Fun for Teens in Europe
Summer is for hometown parties and hanging out with friends — payback for a year of hard study in school. But Mom and Dad want to go to Europe! How can a teen stuck in Europe with his family have fun? Try screaming on the “white knuckle rides” of Blackpool, England; mountain biking in the Alps, playing pool and darts in Irish pubs where minors are welcome to be part of the scene, etc. Share your favorite teen activities and sights in Europe.
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Our 12 and 15 year old loved Jimmy and Roman Empire Tours
Even if you are familiar with European history, it is a mistake to visit Rome without a tour guide. Friends had recommended Jimmy to help us explore the Colosseum and Vatican during our stay in Rome. We were delighted with his fascinating, informative, and energetic delivery which even held the sometimes fleeting attention of our 12 and 15 year old children. I am afraid our trips to sites in other cities suffered by comparison as nothing held a candle to Jimmy's tours..I think he is special because he provides just the right blend of fascinating minutiae, historic overview, current day relevance, and humor. Don't go without booking Jimmy and try Rome in the winter...the weather was great and there were almost no crowds!
Natalie Clarke
Nashville, USA 01/22/2012
Keep teens happy
I found the hiking was easy to get my kids into but sometimes they would get a bit bored walking around cities. We made a game out of looking for pieces of cool graffiti and I paid one euro for every space invader they found. It meant they acutally looked at the buildings while they walked.
Z
Los Angeles, CA USA 07/26/2011
Teenagers and the Best of the Dolomites
We did a fairly extensive road trip through Europe with our teenagers. After lots of driving through France and Switzerland, we followed Rick's advice spend a couple of fun days in Castelrotto in northern Italy. There we joint locals for a swim at the Volser pond, went for day trip through the Dolomites that included a gondola ride up the Col di Rossi in Canazai, a picnic and a hike. Another day we went up to the Alpe di Siusi where I took my son mountain biking. Check out our Castelrotto adventures on youtube - just type in FrametoFame and check out Castelrotto and the best of the dolomite video. We're lucky that our kids are great little travellers.
Andy Betschler
Vernon, BC USA 03/02/2011
Fun Forests
For a fun, family outing that teens will love, try going to a "Fun Forest". These are located all over Europe. For a reasonable price of 15-20 euro, you get around 3 hours of climbing from tree to tree on various elements, such as logs, swinging tires, nets, sliding buckets, stirrups, and zip lines. Wearing helmets and safety harnesses, it is a really safe, but exciting way to spend an afternoon. In Germany, they are called "Kletter Wald" or "Hochseil Garten", but you can find them in the Netherlands, Austria, France and Spain too. Just to see an example, here is one that we visited, though we have been to 3 so far in the Frankfurt area.
http://www.funforest.de/
Jo
Frankfurt am Main, Hessen USA 05/05/2010
Good for teens, they love the Eco cars
We didnt have teens with us but other people in our group had teens who loved this Tour company in Rome.
After too much research online and here, we decided to use Eco City Tours Rome. Not a mistake, we loved the tours, we loved the Electric Eco Cars, the guides are top standard. At the Vatican we didnt have to wait in line as the guide had our tickets when he picked us up from the hotel Santa Chiara, same for the Colosseum fighting arena. www.ecocitytours.com They also do Rome airport pick up in Electric cars. The driver was terrific, he was Italian but not a crazy driver, they supplied a laptop which was online, and a local cell phone on our journey to the hotel.
R. Byrne
Ireland 01/07/2010