Buzzy budget breaks for the midterm

A quick dash to a European capital for FIONNUALA BRENNANand family is a great value holiday – just plan well in advance to make it memorable

NOW THAT the kids are back in school it’s time to think about the midterm break! Depending on your budget, a European citybreak can be great, and not overly expensive.

We have made trips to London, Paris and Amsterdam in the past few years, using a variety of accommodation – hostels, apartments, hotels and a friend’s free house – and had a great value holiday each time.

London

Our first trip was to London three years ago. I brought the eldest two of our four children (aged eight and five at the time). I hadn’t been on a citybreak since before they were born and I love the buzz of a European capital and, as I discovered, so do they.

I looked out for cheap flights for months and got an Aer Arann deal from Waterford to Luton for €286 for the three of us. When looking at accommodation I checked out hostels, and was recommended the W14 budget hotel in West Kensington (thew14hotel.co.uk). Our room had a set of bunks, single bed and a locker – but it was clean, private and well located for the price of just over €100 a night plus a decent Continental breakfast.

The highlights of London for us were the national museums – all world class and free. We started at the Science Museum (sciencemuseum.org.uk). It was the October midterm so it was full of families. My only experience of similar crowds was All-Ireland final day so brace yourself.

There’s an indoor picnic area where you can lunch, and after sambos we headed for the interactive zones. We spent an afternoon in the “pattern pod” on the ground floor, which is wonderful for younger children.

The next day we were outside waiting for the doors to open so we could be first to the “launchpad” on the third floor. Friendly staff are everywhere explaining, demonstrating and helping the kids generate energy, create rockets from water bottles and experiment with magnets, music or movement. We spent about five hours in the museum and saw only a fraction of it.

We got a double-decker bus to Westminister, admired Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and then hopped on a boat to Tower Bridge. We arrived at the Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk) in the late afternoon as the crowds were thinning out. The dinosaurs here were wonderful – a huge skeleton of one in the central hall was breathtaking. The boys were reassured to know if they ever meet a Tyrannosaurus Rex they'll know what to do – trip it up, as it can't break its fall and its weight will kill it. It was while going through the dinosaur exhibition that Joe (8) read about Darwin's theory of evolution. He was very unhappy with my responses as to why he had been led to believe at school and elsewhere that the world began with Adam and Eve.

Paris

The boys returned home full of enthusiasm for our trip, so when we had a lucky windfall shortly afterwards, we booked a break to Paris. This time we had both parents and three children on board, leaving only the baby at home. Flights for the five of us cost €562 with Aer Lingus on its Cork to Charles de Gaulle route.

After lots of searching online we found a wonderful apartment on residences-paris.com to take us all located one block from Pont Neuf among the art galleries of the sixth arrondisemont. The apartment was tiny and basic, but it was in a 17th century building with high ceilings and French windows. Most importantly, it cost €450 for three nights. The big advantage of an apartment is the facility to cook – even if it’s just a quick pasta meal. After dinner we walked to Pont Neuf and took a boat trip (see vedettesdu pontneuf.com) down the Seine to catch our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

As we were walking the next morning in the Tuileries gardens Seán (then 6) bought three Eiffel Tower key rings for €1 from a hawker and exclaimed: “I love Paris. I love everything about it. It’s way better than Waterford!” He decided there and then to live in Paris when he grows up.

We saw so much of the city just strolling around, and the boys were fascinated by it all. We liked the statue of Joan of Arc, the tower where Marie Antionette was held before her beheading, and obelisks from Egypt in Place de la Concorde. The boys remembered that they had seen a similar obelisk in London and were tickled pink to hear that the French worked out how to transport it to Paris and erect it in seven years, while it took the English almost 60.

Anna was just three and the sightseeing was lost on her. She spent a lot of time enjoying biscuits in her compact buggy. We spent an afternoon in the Luxembourg gardens, which suited everyone. I had spent some time in Paris in my early 20s, and longed to sit on the grass. There are signs on the lawns that you can only sit on them if you have small children with you.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the weather for it so we hired boats to float on the pond – this cost €2 for a half hour per boat and was some of the best value I’ve ever had. The boats were fantastic – a real feat of engineering – and seemed to go in any direction catching whatever breeze was available. You’re given a big stick to push them out. The boys had a ball. I brought Anna to ride on the ancient merry-go-round, again and again. There’s also a little marionette theatre in the park, and a big playground.

We used the buses, which are very comfortable, not too crowded and you can wheel buggies on most. But it’s worth working out what routes you might use (see ratp.info).

One night we went to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (see eiffel-tower.com), which was magical but a bit too crowded and fraught. Next time we’ll probably go to the Trocadero and take a picture of ourselves with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Highlights of Paris, and all cities, are really the little things, like lighting candles in Notre Dame or eating hot chestnuts. And despite their reputation, the Parisiens were very nice to us and our children.

Amsterdam

Last year, we went to the south of Holland on a family visit, and decided to take a few days in Amsterdam. We flew Cork to Schiphol with Aer Lingus and, by booking about five months ahead, it cost €525 for six of us (our youngest was under two and travelled for €40).

My husband found a great little three-star hotel, the A-Train (see atrainhotel.com), close to the central train station. It had an attic apartment with cooking facilities and cost €408 for three nights, including breakfast.

