Europe hotels for families

[jhoannam]

The IHG website (where you would search for Holiday Inn family hotels) has a feature up top where you can put the correct number of people and then it will tell you which hotels in whatever city you are searching can accommodate you. If none show as available, then change your search to one child and try again. Then you can email the hotels directly through their page. No need to call unless you just want to. I ran into this traveling to South Africa last fall, too. One hotel would only let me book for two, but I could see in the description that there was a sleeper couch, so I emailed and they assured me it was fine. So don't assume because you can't book for four, that the hotel won't let you have four. We also like the Crowne Plazas we have stayed at in Europe. We stayed at the Intercontinental Amstel Amsterdam and it was an amazing hotel. We had my mother with us then, so booked two connecting rooms and it was like a massive suite. Hope this helps! If you are curious about some of the hotels we have stayed at, I do trip reports in my blog (linked in signature). It's not just Disney trips

Your blog is awesome, can we be best friends and you give me all your travel secrets?
How do you keep your kids entertained on the long flights and how do you stay sane?

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

How much was this hotel?

Expensive Around $400USD for a night. We are IHG reward club members and have the IHG Chase Visa, which gives you a free room at ANY of their properties each year, so we cashed those in along with some points. We ended up only paying for one room for one night. The hotel is so amazing though and I feel lucky we were able to stay here! It is worth every penny.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Your blog is awesome, can we be best friends and you give me all your travel secrets?
How do you keep your kids entertained on the long flights and how do you stay sane?

Yes, we can And I would love to! Haha. Seriously though, thank you. I love writing the blog because I really want other families to realize they can travel with their kids, too!

So I do have one secret for long-haul flights and kids and I've been doing this since my kids were very tiny. Each has a backpack that they bring when we travel. I fill it will goodies, mostly things like fun new activity books, journals, snacks, one small new toy etc. They are not allowed to look in it until we are either on the interstate for road trips or the airport. They really look forward to them! The older they get the harder they are to fill with tons of stuff, but I still go to Barnes and Noble and stock up! My youngest loves sticker books (Disney makes several) and other fun activity books. There are age appropriate activity books for all ages there. I also try to get a new fun book for them to read, but mostly busy work type things. It really does save the day.

Beyond that, have those ipads loaded with games and movies and they will be just fine. When they were little, for the over-night flights, we would try to do as much of our night time routine as possible to help them get ready to try to get some sleep.

How old are your kids?

 

[jhoannam]

Yes, we can And I would love to! Haha. Seriously though, thank you. I love writing the blog because I really want other families to realize they can travel with their kids, too!

So I do have one secret for long-haul flights and kids and I've been doing this since my kids were very tiny. Each has a backpack that they bring when we travel. I fill it will goodies, mostly things like fun new activity books, journals, snacks, one small new toy etc. They are not allowed to look in it until we are either on the interstate for road trips or the airport. They really look forward to them! The older they get the harder they are to fill with tons of stuff, but I still go to Barnes and Noble and stock up! My youngest loves sticker books (Disney makes several) and other fun activity books. There are age appropriate activity books for all ages there. I also try to get a new fun book for them to read, but mostly busy work type things. It really does save the day.

Beyond that, have those ipads loaded with games and movies and they will be just fine. When they were little, for the over-night flights, we would try to do as much of our night time routine as possible to help them get ready to try to get some sleep.

How old are your kids?

They are currently 6 & 9, but will be 8 & 11 when we visit.

Your Europe posts have been sooo helpful. Originally we had only planned on going to Barcelona, but our oldest just did an essay on Anne Franks and now she really wants to visit the Secret Annex. My plan is to fly US to AMS, AMS to Copenhagen, CPH to Barcelona. I've seen CPH to BCN with 10 hour layovers in Munich, so my plan is to take a day trip to Dachau. I need to figure out if we need to rent a car for the day or use public transportation.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

They are currently 6 & 9, but will be 8 & 11 when we visit.

Your Europe posts have been sooo helpful. Originally we had only planned on going to Barcelona, but our oldest just did an essay on Anne Franks and now she really wants to visit the Secret Annex. My plan is to fly US to AMS, AMS to Copenhagen, CPH to Barcelona. I've seen CPH to BCN with 10 hour layovers in Munich, so my plan is to take a day trip to Dachau. I need to figure out if we need to rent a car for the day or use public transportation.

Driving in Germany is a breeze and you'll get there faster with your own car. You can take a train to Dachau, but like I said, you'll get there much quicker with a car. In many countries I would say the train would be less stressful, but it's just so easy to drive in Germany that it's an exception. Be sure to get your Anne Frank tickets online before you go!

 

[rcchello]

I remember when you could walk to he Anne Frank museum and get in. I agree go online and get tickets before you go

From the http://www.annefrank.org website:

From 9 AM to 3:30 PM the museum is only open to visitors with an online ticket for a specific timeslot. Tickets are made available on the website exactly two months in advance. From 3:30 PM until closing time you can buy a ticket at the museum entrance. The Anne Frank House is open every day.

