We are a family that loves to travel. Do we travel 24/7 no, are we travel experts also no. We are a family that travels often and take our children with us when we do. We traveled a lot more before kids.. shocking I know. Why should you be reading this if I’m not a paid travel expert? We are normal people that aren’t travel experts that took two children under five to Europe for two weeks! If we can do it, you can do it.
We took a two week vacation to Europe visiting just two countries. We started in the United Kingdom, in London. After London we traveled to Dover to embark on the cruise of a lifetime, a Norwegian Fjords Disney Cruise. We sailed back into Dover and the last few days of our vacation we stayed out in the countryside in a small village on the county downs. This was an excellent setup. Something I planned and researched and planned some more. The hustle of London was the perfect first stop. The cruise was relaxing yet also busy and the perfect way to get a snippet of Norway. The small quiet village Alfriston in the countryside was the perfect end. We actually walked the downs to the ocean and it was incredible.
This is just a sample of our vacation. I will be posting more in depth about each city and what we did on our trip with tips. You can also go to our YouTube channel here and to watch our vlogs if that is more your thing. I edited most of those before delving into writing here.
This was a vacation of a lifetime. I know my youngest who is barely two years old won’t remember it. I know my oldest who has just turned five now and was four at time will most likely not remember much of it either. It was still worth it. There were lots of melt downs. There were arguments. Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned, some the hard way like when I accidentally took us on the wrong train in London it was a commuter rail stopping ever 5 minutes for an hour instead of an express that was about 20 minutes total… Big whoops, but totally fine in the end. Most everything I just said could and likely would happen if we traveled inside the US. All the small and big hiccups worth it.
I love exposing my children to different cultures, new ways of thinking, history, science, architecture, foods and languages. That is something I hope I always value and instill in them. Even though they are little and may not remember it and it might be harder at times because they are little, exposing them to the world outside our small corner is something I feel very fortunate to be able to share with them. If you are on the fence about taking your children on an international vacation Europe or somewhere else. Just do it.
Jump in and take the plunge. Do a lot more research than you think you should. Plan a lot because with kids you need extra planning, but take the vacation! I hope you will come back and check out for more about our incredible Europe vacation with our two littles.