Central Amsterdam is compact and easy to get around on foot, or on its second-to-none tram system. My sense of direction was challenged a few times with the warren of streets and canals. And you need to have your wits about you when you’re walking with children – footpaths and cycle paths look the same to kids – and then there are the tram tracks. I’ve heard people say they would be worried about their kids falling into the canals in Amsterdam and, while that wasn’t a concern, we had a close miss with a tram, and several near misses with bicycles.

One of the highlights was a beautiful square called the Begijnhof, known for its little houses and tiny gardens. It was a Catholic enclave for years in an otherwise Protestant, but tolerant, city. It’s accessed as if by magic through a big timber door on the square called Spui.

We also took a canal boat trip, which did nothing to help my orientation as we cruised our way up and down beside beautiful streets. Later we enjoyed hot chocolates on the top floor of Metz Co, a posh department store with a great view over the city.

My eldest son and I visited the Anne Frank Museum. I read her diary while in Amsterdam and found the immediacy of the book and the visit to the Secret Annex very moving. It’s essential to pre-book the visit online (annefrank.org) otherwise you will queue around the block.

A highlight of the Amsterdam trip was the science museum called Nemo (e-nemo.nl). Entry cost us about €50 for the family, but it was great. The children were able to stand in huge bubbles, build houses, play with water and defy gravity.

We returned to London at Easter this year, when the youngest was three and the eldest 11, and they all loved it. This time we drove over – using a year’s worth of Tesco clubcard vouchers to book a free ferry crossing – and stayed in the home of friends while they holidayed in Belgium. Again, the science museum was a big hit, and this time the boys were old enough to take in the Imperial War Museum (iwm.org.uk). We spent an unseasonably hot day picnicking at the gorgeous Kew Gardens (kew.org), and climbed the tree top walkway there touching spring blossoms 18 metres above the ground.

The London transport system was an adventure in itself, the kids enjoyed the Tube, getting a double-decker bus, taking the boat trip to Tower Bridge and hailing a short taxi ride with a London cabbie who, true to form, called my husband “govna” about five times in as many minutes. The holiday was a resounding success, helped by the exceptional weather and the use of our friends’ roomy home in west London.

Citybreaks with children are certainly not relaxing, though there are always quiet moments in little parks and playgrounds that you stumble upon. And while there is a certain amount of walking, queuing and public transport that you get with city life, my kids didn’t gripe and groan as they might have at home. Or if they did, I didn’t notice as I might have at home. Whether showing the children cities we know, or going to new places together, there’s an added sense of adventure when you take in everything from a child’s perspective.

Top tips for citybreaks

Pace yourself

You know your kids’ stamina, so don’t get carried away when you’re somewhere new. Be realistic, you will have to wait for a red double-decker, or stand in line if you want to take the lift up the Eiffel Tower. Children have no patience for it. Have loads of snacks and drinks on you, and be ready to tell a story, make up a quiz, play games.

Plan

It’s all in the planning. Invest in an up-to-date travel book. Try London for Children (timeout.com), Take the kids Paris or Take the kids Amsterdam (cadoganguides.com). Research online and you will save on everything – travel, accommodation, food. Budget on €100 a day spending money to include lattes and ice-creams along the way.

Register

Register with the airlines to receive their e-newsletters. You will get notice of special offers, so give yourself a couple of months to wait for the right deal and then book it fast.

Apartments

City apartments can be available for even one night and there’s good value if you search around. Check out holiday-rentals.co.uk – it’s a great site and has almost 1,000 holiday apartments listed for Paris alone. You can contact owners directly and negotiate – one Paris apartment owner took 30 per cent off an online quote for me.

Hostels

These can be great value and plenty of hostels accommodate young families with en suite independent rooms. An example is the YHA hostel in the former Choir Boys School for St Paul’s Cathedral in London (see yha.org.uk).

House swaps

Unrivalled for value and convenience, you swap house with other families who have a home full of all the stuff you need. We have used firsthomeexchange.com for summer holidays in France, but are looking at a midterm swap with a London family for next year.

Travel light

It pays to travel light and only bring carry-on luggage. This saves money with most airlines but, if you’re travelling with a buggy, it won’t save time waiting at the luggage belt.

Public transport

This is usually really good and inexpensive on the Continent. Kids in Paris and Amsterdam travel at a discount (ages four to 11) while under fours are free. In London, children up to 11 travel for free and, if you want to avail of reduced fares for children up to the age of 18, you will need to order a photocard online at least four weeks before you visit (see visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk).

Check online

See all the sights you want to visit on the web. That way the kids can help plan the trip, too. You can also save precious time deciding which bits you want to see when you get there and save money in the process.

Freebies

Do all the free stuff. There is enough “wow” factor for a child in just seeing Big Ben and Tower Bridge, or the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Pyramid. London’s national museums are fantastic and free while all of Paris and Amsterdam is a sight.

Books for kids

Look for children’s books about the city before you go and the kids will get much more out of their visit. Try the lift-the-flaps book See Inside London (usborne.com), the book cum board game Paris on Board (nathan.fr) or The Story of Anne Frank suitable for seven to nine-year-olds (see dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk).