Advice for70th Birthday Trips

Are both trips in January? That wouldn’t be the time of year I would want to be in Greece.

How long will each trip be?

What are your interests?

Do you want to tour or stay in one place?

With all due respect, you are talking about navigating through airports and enduring l-o-n-g flights with two toddlers and a babe in arms. Not a recipe for fun for any of the adults, imho. Nightmare! And you will need to spend the $$ for air fare for two who will in no way appreciate the experience.
My suggestion is that you do a trip to Europe with your friends. Go to somewhere warm. Preferably with a beach (Hawaii, Mexico?) with the family.
We have twice gone to Hawaii, with the extended family, to celebrate landmark events, a 50th anniversary and an 80th birthday. Everyone had a great time. It is quite easy to find large rental houses, with pools, well-equipped with amusements for all ages.

Agree with reply that suggested Europe is not a good idea for the family trip with a baby and two toddlers, especially since they live in California (something I did not mention). Have been trying to convince my daughter that we need to pick someplace closer to their home.

Trip can be anytime during 2019, except February when I am in Antarctica. Would like to travel in warmer weather.

The family trip will be two weeks at the most and we prefer to stay in one place and do day outings. Would be good to be near a beach for the kids.

The friends trip can be 4 weeks or longer, with friends coming and going. Would prefer to have a home base (a rented house) and do day trips in the area.

Thanks!

I agree that I would keep the family trip closer to home. As they are already in California, I think Hawaii would be awesome.

For the Friends trip, I would do Italy Everyone loves/wants to go to Italy. You can rent a house and have people come and go as you say.

OK, it's YOUR birthday, and I'm guessing you are paying for the kids' trip -- so my take on this is that you should take them to a place you will all be comfortable. I have rented a condo in Hawaii (Oahu, Maui, Kauai) a number of times, starting with a trip with a pair of 2-year-olds -- great!! No pressure to see "must-do" sights, lots of relaxed days at the beach and the option of breakfasts at home whenever each person gets up. Easy to accommodate naptimes, too -- for both the youngest and oldest travelers.

Wow, 70 really is the new 40, or maybe 50. Quite a year of traveling, congratulations! Still, you might think about a little down time between looooong trips. I agree that with very young children, minimize travel time, and maximize relaxing time. Maybe Baja California, or Hawaii. Plan the family trip to Europe for your big 75th or even bigger 80th, as in the new 60. Depending on your interests and the season you choose to travel, for the trip with adults, any of the places you mention would be wonderful, Italy, Spain, Portugal or Greece. should be a wonderful year, 2019!

For the friends trip, I would go to Tuscany in May and rent a villa. Somewhere around Chianti in Greve, or Panzano or somewhere. It's sooooooo gorgeous in May, everything is green green green, weather is wonderful, and it's not crazy with crowds. Flying into Rome is easy, or can fly into Florence, rent a car and head to the villa. Then day trips around when you feel like it, or cooking or grilling, or having a chef in to cook for you. A day or two in Florence, etc. etc. A friend of my sister-in-law's did this for her 50th and it was a dream.

You could do this, of course, in Spain or Portugal too, and it would probably be cheaper, but for me Italy wins with its superb food and wines. And the Tuscan countryside in May . . . sigh . . .

I agree that with three children you shouldn't move around too much. I suggest a large cabin/mobile home in a camping site at one of the big lakes in Italy in June. My favorite is Camping Serenella at Lake Garda, but there are numerous others. It is easy to arrive by train and ferry from Milan Airport, but with three children you may want to spring for a minibus.

From the camping site you can explore the nearest towns on foot (and stroller) and other towns on the lake by ferry.

Then take your friends to Florence and Rome in October.

How could anyone prefer Europe to Hawaii when you've got 3 young children? Just carrying their baggage(strollers, carseats) would be a nightmare. We took our 15 mo daughter on a trip to Europe with my inlaws and it was fine since she was vastly outnumbered by adults, but it took 3 of us to carry her and her stuff! I don't know how the 4 of you could manage the children and the luggage. If you want to see museums, you have to swap off babysitting because you cannot take 2 small children and expect to see anything yourself. I had to stay outside during parts of two tours(Chartres and Versailles) because the child was talking. My husband kept her the day the other three of us went to Pompeii and my mil kept her when I went to the Museo San Marco. And there were days when our daughter and my inlaws took naps at the same time(they were close to your age at the time.)

That is a daunting task having three young children along. My experience in that dept is not even close.

We took one child in 2005, the grandson who was then 4.5 years old to France, his first trip over and first time on an airplane. As usual, the flight was non-stop, 11 hours, SFO to Paris CDG.; all in all, three adults and one child.

An important consideration is healthcare in the event of illness or accident. Older travelers and very young travelers are more fragile than others and you might want to consider whether you 'd want to get health care services in the country you choose for travel. I would be ok with healthcare in Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I'd be less excited about getting care in other places. As a mom of four, I swear every time we left town, someone had an earache, sore throat or some kind of GI issue.