Early Stages Family Trip to Europe w/ kids.

Hi Melissa, I would start in London and take the Eurostar to either Brussels or Paris.

"Where would you start and what spots would you be sure to hit?"

I think this is a question for your group to answer. I think the adults should use their own personal interests to brainstorm a list of things / places they want to see/do, then negotiate them into a prioritized list - and be sure to include some options that you think the kids will probably enjoy. Realistically, you might have time for 6-7 different destinations at most. How many depends on how long it takes to travel between them / how far apart they are from each other.

It probably does not make sense to try to see all of Europe, all of its largest cities, or to copy a bus tour itinerary - that will exhaust your crew and turn your trip into a blur. The logistics with 6 persons are not easy - even 6-7 destinations will involve solid planning and execution skills.

I think you can get a good "local" perspective by booking guided walking tours or bus tours with the local tourist offices in European cities. Most cities have a nice variety of these to choose from.

Are those the ages the kids are now or will be then? At any rate, there are books with titles like, “London with Kids,” etc. After you decide on destinations, I suggest you get one or more of those guides. Just one example; my daughter found a food tour and cooking class for her son, then 8, in Rome. He absolutely loved it.
I would resist the temptation to try to see too many different places. Not only do you lose at least half a day or more when changing locales, those changes are tiring and boring. Not the best prescription for kids.
Btw, the suggestion of starting in London is an very good one.

Will this be a summer trip? There are some places I love in southern Europe that I wouldn't recommend for a summer trip.

There are fabulous destinations all over Europe. The secret to seeing a lot is not covering too much territory. That time spent getting to bus and train stations or airports is wasted time. The time actually sitting on the buses/trains/planes is also pretty much wasted unless you're traveling on the ground through highly scenic territory. I enjoy looking out the window of a train or a bus, but one hour of scenery is a lot better than six hours of scenery if you're not somewhere like Switzerland or Norwegian fjord country.

Try to find a good variety of destinations that don't require a lot of time in transit. Take into consideration your family's interests: Are you into outdoor activities? Do some of you like art? Are the kids interested in a particular historical period, or science? Are the kids likely to need periodic time at a beach or a pool? Tell us about your family and we may have more specific ideas for you. No matter how you describe yourselves, I'd try to fit in a mountain experience (unless you live somewhere like the Rockies) and a lake or river experience. And don't spend all your time in the big cities; at least take day-trips to a few small towns. They often retain more of the local character than a big metropolis.

Costs vary a lot from country to country, and there are often some cities in a country that are considerably more expensive than others. If you aren't made of money, you may feel you need to limit the amount of time you spend in (or skip) the most expensive countries like Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Please let us know if you want to be sort of frugal on this trip. Believe me, you can have a wonderful time in a less expensive city. Two relatively affordable examples (in my experience since 2015; I haven't checked current hotel rates) are Budapest and Berlin.

Starting in London and taking the very fast Eurostar to Brussels or Paris (I'd choose Paris) is a good suggestion. London and Paris together would chew up about 10 days of your trip; you could easily spend weeks in each of those cities without running out of things to do, but I think--especially on a first trip (which I think this is??)--it's great to have a lot of variety. You could add on a stop or two in Belgium, Amsterdam and a smaller town or two in the Netherlands, the Rhine River area (castles!) in Germany.

But that's just one example. I've spent three months at a time in both Spain and France. They are among the European countries with many varied destinations, creating the opportunity for a lot of different cultural experiences without a lot of time in transit. Italy is another. You might take a look at Rick's Best of Europe in 21 days itinerary. I wouldn't want to move as fast as that tour does even if I were on a tour with everything carefully set up for me, and I think it would be a bad idea to attempt it on an independent trip. I wouldn't even want to do that trip over the course of 4 weeks; what I think about spending only 2 nights in Paris isn't fit for publication. But the itinerary identifies some places he thinks are high-impact and shows how you can put together a trip that gives you a wide variety of experiences. Note that a lot of the time is spent in smaller towns; the tour doesn't just hop from capital to capital. I am not suggesting that you choose your destinations from the places where the tour stops. Plenty of people on the forum will warn you about how incredibly touristy places like the Cinque Terre and Rothenburg are; so is Venice, of course, but Venice is unique.

Lots of people traveling with multiple children like to set up shop for about a week or so in a house out in the country somewhere (maybe with a pool) and take leisurely day-trips in the surrounding area.

