Three girls on a beach in Hawaii
Sri Maiava Rusden

34 Places To Take Your Kids

In this selection of 35 destinations, we cover highlights from seven categories that will inspire even the most jaded child or world-weary parent. We'll give you the advice you need to plan a trip the whole family can enjoy -- and remember for a lifetime.
Parc Asterix amusement park
Parc Asterix 2005
Parc Asterix, Plailly, France
Why would a family who took the trouble to fly all the way to France ever go to Disneyland Paris? You could just as easily go to a real French theme park that's just as much (if not more) fun: Parc Asterix. Granted, English-speaking children may not be familiar with these comic book characters. But you don't have to read Asterix comics to get the gist of the thing; it's enough to know that the characters are goofy Gauls living under the rule of the Roman Empire, which gives the theme park an excuse to haul out images from Roman mythology, Viking lore, even the Druids.
In the 1949 film <em>The Third Man</em>, set in a rubble-strewn post-World War II Vienna, Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten hold a clandestine meeting in the Prater, Emperor Josef II's old hunting ground and the official birthplace of the waltz. And where do Welles and Cotten talk where no one can overhear them? In one of the enclosed cars of the Riesenrad, the Prater's giant Ferris wheel, where they lift high over the rooftops of Vienna, warily gazing over the ravaged city below their feet.<br><br><em>Photo Caption: <a href="http://www.frommers.com/community/user_gallery_detail.html?plckPhotoID=41ba7eb7-7c62-4400-a646-1fc087f814e8&amp;plckGalleryID=c0482941-0d2d-4cca-b8c4-809ee9e20c72" target="_blank">Cathy Stein/Frommers.com Community</a></em>
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The Prater, Vienna, Austria
In the 1949 film The Third Man, set in a rubble-strewn post-World War II Vienna, Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten hold a clandestine meeting in the Prater, Emperor Josef II's old hunting ground and the official birthplace of the waltz. And where do Welles and Cotten talk where no one can overhear them? In one of the enclosed cars of the Riesenrad, the Prater's giant Ferris wheel, where they lift high over the rooftops of Vienna, warily gazing over the ravaged city below their feet.

Photo Caption: Cathy Stein/Frommers.com Community
Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.
Gunter Marx/Alamy
Disneyland, California, USA
Smaller than Walt Disney World, the amusement park feels truer to the childlike enthusiasm of founder Walt Disney. Originally Disneyland was divided into four "lands" -- Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland, symmetrically arranged around the iconic Cinderella Castle, where fireworks still scintillate every night.
Tivoli Gardens amusement park
Courtesy Tivoli Gardens
Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
Though it's been around forever -- since 1843 -- and is as much a simple pleasure garden as it is a thrill-ride attraction, Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens still regularly appears on 10-best lists of amusement parks. Profuse flower beds, fantasy pavilions, tiny twinkling lights illuminating it at night -- the entire fairy-tale effect is magical, just what you'd expect from the homeland of Hans Christian Andersen.
Ride at Europa-Park
Europa-Park Freizeit und Familienpark Mack KG
Europa-Park, Rust, Germany
From the country that brought you the Porsche and the autobahn, you'd expect the rides at Germany's largest theme park to be high-tech and speed-obsessed. And yes indeed, Europa Park does have Europe's highest and fastest roller coaster, the Silver Star, which climbs to 240 feet, travels at 79 mph, and (here's a plus) delivers a ride that's a full 4 minutes long.
Snow on the rugged landscape of the Killarney National Park
Marco Garcia
Ring of Kerry, County Kerry, Ireland
Ireland's Greatest tourism cliché is the Ring of Kerry, a 177km (110-mile) route around the Iveragh Peninsula where scores of tour buses thunder every day in summer. But taking your own car makes all the difference: Follow the road clockwise (the buses go counterclockwise) and you'll have the road less traveled, with room to enjoy the seacoast views that made the Ring a tourist draw in the first place.
Uros boat on Lake Titicaca, Peru
Juston Payne
Lake Titicaca, Copacabana, Bolivia & Puno, Peru
Face it: The kids will talk a lot about their upcoming trip to Lake Titicaca -- they just won't be able to resist saying the name. But that's okay. They'll stop snickering once they get there and see this huge deep-blue freshwater lake sitting in its cup of mountain peaks, 3,600m (11,811 ft.) above sea level.
