European rookies

Amafi & Capri would be great. You will think I'm crazy but my teenagers had a great day at Disneyland Paris, it's an easy train ride from Paris center and the kids loved it. Also, if your in London make sure to tour the Harry Potter studio and sets, again, the kids will love this and I enjoyed it as an adult. I love museums and old church's but after awhile teenagers tend to get bored, Versailles would be another great adventure, the gardens would be a place the kids could take a boat out on the lake and have fun.

Buy a copy of Europe Though the Back Door and start planning the heck out of your trip.

Typical rookie mistakes: Not doing homework on logistics (such as, how long to get from Paris to the Amalfi Coast?), trying to see too much, not having a plan.

Here are two very contradictory bits:

looking for places that are wonderful but few people visit.

and

Two places that are high on our list are the Amalfi Coast and Isle of Capri

Beautiful places, but not exactly places that few people visit - you will find these places completely swamped with tourists (especially in June/July). Doesn't mean you won't enjoy them, but set realistic expectations.

Southern Italy in July...hope you like hot weather...

As this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion would be to read Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as that has a lot of great information about how to travel in Europe. After that use the country or city-specific RS guidebooks to plan hotels, sightseeing, transportation, etc.

With only about three weeks for the entire trip (London, Paris, Amalfi Coast, Capri), you'll need to plan efficiently. It would help to have some idea where you're flying from? Also, which part of the Amalfi Coast are you most interested in? Were you planning to see Capri as a day trip, or stay there for a night or two?

I agree to read ETBD - everyone in the family should.

With only 2 1/2 or 3 weeks in what may be an ONLY trip to Europe I would focus less on finding some elusive hidden gem (there are very few these days) and more time in seeing the things that have drawn people to Europe for hundreds of years. Going in the height of tourist season will take some planning to avoid long lines - but those places have long lines for a reason - they are worth seeing.

In Paris rent an apartment in a neighborhood with a good market - shop the market with locals and prepare a meal or two or create a picnic to enjoy.

Your best chances of meeting locals will be in pubs, parks, & trains. It will be easy to converse with locals in London but other places will be more challenging - everyone does not speak English. They may know a little but not conversational.

What are your interests? Art, architecture, history, hiking, scenery, food? That will help guide your answers.

You will be traveling at a time where the crowds will be high, but do not be deterred from going to Europe.

Paris and London are a good places to start, then move to Italy, with Venice, Florence, Rome and the Naples area (Capri and Amalfi Coast).

A guidebook can be a great help, also use kayak to search for air fares and hotels. Check on the ratings of your hotels and location on TripAdvisor.

The art, history and culture of these places will amaze you.

If you want to go to places that few people visit, you won't find them in guide books.

Will the locals speak English? One place they do is the UK, another is Ireland. I think you could easily find small towns that don't get lots of tourists, where you could tootle around (though driving is problematic because they drive on the left), see lovely scenery, take hikes, and chat with locals at a pub in the evening. I've seen villages in Ireland like that. There are probably similar places in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Coincidentally, I just listened to a Rick Steves talk with one of his Greek guides, who suggested that you could find a small town in Greece, on the mainland, where you'd have a picture postcard beach, rent rooms in a private room, and get to know the locals (most speak English), with day trips to sights. From some of the comments, I figure it was recorded 10-12 years ago, but it's quite possible that things haven't changed that much. Something to look into.

Maybe few visitors go to an out-of-the-way spot for good reason -- no decent lodging or restaurants, awkward transport, ho-hum scenery. Two centuries of tourism has left most of Europe's gems distinctly unhidden. But see for yourself. Go exploring and then measure what the buzzwords mean: "Heritage", "unspoiled", "local colour". With luck you might find something beyond baulky toilets and no central heat or air. My experience is that tradition tends to be draughty.
I'm suggesting (lightly, I hope) that if you want to see the Eiffel Tower, go ahead. It is crowded because so many others also want to be there -- but it's still a great sight. Maybe you can tighten your focus on finding times when crowds are thinner. That won't be easy at the height of the season. But it will help to slow down.
Your list of "must-sees" will not match mine, at least not entirely. They may not match the two near-adults in your group, either. So do what you, and they, want and forget comparisons. The essential attitude, as you hint, is to take enough time to smell the flowers and don't be ruled by a checklist. Pick a few central hubs and stay there. Do day-trips. Go to places the students have researched. Enjoy. Take notes for next time.

You and your teenagers might enjoy reading the current "Let's Go Europe" guide published by Harvard students, for a more youthful perspective.

Especially since this is everyone's first trip to Europe, I would save the Amalfi Coast and Capri for the next trip. France and England have to plenty offer and moving around can be stressful.

First, congrats on the wedding! Your trip already sounds wonderful :) Some smaller places that we enjoyed include Bruges in Belgium, Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, Kilkenney in Ireland. I'm not sure how you're planning your route so some places will make more sense than others but I'd look these up and see if you might be interested. Your Italy idea sounds great, it's so beautiful there. I'm a German citizen and there are some amazing castles around Germany that would be fun and interesting to see as well. By no means are these "hidden gems" as they are quite touristy, but they're smaller than a big city such as Paris and have all of the old-world charm of Europe that I think you would all really enjoy. Best of luck with your trip planning!

Hi,

Going out to the out of the way, esoteric, totally non-tourist places, at least not on the American tourist radar, don't expect the majority of the locals to know English, if that's important to you. I go "out of the way" and non-frequented places and towns in North and eastern Germany....lots of places like that. Of course, I have my reasons for going to the particular towns.

The advantage in going to these "out of the way" places is that you get an insight into the daily life at a place not swamped with tourists, and you'll see that in the center of the town no other tourists are to be seen except you.

