Best cities to visit with kids: 25 fabulous world city trips for families

Rome is a wonderful city to visit with kids, I believe the best city in the world to visit as a family!

If you are visiting with toddlers, Rome has lovely green parks and playgrounds in the city center that are great for a break from the big city and there is a fantastic children's museum, Explora Rome, that is wonderful for small kids and school children alike.

Rome is also a wonderful city for kids of school age: the Colosseum, the exciting State witing the State that is the Vatican City and, of course, gelato and pizza galore make it a wonderful city break for families with kids of all ages!

They say Paris is always a good idea and we can easily paraphrase this to 'Paris with kids is always a good idea': Paris is a wonderful city to visit with children, with plenty to do for all ages.

Visiting Paris with toddlers will get to explore the Paris wonderful gardens, playgrounds and carousels. Paris with older kids means seeing them marvel at the amazing Paris landmark, take in the stunning Eiffel Tower, play at the Villette science museum and explore museums of world fame such as the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou.

All of this mixed with that special charm that only Paris has, the makes it one of the most beloved cities by artists of all times and one of the most exciting world capitals.

When thinking of the best cities to visit with kids, New York immediately comes to mind: what a fantastic city for families!

New York simply burst with things to do for kids and is an incredibly family-friendly city, with plenty of family attractions.

Depending on the age of your kids and the time of year of your visit, you can spend the time in fabulous Central Park, explore New York toy shops, admire the Christmas lights, climb up to the tops of the city's tallest skylines or take a boat tour and visit the city from the water.

Playgrounds and museums abound and the variety of people, styles and neighborhoods will be wonderful and educational for kids, a true multicultural experience right in the USA!

Another wonderful American city to visit with kids is Los Angeles, a sprawling, diverse treasure trove of family-friendly activities!

A huge metropolis, Los Angeles has tons of things to do for kids. Love the beach? Los Angeles has fantastic family-friendly beaches with soft sand and the option to learn surfing.

Love hiking? LA has plenty of family hikes right within the city that you can tackle almost all year round.

Prefer museums and children entertainment Enter the many family-friendly museums in LA: the Tar Pits (they mammoth!), the California Space Center, the Getty Center, the Hollywood Studios, the interesting Old Pueblo of Los Angeles are only the first ones that come to mind, there are so many in the city!

And, of course, there is Disneyland: while not in the city, no city trip to LA with kids would be complete without a trip to Disneyland, a super easy getaway for families.

Ask Americans for the best US City for a vacation with kids and many will say: San Diego!

Indeed, it is hard to think of a city better suited to a city vacation with kids. Blessed with wonderful weather, fabulous beaches, amazing food and plenty of kid-friendly activity, San Diego is like a large playground for kids.

If you are in San Diego with small kids, you can spend time on the beach, at wonderful Balboa Park, discovering the wonderful San Diego Zoo.

Older kids will still enjoy all this and they will also be able to tap into the beautiful city museums and the many outdoor activities the city offers: kayaking, swimming, hiking is all easy in San Diego and the proximity to Legoland is a huge plus for lego loving kids!

Another US city for this list of the best world cities to visit with kids, but how could we not include family-friendly San Francisco?

One of the most exciting cities in the world at any age, San Francisco is simply wonderful for families.

Depending on the age of your kids, you can enjoy the city's many playgrounds (my kids say the city has the best free slides in the world!), you can visit the Exploratorium children museum, take a city tour on a fire engine and see the seals at the pier.

Of course, you can hop on and off the city cable cars, one of the most fun things in San Francisco for kids, see the 'crookedest street in the world', marvel at the Golden Gate Bridge and of course tap into the wonderful multicultural atmosphere of San Francisco, a crossroads of cultures that is exciting and educational for kids to explore, even without leaving the country.

Lisbon is one of the most family-friendly cities in Europe and a fantastic city to visit as a family.

The city has a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere that is particularly suited for a family vacation when you want to relax as well as making the most of the many child-friendly activities the city has to offer.

