Itinerary advice for family of 6

Car rentals that involve picking up and dropping off in different countries nearly always involve a very costly international-drop surcharge. It would be helpful to rent a car for a few days in Provence. With luck you'll be able to use trains the rest of the time. However, if you decide to visit a few Tuscan hill towns, that's another area where a car can be helpful. I use only public transportation myself; I just have to accept that if I have a list of six small places I'd like to see, most likely there will be a couple that don't have train or bus service.

Getting a car large enough for six people and their luggage is not going to be a trivial task, and such a vehicle will not be so easy to maneuver on narrow streets in medieval towns.

The seat61.com website is the source of (virtually) all wisdom where European trains are concerned. It will provide, by country, such key information as when tickets are likely to go on sale and where you can go online to buy the tickets. You're probably a bit too early for April trains. Try using somewhat earlier dates to get an idea of the schedules and the costs.

Once you have your itinerary and travel dates pinned down, you can probably save a great deal of money if you're willing to commit to non-refundable, non-changeable tickets.

I have a feeling April is not a great time for the Swiss Alps, but others will have more precise information.

Hi Johnott

I am by no means an expert, since I have only been to Europe twice, but the one time I did plan my own trip it was to France, and we did train travel. So here is my advice:

First of all, have you and your wife been to Paris or Europe? Whether you have or not really will change the advice you will be getting here. Since I don't know, I will assume that you have not.

1) Paris - do you really only want to see Versailles? This would take up the better part of a day, especially considering you have two young children. Advance reservations will probably be required. If you have not been to Paris, at the minimum I would say you should see the Eiffel Tower from the outside, Arc de Triomphe outside, and the Louvre. You could easily spend the whole time in Paris alone. Normandy would also take up one day.

2) On arrival day you will be very jet lagged, and this will eliminate this day as effective touring day, especially for the kids.

3) What do you want to do in Florence? Not counting Tuscany, you should dedicate at least two full days here, and I am sure other posters will tell you to spend even more time.

I focused on these two cities since they are the two that are set, because of the plane tickets. With 12 full days (not counting arrival or departure day), and four minimum days between Paris and Florence, you have eight days to visit all the other places and travel between them. It is a 12 hour drive between Paris and Florence. Breaking up to go to Provence you need to spend one whole day traveling, and then one more whole day to get to Florence. So this leaves you with six days to see anything you want in Provence and Cinque Terre were you to choose this itinerary. Travel between Provence and Cinque Terre would take up one day as well. So five days to see Provence and Cinque Terre. To me it is a lot of distance to cover with young kids. I would also look up temperature averages. When I went to Istanbul in the the second half of April five years ago, it was cold.

I strongly suggest that you spend 5 nights in Paris, 5 nights in Florence or an agriturismo and three nights somewhere in between. Maybe do Chamoix, and from there travel to Florence via Milan. From Florence you can take day trips and see some of Tuscany.

If you are considering renting a car, keep in mind that: you will need a minivan, which would be harder to maneuver. Parking, tolls, permit for driving, the fact that you are renting in one country and dropping off in another, etc.

Hope you have a great trip.

Do you leave home 1 April or arrive in Paris then? Same with your return date. Your first day will be lost to jet lag and the last day is probably just going to be getting back to the airport. How many full days will you have in Europe excluding the arrival and departure dates? You are going to travel at the pace of your youngest child, so don’t try to plan too many locations.

Others have already advised on the difficulty of hiring a suitable sized vehicle for you and your luggage. With so many children, I would seek to minimise the number of train journeys that are not direct trains to avoid stress. You are travelling in peak school Easter holidays, so places will be busy and get booked up early.

Paris and Florence are musts as you have already booked your flights - 6-7 and 4 nights respectively. I would add one more destination to these 2 cities. Provence can be reached by fast train from Paris, but it isn’t well connected to Florence. Save Switzerland for a time when all your children are old enough to appreciate it.

Departing on the 1st means you arrive on the 2nd which is pretty much a lost day. So, you have 12 usable days. When planning, understand that every change of location will use anywhere from 3/4 to 1 full day. The cities you have listed are all significant distances from one another - which means a large portion of the time you have will be spent getting from Point A to Point B. Thus, I would recommend focussing solely on Paris and Florence, using them as a base and do day trips

Given the size of your family, I agree with the other posters that renting a car isn't terribly practical - it would be more efficient and cheaper to either take the train or fly.

