45 days in Europe

Since you know better than anyone what you are interested in seeing and going and staying I recommend you get one of Rick Steves Best of Europe books. it covers Italy France and England. It has tips, advice, itinerary recommendations, lodging suggestions, best transportation options and other stuff that can help you. Or go to the local library which has all kinds of travel guide books and work out a itinenary based on your interests in each country and take notes.

We all have favorite places, but you need to tell us about your family's special interests and what you see yourselves doing on your vacation: museums (art or other?), historic sights (castles, palaces, other?), beaches, mountains, lakes, rural scenery, large cities, small towns, active sports, musical events, plays, etc. Any special interests that we might not guess (wine?) I'm sure I'm forgetting some possibilities.

Am I correct that there will be five of you in Spain/Portugal and just three the rest of the time?

What city are you flying into? What city are you flying home from?

Do you have any places on your must-visit list? Is the Spain/Portugal part of the trip already planned? If so, what are your first and last stops on the Iberian Peninsula?

Thank you Jazz+Travels and acraven for your response. I just ordered Rick Steves' book on Europe.

Acraven: We are only three during the entire trip. Thanks for your very questions. I will answer them in the next few days.

You are requesting a lot of information, possibly too much for anyone to answer that would cover all those countries in any sufficient detail, it's far too much of an open question.

May I suggest that you identify the particular areas/towns/cities that you want to visit in each country. Asking for recommendations for France or England for example is far too broad a question and will either result in too many responses or people feeling that it's too much to write. You must have some idea of what you want to see and where you want to go otherwise why choose to go? It's like me posting a question, "I want to visit the US, what can you recommend?"

You've ordered the guide book to Europe which is a good start. I would advise that you read through, identify a tentative route and itinerary and then come back and give everyone here the opportunity to fine tune it and offer more appropriate suggestions and recommendations.

As the others are saying this site works best with specific questions on relatively narrow subjects. We are not travel planners. But in very general terms --- train travel works best until you want a specific location that is not served by public transit. That is a physically hot time to be in Spain but being from Orlando you should be use to the weather. My tendency would be to travel north into the Scandinavia countries -- long days, great weather - maybe into Russia. You might even throw in a ten day cruise through that area. Options are endless.

It will be hot in Italy too. Maybe best to go there first (fly?), then France, then England. Fly into Madrid or some other Spanish or Portuguese city, fly home from London or another UK city. Actually, you probably already have your transatlantic flights lined up.

Try to spend at least several days in big cities like Rome, Paris, London. Avoid the temptation to "hit" lots of places with one- or two-night stands (unless you're truly in transit). Take trains between big cities, rent cars for rural areas, returning the car in the country where you rented it to avoid a big surcharge. Build some "down" days into your planning, whether in cities or country, just to rest and take a breath and do laundry and such.

The "Best of Europe" book will give you an overview of the countries you want to visit and good info about travel in Europe generally. It will help you put an itinerary together and people on this board can help you fine-tune it. Use the specific country forums for specific questions relating to those countries, to get more responses from people with more detailed knowledge.

And don't lose too much time, June is closer than it may look (well, you're in Florida so I guess it's always June). Have fun putting this together. Lucky to have so much time!