Where are the best places to travel with kids?

How we chose these nine places

We started from trip types rather than countries: a beach week, a theme-park trip, a city break with older children, a nature-and-city trip in the southern hemisphere. For each type we picked one or two places with a family following, then kept only those where the national weather service has published monthly climate normals that we could read through the WMO World Weather Information Service. That left Faro, Palma de Mallorca, Antalya, Split, Orlando, the Gold Coast, Tokyo, Singapore and Auckland.

Three limits apply to this method. The selection is editorial, so other places could fit the same criteria. The climate figures describe a single weather station, which can differ from a resort a few kilometres away. And we make no claim about attractions, queues or facilities beyond what a cited page says, because those change often and we did not find an official source for them that we could read in full.

Official child-travel pages worth reading first

The CDC's Traveling with Children page (last reviewed 16 August 2022 when we read it in October 2026) asks parents to see a paediatrician or travel-medicine specialist at least a month before leaving, so that destination-specific vaccines and advice can be arranged, and to keep routine vaccines up to date. It also covers formula and sterile water for infants, food and drink precautions, insect repellent rules by age, animal contact, car seats and water activities. We summarise only the headings here; the page itself is the authority.

On water, the WHO drowning fact sheet (dated 1 May 2026 when we read it) reports around 300,000 drowning deaths a year worldwide, with children under 5 accounting for nearly a quarter of them. It says drowning is the fourth leading cause of death at ages 1 to 4 and the third at ages 5 to 14. Its prevention list for children includes fencing or otherwise controlling access to water, supervised childcare for pre-school children and basic swimming and water-safety lessons for school-age children.

On sun, WHO's UV Index question-and-answer page (dated 20 June 2022) sets three bands: at 0 to 2 no special steps are needed, at 3 to 7 it advises seeking shade around midday and using a shirt, sunscreen and hat, and from 8 upward it advises avoiding the outdoors at midday. A separate WHO page on ultraviolet radiation says children's exposure should be carefully limited and recommends a broad-spectrum sunscreen of at least SPF 15, reapplied every two hours.

On stomach upsets, TravelHealthPro's travellers' diarrhoea page (updated 27 February 2024) says the illness typically occurs in the first week after arrival, is often self-limiting and lasts three to four days, and gives hand-washing after the toilet and before preparing or eating food as a precaution. The CDC page adds that fluids are the main treatment in children and that bloody stools, fever or signs of dehydration call for prompt medical care. For anything specific to your child, speak to a doctor or travel clinic; we do not give medical advice.

Matching places to age bands

Children's needs shift quickly between a baby, a pre-schooler, a primary-school child and a teenager, so we sort the picks by the youngest child in the party. The table below pairs the official points above with the places that suit each band on climate and trip type. It is a way to narrow the list, not a ranking, and it does not replace the health pages.

One thread runs through every band: the water. The WHO figures make pools, beaches and bath-time the main hazard to plan for with under-fives, and the CDC page makes life jackets and close supervision part of every water outing. Whatever you choose, decide in advance who watches the children in the water, and agree handovers between adults.

Algarve (Faro): a gentle-summer beach week for toddlers

The station at Faro, run by Portugal's IPMA, shows an August mean high of 28.8 °C and a low of 18.0 °C in the 1961 to 1990 normals that the WMO site gives. July is the driest month at 1.4 mm and December the wettest at 94.1 mm. June's mean high is 25.4 °C and September's is 26.7 °C, which makes the shoulders of summer noticeably milder than the peak. Those normals are older than most in this page, so treat them as a rough guide to the pattern.

That pattern suits the under-fives band: warm, dry days with an evening drop to about 18 °C at the height of summer, and a cooler start in June. Under WHO's UV guidance the midday hours still call for shade and cover-up clothing. Our Albufeira listings show what we hold on the Algarve coast, and the table of our own data further down covers Portugal as a whole.

Mallorca (Palma): hotter peaks, mild May and September

AEMET's Palma station, in the 1981 to 2010 normals, records a July mean high of 31.2 °C and an August mean high of 31.3 °C with an August low of 18.9 °C. July is the driest month at 5.2 mm, and October the wettest at 62.4 mm. May's mean high is 23.7 °C and September's is 27.9 °C, so spring and early autumn sit well below the peak for families with babies or toddlers who tire in heat.

As a trip type this is the straightforward resort week with a pool or beach at the centre. The trade-off is that the middle of the summer, by the numbers, is the hottest part of the year, and the shade-at-midday advice from WHO applies most then. Browse Majorca to see what we list on the island.

