Europe for $4000?

Sadly, no. Transportation costs averaged out per day wii gobble your budget. You've picked two very expensive cities. Since this is your first time out of the cage, you have neither the knowledge nor the gumption to wiggle into the less expensive areas. Maybe six grand?

Besides airfare we figure on $200.00 a day. Sometimes we go over, sometimes under.

No railpass. Buy discount tickets in advance. Right now, there are still low-priced tickets from London to Paris ($66 per person) for mid-May, at least for the day I looked at. You only need two tickets; children under 4 ride free as long as they sit in your lap. You can check prices for Paris to Interlaken, and Interlaken to Milan (gateway to Italy) on the Swiss site, SBB. MIlan to Rome, look for 19 euro tickets on Trenitalia. The transport between these places won't add up to a whole lot-if you get the good fares it could be as low as $400 for the two adults. Children under 4 ride free in Italy and Switzerland; I didn't check on the French trains. You will need to keep lodging costs way down, so apartments are your best option. Try Air BnB to find suitable ones in your cities, and be diligent about checking the location. Instead of Interlaken, consider either farther into th emountains (Lauterbrunnen), or somplace less out of the way, right on the main train route (Kandersteg or Spiez would work).

P.S. Do you have passports for the children already? If not, better get going on that.

Hi Anna,
Yes, you can do it for $4000 with careful planning but you may need to narrow your focus a little. If it is your first trip "over the pond". Then consider choosing 2 - 3 locations and explore from there. Lots of locations = lots of time traveling and higher transportation costs. Have you checked travel time Paris to Venice or Rome? Are you comfortable on a train that long with small children? You didn't say if you can fly "open jaw" (in one city and out another) or if you must fly in and out of London. If you are really more interested in Paris/Rome/Venice can you fly in/out of one of those cities? Also, sometimes it is cheaper to rent a car or to fly via easyjet, ryan air, etc. Some lodging will give deals like stay 3 nights and the 4th night is free. Honestly, if it were me, I would choose 2 of the big cities, say London and Paris, stay a couple of nights in the city then choose a smaller area near each to explore. For example: London and the Midlands (Cotswolds, Warwick Castle, Stratford, etc.) or Bath or Cornwall, then Paris and any small region you choose (Normandy, Alsace, etc.). Or just explore Italy for 2 weeks. May is fast approaching, don't panic but don't dawdle.

You probably don't want to hear it but my advice would be to either leave the children at home or limit yourself to just a couple of places. The logistics of travelling that far with small children in unfamiliar places on a strict budget are just too difficult.

I won't address the issue about traveling with kids that young, as others have already volunteered to do so. However, I will agree with others that your trip would probably be better enjoyed and less expensive if you limit the geography you're trying to cover. Why not stick with a London and Paris only trip? There is so much to see and experience in just those two cities alone, but you also have many easy day trip options from each (Bath, York, Stonehenge, Versailles, Disneyland Paris, whatever). Rail is expensive in the UK, and the Eurostar isn't super cheap, but it's all a lot cheaper than traversing the continent from north to south on an expanded trip. As for lodging, you can still get a decent family or quad room in London for around €85 if you look hard enough...Paris is more difficult and two rooms might be required. Use airbnb.com to look for apartment rentals in both cities...tons of great options, very reasonable, and you'll save a ton since you can eat all breakfasts and some other meals in your apartment. OK...about kids: Your kids literally won't remember a thing as they're so young, but I would still take them...it's your family after all. But you would be justified in having them stay with grandma/grandpa when you consider the super high cost and the fact that they won't recall any part of the trip later (i.e. you'll remember the Eifel Tower, and maybe...maybe...maybe your 3 year old will remember he/she had an ice cream near a big metal thing somewhere once, if even that much...1 year old will obviously not recall anything). Those are my tips...good luck!