So, a couple of ways you can cobble this together:

Arrive Paris - Stay in Paris 6 days with one or two-day trips.
Day 7 - fly to Florence. and use Florence as a base.
Day 14 Fly home.

This is by the easiest logistically and would maximize the time you have on the ground. Since you mentioned that Provence was high on the list - that can be done but will require more travel time.

Arrive in Paris and stay 5 nights. (4 days)
Train to Provence - stay 3 nights. (2 1/2 days)
Train to Marseille and then fly to Florence. 5 nights (4 days).
You could also take the train, but that is pretty much an all-day journey and will require 1 to two changes along the way.

Obviously, you can switch the number of days spent in each location - it really boils down to what you specifically want to see/do in each location. I would start there and then see what that looks like in order to help you determine how many days to spend in each location.

Good luck!!

First, you only have two weeks to visit your suggested places. Paris should take at least 5 days of your time. By the way, watch out for pickpockets, especially on the RER and Metro. Suggest a money belt.

Normandy is wonderful, but that would eat up at least 3 nights of your trip and your trip list is way too long. If you do Normandy, then skip Provence and Switzerland and fly on a discount flight to Florence.

You definitely don't want a rental car in Paris. You could rent a vehicle if you decided to go to Normandy (don't miss Bayeux and the 900 year old Bayeux Tapestry describing the Norman Conquest of England). You could drive down to Provence, if you do that, since many of the sights in Provence are smaller cities where you probably need a car. You would need to rent a large vehicle for six persons with all your luggage. Also, early April (check when Easter is). We did a wonderful 7 night river cruise down the Rhone River and visited Lyon, Viene, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Pont du Gard (intact Roman aqueduct), Avignon and more. Loved St. Paul de Venice. Cannes, Monaco and Nice are more places to see. If you do Provence, you should probably forget about Italy.

Wait, you already have a ticket flying out of Florence. If you do Paris for 4-5 days then 7 in Provence, that leaves you with 2-3 days in Florence. NOT good.

For Italy, Cinque Terre is nice, but you have Florence on your definite list and need 3-4 nights there. I would skip Cinque Terre for now. Places close to Florence are Siena, Pisa and Lucca, but you didn't list them, sorry those are great places for day trip from Florence.

Assisi is in Umbria and wonderful, but a bit of a effort from Florence. You would miss nearby Perugia, Spoleto and more in that area.
I suggest skipping Assisi unless you can find a tour. I don't recommend renting a vehicle in Italy. Trains are cheaper in Italy and it is so easy to get a ticket in Italy it is ridiculous.

Sorry, I didn't mention Switzerland because you don't have time. There are more trip in your future, I am sure.

There is an almost constant reference to "Day 1 being lost to jetlag". My experience is that the effects of jetlag typically run into three days and the more people in your party the greater the impact of jetlag on your plans.

My family and I are currently in Phuket however we had a three day layover in Kuala Lumpur direct from the UK, we flew First Class so I had the benefit of 6 hours solid sleep (my typical amount) yet I was still wiped out by day three, so much so that KL was pretty much a blur and very little was achieved. It's worth bearing this in mind because even if you manage to cope well it doesn't mean the rest of the family will (my 15 year old spent almost the entirety of day 2 asleep) so planning on jumping straight into a whirlwind itinerary is not advised. This, of course, eats into your travel plans particularly with such a short period, 14 days quickly flies by especially when factoring in multiple travel days. My advice? Stick to France or Italy.

hey hey johnott
how exciting to take the family on their first european adventure. i think you're trying to see too many places that are not the closest to each other. takes time to travel with the six of you, and constantly being on the go. if you plan on renting a car, be sure to look at size for all of you and places for luggage, you will need to pack light and have them carry their own. read the rules and signage of each country, the expensive cost of renting in one country return to another if it's allowed, getting an IDP for each driver, AAA/CAA has them with 2 passport size photos and $25.
do you have your accomodations booked already? rooms are smaller in europe. you may look at apartments, make sure in paris they have a 13 digit license number, if not may be illegal and may not have a place when you arrive, crack down on short term rentals. for hotel rooms look at family size, may need to rent 2 rooms or adjoining rooms. you need to account for all six of you.
you are going at a busy time, spring breaks/easter/other travelers that may have booked last year. read the fine print, look at pictures, how many beds/baths, location.
good luck with all your researching. you can always come back and ask more questions so you are not too stressed out. the posters here will give you the good bad and ugly of your choices.
do plan kid friendly activities, and stopping to rest and relax a bit. you can only go as fast as your small one can, not overload on museums, churches

