14 Day Family Vacation

Are you prepared for the weather there in January? "Places of natural beauty" will have leafless trees and possibly snow covered. Not trying to discourage you, but you might want to stick to the cities and leave the country sides for another trip.

Prefacing my comments, I live in Minnesota where we have cold winters with snow. I've been in Europe twice in January. The first trip was Vienna/Budapest/Prague/Munich/Fussen. The second was Catalunya/Vienna/munich/Salzburg/multiple cities in Switzerland and Paris. We had a great time on both these trips. The positive of these trips was that there were few crowds. Paris was about 38 degrees. That was fine, we were bundled up. Most of the bistros/cafes still had outdoor seating, with heaters. One thing high on our wish list was to go to the top of the Notre Dame. Most of the time it was closed due to "frigid weather" which was frustrating yet amusing. On the last day, instead of going there in the morning, I decided if they were to open it, it would be at 3pm the warmest part of the day. That paid off and we enjoyed the gargoyles and views. What you will find with your cities, is that they don't really have winter, it's in between weather, so not really what people consider winter, but cool and rainy/damp. In terms of Natural beauty, gardens will be bare and brown. If you are not set on your locations and wanted to work with weather, Spain would be fairly warm and locations in Austria/Switzerland will have "real winter" and not just cold and rain. While the weather for us in the other cities was not what I would consider optimal, we didn't have to battle crowds, in some cities we actually had unseasonably warm weather, and all in all we had a great time, because we were in Europe. I don't think I'd ever go to any of these places during "peak" tourist season, I'd rather deal with marginal weather than crowds.

In Amsterdam, your children, in particular would enjoy the Anne Frank house and I would still purchase tickets in advance. I believe they sell them 3 months before. The canals will still be picturesque and you will enjoy wandering around. Depending on weather, you could rent bikes and that would be fun. I think you may also want to purchase Van Gogh tickets in advance. I think kids like Van Gogh and the size of the museum is very manageable. I wouldn't do the canal boat tour unless they have the top open, otherwise the views are very obstructed. In Paris, look into the Paris Museum Pass, it allows you to skip lines, which will be few, but still its worthwhile, plus then you don't have to deal with tickets over and over. Even if the kids feel they would not be interested in the Louvre, I would still go in and appreciate the architecture and the fact that it was a palace and people lived there. Versailles is covered with the museum pass, too, that will be fine in the winter though the gardens will be brown and fountains covered. The Eiffel tower is not on the Paris Pass. Even if you do not climb it, go see it both day and night. At night it is lite and spectacular. I think your kids would love the Arch d'Triomphe (Paris Pass) for the views. The Orsay and the Orangerie are both on the pass and I would think your kids would enjoy both. The Orangerie is small and the Monet water lilies are rather grand. The Orsay was a train station, it is quite beautiful and there is a lot impressionist paintings which typically appeal to kids. Sainte Chapelle is stunning and I would think very appealing to kids. I've not been to Bruges, but I heard that most of the year it is very crowded. I think in January it could be very enjoyable. All in all, if you concentrate mostly indoors, I think you would have a great time. We had high 40s and sun in Prague in January, the crowds were few and we had a marvelous time, so you can always luck out with weather, too.

Depending on exactly how you define a "14 day" vacation (how many full days will you really have? do not count your arrival or departure days), I would advise caution not to try and include too many locations. For most people, a "14 day" vacation means you get around 11 or 12 days in Europe (I'm assuming you will have a long flight to get there and to return, so your arrival and departure days are not really usable).

Also be careful about how much your family members can do in a day - in a group, you only move as fast as the slowest member of your group. Also, in mid-winter when you are planning to go, days are short and the weather is often wet, which can limit the things you will do (on the other hand, the crowds are thinner).

Give all of that, with just 11 or 12 days in mid-winter and a family along, I'd suggest you limit yourselves to 3 or maybe 4 locations maximum. Of course, although Belgium and Netherlands are relatively small countries, France is a large place - so you're going to need to be selective.

I'd consider something like the following:

Fly in to Paris, fly home from Amsterdam (flights that depart from Amsterdam and usually less expensive than those that depart from Paris).
Allocate roughly 3 days per "location" (you will have to slice the time based on how much you actually have).
Travel by train between cities.

• Paris
• Bruges/Brussels
• Amsterdam

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Once you've established a rough framework for the trip (for example: Days 1-6 in Paris, day 7 travel, day 8-10 in Bruges, day 9 travel, days 10-13 in Amsterdam) try and involve your family in the planning. Ask each member to bring some suggestions to a family meeting. You may have to help the children get acquainted with the countries through books and movies first. I found Cynthia Harriman's book "Take Your Kids to Europe" very helpful too.