hi, to give you an idea on what i did traveling solo last march about 4 full weeks of travel.. 3.5 days Dublin 3.5 days in Edinburgh 4.5 days in London 3.5 days in Bayeux (normandy) 4.5 days in Paris 3.5 days in Amsterdam the 1/2 days are travel days. Flights: PDX to DUB via NJ & OSL and back. Flight: DUB to EDI Flight: CDG to AMS via LHR
Train: Waverly (Edinburgh) to LOndon Train: London to Paris i spent about 4+ K USD on this trip. i wasnt staying in any expensive hotels either, most if not all were in RS books. I tried to choose central locations so my travel was raidially from my hotel when possible. i also listed my "activitis and to do" list so i knew if buying one of the city card would save me $$ which most of the time did. afa as chow went. My bod was still on PDT and my work schedule dosnt work well now with 3 typical meals/day so i eat a really small "dinner" @ 2000. anyway, i would grab a bite here and there especially since i was usually n a museum. If i was in transit to something else, i didnt have any problem finding food since it was abundant everywhere i was going and alot of the museums have cafes. have you ever heard of "cafe in the crypt"? they have them over there. most of the time, i was eating a quick breakfast and then running around until 1500. btw, i set my "to do and see" activities so that i wasnt doing things 24/7 but had some down time to relax, people watch and just chill from all of the things ive was doing. i forgot. if you notice on my trip, it was in a fairly compact region. so my transportation wasnt that expensive from city to city. hint hint. whatever happens, hope you can make your trip since there is sooooo much to see out there. happy trails.

Anna, if budget is a concern, I suggest you rethink trip. Every time you move it costs money, and time. Kids that age , 14 days in different hotel rooms every 2-4 days, makes for cranky kids for most of us, especially the one year old who is too young to understand the constant change of food and beds.. For me, with kids your age, I would do one of these two plans: Fly into London, one week in a rented apartment, perhaps a daytrip or two, I like Bath and Hampton Court.
Then Eurostar to Paris, one week in apartment there, tons to see.Fly home from Paris. OR, I would do same, but instead of Paris I would look at Easyjet flights to Rome and spend the second week there. Fly home from Rome. Switzerland is out of the way and very very expensive.

The problem with being loosey goosey is this, train tickets cost way more at the station then when purchased ahead ( most times) . Also you need to reserve places to sleep, its not a brilliant plan to arrive with two tots under 5 and no place to stay, and plan on finding something last minute, on other hand it you don't cancel a hotel usually within 48 hrs you may end up paying for a night anyways as a penalty.. Apartments are impossible to cancel last minute, most minimally a few months lead time to cancel before you get your deposit back,, so, nope, loosey goosey is not a sensible option for such a short visit ( would be different if you had a month) and without a rental car...( where you could drive to outskirts of towns and stay in some motel type place without reserving.Now, before you think that's a great idea, renting a car, paying for gas, and road tolls , can add up, and you will still likely have to park outside town and bus or metro in to see the sights, not so fun with a baby.. Anna, I am glad you are staying optimistic, I mean its great having a trip to look forward too, how exciting.. but seriously consider toning down expectations for THIS trip, there will be others when you may have more time, or more money, or just bigger kids that can tote their own stuff!! PS. You have a wonder baby, mine spat up a lot, and I found one son needing a new set of clothes at least twice a day , and since its May its not going to be all hot weather clothes that will dry fast, Switzerland can be still cool in May. A few years ago when we were in Wengen in July the hotel clerk said some hiking trails didn't even open till mid June as they were still snow covered.. I do agree Switzerland is beautiful though.. but one foggy/socked in with clouds day could ruin your plans. Finally Switzerland is not on Euro and the Swiss franc is not friendly at all!

I should probably point out that May isn't a very good time to visit the Berner Oberland. Not as bad as April, but many of the hotels and restaurants will not have re-opened yet from the shoulder season. And the weather is frequently cloudy and overcast, blocking out those mountain views that you busted your budget to see.

Hi Anna, We have been planning a trip for 5 (but we have older kids) this May too. One book I really liked was "Take Your Kids to Europe." It's a little older (2008), but it gives some great advice/ideas on how to travel cheaply in Europe with kids. Even with a lot of research and time, booking apartments, planning budgets, and tracking costs on a spreadsheet, it's going to cost us quite a bit more than $4,000. Not to be discouraging, but if you can consider being flexible, you can save money. We found that apartments were definitely cheaper (even cheaper than hostels in many cases because you are charged per person, and the family rooms can be as much as an apartment). There were some great tips in the book, like staying in campgrounds and renting bungalows. Campgrounds are rarely right in the city, but some were quite convenient. May is really soon. I echo everyone else's advice. Cut down the number of cities you are trying to see. It would be exhausting with little kids and more expensive. I would vote for London and Paris too. They are close, so transportation time and money would be less. And, there is so much to do and see, you could happily spend two weeks in those two areas. I don't want to say it can't be done with $4,000, but it's not been my experience this trip. Good luck planning! That's the key! Becky

Yes, you can take your kids to Europe. And yes, it can be done for $4000 for two weeks. We've done it. BUT we did not do it by visiting the most expensive cities on the continent. My kids haven't seen Paris, instead we rented a house in Brittany for $600/week, ate cheap galettes and crepes for lunch in local restaurants and cooked our own dinners. If you want to experience "French" life it is much better to stay far away from Paris anyways. Well, that's my experience after living in France for a year (Paris, Brittany, Loraine). http://www.armor-vacances.com/visitesite.php?id=639 And we stuck to the cheaper regions in Europe. Germany, for example, is usually quite a bit cheaper than Italy. For instance, we booked a week at a German castle-hostel that offered a medieval themed family week. The whole week cost us $1500 (incl. all meals and extras). We eventually did take our kids to Italy, incl. Rome, but it cost us about $2800/week for the 4 of us. But if your heart is set on the famous big cities for your first trip to Europe I'd listen to Pat and cut down the trip to your top 2 destinations and look for an apartment there.

Well, you all have been horrendously discouraging! hahaha! I appreciate so much everyone taking the time to reply to my questions. :) I am an overly optimistic person and from listening/watching Rick Steves' videos and such I got motivated that with picnicking, staying slightly removed from the city in B&Bs, traveling by rail and buses, that we could stay in that range. Or at least decently close. As far as the children aspect, we do want to experience traveling as a family. Even if they never remember it, we will. :) It seems what you all are saying one way or another is that we need to try to limit our trip for the sake of cost. Maybe just to London and Paris? The thing is, we really only want to hit the "big" stuff which in our minds equates to the British Museum, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace, and then the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Versailles. Other than that we just want to enjoy being there. If we limit to Italy, I desperately want to see Venice and my husband Rome, so we would probably stick to those two cities fully. Yet at the same time, I feel like two weeks is a lot of time to just see two cities?? It bothers me to eliminate Switzerland as it is the most beautiful place I have ever been and want my husband to experience it too...but I guess that is also pushing us over the $4000 mark?? If I had said Europe for $5000 would I be getting better replies? :) Thanks again for everyone's input...as hard as it is to hear! Anna

Anna , lets break it down a bit. First , two weeks, you don't likely really have two weeks as in 14 days on the ground there. You will arrive a day after the day you depart. First day you will be tired, two young kids on a long plane ride mean you and hubby will be juggling them every minute of that trip( are you buying the one yr old a seat?) .. so arrive tired, get to hotel or apartment. Change and clean up kids ( one year old will need a bum wash likely at least).. sorry to be blunt but there really are some boring dirty details to attend to .. Now, first day, you are tired so you will take it easy, wander about a bit, get cash from an ATM, then some food for apartment, or shop for picnic stuff, or maybe splurge on a restaurant as you will be pooped. so now, next day is actually day three of your holiday( 1st day is flight , 2 nd day is arrival day, ) .You now have day 3, 4 5, and 6 to enjoy your first stop. Four days for London isn't going overboard, plus what about a daytrip, an hour or so on train can take you so many places ..
Now day 7, you have to travel to next destination, you will then have a few hours that day left , and then you have 6 days.. you could do a 3 day split, three days say Paris then 3 days somewhere else.. but remember , day 14 is travel home day, and you should be in the city you are flying out of the day before.. all boring details. I do understand wanting to do more, really I do, and I might do three places myself in two weeks, (well have) but never with a baby and toddler.. My basic thought is RELAX you have the rest of your lives to come back.. you will eventually make it back if you want to, its not about being rich, many of us are not rich, but we don't have new kitchen or a new car every few years

and yes , you can do it cheaply , but you still have to keep in mind the extras that will pop up, kids get sick, you are tired and don't feel like cooking one night, its pouring rain and picnicking isn't turning out to be quite as fun eating inside a mall , lol I do not want to discourage you from going it is wonderful as you know, but I want it to be wonderful , not a tiring stressful Bataan Death march,, think about it, would you ever be able to talk hubby into going back if this trip is miserable? Food wise costs, I would say with picnics and apartment kitchen to cook in you could get away with 30-50 euros a day , that's with NO eating out or coffees at cafes.. remember one coffee can be as much as 5 euros, you absolutely have to stick to grocery stores and take out to keep it cheap. Two take out sandwiches and some juice boxes and a yogurt to feed all of you say, look at about 15 euros.. ( and that would be one meal) If you buy food and make own sandwichs would be cheapest option, therefore apartments really will save you money having the kitchen. PS one bonus about London, many major museums ARE FREE , , free is a great sightseeing price. Absolutely do take kids to the Natural History Museum there , its free and excellent, you could easily spend 3-4 hours there, then right across street is Victoria and Albert Museum , also free.
Tower of London is my number one attraction in London, it is also very $$$$ but totally worth it.. remember that 4,000 dollars has to cover all sightseeing prices too. At least kids are free in most places even in France and Italy at that age.