To minimize exhausting the crew. allow at least 3-nights for each stay, to avoid too much packing and unpacking, or almost constantly hopping on a train for the next long ride. Even moving every 3 nights could be pushing the limits. Covering a lot of territory doesn’t have to mean lots of countries. France is big, and sights, food, and experiences can vary from north, south, east, west, and middle. Same with Spain, and Italy, too. Maybe consider a trip including just the UK and France, finishing down in Nice. If going later in the year, that makes finishing along the Mediterranean an even better plan. You could even pop over to Monaco for a day, where there’s a great aquarium to delight kids and adults. Are you planning on renting a car or minivan, or taking trains (or planes?) to destinations?

If your kids enjoy an occasional romp on a playground, lots of major European cities have them in abundance, in parks. London, Paris, Venice, and more. They’ll see other kids in plazas everywhere, likely kicking a soccer ball around.

"My" ideal would be:

10 nights England - including 6 nights in London, 2 nights Salisbury and 2 nights Bath. I'd put the out-of-London nights in the middle or give yourselves at least one night in London before catching the Eurostar.

--> Eurostar (if still running) to Paris

--> 10 nights France - including 7 or 8 nights Paris, 2 or 3 nights Bayeux for the Normandy Landings (which may or may not be of interest to your family). From Paris I would make day trips to Chartres and Giverny. Again, I'd do any out of town nights in the middle so you are positioned for your next transport.

--> Fly to Venice. I've done this using one of the Low-cost carriers but unknown how those will pan out post-pandemic

--> 10 nights Italy - 3 nights Venice ->train to Florence for 3 nights -->train to 4 nights in Rome

Of course, YOUR group's interests may not be the same as mine! I'd encourage you not to try to "see it all". Rick says "Assume you will return" so yes do that. I'm older than your Mom and yes, I'll be back.

Having said that, I'll also add that one of my favorite Rick Steves tours was his 21 Day Best of Europe. It had a little taste of everything BUT it's not really an itinerary a first-time traveler can replicate on their own. Too short a time frame for many locations if you have to figure out your own transport etc. Much easier when you've got a guide and bus driver who know the areas like the backs of their hands.

Fun time planning!

PS - If your Mom is not walking 3-4 miles at a time, get her to start a walking program. I like to be in the 7-mile range when I go to Europe and believe me it is WAY more fun if you are not exhausted from walking!

I would get a map of Europe and start marking some of the top places you’d want to go and see if an itinerary starts to take shape. Rome2Rio is a good resource to see how long it takes to get between places. Plan to fly into one city and home from another. Also decide whether or not you’ll be comfortable renting a car for part of the trip. If not, some smaller, more rural locations will be less accessible and might not be worth the hassle.

With a group that size, I’d recommend thinking about four nights per stop maybe more for bigger cities like Paris, London, Rome. Checking in/out of places, taking trains, etc will eat up about a full day and that is the stressful/less fun part of travel. We like doing a mix of bigger cities and smaller villages but think about what mix your family might prefer.

When traveling with kids in Europe, we’ve found that it was cheaper to rent apartments/houses through VRBO/AirBnB than it was to stay in a hotel room. That was obviously pre-pandemic so who knows how much that landscape will change but it was also nice to have a little room to spread out with kids.

There are a series of travel books for kids called Mission: Rome (London, etc). I highly recommend these as they can be really engaging for kids. They focus on places kids might not have as much fun at and have them look for quirky things while there. I like to show my kids movies and shows set in the places we’re going to before we travel. That way, they have some background knowledge and things make a bit more sense when they get there and it feels exciting to see something they know a bit about.

London and Paris(Brussels is boring) or Italy or entire time in UK. UK is the easiest and lots of great places to take kids-Tower of London, British Museum, Windsor Castle, Harry Potter if they're fans(but get tickets 6mo in advance), great Zoo, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, city of York(easily reachable by train from London), Edinburgh(great museum that children would love)

Very open ended question you pose.

Are the ages now or for 2023?

What are the budget constraints, if any?

You could spend all 4 weeks in Italy and leave a lot unseen.

Or are you looking for an extended 'sampler' of more of Europe, such as the RS 21 day Best of Europe ( as noted by acraven, above)?

Does "Europe" mean Germany and westward or are you including the former Iron Curtain countries as well?

Hi Melissa -
Personally? I don't think, based on what little we've been told about you and your crew, anyone here can tell you where to go and what to do. Best plan is to go to the library, check out a variety of guidebooks, and start making notes about what appeals and what doesn't. Critical to your plan will be what season you expect to take this trip, your budget, what ages your children and your mother will be in 2023, and what you and your family already have interest in. History? Art? Scenery? Hiking? Beaches and water sport?