Tree at Uluru, Australia
Louise Rush
Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia
People used to believe that Uluru (Ayers Rock's proper Aboriginal name) was a meteorite, but we now know it was formed by sediments laid millions of years ago in an inland sea and thrust aboveground by geological forces (there's twice as much again underground, it's thought). On photos it may look like a big smooth blob, but face to face it's dappled with holes and overhangs, with curtains of stone draping its sides, with little coves hiding water holes and Aboriginal rock art, all of it changing color depending on the slant of the sun. The peak time is sunset, when oranges, peaches, pinks, reds, and then indigo and deep violet creep across its face. At dawn the colors are less dramatic, but you can often hear birds singing as the sun rises.
Panoramic view of the cliffs in autumn, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
Zhifeng Wang/istockphoto.com
Columbia River, Troutdale to The Dalles, Oregon, USA
Gouging out the jagged border between Washington and Oregon, the Columbia River bores through the Cascade Range in one of the most beautiful river gorges in the world. The Columbia River Gorge has panoramas carpeted in lush dark-green forest and spangled by crystalline waterfalls.
Phang Nga Bay, Phuket, Thailand
Tourism Authority of Thailand
Phang Nga Bay, Phuket, Thailand
The James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed here, on this gorgeous bay north of the well-developed Thai resort island of Phuket. It's a stunning backdrop, with limestone towers jutting precariously from the water's glassy turquoise surface, creating more than 120 small islands that look like something out of a Chinese scroll painting. Kids, of course, are notorious for not appreciating beautiful scenery; what they will appreciate is the unique way you get to explore this craggy seascape—lying down in small canoes to slip inside secret caves. It lives up to every pirate fantasy they've ever had, and then some.
Shred the surf or just settle in the sand for the perfect shoreline experience at Kauai's Poipu Beach.
Dana Nadeau
Kauai, Hawaii, USA
When it comes to beaches, Hawaii has more beauties than any one state deserves; truth to tell, the garden isle of Kauai on its own has more stunning beaches than any state deserves. With its tropical greenery, golden sand, ocean cliffs, and purposely low-key development—no building may exceed the height of a coconut palm —this island is a beach lover's dream.
The Dead Sea
Courtesy State of Israel, Ministry of Tourism
The Dead Sea, Israel
The sensation of floating in the Dead Sea is so freaky, you keep testing it again and again -- releasing your body into that incredibly saline water and popping up to the surface, as buoyant as if you were weightless. It works every time, even for a novice swimmer.
Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast south of the Great Barrier Reef, is the world's biggest sand island, so you'd expect it to have beaches -- but to have an uninterrupted surf-foamed Pacific beach running the length of the island for 120km (75 miles), now that's something special. Only problem is . . . you can't swim there. The currents offshore are just too strong, and the shark population just too, well, sharky. But there's an easy way around that -- go inland, where Fraser Island offers so many places to swim, it's like nature's biggest water park.<em>Photo Caption: <a href="http://www.frommers.com/community/user_gallery_detail.html?plckPhotoID=48ff56c9-fb0e-4c83-b0d9-b7c3fafd1f9f&amp;plckGalleryID=c0482941-0d2d-4cca-b8c4-809ee9e20c72" target="_blank">powellmb2/Frommers.com Community</a></em>
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Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia
Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast south of the Great Barrier Reef, is the world's biggest sand island, so you'd expect it to have beaches -- but to have an uninterrupted surf-foamed Pacific beach running the length of the island for 120km (75 miles), now that's something special. Only problem is . . . you can't swim there. The currents offshore are just too strong, and the shark population just too, well, sharky. But there's an easy way around that -- go inland, where Fraser Island offers so many places to swim, it's like nature's biggest water park.Photo Caption: powellmb2/Frommers.com Community
A lone lounge chair overlooking the beach in Antigua
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Antigua, the Caribbean
Once, the British Colony of Antigua was known for its sugar plantations; today it's an independent nation known for a different kind of sugar -- the fine white sand of its myriad beaches. Locals boast that Antigua has a different beach for every day of the year. Of course that's an exaggeration, but Antigua's indented coastline is fringed like a sea anemone with little bays and outlying coral reefs, and nearly every one of them protects a sandy beach.

