About a week ago we took a magic trip to Leavenworth with kids in tow and all, and we LOVED IT.

We took a break from travelling for a little while as we had a lot going on in the past year, like job change and crazy kids. But we recently decided to pack up and step outside our comfort zone and get back into the travel saddle.

With this said, if you are debating if you should go on a trip with your kids or not I’ll tell you to DO IT, it will be hard at times but so worth it.

Leavenworth is such a great destination if you live in the PNW. It’s so close yet it seriously feels like you enter another country (or perhaps fairy tale, this place is so dreamy).

So if you’ve been thinking of taking a family trip there I hope this post can be of help.

First things first,

PLANNING THE TRIP:

Well that was simple, the Leavenworth website is really SO easy. It has all the activities you can think of listed right there. Trust me there isn’t a shortage of things to do, whatever you’re into, no matter what time of year. It’s such a small town you don’t have to walk or drive a lot to see it all. Everything is central, amazing nature, restaurants, wineries/breweries, stores (my fav is Kris Kringle of course). And I love how ALL the buildings are Bavarian themed.

If you don’t already know we live in the suburbs of Vancouver so it took us about 40 minutes to get to the border (and yay for no border waits!) It’s about 300 km from the border to Leavenworth. We really only made one big stop to eat, so the distance is totally doable with kids.

THE HOTEL:

We stayed at The Bavarian Lodge. Aside from being absolutely picture perfect, the location is UNBEATABLE. It’s located right in front of the town Gazebo, which is in the centre of the main strip. It was so easy to get to all the shops and restaurants with the hotel being walking minutes away from anything and everything (including the beach!!)

Our room was immaculately clean and beautiful.

And the BALCONY!! Ahhhh, filled with overflowing colourful flower baskets with a view overlooking the town and the beautiful mountains. It was great to have it, since that’s where we hung out and sipped on wine after we put the kids down.

We had a king size bed, Ava got the pull out couch and the hotel arranged a crib for Sophie so the room was big enough to accommodate all of us!

Another highlight of the Bavarian Lodge was their complimentary HOT breakfast, it’s probably one of the best ones I’ve seen, Ava especially loved the waffle machine.

They also have an outdoor pool which was such an awesome perk, we went down for a dip a couple of times!

Also, biggest shout out to the staff who were beyond friendly and so helpful, be it a restaurant reccommend or just a friendly greeting every time we walked by.

THE FOOD:

Oh the food, and the BEER. I can go on and OOONNN about that..

We opted to go to places with patios to give the kids a bit of freedom to move around during supper. Plus the weather was just gorgeous.

First night we went to South, it was the most amazing ambiance with grape vines stretched across the walls and strings of lights covering the whole patio. The food was to die for, get the Ceviche!!

Second night we went to Sulla Vita

They are more of a tapas place but we left fuller than ever. Their Prosciutto-fig pizza is the most delicious pizza me and D have ever tried!

Kids both enjoyed their mini pizzas to our surprise as Ava isn’t really a big pizza fan!

The last night we went to the Icicle Brewing for some local beers (SO GOOD) and after we put the kids down we ordered a few appies from the Woodsman Pub (which is located in the hotel lobby) to enjoy in the room. This was SO convenient, sometimes it’s just nice to eat when the kids are sleeping so we were happy that was an option.

THINGS TO DO AROUND TOWN:

Both days we went down to the river, which was a 1 min drive from the hotel. The beach had nice sand with really shallow water, which is great if you have small toddlers. There is also a little nature trail by the beach with a playground which is great for a change of scenery (we all know kids need that)

We saw a lot of people renting tubes and tubing the river so it’s on our bucket list to come back and do that when the kids are older.

We also made a trip down to the fish hatchery. It was very neat, there are different stations that you can go and look at the different stages of fish life cycle. However, I do think we came at a “slow” time of year so we are looking forward to revisiting when we come back during a different season.

The main street is super kid friendly, most of the restaurants and shops are very stroller friendly, some stores even had elevators.

Overall, our Leavenworth with kids was an amazing trip. 4 days and 3 nights was a great amount of time. We are very much looking forward to going back again in the winter when all the lights are up and everything is covered with snow and we can visit the reindeer farm and go on a sleigh ride.

If you are planning a trip to Leavenworth or have any questions, I will be so happy to answer!