Asking a parent group

Somebody who has been there with a three year old will tell you things no published source ever will. They will also, quite often, be describing a place as it was two summers ago, for a child who is not yours, on a day that is not the day you are going.

Written by Kate Sinha · Updated 12 August 2026

This is the alternative we have the least argument with. Ask a group of parents where to go in a city and you get warmth, specificity and honesty, free, from people with nothing to sell. It is also the source we lean on ourselves, and we say so on the research section of the home page.

What a group is unbeatable at

The local read. The things nobody writes down and no listing carries:

• Which end of the beach has the calm water and the toilets.
• That the famous one is worth it at nine and unbearable at noon.
• Which entrance to use with a pushchair, and which one has the stairs.
• That the queue is real, or that the queue is a myth.
• That the thing everyone recommends was the worst day of their week.

None of that is in a guidebook and most of it is not on the venue's own site. If you take one thing from a group, take this rather than a list of places.

The four things that go wrong, and none of them is anyone's fault

It is somebody else's family. A recommendation carries an invisible attachment: the ages, the pace and the tolerances of the family who made it. A day that was perfect for a seven and a nine year old can be a two hour negotiation with a toddler. Nobody says this because to the person answering it is obvious.

It is somebody else's date. "We loved it" is usually true and usually undated. Places close for the winter, change hands, get renovated, drop a weekday, or close permanently. A recommendation from June two years ago is a memory, not a fact about your Tuesday.

People post what worked. Threads fill up with wins, because a win is a nice thing to type. The place that was fine, the morning that was a slog, the drive that was longer than it looked, all of that is quietly missing, so the picture skews positive in a way nobody intended.

The loudest answer is usually the most famous one. Ask an open question and the same three attractions come back, because they are the ones most people have been to. That is not the same as the ones most worth your Wednesday.

One more thing worth knowing, and it is not a criticism of anybody: some of the most generous, most detailed itineraries posted in family groups come from travel advisors, who are paid commission on what they book. That is a legitimate business and the advice is often good. It is worth knowing which answers have a booking behind them. We have written up how agent economics actually work separately.

How to ask so you get a better answer

1. Give the ages and the shape. "Two adults, a four year old, a baby who still naps at one" gets a completely different set of answers than "any tips for Lisbon".
2. Say when you are going. It prompts people to say "we went in April, no idea about August", which is the caveat you need.
3. Ask when they went. One extra question, and it is the difference between a fact and a memory.
4. Ask for the thing, not the place. "Where can we be at nine in the morning with a toddler that is not a queue" beats "what should we do".
5. Ask what they would skip. The most useful answers in any thread are the ones about what was not worth it, and almost nobody asks for them.
6. Then check it. Take the names and confirm the hours yourself on the venue's own site, for your date. That is a five minute job per place and it is the one that saves the mornings.

The honest comparison

Do both, honestly

Ask the group. It costs nothing and it gets you things we would have to work to find. Then check what they told you, because that is where the value of a recommendation either survives or quietly expires. This page describes exactly how, in about five minutes a place.

If you would rather not do the checking

Guides are $99, $179 or $299 depending on how many places you are staying. See the three tiers.