 

[disneyholic family]

Not sure which city you are looking (assume Barcelona?), but we just stayed in the Capri by Fraser - Barcelona and LOVED it. We are a family of four with a 4 and 2 year old. We had a 2 room suite with a kitchen and it was PERFECT (and super reasonably priced - <$200 a night). We are big fans of using public transportation, so we did the metro to the stop closest to the hotel (a short walk), and then taxied to port on embarkation day.

We toyed with AirBnB but liked feeling a bit more "secure" in a hotel. I agree, hotels for families were hard to find!

the capri is one of the ones i'm considering...
how was the area around?
.

 

[cruiser21]

Our plans are to do a 7 Day Mediterranean cruise in 2019. I'm trying to research hotel pricing and I'm having a very difficult time finding hotels that sleep more than 3 (we are a family of 4). Do most of you just do AirBnB? I would really like to do hotels and I want to use credit card reward points.

If you are a family of 4, where did you stay? TIA

Booking. com and orbitz have apartment hotels to book We booked a 1300 sq ft apt through booking.com for 150.00 per night. I'm not sure what type of cc points you use. My cc gives me a credit for any type of travel I book. European hotels are nothing like American hotels. Also be careful some of have glass doors seperating the room from bathroom.

 

[DCSWO]

It is tough in some cities for more than 3 people without going with 2 rooms. For our party of 4 in Copenhagen, we are doing the Adina Apartment Hotel pre-cruise which includes 2 bedrooms, kitchenette, 2 bathrooms and even a washer/dryer if I remember correctly. We are staying at the Marriott post-cruise but I had to book a junior suite in order to get 4 people in there. At least with that room, you get access to the executive lounge. Good luck.

 

[MUN]

What hotel was it? Our precruise plans are: Amsterdam and Copenhagen. With the cruise that leaves Barcelona.

We rented a houseboat via Airbnb in Amsterdam and stayed at the Marriott in Copenhagen. Both were great!

 

[MUN]

It is tough in some cities for more than 3 people without going with 2 rooms. For our party of 4 in Copenhagen, we are doing the Adina Apartment Hotel pre-cruise which includes 2 bedrooms, kitchenette, 2 bathrooms and even a washer/dryer if I remember correctly. We are staying at the Marriott post-cruise but I had to book a junior suite in order to get 4 people in there. At least with that room, you get access to the executive lounge. Good luck.

Their executive lounge is great!

 

[DCSWO]

It looks nice - we are obviously looking forward to it!

 

[fredandkell]

Weighing in late in this post but we ended up booking 2 rooms everywhere we’re going (Barcelona, Bern, Zurich). We did find a reasonably priced family room in Murren. It’s stinks because it really adds to the price having to book 2 rooms, and there are not a lot of options like the Residence Inn such as you would find in the US. Plus, we like to stay at US branded chains after several “interesting“ stays at some local hotels in Europe. We are staying for free on points using Marriott, Hilton, and Best Western on three out of the four hotels. Murren did not have any chain hotels.

 

[MUN]

Weighing in late in this post but we ended up booking 2 rooms everywhere we’re going (Barcelona, Bern, Zurich). We did find a reasonably priced family room in Murren. It’s stinks because it really adds to the price having to book 2 rooms, and there are not a lot of options like the Residence Inn such as you would find in the US. Plus, we like to stay at US branded chains after several “interesting“ stays at some local hotels in Europe. We are staying for free on points using Marriott, Hilton, and Best Western on three out of the four hotels. Murren did not have any chain hotels.

How many do you have in your party? And how old are your kids? We've had luck using Booking.com for our family of 5.

 

[o&smom]

We have used homeaway to rent apartments in Paris, Barcelona and London. When we were in Copenhagen our family of four stayed at the Tivoli hotel in a family room. Our kids were 5 & 11 and then 6 & 12.

 

[fredandkell]

How many do you have in your party? And how old are your kids? We've had luck using Booking.com for our family of 5.

We have 4, and you're right, booking.com is good! That's where we found our Murren family-sized hotel. I just used Marriott, Hilton, and Best Western's sites for the other nights.

 

[Sarah O.]

the capri is one of the ones i'm considering...
how was the area around?
.

It is a bit outside of the excitement of La Rambla, but it was certainly safe and has a few small shops and restaurants close. It was less than 20 minutes to the port and was a short walk from the Metro, which we used everyday (and from the airport). Overall, I would stay there again!

 

[DisneyHelen]

We are a family of three We stayed at Hotel Arts in Barcelona(next to the beach) and Marriott in Copenhagen.

 

[coloradocutie]

We were hoping to stay at the Tivoli, But they were booked at the time were looking, so we saw a hotel called Manon Les suites In Copenhagen which looked really neat. We ended up having to cancel the trip so I can’t say how it was, but the website looks good and they could hold a family of four in the suite like situation.

 

[MomtoBJSF]

I'm only replying so that I can save this post , we will be doing the Western Med next summer out of Barcelona, such wonderful informations!