We are happy that you came across our major project and would like to introduce ourselves to you on this page.
Behind familienurlaub.eu stands a small team of enthusiastic travellers who are savvy online and who have already gained a lot of experience on family trips, and were able to see the challenges (but also the glamorous highlights) as travelling families. Specifically we went to:
Amalfi Coast, Italy, a few years ago – probably the smallest family holiday in terms of the number of people. It was still for two, but the children were already on their way. So we were probably on our last couple’s holiday. This is where my intellectual path leading to familienurlaub.eu began quite unconsciously.
After extensive research on a common hotel portal, we finally found our dream accommodation. A spectacular 360 degree view with a view of the sea, Vesuvius and the coast were not the only special features of this accommodation.
The operators of the bed & breakfast were incredibly warm Italians, parents of two smaller children and had really set every single stone of the rural accommodation themselves.
The mum of the hotel took care of a great breakfast every day, while the rest of the family also tried very hard to ensure our well-being. Special food requests? No problem! Tips for the region during pregnancy? Also not an issue! And the fact that the little ones played around us every day really got us in the mood for our future job as a travelling family. So it really wouldn’t be a problem here to enjoy the Torta della Nonna with your own excited little children.
During a personal tour through the wonderfully landscaped garden, the host father told us how dependent he is on large booking platforms on the one hand, and on the other hand is hardly seen due to the growing competition and has to give up a high percentage of the income from any booking made.
It sounded anything but rosy, especially when it came to the family’s existential worries. Even though we really enjoyed our time there, the departure made me sad and I still think back to the family.
But on our later trips we discovered this family-run accommodation and their worries were not an isolated case. Many small, cute hotels and accommodation operators want more presence on the web and more bookings from people who also appreciate what private individuals have painstakingly built up.
The focus on families as guests is obvious if you as a family make your accommodation available for travellers, or if you know the hustle and bustle as a hotelier with children very well.
Little by little, the idea of familienurlaub.eu grew. After studying German (B. A.) and Communication Science (M. Sc.), I mainly support customers in the travel industry in the field of web presence with a focus on editorial content and online communication.
My heart’s desire is to create a separate platform for travelling families by travelling families, which also recognizes and implements the needs of travellers and particularly strengthens small family businesses in order to become visible in the endless expanse of the Internet.
With familienurlaub.eu we went on this journey together online in order to fulfil this wish for ourselves and other families as well.</blockquote
was born around the same time as my twin sister, maybe not in the most beautiful part of Germany, but in the happiest part of Germany – in the middle of the Rhineland! For me, family holidays used to consist of 2 to 3 week holidays during the summer on the German Baltic Sea or the Dutch North Sea coast.
On board in the VW Golf were my mum, my grandma and my beloved sister, with whom I once – much to the chagrin of the adult passengers – fought a few wrestling matches on the back seat. The rest of the time, however, we got along really well.
Even back then, my mum and grandma didn’t feel like travelling long distances; it was probably just too complicated for them. To this day, my mother prefers to travel by train and car; she only gets on a plane if we plan and organize everything in advance.
After all, I have gathered enough experience with (long-haul) air travel after graduating from high school and during my studies (Ethnology BA & Global Studies M.A.) on my way through Europe and to America, South Africa, Singapore, Bali and Thailand.
So during my school days we made the trip north together almost every year. From the Rhineland to the German or Danish Baltic coast, the drive (with traffic jams and construction sites) took 8-10 hours in the high season (after all, both were dependent on our school holidays).
In the past, mum and grandma would take turns driving, but today my boyfriend, sister or I take over a large part of the route when we go on a family holiday.
A family holiday does not always have to have the classic arrangement of mum, dad and child, but can also be a lot of fun in adulthood with parents, siblings and future sons-in-law. The needs may be different than when travelling with small children, but here too it is very important that different generations get their money’s worth.
In the meantime, I have become a mum myself and have been able to test holidays with babies on the Baltic and North Sea. Even if I’m not a beginner in this field, I can already look back on some unforgettable moments travelling with children of friends and relatives in and outside Europe.
Perhaps I would not describe myself as an expert, but as quite advanced for a holiday with babies and/or small children on car trips across Germany, on long-haul flights or on crossings from the North Island to the South Island in New Zealand.
I am a professional when it comes to family holidays with peers and older people and to promote the family familienurlaub.eu project. Here you could best describe me as an all-round talent when it comes to project management, organization, a tiny bit of technology and content.
I started my first big trip as a toddler – with my parents to Germany. I was born in Poland and when I was three years old my parents emigrated to Germany to “earn some extra money” and then come back to Poland after a few months or years. At least that was the plan. But they stayed, found work, learned German, made many friends here and I received two more siblings as a present, with whom we went on many holidays as a family.
