In my Amsterdam Blog, I talked about how we ended up doing a European vacation with our girls over Thanksgiving break. Here’s a little recap:

“When we found out our kids had off the entire week of Thanksgiving, we decided to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. As an airline family, we have the perk of getting to travel on standby at little to no cost. On top of having a hotel credit card, our ultimate goal in life is to be able to travel the world with our family at minimal cost. We took advantage of both and played standby roulette for our daughter’s first European trip.”

We knew wherever we started, we wanted to end in Paris. We were lucky to get seats to Amsterdam and spend a magical 48 hours eating pancakes, playing at the NEMO Science Museum and taking a canal cruise. If you need a two-day family friendly itinerary for Amsterdam, I got you!

We took a train from Amsterdam Central to Paris Gare du Nord. It is about a 3.5 hour train ride through Belgium and France and once again, our girls proved to be the best companions! Read on as I share our two-day kid friendly Paris itinerary for the winter months.

Day 1: Tuileries Garden, Dinner & The Eiffel Tower

After arriving in Paris, we dropped our bags off where we were staying and left in search of a park for the girls to run around in and find a snack to get us by until dinner.

Nutella crepes became our best friend!

We headed for Tuileries Garden to explore and ran into a pop-up Christmas market! The girls rode a few rides, we drank mulled wine and shared a box of macarons. Is this real life??

I imagine in the spring and summer months these gardens are filled with blooming flowers, people walking around or enjoying a seat by the fountain and music is in the air. It is much quieter in the winter months, but still beautiful! It is also located nearby the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde if you wanted to pair those sites with this public park.

We followed the park up with a quick outfit change to get into dry clothes and found a place to eat dinner around the corner from where we were staying. Don’t forget that in France, their portion sizes are truly for one and so everyone is expected to order their own meal, kids being an exception (they can possibly share one meal as there is not always a kids option).

We knew our time in Paris was limited so in true American fashion, we headed straight for the Eiffel Tower. We chose to walk to see more of the city as it was decorated in many lights for the holiday season!

Getting to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle for the first time with my children was like reading a really good book for the first time. You’re envious of the moment you just experienced because you know that moment will only happen once, even if you revisit it over and over. Traveling with children opens your heart and your eyes in ways you didn’t know you needed.

Day 2: Arc De Triomphe, The Lourve & A Seine River Cruise

Due to using hotel points, we ended up finding it more cost efficient to get an Airbnb for one night and use the second night for points. The only downfall was needing to cross the city for part of our second day to drop luggage, but we certainly made the most of it!

The girls got hit hard with jet-lag and really never recovered during the trip. We let them sleep in a little our second morning before finding croissants and coffee to start our day!

Thankfully we were right around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe, which was also kindly placed directly beside a metro station, which we needed in order to get to our final hotel. If we didn’t have luggage to worry about we would have made more of an effort to climb to the top and soak in all of the views. This is definitely on my list of things I’d like to do when I return! As well as all the shopping this area has to offer!

After securing our room and dropping our luggage, we took the metro to the Louvre Museum, a must visit site if you are in Paris!

This museum, which is housed inside the Louvre Palace, is absolutely magnificent. You could spend DAYS inside exploring, let alone hours. With our girls, ages six and nine, we were happy be inside for an hour and a half before tummies started to grumble and patience started to wean. They knew of the Mona Lisa so that was a big deal and they really wanted to see a mummy. So while getting between those two sections, we got to see a lot of statues, paintings and Egyptian history. Make sure to buy tickets ahead of time and know the physical abilities of your party! There are elevators I believe, but regardless, it’s a lot of walking! Dress accordingly!

After the Louvre, we grabbed an early dinner and again, decided to walk back to where the Eiffel Tower was to try to catch a Seine River cruise. This was a solid hour walk from where we were. I am still amazed at how great our girls did with all the walking! There is so much to see and lots of great conversation that made the time fly by!

We finished our time in Paris with an evening Seine River Cruise and eating Nutella crepes under the Eiffel Tower. My recommendation is the Seine River cruise is a nice way to give your legs a break and take in some sights, but not a must. Eating crepes under the Eiffel Tower? DO IT!

This trip felt both a once in a lifetime opportunity and at the same time, just the beginning our the adventures as an airline family. Planning a family vacation without a destination is a risky move, but with our flexible kids (and travel days), a partner who helps divide and conquer the tasks at hand, and being willing to embrace the thrill of it all, goes a long way!

If not now… when?

Thanks for stopping in! Let’s stay connected and see the world together!