If you have small kids, they will love the city parks, watch the trams go by and explore the wonderful garden of Lisbon castle, perched on tops of the city.

Older kids will be able to enjoy the city's chid-friendly museums (they have a super cool electricity museum they are sure to love) and if you visit at any time outside the heart of winter, the pleasant Portuguese weather will do the rest! Just make sure you bring a baby carrier if traveling with very small ones as part of the charm of Lisbon city center are its cobbled, steep streets....

One of the best European capitals to visit with kids is Madrid, the wonderful capital of Spain.

Perched right in the middle of the country, Madrid is a city with fantastic art and history and a wonderful family-friendly side, which truly is not known enough!

Madrid has plenty to offer to kids: the city has some wonderful parks, the biggest and most famous being the Retiro, a true oasis in the heart of the city, it has stunning family-friendly museums with kids programs, so that both parents and kids can enjoy the space, and one of the most family-friendly food cultures you can get.

Kids are welcome everywhere in Madrid and Spanish tapas are the perfect kids' food, a real lifesaver even if traveling with fussy eaters!

Another fantastic European city to visit with kids Barcelona, the colorful capital of Catalunya, in Spain.

Barcelona is a city out of a fairytale with very many child-friendly attractions. If you have small kids, you will adore Barcelona many parks and the wonderful city beach: these are free, outdoor spaces that are simply wonderful for kids, equipped with playgrounds and family-friendly restaurants.

If you have older kids, they are sure to love the fantastic architecture of this city: architect Gaudi' made this city a vision of colors and peculiar shapes that are so incredible, they will capture the imagination of children like few other places in the world.

The lovely weather and amazing food will also add to the attractions for kids and soccer fans will of course adore the option of being in the city of such an amazing soccer team!

Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is another fantastic city to visit with children! Small, easy to navigate and full of family-friendly attractions, Dublin is a lovely city for a family city break or as a starting point for an Ireland road trip.

Small kids in Dublin will simply adore the many city parks (the city is super green!), the fun land and water Viking city tour that sees you on a vehicle that will enter the river (!), the fantastic Imaginosity children museum and of course cool Dublin Zoo.

Older kids will be fascinated by the beautiful Book of kells and Dublin castle and the whole family will love the easy access to nature from the city: parts of the town are on the water and you can spot seals, a wonderful surprise for many kids who don't expect animal encounters in a European capital!

Amsterdam is one of the most exciting cities world cities to visit with kids, a city with a lovely family-friendly atmosphere and plenty of children attractions for kids of all ages!

Compact and well organized, Amsterdam is super easy to explore with kids even on your first visit and truly has a lot to do for children.

If you have active kids, they will love the city parks and the fact that the city is super bike-friendly (they go fast, but bike lanes are everywhere).

Children of all ages will simply fall in love with Nemo Science Museum, one of the best children museums in Europe, and kids and adults alike will love the many art museums in the city.

Beautiful museums such and the Rijks and the van Gogh museum have fantastic programs for kids, showing perfectly that a city can truly be a treat for all ages!

Another fantastic city to visit with kids is Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of Europe.

The city is usually mentioned with regards to European politics but it has a family-friendly side and plenty of child-friendly attractions visitors can enjoy!

Small kids will love the large spaces the city has to offer, may they be the large Grand Place (stunning historical square) or the city's many parks, such as Parc de Cinquantenaire and Boi de la Cambre.

Older kids will be fascinated by the museum of chocolate, a local specialty, and the cartoon museum and murals, which are peculiar to the city.

Absolutely everyone will then love the fun looking Atomium, one of Brussels' most famous landmarks, and Mini Europe, a reconstruction of Europe... in mini size!

Families who love history should not skip a trip to Berlin, one of the most interesting cities to visit with kids of school age especially.

The city is beautiful and has plenty to offer to families with kids. if you want to tap into history, Berlin makes it easy for kids to see the remains of the wall, Check Point Charlie and the Holocaust memorial, only three of the many landmarks in the city that are easy for kids to relate to

If you have younger kids or want to mix educational experiences with pure fun, Berlin has a fantastic zoo, a super fun Lego play center and tons of museums that are suitable for kids and truly impressive - they have a full island of them!

