We are hoping to reschedule a 3 generation, 11 people family trip to France next July that we had to cancel in summer 2020.
What are your thoughts on timing for booking lodging and flights? Pre-pandemic for a group this big I would have stuff booked 6 months out or sooner. With the pandemic we aren’t quite ready to book yet and will focus on refundable options but I’m not sure how long to wait. Any thoughts or things to watch for?
Believing that herding cats is often thankless, I think I would reassess the desirability of schlepping around that large a group. That said, make sure you nail down transportation options, especially the viability of vehicle rentals, since you may be required to break the group up into smaller grouplets for easier movement around.
Hotels seldom have rooms for that large a group, so be prepared for multiple rooms. VRBO or Air B&B may be fallback accommodations if you want to retain group solidarity and unity.
You don't mention how the group is comprised between the generations. Museums appeal so some age groups; shopping appeals to others. Kids have their own level of difficulty because kids can ruin a vacation quicker than you can say "merde." A happy kid equals happy parents.
I would anticipate that it would be slightly more expensive to have the trip planned by a travel agent, but it would certainly be easier if the mundane aspects of the trip were all tied up without juggling reservations and plans to move together as a group. The most people I ever planned for were 9, and it was amazingly frustrating. Lay in a stock of decent wine to be used as an incentive/reward for the planner.
Did you think to check Rick’s My Way France tour. Would be a lot easier with transportation and hotels booked by someone else. The largest group I ever planned for was 7 and they were my kids, niece, nephew and they had no say - we were paying. Good luck.
All the above is good advice, but to answer your question I'd suggest looking at flights about seven months out, to get a sense of routings and fares, and booking about five months out. Are all 11 people flying from the same city to France, or would you be converging somewhere? Keep in mind that it can be more efficient to fly into one city and home from another, using the "multi-city" option. Also keep in mind that the airline may make changes if conditions next summer are as uncertain as they were this past summer.
For lodging, you may not be able to book some places earlier than six months out. Do some exploring before that to get a sense of locations, amenities and prices. Refundable is definitely the way to go here if you don't mind paying more for that. With such a large group you might consider VRBO or AirBnB, or Gites de France if it works with your plans. Paris requires registration of non-hotel rentals, so look for the registration number on the listing. The advantages of a house or apartment include room to spread out, ability to accommodate different generations' sleep cycles, and ability to have some meals and do laundry "at home." Disadvantages include possible difficulty getting and returning keys, and the absence of a front desk to help with questions or problems. Hopefully you won't be changing locations too many times, keeping in mind that a group travels as fast as its slowest member.
Have fun putting this together and make sure you get credit from everybody, whether as wine or otherwise. I'd never try to pull off such a trip myself, but I'm not sure I have ten close enough friends or family anyway. ;-)
Did you have places selected for summer of 2020 before you had to cancel? If so, I would go back and look at those places and see if you still think they would work.
My experience is that well located places that handle a group are uncommon. We had seven when we went to Greece in 2018 and seven also when we went to northern Italy this past summer. I started making reservation for Greece for accommodations in October for a May trip. There were not many choices even then. Greece has historically been poor so the larger places were new and away from the center. We didn’t want to be dependent on cars to do everything. I would think that France would be more similar to northern Italy where we had more choices. But I was looking for seven not eleven.
Anyway, if you find places that you think will work with refundable reservations, I would bite the bullet
and reserve.
Apartments du Louvre, https://www.apartmentsdulouvre.com, have two locations/buildings in Paris. It is a rental agency, they have multiple apartments in each building and an office in the building located in the Marais. The two buildings also have elevators.
Thanks everyone!!
