advice on travelling
 

hey everyone.
in the fall my best friend and i are planning to do some travelling in London, Scotland, Italy and hopefully France.
I have never been to England (london), Scotland (glasgow) or Italy (rome) before. is there anywhere people would reccomend to see or to stay at that is not overly expensive or places to see to take kids? (they are under 3)
i have been to france a bunch of times but if anyone has some good places they would like to share it would be appreciated.
any info or tips would be great, thanks!

Re: advice on travelling
 

Break London into areas over a period of days and buy a travelcard or Oyster card for public transport as buying tickets on an as and when basis becomes extremely costly.
Do Edinburgh not Glasgow in Scotland

Re: advice on travelling
 

Glasgow Hop on Hop off Tours bus in £11 per adult the 3 year olds would be free. The ticket covers 2 days I think. From that you can pick places to go. Everybody does Edinburgh don't follow the sheep :)

London, The O2 Clippers are a good way of seeing a bit of the sights and at the Arena you can eat and the kids could run around in the open space palying with the fountains, great adult fun too for cooling down. Adult return tickets about £11 your kids would be free, you can get hop of and on in limited places.

Rome I stayed overnight and left next day not having seen anything, homeward delayed journey due to severe food poisioning in Malta. :-(

Re: advice on travelling
 

Milan has a beautiful old gothic cathedral (Duomo) dating back to the late 1300's and is the 4th largest cathedral in the world and Italy. There is also the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the finest covered shopping arcades, (and larger than the original Burlington Arcade in London). The Galleria is an L shape and acts as a link between the cathedral and La Scala, and is stuffed full of top end design\fashion house outlets. It is interesting to be there in the evening to see all the locals out parading in their finery, meeting friends and having coffee and grappa or a bite to eat..

The largest gothic cathedral in the world is in Seville, built on top of a Muslim Mosque, where the Giralda (minaret) was re-used as the bell tower.

Granada has the Alhambra as well as the Cathedral, one of the newest because Granada was under Muslim control until January 1492.

However, life isn't all cathedrals - there is plenty of night life to allow you to meet the locals and sample the food and drink associated with each place.

enjoy

Re: advice on travelling
 

Do you mean Cordoba?
Thats built on top of a mosque

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...n/IMG_3569.jpg

Re: advice on travelling
 

Ive just returned from a forray around Umbria in Italy. I visited Florence, Orvieto, Assisi plus a few of the hill top towns and we stayed in Ficulle which was a beautiful little place. I would recommend the area for a visit.

If you are passing down the South Coast of France I would suggest a visit to Les Arcs. We stayed there over night and found a medieval town there which was fantastic. The countryside around is beautiful as well, and we intend to go back at some point

In Spain I would say Aragon is one of my favourite areas, Teruel, Cuenca and the surrounding areas

Re: advice on travelling
 

Sorry, but No. Haven't been to Cordoba (yet), only recommend places I have been to. However it looks to be a very interesting place.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/s...ille-cathedral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville_Cathedral

I enjoy old things
:eek:
OH has just hit me !!

Re: advice on travelling
 

Are you sure this sort of trip is a good idea with such young children?

How many children under 3 do you have?

I would wait until they are a bit older and able to appreciate/enjoy the experience.

Re: advice on travelling
 

Ahh, I'm with you now .... It was built on the site of an old mosque ... Cordoba's is actually built in the middle of the old mosque, so strangely both survive within each other!

Re: advice on travelling
 

sorry if I confused you but did post "on top of"
as I don't like heights OH went up to the top of the minaret (sri bell tower) (as she did in Barcelona) and I just chilled out in the orangery courtyard down at ground level, very relaxing even with other people milling around.

the mountains of gold and silver are enormous, the memorial to Christopher Columbus had me confused as I believe he is buried in at least 3 different places.

either before or after the cathedral you can get a horse powered hackney carriage ride from outside the cathedral.

Seville also has an excellent Cycle Hire scheme, allowing you to get a bike and leave it at your destination. Just some areas they are in short supply because the solicitors all use them to get to court. :)

Re: advice on travelling
 

I would be inclined to agree with Mama_Carol, at such a young age I do not think you would get the full benefit of seeing the places, to get the best out of any of the places it will be very long days you would also need a really good buggy as it will be impossible for the little ones to walk for so long without stopping for long periods.

If you feel that your little ones are up for the trip, then do it in stages so staying within areas and going to all the sights in that area. Grab as many free tourist maps as you can as they will come in useful for planning routes, definitely take a tour bus ride of London, they are not cheap but it will give you a good insight into where you may want to go back to and look at in more detail. Historically Edinburgh has more than Glasgow with the castle and a lovely botanical garden that the little ones can run around in, if you take some nuts the squirrels will come and feed out of your hand. I love Rome and spent 3 fabulous days there, a must see is the Colosseum, you can buy a ticket that allows you to see the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Forum, the 3 main attractions and it is very reasonably priced. Go see the Trevi fountain and take a coin with you, might be a bit of a squash as it is very popular but it is stunning. be prepared to walk, it is the best way to see the place I could barely walk when I got home had blisters all over my feet so make sure you have really good shoes on. In all honesty Rome was worth every single one of the blisters, maybe not every ones cup of tea but was certainly mine.

Hope this helps :D

Re: advice on travelling
 

I must agree with the other posters - it will be stressful for you and the kids. Also stressful for the other people around you when the kids get fractious.

IMHO they need to be at least 7-8 for it to start to make sense. Niece was 9 when the the inlaws came to visit in Spain. She was able to make an expedition of it, making visits to all sorts of attractions including the science park for a whole day. Understand the school coudlnt stop her from talking when she got back.

Re: advice on travelling
 

my friend is visiting europe for the first time and she has two and i have one.
yes i know we are probably crazy for traveling with 3 kids 2 and under.

we have decided only to go to scotland

Re: advice on travelling
 

yes. I know it is insanity to travel like that.

we have decided only to go to Scotland. my son is a pretty good little traveler and he just goes with the flow.

my friend is visiting from north america and never been to europe and we wanted to make the most of her trip. she will be staying with me in spain for a 6 week period. but we are only gonna do one other country.


@jay i will check out things to do in edinburgh. thanks

Re: advice on travelling
 

I'd forgo the carriage ride for a trip next door to the Alcázar. ;)