Antalya and Split: hot dry summers on the Mediterranean

Antalya has the hottest summer of our nine in the normals we read. The Turkish State Meteorological Service figures on the WMO site (period 1929 to 2000) give a July mean high of 33.8 °C and low of 22.4 °C, with only 2.2 mm of rain, against a December total of 263.3 mm. June's mean high is 30.5 °C and September's is 30.9 °C. For families, that means the water-and-shade routine matters most here, and May (25.4 °C) or October (26.4 °C) are the milder options if school dates allow. See Antalya for our listings.

Split, on Croatia's coast, is cooler at the peak. The Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service data on the WMO site, with no normals period stated, show a July mean high of 29.8 °C and low of 21.6 °C, and the driest month is July at 27.6 mm. November is the wettest at 111.9 mm. The pattern is similar to the Aegean-Mediterranean beach week, with a warm sea season that we have not quantified because we did not find an official sea-temperature series to cite.

Orlando: theme-park trips run into a wet, hot summer

Orlando is our pick for a trip built around theme parks. The National Weather Service data on the WMO site (1981 to 2010) shows the heat and the rain arriving together: July has a mean high of 33.2 °C and a low of 24.2 °C, and June is the wettest month at 222.0 mm. July and August each exceed 180 mm. November is the driest month at 61.5 mm, and its mean high is 25.5 °C.

Those numbers argue for planning outdoor queues with the UV index in mind and for scheduling a midday break indoors in summer, which fits WHO's advice to seek shade around midday at UV 3 and above. Spring and November are the milder months in the table. Our Orlando page lists the stays we hold, and the CDC's note on checking local car-seat rules applies if you hire a car there.

Gold Coast and Auckland: southern summers at northern Christmas

The Gold Coast is warmest in January, with a mean high of 28.2 °C and a low of 21.0 °C in the Bureau of Meteorology figures for 1982 to 2010, but its wettest month is April at 224.5 mm and March is close behind at 219.0 mm. September is the driest at 32.7 mm. July, the coolest month in the table, averages 20.5 °C by day. The trade-off is that the wettest months, March and April, fall in the warm half of the year. Read more at the Gold Coast.

Auckland is milder still. MetService normals on the WMO site (1981 to 2010) give a February mean high of 24.1 °C and a July mean high of 14.3 °C, and the wettest month is July at 133.1 mm. January is the driest at 66.1 mm. It is the mildest of our nine on the warmest-month figure, and its warm season falls in the northern winter, which is the main reason to consider it for a December to February trip.

Tokyo and Singapore: city trips for teenagers

Tokyo is our pick for a city break with older children. The Japan Meteorological Agency figures (1991 to 2020) give an August mean high of 31.3 °C and a low of 23.5 °C. The wettest month is October at 234.8 mm, with September at 224.9 mm just behind, while February is the driest at 56.5 mm. April's mean high is 19.4 °C and November's is 16.7 °C, so spring and late autumn bring comfortable walking temperatures, with the caution that April and May still record 133.7 and 139.7 mm. See Tokyo for our stays, and our best time to visit Japan page for the wider country.

Singapore barely changes through the year. In the Meteorological Service Singapore normals (1991 to 2020) the mean high stays between 30.5 °C in December and 32.4 °C in April, a range of under two degrees. Rainfall varies much more: February is the driest month at 105.1 mm and December the wettest at 331.9 mm. For teenagers who will use public transport on their own, that means choosing the dry-season months mainly to avoid soaked days, not to escape heat. Because the heat is steady, sunscreen and hydration matter in every month.

The nine side by side

The table gives, for each station, the warmest month with its mean high and low, the driest month and the wettest month. Station choice and normals periods differ, so read the table for the shape of each place's year, not for small differences between places. Antalya's older period and Split's missing period are the weakest rows.

Limits of this list

This page does not rank family destinations, measure how child-friendly any country is, or give safety verdicts. We did not use national tourism boards' own family pages as evidence, because the ones we tried were not readable in full or gave only headings. Our picks therefore stand on climate normals plus our own trip-type judgement, and you should add your own checks for transport, language, food and the particular needs of your children.

For health, the sources are general child-travel pages. They do not tell you whether a particular destination needs a particular vaccine or preventive medicine; that depends on the place, the season and the child, and is a question for a doctor or travel clinic who can read the destination-specific pages. For entry rules, check each country's official immigration website. For travel advisories, read your own government's current advice for the dates you plan to travel.

Practical notes for a family stay

A kitchen helps most with the youngest age bands. Formula preparation, a fixed meal rhythm and a fridge for milk are easier in an apartment than in a standard hotel room, and the CDC's food-and-drink guidance is simpler to follow when you control the kitchen. Our guide to group and multigenerational trips covers sleeping arrangements across several adults and children.

The table of our own data below lists the aparthotel count, median nightly price and kitchen share for the countries on this page, from our catalogue. Nothing in it is a recommendation of a particular property. Compare it with the climate table to see where a kitchen-equipped stay is common, then check each listing's own details for cots, pool fencing and anything else you need.