mele kalikimaki & hau'oli makahiki hou
aloha

Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it. All schedules should be now published for April. This won't sell your tickets, but those sites that do sell tickets won't post things until they are for sale, as well as can be stymied by too many connections or not cover all countries. For the Cinque Terre, specify your actual destination town, such as Monterosso or Vernazza, and for Berner Oberland specify a destination like Lauterbrunnen or Muerren. Also see Buying Tickets and other related links on that page.

Another useful tool for scoping out transportation options is rome2rio.com. It gives you different ways to get from point A to point B, with time and cost estimates. It's not always accurate, and you should make any bookings directly with the rail service or car rental company.

Like others, I recommend you stick to just Paris, Florence, and maybe a few days in Provence (with a car). Where to go in Provence depends on what you want to do and where you can connect most readily to Paris and Florence by rail (or maybe air in the case of Florence). A car rental within France won't incur a dropoff charge so you needn't return it to the same place.

Hi John
What a fun trip. We took our children when they were 14, 12 and 8 to Italy and it is one of our best memories. In looking at your plans, I notice both have Cinque Terre. You could do Paris, CT and then Florence. But it is not the most direct to get to by train, or by car, so would need to really be your priority.

The challenge in travelling with 6 people is accommodations. You either need 2 rooms, or an apartment. And the apartments you like may want you to book for a week. I would take a look at what is still available, and make some of the itinerary decision based on that. A few years ago we tried to book Provence in July for 5. I couldn't find anything, but I can't remember how far out I was booking.

We mostly travel by train, unless in an area poorly served. Especially with kids, we enjoyed the down days on the train. But we did have everyone pack light, so that we were not having to carry the kids stuff too much.

What fantastic responses! Thank you! I've got new questions (below). First...

I quickly went through the stages of grief in regard to the wisdom that we wanted to do too much. I'm not at acceptance. Here's our new plan (we'll figure out some day trips soon--thank you for those recommendations, too):
4/1: Depart ATL for CDG
4/2: Land in Paris; stay there until...
4/7: TGV to Provence; stay there until...
4/10: Fly to Florence; stay there until...
4/15: Fly home

Given that there are 6 of us, we'll be booking apartments. Thanks to your advice, we'll be on the lookout for license #s in Paris especially.

New questions:
- What part of Paris do you recommend that we try to stay in?
- What part of Florence do you recommend that we try to stay in?
- Where do you recommend we make our home base in Provence? I'm thinking that we'll rent a car while in Provence.

Thanks again!!

As Jennifer said You are travelling in peak school Easter holidays, so places will be busy and get booked up early.

Check for closures in Florence since you will be there on Easter Sunday.

We just returned from Paris with our two teens. I can recommend Hotel Residence des Arts. They have only two rooms per floor, which you can book together as an “apartment”. The first room is a decent size, with a queen bed, bathroom (shower only) and minibar. The next room is a junior suite and includes a living room (sofa bed, desk), kitchenette (mini fridge, microwave, sink and two-burner stove), large bathroom with separate tub and shower. The bedroom has a king bed and is separated from the living room by a curtain. We paid about 300€/night total. Location can’t be beat, just across from Notre Dame with metro and RER around the corner.

I researched a ton of apartments in Paris before booking this hotel. We generally prefer apartments (with washing machine). Some things I found: “bedroom” is a term that includes the living room if there is a sofabed in the room. “Bathroom” can mean a shower only. So you may look at a listing described as 2 bedroom, two bathrooms, but in actuality it is a room with a bed, a living room with sofabed, a room with a toilet (no shower/bath) and a room with a shower (no toilet). Look at pictures carefully, ask questions, and make sure there is a registration number.

We have taken two road trips through Europe with our two kids. I wouldn’t want to do it with 4 kids. We own a minivan (which is what you would need) and getting luggage for 6 in it isn’t easy. Pack carryon size only. Also keep in mind that you may need to take two taxis from the train station. Before you get in the line for taxis at CDG, let one of the taxi attendants know your group size. They may pull you out of line to wait for a minivan. I saw this happen at Orly.