Hotels for family of 5

You will get more bang for your buck with apartments. Many do not require a 7 night stay. What the minimum is may depend on when you are traveling. I actually rented an apartment for only 2 nights in Verona. I usually start with vrbo.com to look for rentals. I have also used homeaway.com. In both cases you are usually renting directly from the owner, so there is room for flexibility in length of stay and price.

Apartments are definitely the way to go for a family of 5. Hotel rooms that accommodate more than 4 are very scarce. In Paris, the agency www.VacationIn paris.com is very reliable and easy to work with. They have apartments all over Paris and they rent by the night, not by the week (although stays of 5 nights or more are discounted.) For Tuscany, would you consider Lucca? We stayed in a lovely 2-bdr. apartment inside the walls; there is a bed in a third room as well so it will easily accommodate 5 people. This is under 150 euro a night (unless her rates have gone up.) We loved "living" in a neighborhood and enjoying the slower pace and quiet of Lucca. It is well-located for daytrips to Pisa, Florence, etc.

In addition to the apartments if you find that you still need to look for hotel rooms, ask about family rooms. If you haven't been using that terminology you might have some better luck. Pam

Pam makes a good point. Often if you ask about a family room, or explain that it is you and your young boys, then many of the smaller to medium size hotels will work to accomodate you. It may just be a larger room with an extra cot or two, or they may have a connection to someone in the area that has a large room or apartment like lodging. Typically the cost will be more than a double, but not equivalent to a typical quad+ or a double and a triple.

Hi Tina, We also have a family of 5 with similar age children and I would like to start by congratulating you on taking your children to Europe! First, the address of the hotel we used in London: http://www.edlear.com/ They have a family room for 4 with room for an extra cot. 150 GBP or $240/nt. Not cheap, but it's London, you get a big English breakfast free and the building has some charm, as opposed to being a beehive of plastic cubicles. Just 2 blocks from Marble Arch and Hyde Park. In Paris, we used this apartment: http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p210926 Small, but sleeps five in a location that cannot be beat, 5 minutes walk to Notre Dame - Around $1300/week, I'm not sure if they do shorter stays. We occasionally find small hotels that have a room for five by asking for a family room and it is always significantly less expensive than two rooms, if they have them. For short stays, we often turn to youth hostels. If you are anything like us, you probably never considered youth hostels for a family trip to Europe - envisioning it as a party atmosphere of 20-year old backpackers either drunk or stoned. But the reality in most of Europe could not be more different. Most places (and almost all YHA-affiliated places) are quite clean, reasonably quiet, and very non-party. MANY people older than 30 stay there, including families. The thing that makes it an unexpectedly great choice for families is that the children generally love the laid back atmosphere with game rooms, tv rooms, space to run and not be shushed all the time. Yes, they often have bunks and tend to look like college dorm rooms. But in my experience, they are a lot quieter, cleaner, and more party-free than any real college dorm room I can remember. Italy has thousands of rentals to choose from. Good Luck!!

What time of year are you going? In Tuscany we rented an appartment at an agriturismo. 2 star accommodation, pool, lots of space, affordable and great central location. You do need a car for this kind of location: www.poderepoggetto.it

We had family room in Montparnasse which turned out to almost be like two rooms for price of one! There were five beds, refrigerator and coffee/tea kettle. This was the Best Western. Stayed there twice. There is the main room and then you climb a few stairs to what looks like another room (attic like) with 2 beds and dresser. Quite spacious for Paris.