Final Trip before Kids

I'm only personally familiar with Paris and London, but I think you would be disappointed with the amount of time you have there. You will be flying into Paris and staying only 2 nights, so you'd only have one and a half days there, one pretty jetlagged. I would think it would be better to skip it altogether if you have seen it before, or cut something else and spend more time there. We like to travel quickly and often only spend 3 or 4 nights in a place, but I think if you are going to such spread apart places that require a flight, you might get frustrated and feel like you are wasting time. If you only want to spend 3 nights in places, it would be better to pick places that are only a few hours apart by train, at least in my opinion. We are spending 3 nights in Paris, 2 in Bruges and 3 in Amsterdam in April, which is a bit faster than I would like, but it is only around 2 or 2 1/2 hours by train from city center to city center. I would never have planned it if I had to go to the airport, go through security, fly, travel to the new city center, etc. for each destination. Looks like you have lots of time to plan though. Hope you have an awesome trip!

It is impossible to hit all of Europe in one whirlwind trip, and you would just touch on the highlights on such an itinerary.
We have stopped those type of trips and prefer to travel to cities that are (1) Easy to get to, (2) Easy to get to the next city and (3) Easy to get home from. Remember that the first and last day of your trip are wasted and you lose a day every time you move from city to city. I suggest the following:
Fly into London and spend 4 nights.
Take the Eurostar down to Paris and spend 4 nights.
Take a budget airline EasyJet to Athens and spend 2 nights.
Take a fast ferry to Santorini and spend 3 nights.
Fly to Barcelona (from Santorini) on Vueling Airlines and spend 4 nights.
Take the train to Madrid and spend your remaining time there. Fly home from Madrid.
Save Poland for later. That is the most efficient order to go on your itinerary.

First of all - yay for travel & good luck with your prospective family plans!!

Second - I know that traveling with children is WAY DIFFERENT than traveling with just you and your significant other. But this trip you're planning will not be your last huzzah. There will be more travel in the future if this is a priority for you. It will require you to plan ahead a little more and pack differently, but - well - I just don't want you to attack this trip like your last ever chance to have fun. You'll have fun with kids. It'll just be a different style.

I'd stay an extra night in London, but that's ONLY because I haven't actually done more than change planes there. Yet. ;-)

That's a lot of flying around the continent. One monkey wrench with a delayed or cancelled flight and you're spending a lot of precious vacation time wasting it at the airport, probably tired and angry. There's not an airport in the world where security is always a pleasant experience, especially if there's some terror alert thousands of miles away. You're also spending far too much time getting to and from airports and then waiting around in a boring airport.

I'd go back to the drawing board and pick 3 cities or so that are closer together which would allow travel by train. I wouldn't want a European trip to be filled with memories of taking my belt off, meals at some airport restaurant, and hearing the airline safety instructions delivered in every language used at the United Nations.

I think that you are trying to do way too much and wasting too much time flying/traveling. I would pick one/two areas and do a great job of seeing them. Depending on what you have done before, I would either pick France and venture outside Paris and then maybe add London. Or pick Spain and travel around or do Greece including the islands.

Having kids has never stopped us from travelling... it changed a little where we went and how we spent our time there when they were little but it is awesome to see travel through their eyes. Now that they are getting older ( 13 and 10) It is so much fun to get them involved in all the planning.

Since trips early in your future children's lives will probably be of the stay-put variety, this might be the time to plan a circuit of charming small towns in France, Italy, Germany, wherever.

I'm with the others: My first thought when I saw your list of destinations was "So many airports!"

Laughing about the post that said "skip Poland" when that is where the husband's family lives. I think you must stop in Poland. Skip somewhere else.

Two night stays really only equal one full day .

I would take one night from Athens and give it to santorini . It's the only stop where you can just relax on the beach for a day , the rest are all busy city visits , it's always nice to have one relax stop on a whirlwind tour .

My husband and I traveled as much as we could before we had kids, and then took a long break before starting again, with them. Our first trip with them to Europe was a week in London, and our second trip was ~4 days in Paris, followed by a couple of other stops. Which is a long way of saying that London and Paris in particular are very kid-friendly and so you are more likely to get a chance to do that with your kids than some other more "adult" (I mean that in a PG-sense) destinations. So, if it was me, knowing what I know now, I would go to Barcelona and then as someone suggested above, drive through southern France (Provence) and Italy hill towns. Those are destinations that I love and my kids would not yet be interested in. So how about fly into Barcelona, after visit pick up rental car, hit Collioure (beach town!), southern France, northern Italy, drop off the car and then go onto Poland?

I would skip Poland. If your husband has family there, it will be the first place you go with kids.