What you should NOT do is expect to travel widely in Europe over a 3-4 week period. You and your children WILL be exhausted if you try to cram too many countries/cities into that amount of time, especially if you want to have some relaxation periods. It can take time to acclimate to how things operate in a foreign country so you don't want to JUST get your head around one before having to get your head around another. Make sense? The fewer the destinations, the more opportunity you'll have to learn them at a deeper level + build in time to kick back and just enjoy the view.

Guided tours? They can have their benefits so OK, book a few all-day, 1/2 day or several-hour excursions here and there. Still, independent exploration at you and your family's own pace would have positive benefits as well, and is not difficult to do with some prior research + a good guidebook. That's how my DH and I have done it to date!

Not crazy about spending the time and energy it takes to create an individual plan + make all the bookings, including transport? Then yes, look at an escorted tour; they can handle most of the sightseeing planning + hotel and attraction bookings + transport. They can be very good ways for very busy people to get the feet abroad without drowning in the details, although you will be moving at the tour's pace, and visiting what's on their itinerary. As mentioned above, here are some options from the RS organization; I'd take a look at the Family Tours and My Way tours. Your family could also elect to spend some days independently before or after a chosen tour.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours

The 11 YO is able to participate in the planning. Pick a city and assign them to do the research.

Starting now, allow them to accumulate a "travel fund". We told our kids that we would match all money they raised 1:1. Then we gave them tasks to do to make money. For the trip, each of them had 50-60. They had complete control over spending the money.

Wow! 3 - 4 weeks is a long time to travel with kids. Also, pandemic is still on-going at this time. There is a lot of ground to cover here. You may need to post several questions. The biggies right now are: 1) Are all members of your family vaccinated? 2). Passports for everyone? 3). What are the pandemic requirements of each country you desire to visit? Travel outside of the USA is so much more difficult now until the pandemic settles down more.
After you determine the countries you are going to visit - then we can help you fill in your itinerary.
Generally speaking, the United Kingdom is great for kids. I don’t know how things are now though due to the pandemic. Italy is a great place to visit as well.

Given your mother's age, if she hasn't been to Europe before, I would give heavy consideration to where she wants to go. The rest of your family will probably go again, but she may not.

Also, pandemic is still on-going at this time

Melissa is planning this trip for mid-late 2023, so over 2 years from now. I'll agree with getting the children involved, and I LOVE Italy too but your family may have other ideas. Some other posters made very good points about "setting up shop" for a week in an apartment if traveling Europe with 6 people. You'll only move as fast as your slowest member of the group, and getting everyone packed up, on to the next location and settled in again will eat time and energy. If you are considering a tour, everyone in your group needs to be able to cheerfully get up, get cleaned up, fed and ready to roll at the appointed hour...which can be early for late sleepers.

It's usually much easier to have a base to dump the stuff for longer periods and day-trip without it, plus it'll reduce the amount of accommodation planning/booking you'll need to do. A base can also come in handy if you have times that you don't want to do EVERYTHING together. For instance, Grandma may welcome some quiet time whilst you take the young people off to do something they might like but which doesn't particularly turn her on. Anyway, if the business of herding your group around is likely going to fall to you, consider your own sanity when making the plan? :O)

One thing to consider is to stay in an apartment. We have stayed in apartments in Scotland, Germany and Austria. In some countries, such as Scotland, most apartment rentals are for a week, usually Saturday to Saturday ( similar to many US summer beach rentals ). But in Germany and Austria we have stayed 3 days at several, and many places will allow stays of one night ( at a higher rate or with a cleaning charge ). Apartments give more space and your children will probably be 1/2 price. Much cheaper than getting 2 rooms.

As to where to go, I would suggest the British Isles as your first stop. It is easier to start where there isn’t a language problem.

There are SO many possibilities. I like the concrete answers some have given (taking the question very literally). I would definitely involve your mom in deciding where to go. And I would pay attention to your gut instinct, whatever that is. There doesn't have to be a comparison list between places, just pick a few that have always intrigued you and build a trip out of that. This is what I have done with my family of 5 for several summers pre-covid starting when our kids were that age. We tend to cover a lot of ground so I am reluctant to offer our plans as examples, but they all started by what I felt drawn to that year, no real method to the madness.
Because our goal is to travel every summer (to maximize time there) we also aim to minimize expense, and so again, our planning is not for everyone, or even several (ha ha).