Photo Caption: A lone lounge chair overlooking the beach in Antigua. Photo by NonaMouse
The French Riviera can be baffling to children—you call these beaches? Many of the most famous strands aren't even sandy, but covered in pebbly rocks or gravel. And for American parents, sitting among topless sunbathers can be disconcerting. Still, this fabled year-round resort seacoast is a lovely sight to see, and an essential reference point for all other beach resorts.<br><br><em>Photo Caption: <a href="http://www.frommers.com/community/user_gallery_detail.html?plckPhotoID=68efcf6b-d3d8-408a-8a79-88e9e003d291&amp;plckGalleryID=c0482941-0d2d-4cca-b8c4-809ee9e20c72" target="_blank">GAF/Frommers.com Community</a></em>
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Monaco
The French Riviera can be baffling to children—you call these beaches? Many of the most famous strands aren't even sandy, but covered in pebbly rocks or gravel. And for American parents, sitting among topless sunbathers can be disconcerting. Still, this fabled year-round resort seacoast is a lovely sight to see, and an essential reference point for all other beach resorts.

Photo Caption: GAF/Frommers.com Community
A male leopard at Mala Mala - Kruger National Park - South Africa
Anne Ackermann
Kruger National Park, Mpumaplanga, South Africa
Safari veterans boast of seeing the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and buffalo. The kids will certainly have something to brag about at school after you visit vast Kruger National Park in South Africa, where many safari-goers spot four of the Big Five in 1 day (leopards are the most elusive).
Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park landscape
Swati Gunale
Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Most folks visiting Yosemite National Park don't seem to realize that there's more to it than Yosemite Valley, where crowds of cars and RVs inch along the roads while their passengers stare at the 3,000-foot-high glacier-carved granite walls and the waterfalls that drop down them. Yes, you should drive past the awesome 7,549-foothigh sheer rock face called El Capitan; you should pull off the road to take the easy half-mile trails to view Bridalveil Fall or Lower Yosemite Falls. But don't stop there—go up into the high country, where you can explore wilderness without the crowds.
Ben Nevis, Fort William, Scotland
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Ben Nevis, Fort William, Scotland
In the middle of the Scottish Highlands, Ben Nevis, at 1,342m (4,403 ft.), is the tallest mountain in Britain. Even if you've tackled higher peaks, don't sell Ben Nevis short: The 16km (10-mile) climb is a difficult 8 hours to the summit even along the most popular route, a pony track. The final 300m (984 ft.) is really steep terrain, but having gone this far, few can resist the challenge of going all the way. For a much rougher but more scenic trail, come up out of Glen Nevis, with its rivers and waterfalls, meadows and moorlands. The summit is flat and covered with loose stones, sloping off gently to the south, but a series of jagged rock precipices plunge down the northeast side, a challenge suitable for only the most expert climbers

Photo Caption: Mar-Mar/Frommers.com Community
Michoac&aacute;n, Mexico.
Gail Fisher
Michoacán, Near Angangueo & Ocampo, Mexico
High in the mountains of northeast Michoacán, you're hiking up a mountain, no doubt fighting for breath in this altitude. Then you arrive in a grove of fir trees -- and whatever breath you had left is truly snatched away. The branches on all sides sway under the weight of butterflies, massed millions of monarch butterflies with fluttering gossamer wings.

Photo Caption: Fisherga/Flickr.com
Some 4.5 million Europeans, mostly French, vacation each year in Tunisia, offering their oiled bodies to the sun on the white sands of Djerba. This North African island has some of the most spectacular beaches in the world -- but it's a pity that few tourists bother to travel on to the desert landscapes to the south. They're missing the thrill of setting foot on the dunes of the Sahara, and for kids, there's even a movie tie-in: exploring towns that helped inspire the Star Wars movies.<br><br><em>Photo Caption: <a href="http://www.frommers.com/community/user_gallery_detail.html?plckPhotoID=268f7706-685c-48ec-bc1f-4b1f3e034a66&amp;plckGalleryID=c0482941-0d2d-4cca-b8c4-809ee9e20c72" target="_blank">Lauren Mitchell/Frommers.com Community</a></em>
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Sahara Desert, Ksar Ghilane, Tunisia
Some 4.5 million Europeans, mostly French, vacation each year in Tunisia, offering their oiled bodies to the sun on the white sands of Djerba. This North African island has some of the most spectacular beaches in the world -- but it's a pity that few tourists bother to travel on to the desert landscapes to the south. They're missing the thrill of setting foot on the dunes of the Sahara, and for kids, there's even a movie tie-in: exploring towns that helped inspire the Star Wars movies.