Every year, of course, I went home to Poland by the Baltic Sea for several weeks during the summer holiday. And then it was mostly during the Whitsun holidays when we travelled by car to Italy, Croatia or France and bathed in the sea and collected a lot of mussels. Wonderful childhood memories that are forever stored in my heart! I am now the mum of a toddler myself and pregnant with baby number 2. The joy of travelling remains, even if trips and holidays have changed a lot with children. You look around for family-friendly accommodation and prioritize other things.
I am very happy to support the familienurlaub.eu project because it is a great inspiration for me, I enjoy writing and researching, I am often looking for new, exciting travel accommodation and tips for families and I enjoy being with others mums and dads to talk about it.
As a frequent family traveller around the globe, we have quickly noticed over the years that travelling in and through Europe is not only easy and uncomplicated, but above all culturally diverse and wonderfully varied for young and old. The biggest realization for us, however, was that the accommodation is the be-all and end-all so that we can come down “at home” after an exciting day.
Researching cheap flights? An easy game for me – but finding the perfect accommodation for a family is a real challenge because of the travel platform currently available. Unfortunately, size is what counts here instead of quality. There are many (online) travel companies that specialize in the family travel package, but what if I would like to organize everything individually?
The idea for familienurlaub.eu arose quickly, and we all and of course I personally are very passionate about it and live it. As a business economist with a focus on business informatics and an online specialist, it was thus almost an unwritten law to turn this idea into reality.
For familienurlaub.eu, it is particularly important to me to make travelling for families more relaxed by selecting family-friendly accommodation and tips. This includes not only the fine selection of family-friendly accommodation and excursion ideas, but also the user-friendliness of the platform, which should make finding the perfect accommodation just as relaxed and easy. My specific tasks for familienurlaub.eu are mainly in the technical area around the website.
As a working student, I not only support the familienurlaub.eu project, but also bring my own experience travelling through the Caucasus with me. I am originally from Georgia and have therefore been able to experience many trips through my exciting home with children of all ages.
My region can be seen practically as a bridge between Europe and Asia and offers a wealth of culture that is still untapped for Western Europeans, and which is attracting more and more families. All the more, I would like to present the beauty of the Caucasus on familienurlaub.eu and give you insider tips that can be particularly valuable for families on exciting trips outside of the usual European holiday routes.
After graduating from university in psychology in Georgia, I began further studies in Berlin in order to further expand and deepen my knowledge as a psychologist. Here I have specialized in child psychology.
Back then, when my 3 children were small, travelling worked a little differently than it does today: There was no internet, no smartphone and the like. It was pure adventure. Especially since I, as a student, had little money. And yet it was important for me to see foreign (or already familiar) countries, to show them to my children, to draw their attention to other cultures and ways of life. To the fact that not everything works as it does in cosy Upper Bavaria.
So we packed our belongings on the „Entendach“ and drove off, with road map in hand. Often we camped in some meadow, which was still possible in the past and not as dangerous as it is today. But in between it was important to head for a campsite. Or, in particularly bad weather, a small hotel or apartment, as the holiday budget allowed.
If the Internet and familienurlaub.eu had existed back then, we would certainly have been spared some unpleasant experiences. For example, I remember a campsite in Italy: Celine was still little, around 2 or 3 years old, and she wasn’t in a particularly good mood that day. At the campsite, the only one we could locate in the area, we were assigned a tiny corner.
To the left of us a huge camper was booming with loud music (it was already after 11 p.m.), and to the right a smaller tent, in front of which a noisy group of young people was sitting. And in the only free space where we were supposed to pitch our tent, there were several dirty nappies on the floor. Little „gifts“ from the previous occupants, so to speak.
Even today I like to travel as often as possible, albeit with a different arrangement. So my husband and I are now accompanied by my rather large dog, who of course also needs a place in the holiday home. I am also happy to look back on mother-daughter/son trips and hope to see many more of them.
Since we are all quite busy professionally, it is important that the accommodation is right. Because: For example, if the bed in the shared hotel room squeaks with every turn, it doesn’t do much for the mood. Today the “adventure trip” goes in a different direction: Thanks to well-researched accommodation that suits the traveller, it is more or less possible to avoid inconveniences. And everyone can plunge into the “real” adventure that the respective travel destination has in store.
So I am very happy to support this wonderful family project – also in my own interest. As a graphic artist, I edit the images and create the drawings and icons.
Françoise lives in France, but can look back on an eventful international past. Born in Baskin, she spent many years in Germany, Spain and the USA, mainly working as a hotel manager and running her own B&B. Françoise helps us with international communication.
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