Some tricks I've picked up in our travels with 5 including kids: after our first trip, we learned about credit card points and started one that we could use to earn tickets, and that has saved us a lot on the airfare (my goal is 'free' airfare for 5, which we get close to ... through additional ticket buying tricks, I should add). We also as someone mentioned, stay in apartment rentals (usually Airbnb or VRBO), but I do always look for b&b's because I love having a breakfast available. Considering there are 6 of you, it will likely be easier to find, and more cost effective to rent apartments. We almost never find 1 room with space to sleep 5, so with 6, you will probably have to rent two rooms or look for an apartment. Same goes for renting a car. We love public transportation and taking trains as much as possible, but it can be much more expensive to buy 5 tickets than to rent a car. Also, trains dont always go where you want to visit. We rent a car for places like the Dordogne, Provence, all of Northern Spain, but never in cities obviously, which is all we visited in Italy so we took the train between cities there. We have only done tours when we felt we couldn't get the same experience on our own: the underground and third tier of the Colosseum, the early morning Vatican tour, a sunset boat ride in Santorini (totally unlike us but fun for a one time experience). Finding water is nice for a break for the kids: there's a beach in Barcelona for example, or the pond in Luxembourg gardens (there's also a playground in Luxembourg gardens my kids liked at that age), or even a rental with a swimming pool. Doesnt take much water for them to splash around, but its enough to let them spend an hour or two being kids to reboot for more site seeing.

Do you have European heritage? Maybe that could be one way to come up with a starting place from whence to build the trip?

Given your mother's age, if she hasn't been to Europe before, I would give heavy consideration to where she wants to go. The rest of your family will probably go again, but she may not.

Cala (Charleston / Birmingham) makes a very good point. Having said that, however, do get the kids involved in the planning. The more "invested" they are the lower the chance of having "unhappy campers" that can spoil things for everyone.

Re what TC said: Planning the trip together could be a great grandmother/grandchildren activity-grandma probably has more time for this than the parents!

So many things to consider: What time of year are you going? I will assume summer, so recommend starting in the south and working your way north due to weather (I hate the heat).

How do you plan to get from one place to another? With a group that size, I will assume it’s by train. Renting a vehicle large enough for 5 plus luggage could be a challenge. You don’t want to pick up ca car in one country and drop off in another- the fees can be up to $1000 to go so.

What do you want to see? Big cities? Small villages? Mixture of both?

We did a 3 week road trip with our two teens in 2018. Started in Frankfurt, then on to Boppard on the Rhine, then Rothenburg, then Salzburg, Ljubljana, Venice, ended in Munich. Our focus was smaller towns, beautiful scenery, castles, WWII history, fried food and ice cream.

Apartments will be the way to go. Finding actual beds for 5 people may be a challenge. My kids don’t do sofa beds well. Many apartments that are “2 bedroom” consider a sofa bed a “bed room”.

Laundry will be something to consider. Another reason we like apartments. Just know that many listings that include a “dryer” mean a drying rack, not a drying machine. If you do find a place with a dryer, it is likely a washer/dryer combo that washes/dries a tiny load in about 5 hours. You will probably be doing laundry every day. Another reason to stay in one place for at least 3 nights at a time - to give that wash time to dry on the rack.

Personally, I would start in Rome for 5 nights, then Florence for 3 nights, then Venice for 3 nights, then Salzburg for 4 nights (traveling by train between these cities). Rent a car in Salzburg and go to Hallstatt and Berchtesgaden as day trips. Then fly to Paris for 5 nights. Then train to London for 5-6 nights. Fly home from London. This gives you 4 very different cultures, hits lots of iconic places, sprinkles in some smaller places, and gives you 2-5 full days in each place. If this is a summer trip, go immediately after school gets out. We noticed considerable difference in crowds from mid June to early July.

It sounds like you might home school, but if you're going in the summer you should investigate what your children's classes will be doing the last week of school. If none of your children are old enough to have exams that week, you might be able to take them out of school and begin your trip. The last week of school is not a very productive educational week.

It is really hard, if not impossible, to answer this question in a meaningful way. What are you interested in and what to you want to see? What parts of Europe are you considering? Are you one of those that say you plan a trip to Europe when you mean France and Italy, or are you open to Ukraine, Romania or North Macedonia? How mobile is your mother? Will she be fine walking around in Paris or Vienna (or any other city)? Are you looking a getting a short overview or staying longer in one or two places?