Photo Caption: Lauren Mitchell/Frommers.com Community
The Wailing Wall.
Courtesy State of Israel, Ministry of Tourism
The Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Israel
For centuries, Jerusalem has been tugged to and fro. King Solomon erected the first great Jewish temple here in 957 B.C.; Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it four centuries later. Kids love stories of destruction!
All roads in Spain once led to the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, where the Catholic faithful flocked to visit the tomb of St. James, hoping thereby to win a spot in heaven. The pilgrimage route ran from Paris over the Pyrenees and along Spain's northern coast -- an enormous distance even by car. (Some hardy souls still make the trek on foot.) Even if you only drive the last section, from Pamplona through León to Santiago de Compostela, you can imagine the joy of weary pilgrims arriving at last in front of this glorious Romanesque cathedral.
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Santiago de Compostela, Spain
All roads in Spain once led to the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, where the Catholic faithful flocked to visit the tomb of St. James, hoping thereby to win a spot in heaven. The pilgrimage route ran from Paris over the Pyrenees and along Spain's northern coast -- an enormous distance even by car. (Some hardy souls still make the trek on foot.) Even if you only drive the last section, from Pamplona through León to Santiago de Compostela, you can imagine the joy of weary pilgrims arriving at last in front of this glorious Romanesque cathedral.
San Pietro in Vaticano, Rome
Simon McBride
The Vatican
Whether or not you're a practicing Catholic, the Vatican -- the world's second-smallest sovereign independent state -- is a must-see when you're in Rome, if only for its enormous art collection. In truth, it has more art than most children (or most adults) can appreciate, so keep your focus narrow: Tell the kids you're here to see the work of one great artist, Michelangelo.
Exterior of Ayasofya, Turkey in early evening.
Akihiko Takaba
Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul is a city with a foot in both Europe and Asia, and its religious heritage is equal parts Islam and Christianity (even its Christian history is half Roman Catholic, half Greek Orthodox). The kids may not always be able to keep all these elements straight, but they'll at least remember the exquisite mosaics and domes.
Exterior of the American Museum of Natural History.
Clive Sawyer
American Museum of Natural History, New York City, USA
How many children have fallen in love with dinosaurs in the echoing galleries of this world-class New York City museum? And the dinosaurs are only the tip of the iceberg: Over the years, Holden Caulfield brooded over its collection of Northwest Indian totem poles in The Catcher in the Rye; in the planetarium, Woody Allen wooed Diane Keaton in the 1979 film Manhattan; and curious scientists plunked Darryl Hannah's mermaid into a tank to examine her in the 1984 movie Splash.
Montreal's Biodome facility.
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Montreal Biodome, Montreal, Canada
What if your kids could look for monkeys in a tropical forest and see penguins in a polar setting, all in one day? They can if you take them to the Montreal Biodôme, a series of four environments that re-creates four ecosystems of the Americas. In between the tropic and polar worlds you'll find the seasonal Lauerentian forest, home to beavers, otters, and lynx as well as the Saint Lawerence shore-line which showcases underwater plant life and a vast bird population. The Biodôme is just a few minutes away from downtown Montreal, but you might as well be in another world as you take in the plant and animal life along the pathways to each dome. While kids are sure to love the monkeys and penguins, they'll also delight in jewel-toned hummingbirds hovering overhead.
Here's London's knockout one-two punch:<a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/"> two world-class science museums</a>, on adjacent sites in South Kensington, and both of them free. It's quite tempting to do them both in one day, but be forewarned: Their collections are so huge, and so engrossing, that it may be hard to move your kids on from one to the other.
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Science and Natural History Museums, London, England
Here's London's knockout one-two punch: two world-class science museums, on adjacent sites in South Kensington, and both of them free. It's quite tempting to do them both in one day, but be forewarned: Their collections are so huge, and so engrossing, that it may be hard to move your kids on from one to the other.
The one do-not-miss stop for families visiting our nation's capital, <a href="http://airandspace.si.edu/">Air and Space</a> is pretty much the star player on Washington's Smithsonian museum team, at least as far as kids are concerned. As you walk into its sleek entrance hall off the Mall, you'll see all those historic aircraft dangling from the ceiling -- the Wright brothers' historic 1903 <em>Wright Flyer</em>, Charles Lindbergh's <em>Spirit of St. Louis</em>, the <em>Enola Gay</em> bomber that devastated Hiroshima, the <em>Friendship 7</em> capsule that took John Glenn into space.
