Hi- I am hoping to celebrate a big birthday next year with a week long family trip to Europe . We haven’t decided on anything yet, but are thinking of possibly Paris or Italy. The group of 11 includes three kids , ages 5-10, and 6 thirty year olds and 2 sixty year olds. We are all fit and active. Has anyone done such a trip ? Or thoughts about where to get information ? Any ideas are welcome. Thank you
Noreen
Posted by
6309 posts
What kind of information are you looking for? There is more online than you could ever read, plus guide books with very organized info.
You are on the right track to pick one place. How to coordinate with that many people is another story! Start thinkg now about how you will conduct things--do you all have to stay in the same place, do the same things, who will pay?
Posted by
Bellingham, WA
1461 posts
I would start with a list of places you can fly to directly from your home airport. A week is not a lot of time, so you don't want to take any chances on connecting flights or long train rides.
Decide if you want to all stay together (one big apartment or villa or 4-5 rooms in the same hotel) or just nearby (maybe one family has an apartment large enough to gather and the others are nearby in their own hotels/apartments). If you want to stay in one big place, that might be harder to find/afford in Paris than in "Italy," whatever that means.
If you want help in planning it, you can work with a travel agent. These days, you pay them directly.
Or you could arrange a custom tour with a tour operator like https://adventureswithsarah.net. Sarah Murdoch is a former RS guide who has her own company. She is an expert on Rome, having lived there as a student. She often led the "family tours" for RS and just did a custom family tour that she posted about on social media. She offers a Rome "staycation" that you could look at customizing for your family.
Posted by
46 posts
For a big group, renting a villa or apartment in one place such as Tuscany or near Lake Garda can make things easier and fun for everyone. If you choose Paris, consider adding a few day trips like Versailles or Disneyland to keep things interesting for the kids.
Posted by
Arctophilia, Northamptonshire, England
35980 posts
Noreen,
Since you posted this in Money-Saving Strategies which is about "When traveling on a budget, there are many ways to make Europe affordable." and "share your best tips to save money", can we assume the main purpose of the questions is try to get that group of 11 around as cheaply as possible?
When next year are you thinking about? Presumably when everybody's vacations align?
Or did you mean to post this in General Europe and it wound up here?
Have you or the three young ones been to Europe previously?
Posted by
Greeley, co, usa
2897 posts
I don’t know if there is any money saving in it, but an aquaintance did a big trip like this with the My Way Rick Steves tour