Berlin is also a very green city and lives up to its fame of being very well organized: a real plus for first-time visitors and one of the reasons why we think this is a very good city destination for families.

If you are looking for a family-friendly city for a family vacation in Europe, then look no farther than Hamburg! Perched in the north of Germany, Hamburg is often mentioned for its impressive port but it is a city with plenty to do with kids.

Hamburg is very green and bike-friendly, which is lovely for kids of all ages as you can explore it on wheels, something our kids adored and it has some of the best playgrounds we have even found.

For us, it is one of the easiest cities to visit with toddlers!

The city also has some family-friendly attractions that are just for kids: our kids loved the children museum and were over the moon with excitement when they discovered Miniature Wunderland, a fantastic place where the whole world is recreated in miniature!

It may come as a surprise but romantic Venice is also one of the best cities in the world to visit with kids!

The city is magical at all ages but it is particularly captivating for kids who won't believe their eyes when they will see city houses literally coming out from the water!

In terms of family attractions, Venice has a lot to offer.

The city is car-free and you go around on foot or by water taxi, always fun!

The main city square, Piazza San Marco, is perfect for small kids who will love to run around this scenic piazza and terrorize the pigeons, who live here in large groups and the city has several parks that are lovely for kids. On top of this, Venice has several activities for kids that will allow them to tap into the peculiarity of the city: here kids can learn about blowing glass and make their own carnival masks in specialized kid-friendly options, great fun especially for crafty kids!

One of the best cities we visited with the children is Florence, Italy, the cradle of the Renaissance and basically an open-air museum!
The city is usually associated with museums going however, it is one of the best cities to visit in Italy with kids for family-friendly atmospheres and things to do with kids.

Among the many things for kid in Florence, there are the city beautiful parks (Parco delle Cascine is fantastic for kids), several cool museums such as the Galileo Museum of the Leonardo Museum that are fun and interactive and the city has many tours that are special for families: school-age kids can go on a family treasure hunt around Florence, they can learn to cook and even make gelato!

If you are looking for an exciting, exotic, family-friendly city to visit with kids, then I recommend you check out Abu Dhabi!

Located in the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi is a modern city with a plethora of things to do for kids, a real paradise for theme park lovers!

For thrills and fun, you can visit Ferrari World, explore the Grand Prix circuit (if you have a car lover, this will be more than enough to have them excited!) and, of course, you can get adventurous taking a desert safari.

If you are worried about the heat, you will love to hear that Abu Dhabi has Waterworld, simply perfect for kids, and if you want to mix culture with all the fun, you can visit the incredible Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque and the brand new Abu Dhabi Louvre!

Another fantastic city to visit with kids is lovely Montreal, Quebec. The city has a delightful European charm that makes it relaxed and easy to enjoy with kids and it has many children attractions that make it the perfect city break for families with kids of any age.

In the good season, kids will love the many green areas of Montreal (the city has parks everywhere!), the lovely small beach and pools in Parc Jean Drapeau and the fantastic botanical gardens, a wonderful outdoor space!

Walking, cycling, swimming are all possible in Montreal and they are a delight.

In winter, the city offers wonderful cozy refuge from the winter in the well-equipped underground city and has many museums kids can enjoy: ours adored the Science Museum and the Biodome, where you experience all earth climates in one visit!

If you are looking for a family city break in Ontario, then you will love Toronto, the beautiful and family-friendly city on the shores of Lake Ontario.

We visited Toronto in summer and our kids fell in love with it: the biggest hit for them was center Island, an isle on lake Ontario with a theme park perfect for toddlers and lovely beaches to splash about in the good season.

Outside of the island, the kids' attractions keep coming: the CN tower is perfect for kids who love the thrill of (very) tall places, the Rogers center is fantastic for sports lovers and you also have Ripleys' Aquarium, the Dinosaur Gallery (yes!), and Toronto Zoo.

