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Route Advice - with 4yr old

  • April 27, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 74 views
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Hey - finalising our route for September 2025 and I’d like some advice please! 

We are getting the train from Glasgow with a 4yr old - she’s a great traveller. 

We plan spending around 10 days in Northern Italy and Southern Germany, but have around 20 days in total for the trip. We want to take a different route there and back, with short stops on the way to break up the journey, recognising that we won’t really be experiencing these cities fully. 

This is what I’ve planned so far:

Day 1: Glasgow > Paris 

Day 2: Paris

Day 3: Paris > Lyon

Day 4: Lyon

Day5: Lyon > Northern Italy TBC

Day 6 - 10: Northern Italy TBC

Day 11: Verona (via Lunch in Innsbruck) > Munich

Day 12 - 16: Munich

Day 17: Munich > Cologne 

Day 18: Cologne

Day 19: Cologne > Brussels

Day 20: Brussels > Glasgow

 

So my questions are:

  • Do you have any thoughts on the trip route and the short stops in these cities, would there be any alternatives? 
  • Northern Italy - what do you suggest? We’ve done Milan and Lake Como a few times, so looking for alternatives that would work with a 4yr old.

Any other tips welcome!

Best answer by thibcabe

Looks good to me.

Note that the direct Frecciarossa (Trenitalia) between Lyon and Turin/Milan isn't covered by Interrail. The French TGV is, with an easy change in Chambéry.

I didn't really like Cologne but I guess it makes sense to overnight there. Aachen or Maastricht are somewhat nicer in my opinion.

 

    3 replies

    Z
    Engin-ius
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    • zagmund
    • Engin-ius
    • April 27, 2025

    From previous experience . . . your basic 4 year old won’t be able to distinguish between an Italian playground and an Austrian one.  In other words, at the ripe old age of 4 their world consists mostly of eating & playing, so pretty much anything will work with a 4 year old as long as you bring them to a park every so often and have food to hand.

    Z
    Engin-ius
    Forum|alt.badge.img+7
    • zagmund
    • Engin-ius
    • April 27, 2025

    It stands to reason and you have hopefully already taken this into account, but there’s a limit to how much time a kid will be happy to spend getting somewhere without diversion or distraction, so while long travel days are inevitable (and part of the holiday) you need to schedule in break times along the way.

    Oh, and set expectations appropriately - when our kids were younger we took them to London, and one evening set out on a “trek” (actually probably only 20 minutes on the tube) to show them the famous Piccadilly Circus.  After we got there the response was “this isn’t a circus, there’s no clowns, it’s just a road”  Lesson learned.

    T
    Full steam ahead
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    • thibcabe
    • Full steam ahead
    • Answer
    • April 27, 2025

    Looks good to me.

    Note that the direct Frecciarossa (Trenitalia) between Lyon and Turin/Milan isn't covered by Interrail. The French TGV is, with an easy change in Chambéry.

    I didn't really like Cologne but I guess it makes sense to overnight there. Aachen or Maastricht are somewhat nicer in my opinion.

     

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