When you have kids it may seem like your travel days are behind you. However if you fancy something a bit more adventurous than an all inclusive holiday camp, there are plenty of places to consider. There’s plenty of things you can do with the kids and places to go which you might never have thought of to add to your family travel bucket list. Don’t worry, your travelling days and exotic holidays are not over yet!
Stockholm is one of those European cities where there’s something for everyone. Kids will love travelling by ferries and boats to different districts, which all have a unique feel. One of the best places to go for families though is Djurgarden, which is a leafy island and now one of Stockholm’s most happening areas. There’s an ABBA Museum if you’re interested or if that doesn’t float your boat then there’s the Pippi Longstocking storybook museum. There’s also the Vasa Museum, home to a real-life man-of-war ship, which sank in 1628, or Skansen, the oldest open-air museum in the world and home to the Stockholm Zoo with native animals such as moose, bears, lynxes, wolves and seals. Then there’s Grona Lund which is Stockholm’s 130-year-old amusement park with rides for all the family.
As well as being a fantastic city for adults to enjoy, kids love Kuala Lumpur too. With its vast park, Aquarium and Petrosains Discovery Center, which is a science museum, the kids can’t get enough. Even at Berjaya Times Square, one of the world’s biggest shopping centers there are lots of things to do with kids and random features like piano stairs that play piano notes as you walk up them and then the Berjaya Times Square Theme Park which is inside the shopping centre, and there’s even rides suitable for toddlers in there. Finally, there’s the Lake Gardens, a lovely park in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. It’s full of museums, there’s a bird park with the “world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary”, gardens, butterfly farm and, obviously, a lake, what’s not to love? These are just a few things to mention, but you could honestly get yourself an apartment in Kuala Lumpur for rent monthly and never run out of things to do.
Bali is such an easy place to travel around with kids because it’s well established, is set up for tourists and has excellent facilities. It is also small and easy to get around as there are plenty of taxis available. So, places to visit include the Bali Bird Park where the kids can enjoy having parrots perch on their heads as well as visiting the small 3D cinema on site and then next door is Bali Reptile Park. Then you’ve got the Elephant Cave in Goa Gajah and the Spice Farms and Kopi Luwak where you’ll find spices, chocolate, tropical plants, coffee and Kopi Luwak which is Bali coffee. You can also visit a volcano which is called Gunung Agung which has a viewing spot and temple near the top, or go and meet the elephants at the Elephant Safari Park where your kids can feed the elephants and have a ride through the forest.
Definitely, do your research before making the Inca Trail with kids, but don’t let that put you off. Fit and active teenagers can do the hike, and it’s a really lovely thing to do together as a family. If you have younger kids, then it’s better to take the train. Once they’re there, in the Sacred Valley there are horse shows, llama farms, and there are traditional communities there who will happily show you things like dyeing alpaca wool. Kids will get an excellent, exciting, educational and cultured experience from around Cuzco and Machu Picchu. The only problem with them being little is they might want to go back again when they’re older – but that’s not a problem is it?
Kids love Cape Town as much as adults. Fascinated by the strange flat-topped mountain in the middle of the city that they can always see, kids are still keen to visit the Table Mountain National Park, with mountain walks and trails, forests, gardens and a revolving cable car that whisks you to the top for spectacular 360-degree views. Then you’ve got the Cape Peninsula which you can get to by car, bicycle or tour bus and will find glorious beaches with great surfing and rocky coves. Then there are the animals, with plenty of seals at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, there’s also the Two Oceans Aquarium with sharks, penguins, a frog exhibit, a kelp forest and a children’s centre featuring puppet shows and art activities with a fishy theme. Boulders Beach in the southern Cape Peninsula is home to around 3,000 jackass (African) penguins which you can view them from a wooden deck, and there’s the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve which is home to Chacma baboons, large antelopes called elands, ostriches, rare tortoises, bonteboks and zebras.
When it comes to US States to visit, New York is hard to top. Although it’s a big bustling busy city, many families live in New York meaning that it’s well equipped for kids. Even better you could do a house swap with another family and go and stay in a neighbourhood rather than a hotel and get to experience the city as a New Yorker. Apart from Times Square, seeing a show on Broadway, Central Park and an open top bus tour, there’s also the New York Central Zoo, going up the Empire State Building, the children’s museum of Manhattan and the Natural History Museum. As well as loads of entertaining restaurants for kids to enjoy. That should make them sleep at night, right?
This is a collaborative post.
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