5 Ideas for Mother and Daughter Holidays Around the World

Our favourite mother and daughter bonding opportunities across some of our favourite cities

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Plum Guide home with Eiffel Tower view from balcony, Paris

Let’s face it: mother and daughter bonding opportunities are wonderful, but we’re all better than cheesy local shopping trips with a spa treatment (although a good mani-pedi and a hammam never hurt anyone). Mother and daughter holidays sound more suited, though. Paris will always have a special place in well-travelled gluttons’ hearts, and New York’s designer boutiques and department stores are a cut above. And then there are cities to visit for contemporary art and green space. If it sounds like a tough choice, our hard-to-please global travel experts have provided their ideas for mother and daughter holidays here. We here at at Plum Guide have done all the hard work to help you find the most delectable cheese in Paris, to show fashion lovers the way to the best designer stores in New York, and to tell you where to go for an art weekend, cookery course or a welcome green city break. And we really have seen it all, so you’re in safe hands.

Go for a spot of shopping in New York

Shopping in New York | Credit: Christopher Postlewaite/NYC & Company, Bloomingdales

Shopping in New York | Credit: Christopher Postlewaite/NYC & Company

New York’s famous stores are more landmarks than merely places to buy things. Designer emporium Saks Fifth Avenue takes its address on the world’s most famous shopping street very seriously: its eighth floor even has its own postcode (10022-SHOE: no prizes for figuring out what they sell there). Don’t miss Barneys on the Upper East Side, Bloomingdale’s on 59th and Lexington for that Brown Bag. And now, since everyone’s talking about the new Hudson Yards, head there for a mix of designer stores and boutiques. The architecture’s worth a look too, including a honeycomb-like staircase-slash-public artwork. Finish up in Midtown for Macy’s and the penthouse day spa at Bergdorf Goodman (housed in an art deco former Vanderbilt mansion).

Acadia, Plum Guide home in New York

Acadia, Plum Guide home in New York

Dine your way around Paris

The French love their food so much, it’s a common theme. Our favourite French sayings include: “avoir la pêche”, which means to be on form and literally translates to “to have the peach”, while “en faire tout un fromage” means making a fuss about something (or literally making a cheese about it). We could go on, but we’d prefer to “make a cheese about” Paris’s restaurants. Any form of bonding is best done over food, we believe, and Paris has more great restaurants than anyone can feasibly work their way through in – ooh – a year, let alone a weekend. And it doesn’t get more Parisian than the teeny-tiny Au Petit fer à Cheval, or for French classics like slow-cooked boeuf bourguignon in a modern, youthful setting snag a table in the courtyard of the eccentric and cheekily named Derrière. Marché Bastille and Marché St-Martin are your go-tos for seasonal produce and gloriously stinky fromage, respectively.

Romance by the River, Plum Guide home in Paris

Romance by the River, Plum Guide home in Paris

Take in some famous art in Copenhagen

For culture-focused mother and daughter holidays, Copenhagen is hard to beat when it comes to art. Work your way around the classics: SMK (National Gallery of Denmark) is a wonderful place to start for a broad view of Danish and Copenhagen art through the years (with a conceptual café that brings art and food together through beautiful Japanese and Italian-meets-Scandi design). The gardens outside make a compelling case for a walk, too. See V1 Gallery for something more up-to-date, and Copenhagen Contemporary for larger-scale art installations that are made to be interacted with (climbing on the art is often encouraged – but remember, boundaries, please). Take the train just outside the city to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art for international works from 1945 onwards, plus outdoor sculpture with moody views across the water to Sweden.

Gold Standard, Plum Guide home in Copenhagen

Gold Standard, Plum Guide home in Copenhagen

Have a green city break in London

London is greener than you might think. So green in fact that, with half of the city made up of green space, a group of passionate urban eco-warriors successfully fought to make it the world’s first National Park City. And now even the Mayor’s on board. So if you enjoy a good swathe of green space as much as you adore culture, London is your city. The obviously named Green Park is a short hop from cultural institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts and top restaurants like Gymkhana. Holland Park, with its resident peacocks, is overlooked by the Design Museum, with hidden gem Leighton House just nearby, and a host of Plum Guide homes in the surrounding Kensington area. And then there’s leafy Hampstead, with the Heath’s swimming ponds, the Parliament Hill views and the boujis boutiques and cafés to guzzle coffee in later.

The Fulham Loft, Plum Guide home in London

The Fulham Loft, Plum Guide home in London

Enjoy cookery lessons with Italian locals in Rome

Making fresh Pasta Tagliatelli

Making fresh Pasta Tagliatelli

Souvenirs: let’s be honest, who really wants the cheap tat? Bring home a skill instead. And if you think you could learn a thing or two about cooking from an Italian nonna (who couldn’t?) this is the trip for you. There are nonnas in kitchens all over Rome, waiting to knead some culinary sense into willing participants – it’s up to you which region’s cuisine you’d prefer to learn. Head to the Italian capital for meaty fare like rigatoni alla gricia (made with cured pork jowl). An especially good idea for Type A mothers and daughters who like to use their downtime to up-skill, and bring something home that they can really brag about.

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