An iconic zoo, one of the most scenic ports in the world and beaches beaches beaches: a list of the best cities to visit in the world with kids simply had to include Sydney.

A city worth visiting at any age, Sydney has plenty to offer to kids. Taronga Zoo is simply a must see while in the city and so is a walk or a cruise in iconic Sydney Harbour. After you have seen these main landmarks, kids are sure to want to explore Darling Harbour with Sydney Aquarium, Imax and the Wildlife Park.

Then, of course, you need to explore Bondi and longe on the beach, the perfect activity to relax during a family vacation in Sydney!

Local friends have me fully convinced: Melbourne is a fantastic city to visit with kids!

Very different from Sydney yes a must-see on your Australian adventure, Melbourne has something for everyone and a plethora of kids activities to choose from.

A family trip should start from the Docklands, the Melbourne entertainment district with the observation wheel, the ice skating arena and Grand Prix Simulator.

If you prefer to explore the city, then Melbourne has plenty of cool laneways, cafes and murals that are fantastic to see for kids and adults.

Last but not least, Melbourne is close to Philip's island where you can go see and learn about penguins!

Spain is all incredibly family-friendly and one of its most family-friendly cities in Seville, a wonderful city to explore with children of all ages!

Blessed with amazing weather almost all year round, Seville has a stunning city center with lovely child-friendly attractions.

Star war lovers are probably going to adore Plaza de Espagna, one of the city's main landmarks, but the marvels of Seville go well beyond its movie fame.

Here you can visit the Alcazar, which has a fabulous garden, climb la Giralda tower, an unexpected crocodile in Seville cathedral (yes!), the tomb of Christopher Columbus and try your hand or at least dress up as a flamenco dancer!

Seville is very easy to visit with kids as it is compact and easy to visit on foot and one of our favorite cities to visit with kids anywhere in the world.

Iceland is all family-friendly but we were blown away but how family-friendly Reykjavik city is!

Often mentioned just as a jump-off point for an Iceland road trip, Reykjavik surprises us with many children attractions perfect for kids big and small.

If you are visiting Rejkyavik with toddlers, you will adore the long waterfront, where they can run freely on a long, car free road, and Tjorning pond, when you can see ducks and swans even in winter (there is a reason for this, read our guide to find out!).

Older kids will enjoy the fantastic Perland museum and the whole family will appreciate the compact and pretty city center, from where you can take cruises to see the stunning Icelandic wildlife and even tours to try to catch the elusive Northern Lights!

Stockholm is one of the most family-friendly cities in the north of Europe and a delight to visit with kids!

The city center is beautiful and historical, with pretty buildings and many charming canals, and there are beautiful museums perfect for all ages.

Small kids are sure to love Junibacken, where they can play in the world of Pippi Longstocking, born here, and kids of all ages will have fun in the Postal Museum, the fun Abba Museum (even if too young to actually know Abba, it is just a very fun place) and the jaw of kids and adults will drop at the view of the Vasa, a ship that sank in the city waters in 1628 and has been perfectly preserved ever since!

This plus a family-friendly attitude and lovely green spaces make Stockholm one of our favorite cities in the world for a family city trip.

No list of best cities to visit with kids would be even credible without including London, an absolutely fantastic city for families.

London is a world and it has so many kids attractions, it can keep you entertained for a lifetime and you will never be bored. Where to even start?

If you love outdoor spaces, London has some absolutely wonderful parks: Hide Park is maybe the most famous but Regents' Park has the wonderful London Zoo and green areas are everywhere, making it always easy to stop and play, even in the middle of the city.

If you love museums, London has some work art one, many suitable for kids: the Natural History Museums is fantastic and one of the best museums in the world for kids and the British Museum is a treat for explorers of any age.

The tower of London, the changing of the guard, a cruise along the Thames, the Big Ben, Greenwich, Piccadilly Circus and of course Paddington and Peter Pan: truly, there is too much London has to offer to kids to even remotely mention it all in this list, all we can recommend is to go!