Anna, I can only repeat to listen to Pat's suggestions. Travelling with kids to Europe on a budget can be done. But it won't look the same as in Rick Steve's videos! "staying slightly removed from the city" AND "hitting the big sites" AND travelling with very young kids AND staying on budget AND seeing 4 countries in 2 weeks = > that's just not possible without big disappointments (to put it mildly). But if you are open to cut down on your expectations and let yourself be dazzled by just a couple of wonderful destinations you will be able to create the memories that you are looking for. And have time to let your little ones (or yourself!) take a nap. And give them a chance to let go of their energy in a park after a couple of hours in a big museum where they - hopefully - set off the alarms only once or twice ;-)

If you really want to do all that, and include a stop in Switzerland (which is right on the way between Paris and Rome if you go by train), here are the travel times and approximate fares for May travel: London to Paris, under 3 hours on the Eurostar. Yesterday I saw May tickets for as little as $66 but those may go fast. Paris to Interlaken: 5 hours by train, with one stop in Basel. Price for the date I checked was 160 CHF, but on a different day you may find a Special Offer price that is less, or try TGV-europa for discount fares. This is low season in the alps and hotels will be at their lowest prices. Weather may be iffy. Interlaken to Rome: 6.5 hours, with a minimum of 2 changes, at Spiez and Milan. Buy Interlaken to Milan and Milan to Rome separately. Interlaken to Milan I found no sidcounts, just the regular fare of 87 CHF. From Milan to Rome, look on Trenitalia and you might find Super Economy fares as low as 19 euro, but that may not be for a train that connests with the one coming from Interlaken. A fare of 39 euro is more likely; there are lots of those left. Now, think about whether you want to spend that much time on trains to see all these places, and how much time will be left to see the places you traveled so far to visit.

Lola has given you the basic train travel times. Now add to that the time it takes to pack up your bags and check out, get to the train station with a bit of time to spare (more lead time for the Eurostar), get from the destination train station to your next hotel, check-in and unpack - and that each time to change locations. And we haven't talked about a delayed train yet which might cause you to miss a connection ... It's all doable, in theory, but do you really want to do it when there are more family-friendly ways to enjoy Europe?

Many people here highly recommend www.vacationinparis.com to rent apartments in Paris. Check out the website to get a feel for how much much money you'll need to budget for a Paris apartment.

Wow! Thank you thank you Pat, Lola, & Beatrix for your detail and your frankness! :) It is good to know the reality of traveling on trains. My husband, my 3 year old and I all love trains and view the travel on them as part of our European Adventure. :) To be honest, that is WAY cheaper than I would have thought. I am going to look into that in more detail as I assumed we would just buy a Eur-rail pass? I also have imagined that our train travel could be some of our down time? Even taking a longer train ride over nite? Is that possible/realistic? We plan to pack very light with just a backpack each and two changes of clothes for everyone. Hopefully that will cut down on time wasted "unpacking/packing/etc." Add in time doing wash when needed, but oh well!

Of course, you know your baby better than we do, but when my kids were that age, they barely got through a DAY with three changes of clothes. Are you sure that will be enough? You don't want to constantly be doing laundry, or washing in the sink. You might find yourself on the last outfit, waiting for the first two to finish drying.

You will either need to stay in places long enough to allow your sink washed clothes to dry, or with 2 outfits each plan to go to a laundromat every couple of days, which will take away from the precious little time you have. You can pack lightly if you stay in apartments with a washer and hopefully a dryer. I use vrbo.com and homeaway.com to find apartments. I understand wanting to see it all, but don't you want to enjoy your trip too? Do you already have your airline tickets? If so, where are you flying into and out of? How will you feel if you go the the time and expense of going to Switzerland for a day or two and the weather is bad? You will have wasted that time.