My contribution, to the planning, not the travel budget:
1. Two nights in Paris is strange, either several nights or skip it this trip;
2. London and Barcelona merit more nights for each ;
3. I would skip Madrid, unless maybe you live for museums filled with paintings, in which case at least the Prado is very important, I guess; while certainly not bad, Madrid was my least favorite stop in Spain; best part of Madrid is actually Toledo!
4. Two nights in Krakow means a long way to go for a very short visit; you can get your laundry done somewhere else; you know the family, but I would say either make this stop a little longer, or promise the relatives a nice long visit with the future young’uns. Does the family know you? But what do I know about your husband’s family!
5. Whether an additional stop or a day trip or two, you should include some small towns, beyond beautiful but very touristy Santorini (I liked relatively nearby Naxos better than Santorini.) There are lovely and interesting small towns near Barcelona and Athens, and elsewhere.
Enjoy, then have a nice bunch of kids!

I would eliminate Paris, since two nights is so little time there. Add the time to London.

Don't skimp on Madrid. There is lots to see there as well as day trips to Toledo and Segovia.

Santorini to Krakow involves a minimum of two flight changes and at least 8 hours of flying/airport time. If you want beaches and history stick to Spain for the majoirty of your time, two weeks travelling around the country followed by a flight to Krakow and then the last few nights in London.

I disagree with the comments about forgetting Krakow because you can visit once you have children. I'm sure your husband is quite keen on visiting his family and there's no guarantee when children will come along, simply trying for kids doesn't automatically mean it will happen straight away.

Thanks so much for the feedback! I definitely agree this trip may be a little bit of a reach in terms of travel. We definitely have to visit Poland (it's his grandparents 60th anniversary and one of the main reasons for our trip), but beyond that, we have our hearts set on Spain & Greece (specifically Barcelona & Santorini). I added Madrid thinking it was a key city to visit, but would it make more sense to do Barcelona & the French Riviera and then hop over to Greece? We're much more of the beach/nature/relaxation/exploration type than museum & art lovers. If that makes any sense :)

The reason I tied Paris & London into the trip was because round-trip flights are so cheap to and from these cities and we've always wanted to visit them. We got engaged in Paris a while back but only spent one full day there and didn't have nearly enough time to explore everything. London has always been on our bucket list too so I thought maybe flying into Paris (where we've been and don't necessarily need a ton of time) and flying out of London would allow us to see both. But if you all think this is too much, maybe we get rid of one or both of these locations? We have up to 3 weeks to fill and are pretty adventurous, so appreciate all of your help!

Since you are visiting Poland for family reasons, then I would put Poland as the center of the trip and the other places as peripheral, skip Barcelona and Athens.

I recently took a trip where I had to fly from city to city. It was a pain in the neck, even though I spent at least 5 nights in each place. A string of 2- and 3-nighters is okay by train, but flying - ugh. First, you have to pack differently. If you're checking luggage you need to be careful about breakables, if not, there's the liquids thing plus the likelihood of very limited cabin baggage allowances (both size and weight) and the possibility of strict enforcement. Then there's the time it takes to get to the airport, get through security, and then wait around for boarding, and possible flight delays for any number of reasons. One flight, okay, 2 - maybe, but 4? Yikes.

What is it about Barcelona and Santorini that have you hooked so much? Personally Barcelona doesn't do it for me as much as it does for others, I'm not a great art lover and if you have no real interest in Gaudi then the city doesn't offer much that can't be found elsewhere in Spain. The food scene is good but it's good all over Spain plus there are far better beaches and history elsewhere.

Santorini is famous for the quintessential white villages, is that what attracts you? They can be found all over Greece and other Mediterranean countries so unless there was another specific reason for Santorini I would consider somewhere else as it is very popular and very crowded.

Krakow is the spanner in the works. I would consider flying into London, spend a few days there and then taking a cheap flight to Krakow (Ryanair flies Stansted to Krakow for as cheap as £10 single fare depending on luggage requirements etc). After Krakow I would consider travelling south perhaps visiting Budapest for a few days and from there either Croatia or Greece. Alternatively head towards the Italian Riviera and work your way along the coast into France and eventually on to Paris for the return home.

Sounds like a great trip and last big fling. Just don't be like friends who had a similar big hiking trip on the Lewis and Clark trail. And then name their son, Meriwether, because he was conceived on the trail. No middle school boy should have the name Meriwether. And no girl should be named Krahow.

Even if this is your last major trip before kids, don't you still want to have a relaxing, quality trip? If so, cut down on this wacky Amazing Race itinerary (life's not over after kids and you don't have to squeeze three trips into one) . I've never seen so many far flung countries represented in a short trip before. I'd be afraid of risking divorce after this trip from stress and trivial fights...LOL :-)

Looks like too many places for the allotted time. Add the Madrid days to Paris and London?

Not meaning to pry into family dynamics, but puzzled that the family gathering is a primary reason for the trip and it gets the fewest days. ?