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National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
The one do-not-miss stop for families visiting our nation's capital, Air and Space is pretty much the star player on Washington's Smithsonian museum team, at least as far as kids are concerned. As you walk into its sleek entrance hall off the Mall, you'll see all those historic aircraft dangling from the ceiling -- the Wright brothers' historic 1903 Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the Enola Gay bomber that devastated Hiroshima, the Friendship 7 capsule that took John Glenn into space.
Deutches Museum.
wjarrettc
Deutches Museum, Munich, Germany
The world's largest technology museum is set prominently on an island in the middle of the river Isar as it flows through Munich. The collection at Deutsches Museum highlights many German-made artifacts and priceless originals, but that's because Germans were at the forefront of so many scientific developments in the 19th century.
The <a href="http://baseballhall.org/">Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown</a> sets the gold standard for sports museums. The very word Cooperstown has become synonymous with baseball history, for legend (now discredited) claims that Abner Doubleday invented baseball here. Opened in 1939, the Hall of Fame has been around long enough to amass an unparalleled collection of sports memorabilia. You don't have to be a statistic-spouting baseball fanatic to feel moved by this homage to America's pastime.
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Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, USA
The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown sets the gold standard for sports museums. The very word Cooperstown has become synonymous with baseball history, for legend (now discredited) claims that Abner Doubleday invented baseball here. Opened in 1939, the Hall of Fame has been around long enough to amass an unparalleled collection of sports memorabilia. You don't have to be a statistic-spouting baseball fanatic to feel moved by this homage to America's pastime.
For football (soccer to U.S. residents) fans anywhere, an essential part of a trip to Manchester has to be visiting <a href="http://www.manutd.com/Splash-Page.aspx">Old Trafford</a>, the hulking redbrick home of Manchester United and one of England's most venerable football stadiums.
nyaa_birdies_perch
Old Trafford, Manchester, England
For football (soccer to U.S. residents) fans anywhere, an essential part of a trip to Manchester has to be visiting Old Trafford, the hulking redbrick home of Manchester United and one of England's most venerable football stadiums.
<a href="http://www.hhof.com/">Hockey</a> may be played around the world, but let's face it -- the ice-rink version of this game belongs heart and soul to Canada. So it's fitting that the shrine to this sport should be in downtown Toronto, in a wonderfully ornate old bank building not far from the CN Tower. It won't be hard to find -- just look outside for the bronze sculpture depicting a handful of eager young players, all helmeted and suited up, clutching their hockey sticks and ready to scramble over the boards onto the ice.
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International Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, Canada
Hockey may be played around the world, but let's face it -- the ice-rink version of this game belongs heart and soul to Canada. So it's fitting that the shrine to this sport should be in downtown Toronto, in a wonderfully ornate old bank building not far from the CN Tower. It won't be hard to find -- just look outside for the bronze sculpture depicting a handful of eager young players, all helmeted and suited up, clutching their hockey sticks and ready to scramble over the boards onto the ice.
Legend claims that Herakles (Hercules) founded the Olympic Games: After completing the last of his 12 labors, to celebrate he paced off 183m (600 Olympic ft.) and then ran the distance without taking a single breath. Whatever the origin, that distance became the length of the stadium at the religious sanctuary of Olympia, and for over a millennium, from 776 B.C. to A.D. 393, athletic contests were held here every four years.
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Olympia, Greece
Legend claims that Herakles (Hercules) founded the Olympic Games: After completing the last of his 12 labors, to celebrate he paced off 183m (600 Olympic ft.) and then ran the distance without taking a single breath. Whatever the origin, that distance became the length of the stadium at the religious sanctuary of Olympia, and for over a millennium, from 776 B.C. to A.D. 393, athletic contests were held here every four years.
Monte Carlo Grand Prix
Andy Crawford
Monte Carlo Grand Prix, Monaco
Nowhere in Europe is driving more exciting, even for the ordinary motorist, than along the French Riviera, with its precipitous climbs, breathless curves, and mountain- piercing tunnels. In such movies as Casino Royale and The Bourne Identity, jet-setters whipping around those twisty roads in low-slung sports cars are part of the Riviera mystique: It was chillingly apt that Monaco's beloved Princess Grace would die in 1982 in a crash on the same hairpin turn she took at top speed in the 1956 Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief.
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