Surely our clothes would dry overnite? I haven't done a test run, but definitely would not pack anything that I couldn't wash and wear the next morning. If some emergency happens then we have an excuse to buy something European. If we have to go to a laundromat then we get to experience that part of ________. :) I would rather pack light and deal with problems there, then pack too much and be burdened our entire trip. Or no? Totally valid point about Switzerland. I remember that from when I visited before. Would love to see the Jungfrau or go to the place RS talks about with the revolving restaurant on top? I suppose we could be loosey goosey about Switzerland and then if the weather looks perfect see if we could make it work? Then that leaves us only deciding between London and Paris or Venice and Rome...

hi again, just an fyi, traveling is more than just doing, sometimes its waiting in lines. then you have to wait to see things once you get in. The British Museum is HUGE. If you want to see half the of stuff, plan at least a half day. If you walk real fast, you maybe able to do it faster, but since you have kids, i doubt it. Same with the Louve, if you want to do it justice, spend a good part of the day there. of cousre you can break up and go over a couple days, but that can takeup time to see other things. If you go to Paris, you will see and probably go into the Eiffel Tower. Most of that is waiting in lines both to go up and down. as others have said, dont look at the trip as the ONLY and LAST time you will go, think of it as a taste of whats to come. happy trails on whatever you do. BTW, adding another 1k to your budget wont make a dif imo.

"Then that leaves us only deciding between London and Paris or Venice and Rome..." Easy choice for a first-time trip for a family...it's London and Paris hands down. In addition to all of the easy sites (a lot of free ones in London) and all of the day trip options, both cities have lots of great parks. I'm pretty sure there will be times when simply chilling for a period of time with an ice cream at the park will sound much nicer than cramming in another site when the kids are wiped out. As far as Paris advice goes, Pat's is as good as it gets, so take her recommendations seriously. Also, make sure you bring a mix of clothing suitable for both warmer and cooler weather. We were in London in July one year...cold enough for a jacket every day (which I neglected to bring)...periods of light rain every day...not much sun. Then we went to Paris...hot and humid like you might expect in July (which I was prepared for). May could be cool in London for sure. Do check airbnb.com for apartment rental options and pricing...I think you'll like what you find.

Six thousand is skimpy for a novice. Stick in Switzerland and you're inching past seven. You're moving the wrong way.

"Would love to see the Jungfrau or go to the place RS talks about with the revolving restaurant on top?" If that is the reason for going to Switzerland, you better do as Ed suggests and add another $1K to your budget. Tickets to go up the Jungfrau for two adults will cost $390. That's nearly 10% of your original $4K budget right there, for a single activity, not counting lodging, meals, and transport to get there (to the Berner Oberland). The Schilthorn is a bit less, but still not inexpensive. Given the uncertainty of the May weather, the extra time it would take to get there, and what it would cost to do what you want to do there, I'd say you best leave Switzerland out of the mix. From what I've heard from friends and family, Paris is a delight with small children. In fact, my one-year-old grandson will be there this May with his parents. . . His second time to Europe. They (his parents) don't seem the least bit fazed by the logistics of travel with a baby that age. Yes, you need lots of clothes, but the small sizes take up very little room. So you can take 5 or 6 changes of clothes and still not fill a small travel bag. Diapers, on the other hand are bulky. But you can buy these as you go.

Surely our clothes would dry overnite? Don't bet on it. Sometimes we have done laundry in the evening, put it around the room and it was still moist in the morning. Left another day and night it was good to go the next day.

Hi, True, depending on the clothes count on ca 30+ hrs for clothes to dry in your hotel room, not ten hrs. Traveling on a real budget: I would suggest dropping Switzerland, it's expensive, to put it mildy... (and I am interested in it anyway). Consider this as regards to your energy level since everyone is different: You land in London from the USA, the flight is under 10 hrs (which it is from Calif), but still, go through Immigration, get to the hotel, drop your luggage off since you can't check in until after 15:00, what do you do then if one of you is rearing to go and other is feeling the effects of jet lag? Spend the time at a pub (I don't mean drinking here) or a relaxing restaurant, stroll around together, or does one of you hit one of the museums before it closes? The kids energy level too?

Please leave your kids at home, for now. I love children and am not saying this because I don't believe that children should travel. I say wait until they will remember the trip! Wonderful memories come from these trips! Happy Travels!

