I am bringing my granddaughter (13) from USA to visit my son, DIL, and his kids, 2 boys ages 9 and 12 and their daughter (16). They live in Belgium. We want to do a driving tour around France and possibly down into northern Italy, and possibly into Austria and Switzerland. We plan to spend 2 -2 1/2 weeks. We arrive on July 8th and depart on July 28th, both from Brussels. I am hoping to entertain the boys a bit to break up the castles and churches with some activities. I was thinking of canoeing and the caves in the southwest of France. Should we stay a few days in one area and then do day trips?
Posted by
Bend, Oregon
2547 posts
Austria has a lot to offer: more affordable than Switzerland, tons of castles/fortresses, ice caves, rivers & lakes, sommerrodelbahn, salt mines. The Red Bull museum in Salzburg was a hit for my teens.
2 1/2 weeks go by really fast, especially when you need to backtrack. I recommend a minimum of 3 nights at each stop, this gives you 2 full days to explore. If you want to spend more time making memories and less time in the minivan, you need to spend more days at each place. I would be looking at no more than 4 stops.
Ask the kids what they are interested in. We’ve planned trips with our teens around my oldest’s interest in WWII history and my youngest’s experience in a dual immersion Spanish school. We limit the churches/museums to a couple - they start looking the same.
Posted by
🏝️ Hobe Sound, FL⛱️
3282 posts
You might want to start out by listing possible destinations/interests and then ordering them with proximity to each other without having to double back on the same route. Then go to Google Maps or ViaMichelin. Both will give you distance and approximate driving time. If you use the options button on ViaMichelin, you can also get approximate fuel and toll costs. A lot of people don’t realize the size of these countries, the cost of fuel and tolls and the distances between locations.
In France, one thing I definitely would visit is Guédelon Castle. D-Day beaches and the destroyed and preserved village of Oradour-sur-Glane would also be on my list. I think a 13 year old would love experiencing them. In Southeast France you could visit Chamonix and take the cable car to the top of Aiguille du Midi or in northwest Italy you could take the Skyway Monte Bianco to attack the Alps from the other direction.
Just go for quality, not quantity, in what you intend to visit,
Posted by
Washington DC
28096 posts
If you plan to drive on Swiss highways, you need to buy and properly position on your car a Swiss vignette. It's good for a year and costs 40 Swiss francs (about $43 US). I think Austria also requires a vignette, but I'm not absolutely sure about it.
I think you are planning to go too far in the time you have.