great article about how to spend the perfect day in London with your teenager. It had an itinerary for a boy and a girl. It included things like cool music shops, cool clothing stores, a place you can make your own perfume, a punk manicure shop, funky tea rooms, etc.

We're going away this spring break, and my teen has already researched and found a few stores he wants to check out---so we are building that into our itinerary (which includes beaches, hiking, historic areas, off the beaten path towns, great food and shopping).

Fwiw, my husband traveled all over Europe with his parents as a tween/teen, and he has zero desire to go back...precisely because his parents dragged him to museums and fancy restaurants. To him, that's what Europe is: museums and fancy restaurants...not a fun vacation. When he saw my pics from the UK and Paris, he commented that I had a lot more fun on my business trip than he did when he traveled to both countries first class with his parents. I'm determined to take him back and show him how to have fun in Europe.[/quote]

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