Travel with Kids

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Permalink Reply by Tom Haas on September 18, 2008 at 8:59pm

Michelle,
My wife and I, along with our two kids ages 9 and 12 went on the Swiss Heartland Untour this summer. It was great for kids...they swam in Lake Brienz, hiked all over the alps, visited museums and cities. We travelled by train, bus and boat and it was easy. Another bonus is that the kids stayed free in our Reuti accommodations. If you like the outdoors Switzerland is an excellent place to visit. It also has remarkable cultural opportunities in cities such as Bern, Lucerne, Thun, and Zurich. Both of my kids are extremely high energy and they had plenty to keep them busy. If you ever want more info from me contact Suzanne at the Untours office and I would be glad to correspond with you.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle on September 20, 2008 at 9:40pm

Thanks so much for the input. I will look into Switzerland.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on September 29, 2008 at 9:14am

Agree, our kids were about the above ages when we did the Oberland Untour, fantastic experience. Local staff was very good to visit with about age-appropriate activities.

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Permalink Reply by Lukehead on May 28, 2009 at 11:32am

Where kids want to be is where they are prepared to understand what to expect. My two boys each had their first European experience at age 11. They had wonderful times exploring, putting classroom book learning into use where the lesson originated, interacting with other inhabitants of our planet. If the children need to be entertained with manufactured activities, what are they really learing. Traveling with open eyes and the desire to explore differences is remarkable for all ages. If yoou as parents think of it as a task, it's probably not so much fun. Living in a neighborhood of a different culture does more than point out difference - it highlights similarity. It's how we learn to get along and solve problems. It teaches tolerance.

I chllenge the idea that their attention span is not adequate. As parents maybe we should slow down and look at things as a child does - do we need to spend an entire afternoon in a museum of old masters? What about a hall of armor instead? We have returned to Ann Frank's house at several ages, each time seeing a new aspect. One of my sister's fond travel memories is of her 7 and 9 year-old sons staging a mock sword fight on the empty steps of an old English castle.

I will never consider the money spent on travel with my family as wasted but an investment. By the way, why is it good to leave them with Grandma? Take Grandma too.

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Permalink Reply by AFlynn on June 9, 2009 at 5:15pm

Last summer, we took our 15 and 8 year old boys to the Swiss Heartland. It was a great trip, and the boys loved it so much! I wrote a TripBlog about our experience (on this site, in the TripBlog section) called "A Traveling with Kids in the Heartland Blog." Plus, the Heartland trip is SUCH a deal when you do the "Kids Stay Free" option (see the site or talk to an Untours rep).

We stayed in Lungern, which has lake activities (swimming, waterslide, etc). So each day, after traveling, we came "home" on the Swiss Rail train, and took a dip in the Lake. There are playgrounds everywhere for kids - Switzerland is so kid friendly. With your SwissRail family pass, you can get into almost every museum for free, and its gives you a good discount on other transportation.

I worried that my youngest would be too young for the trip, but he enjoyed it the most of all. It opened a whole new world for him. He played football (soccer) with the local children, learned to read a train timetable, took lots of picnics, went on hikes... in fact, there was not enough time in the two weeks we stayed to do everything on our list. Especially since some days we just chilled by the lake and relaxed. We are going back next summer, and can't wait!

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Permalink Reply by RRussell on June 22, 2010 at 1:21pm

We are considering taking our children and grandchildren to Europe. Right now, a Switzerland Untour is our favored area under consideration, mainly because of the children staying free. My wife and I have been to the Oberland area a couple of times but not the Heartland.

The major concern we have is the age spread of our grandchildren. At the time we would go, they would be 6, 9, 13 and 14 years old. The two older ones would be fine with the outdoor activities. Does anyone have experience taking children as young as 6 to that area? Any comments as to whether the Heartland or Oberland would be the better choice? We would probably plan separate accommodations, at least split 4 and 2.

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