Ideas for Planning a 2 month Summer Trip w/ Family

What a wonderful experience to plan for your kids! The first place to start is to SAVE MONEY! Airfare for 4 to Europe, plus intra-Euorpe fares for air or train or even rental cars, can add up quickly. And you will need housing and food and entry fees, etc.
YOu can also begin exploring the places (and others) you are interested in- read, watch TV shows and travel DVDs, research the internet, visit boards here and elsewhere, talk to friends who travel, etc. Have everyone start making lists of things they want to see and do. Maybe start prioritizing them, too (use a scale from 1 -10 1- interesting 5- Very interesting 10- MUST DO/SEE) and they can change the list as interests change. I would think that picking 4-8 'bases' would probably work well. You could rent short term apartments and plan day trips. Maybe mix it up with some short term stays (2-4 days) as you transistion from one base to the next. We LOVE London -in fact we LOVE the whole UK. Vienna is nice, but we enjoy Salzburg and Innsbruck more. Haven't spent time in the other places you mention. But you might also want to look at Scandinavia, Germany and some of the 'back doors' in Eastern Europe. For now, I'd encourage the kids to start researching (as they become able) and expose them to books and TV shows like Rick's. Talk about places you see in movies, and that they study in school, etc. Buy some of Rick's books and other good guide books, too (or check them out of the library). Yes they will need to be updated later, but they will help you get started- especially Rick's Europe Through the Back Door (travel skills as well as guide book stuff).

You might not want to wait quite that long. Seventeen year olds often have jobs and social lives that could make them unwilling to go for such a long time. As kids get older, they are less likely to want to do what you want to do, and prefer to do their own thing.

I don't wish to sound like a party pooper, but 10 years from now is a hell of a long time. Anything can happen in that huge expanse of time: serious illness, death, divorce, financial ruin, or any number of things might derail your current thinking. And Nancy makes a really good point about teenagers as it relates to spending that much time with mom & dad. I'm a planner, and I plan in advance for most things, but planning 10 years out for a trip would be ridiculous for me personally. We're not talking about retirement planning here. Why not do some research, save some bank, make some reservations, and go for a shorter trip (say two weeks) within the next year or two? If that works out, maybe you can do another short trip or two before doing final planning for that big one in 10 years. Maybe Randy from MN will chime in...I believe he has taken some longer summer trips with his family. Good luck, and happy travels.

I was going to say the same thing as Nancy. I love the idea, but your future teenagers may not. My kids would never have gone for it. All kids are different, but most teenagers don't like to be away from their friends and activities for extended periods. They might be involved in sports or some other activity that requires them to be around in the summer. They might have a girlfriend or boyfriend. You could make them go, but do you really want to spend a lot of money to take a sulky teenager to Europe? And don't forget you will probably want to go look at colleges the summer before junior year. Just something to think about. Maybe 10 and 13 would be better ages

Nancy has a good point, ten years is a long time to wait, and 17 yr olds often have jobs etc. I think you could ( if finances allow) push that down to say 7 or 8 years from now. I took my daughter when she was 11, and my son ( seperate trip ) when he was 13 and I thought those were great ages. They are old enough to handle touring about all day( ha, they had more energy then I did ) but young enough to be really open to new expereinces. I also felt it was a good age for my son to see that his little socail set wasn't the be all end all, that there was so much more to the world then his music, his fashions, his peer group. My son is now 22, my daughter 16 and they both have fond memories of their trip and remember details I had even forgotten. I also think kids really should participate in planning, and my kids did, they both had to research and choose three sites they wanted to see. Being active participants in the trip make it a less of a whine fest I think, they aren't just being dragged about to see what we wanted them to see, but had their say.

Wasn't this exact same question posted earlier this year? With 10 years to plan, where would we start? Umm, maybe a guidebook? Formulate a few questions and check back in about 9 years.

I thought it looked familiar, too, Barry.

Oh its probably genuinely meant, but in a "looky loo" sort of way. I mean this is a future dream and its fun to imagine where to go and what to do and see. I hope op keeps dreaming, since all realities were dreams once!

James, as (almost) always has given us a giggle. Thanks, James.

Another vote for - don't wait! Starting when my son was 8 we have gone to Europe every year (Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, France, and the Netherlands ... and Peru one year but we decided we like Europe better than So. America). We collect FF miles almost all by credit card purchases - every dollar I spend goes on a CC. Whenever possible I go on internet and get some link like every dollar you spend at Kohl's you get 10 FF miles (current promotion through Chase Sapphire). Where ever there is a promotion and I can get some miles I do it! When I get enough miles for "super saver" tickets I start looking for what my options are for Feb or April break (summer is way too expensive). Sometimes it is a place we have not planned on going but the flights worked and we went - last year we flew into Dusseldorf and out of Munich and spent 7 days in between taking trains and eating cheap and goofing off and it was the best vacation ever and I never knew I wanted to go to Germany. So - we don't get our hearts set on any place - just go where the free tickets take us and I can say - my kid has seen the world and I have loved our crazy adventurous vacations together.