I like to keep itineraries focused. It makes dealing with language easier and keeps the time lost to travel to a minimum. If Amalfi Coast and Isle of Capri are high on your list add Sicily and maybe four or five nights in Rome. Sicily isn't completely unknown but I think it will seem out of the way compared to Capri, Amalfi and Rome.

I disagree with Brad. On a trip of modest length that must already include London, Paris and the Amalfi area/Capri, I would definitely not travel to Sicily. Sicily is wonderful and--especially inland--you won't run into too many American tourists there. But it's a large island packed with sights. To spend time flying there for only a few days would not be a prudent plan, in my view. Leave Sicily for a trip when you can give it closer to the time it deserves. For example, eighteen days (via public transportation) was not enough for me, and I skipped most of the classical Greek sights.

I will interpret your desire for "hidden gems" on your first family trip to Europe to mean not things that are truly off the extensive network of beaten paths in Europe, but rather some smaller towns that are not typically on American radar until you actually start to research a trip (or if you consume a lot of travel TV and magazines). I think that's exactly what Rick's guidebooks will help you find. The articles and videos in the Explore Europe section give you an introduction to the areas he covers.

The more you read about, the more you'll want to see, but you have to moderate quality over quantity. Rick Steves Tours 14-day itineraries for multiple countries tend to also include a bit of the Netherlands, Germany, or Switzerland, for a broader "tasting menu" variety. Guidebook-wise, Rick's Best of Europe follows the same pattern and would be a take-along book, whileEurope Through the Back Door is primarily a read-before-you-go.

If you want to focus this trip on London-Paris-Italy, that's a logical plan with more than enough to explore. Rick's three separate guidebooks that match those destinations would give you more total info, and include coverage of the Naples/Amalfi area.

The Eurostar train serves London-Paris and while there are also high-speed trains from Paris to Italy, flying can be cheaper and faster. Consider flying Paris-Venice (see www.skyscanner.com) instead of 10-11 hours on the train. Then you can see more of Italy by train. You would ideally fly out of Rome or maybe Naples, if flight schedules are good. You'd be making a "multi-city" airfare search, rather than roundtrip or one-way. When you're ready to commit to a couple of longer transport legs, then booking several months ahead is cheapest. See also https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/buying-tickets.

What an exciting trip! Congratulations on your wedding.

I agree with everyone that "hidden gems" are sort of a myth nowadays. It seems to me you could go one of two ways: pick a third destination to head to after London and Paris that is more countryside/small villages that will allow for more exploration of that type of culture, OR pick a third major city that will be a nice complement to London and Paris since you say this may be the only trip you ever take to Europe.

For the first type of plan, I'd suggest London --> Paris --> somewhere less urban in France like Burgundy, Provence, or Alsace. This will cut down on travel time and will let you dig in to a different facet of the French culture and people.

For the second type of plan, I'd suggest London --> Paris --> depending on your interests, either Rome or Vienna. If you've got three weeks total, that will give you the flexibility to take some day trips out of the cities to mix it up.

London, Paris, Amsterdam by train. Fly to Italy, Florence or Venice. Trains to Rome maybe a car in Tuscany for a few days. To include Amalfi Coast and Isle of Capri in Italy you'd have to give up something and I wouldn't want to take away from what I think would be a great first trip to Europe. What I outlined is a pretty fast pace for less than three weeks. If you want to interact with the locals....study up ahead of time so you know some language and customs. Realistically you can't do this for every destination so stick with good manners and an open attitude and learn "Hello", "Goodbye", "Excuse me" "Where is the toilette." and most important, "Do you speak English?", in their language.

A hidden gem in London for us was Highgate Cemetery. We took a walking tour of Highgate with "London Walks" and ended the tour with the Cemetery. I highly recommend London Walks tours.

If you only have 3 weeks and you will be in London and Paris, why not stay only in England and France and go outside the cities. I'd save Italy for another visit.

With 3 weeks that is only 20 nights on the ground, if that, since you say 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. If you spent 10 nights in each country then you could spend 4-5 nights in the city and countryside. We did 6 nights in London and 5 nights in the Cotswolds. It was fabulous!

You could do Paris and then Normandy, or Loire Valley, Burgundy or Provence.

If you are up for renting a car outside of the cities you are on your way to an adventure! Get off the paths of most tourists and explore.

Just an idea to consider....

Two "hidden gems" in London that my teens loved were Hyde Park "soap box" speakers. I think they gather mostly on Sunday afternoons, but Google it.
The other was the British Library, yes "library", not museum, though that's good too. The library is almost next to St. Pancras station. In the library, ask for the "Ritblat Gallery" which has originals of the Magna Carta, Handel's Messiah, Beatles tunes written on napkins, Lewis Carroll's doodles, Newton's letters, etc. Fascinating, even for teens. See https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g186338-d187728-r168210994-British_Library-London_England.html

When I planned our first family trip (long one - we had been to England multiple times to visit family) I used RS 21 day Europe tour as an outline. This was back in the days before he had family tours:) We didn't do it exactly, but it definitely helped! The other thought I have about traveling with teens are:

1. One thing we've done that really helped get away from crowds and into the local "culture" was doing bike tours. There are multiple companies that do bike tours all over Europe.

2. My family that lived outside of london for several years did quite a bit of traveling all over Europe. They have 12 kids:) The kids ALL say that their favorite place is Mont St. Michel. It is a pretty magical place. If you do go - I would recommend arriving in the afternoon and spend the night as it is swamped with tourists during the day, but wonderful in the evening! That's true for a lot of small towns that attract a lot of tourists!