Anna, are you talking about traveling in 6-8 weeks? Do ALL of you have your passports? Both of you read Rick Steves' "Europe Through the Back Door"! At least watch RS' 3-part Travel Skills videos. (go to his Hulu or YouTube channel to watch all episodes of "RS' Europe".) I wish I could send you his videos made from his previous series, "Travels in Europe", when he traveled with babies and toddlers! It was a different style of traveling than in most of his videos. Due to lack of A/C, more humidity in some locales, etc., don't count on your clothing drying within 24 hours; if you need to wash something after dinner (you know what I mean!) and you're traveling first thing in the morning, you've got a problem. (cont.)

(cont.) Your train trip b/n Paris and Venice will be 10-11 hours, 1-2 changes, and you'll arrive in Venice at 20:00-22:00. That's a bad time to be trying to figure out how to get to the water buses, find your hotel (Venice is notoriously hard in the daylight!), etc. You'd want to split that trip up, or skip it. I don't know what kind of flights you could get at this late stage, and probably wouldn't recommend flying with your group, anyway. Whatever you do, get open-jaw tickets (now being called 'multi-city'), as in fly into London and out of Rome. You don't have time to backtrack to London. Are the dates you want available with your vouchers? Definitely buy point-to-point train tickets! You can get them in advance online (running out of time for good savings), or buy them there (for much more €€€). Don't get a rail pass - you need to purchase too many seat reservations (required) for your routes, and you won't see any savings. Rick isn't hopping on any ol' train in his videos when he uses a rail pass; he's taking the slooooower trains for shorter distances (no seat reservation needed). You won't be.

I love, love, love Italy. Venice is one of my favorite places I've ever been to. Totally family friendly, but I wouldn't recommend it for you. There are so many canals, bridges without rails, stairs, crowds...I would have been a nervous wreck when my kids were that age. Venice would require carrying your kids or constantly holding their hands. You can't put them in a stroller and go. In a few years, I would totally recommend Rome - Venice for your family. We did a whirlwind 10 nights Rome - Florence - Venice and my kids loved it. One of our best family trips ever. But our kids were 8, 10 & 12 at the time.

Well, you've received much good advice and I have only one thing to add. Consider in the future doing a home swap . This is by far the cheapest way to have a longer stay in Europe and it is great for kids - having a place to unpack and spread out. Then you can explore the area around your swap. You can also line up 2 or 3 swaps consecutively in different countries if you want to. Check out homeexchange.com or homebase-holidays. We've done 8 swaps and they were all wonderful. Most of the time you can swap cars also, which saves another big expense. Good luck, Julia

"I say wait until they will remember the trip! Wonderful memories come from these trips!" I don't agree with this suggestion. Great memories can also come from trips with very young children. The kids themselves might not remember much, but the parents do. And the kids will remember in a different way. Example:
We did a family trip to France when our youngest was 4. We have a great memory and a fantastic photo shot of our kids eating an ice cream cone sitting on granite steps in Dinan, Brittany. The child can't remember, I do! She also can't remember how often we had crepes and galettes in wonderful little local restaurants. But to this day I make buckwheat pancakes at home with a ham and French brie filling and it's one of the kids' alltime favourite dishes. And very healthy!!! They have acquired a taste for good healthy food that has little in common with the average American diet - without remembering how that came about. The key is not to wait to travel with kids until they are older but to understand that a trip with young kids looks different than one with older ones or with adults only. BTW this family trip to France had the same budget than a trip to Maritime Canada we did the following year - to start with, the air fare is almost the same and the time to get there as well ...

I forgot to mention transportation to get to the revolving restaurant is around $200 per person (and clear skies aren't guaranteed)...Sorry for another popped balloon :-(

Hi Again, Anna, Wow! You have prompted one of hottest topics of the week! I found it interesting to read all of the advice you've received. Take the children! Of course you want to have those memories and to say when they are older, "Oh, it was so much fun to watch you try your first (fill in the blank)!" We did, many times, and our children are now adults and frequently thank us for all the travel experiences and memories that have enriched their lives. Also, there are handy, not too expensive "wash and fold" places in all cities where you can drop your laundry off in the a.m. and collect it later. Just a couple more thoughts: - Italians love children and they would treat you all warmly. If you choose Italy, consider Rome to Cinque Terre (check annual temps/rain chances for May) to Venice. There is so much to enjoy in Italy you could stay for a year and not do it all! - If you choose London/Paris there are so many wonderful things to do in both that you could easily keep busy for a week each. Day-trip to Giverney or Versailles. Versailles is like a huge national park with row boats and bicycles and a lakeside cafe, not just the palace. In England there are easy train trips to Windsor and many other places. Have fun!