This summer my family of 5 (boys 10, 11, 14) will be traveling to Lake Bled for a hockey tournament, but we want to see and make the most of our time in Europe! Right now we are flying into Munich on Day 1, we have to be in Lake Bled for days 5-11, and then we are flying out of Munich Day 18. We’re up for Austria, northern Italy, and maybe Switzerland…and we still haven’t counted out Croatia. ANY suggestions on itinerary would be AMAZING!! Thank you!!
Posted by
Washington DC
28275 posts
Dates? That can significantly affect itinerary suggestions.
It would also be very useful to know whether this will be your family's first trip to Europe. If it is not, where have you already been, and what did you most enjoy seeing and doing?
You have some quite varied destinations not too far from the Munich-Bled axis; you won't have to go very far to have a nice range of experiences. You'd be able to do a lot by train, which would be a lot more interesting to your sons than sitting in a car, but Slovenia can be a bit awkward to get to in some cases. Are you thinking about renting a car for part of the trip? Your itinerary will affect whether that's a smart move, a 50/50 sort of decision, or not a good idea. What you won't want to do is pick up the car in one country and drop it off in another, because doing that nearly always triggers a really massive international drop charge. In general, having a car in Europe can be burdensome; parking is not always readily available and can be very expensive.
Ljubljana is a charming, not-too-large capital city very worth exploring. It's very attractive just for wandering around, and there's a castle. Bled also has a castle, but I haven't been to that one. There are two cave systems within an easy drive of Ljubljana and Bled. Postojna is the more developed one (they've got some colored lights in there); Skocjan is more natural. Both are beautiful.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8340 posts
Have you considered staying in Munich the first 3 nights. There's so much there to see for youngsters including palaces, a great science museum and Dachau. It's one of my favorite big European cities.
You could then spend one night on the road between there and Lake Bled.
You would probably be best suited to go to Ljubljana after the hockey tournament--a very lovely city. From there, you could easily make Croatia or you could be in Venice is just a couple of hours. Northern Italy is a treat at any time, and they'll never see a place like Venice. Switzerland would probably be too far out of your way for this trip. But you could visit the Dolomites of Northern Italy and Innsbruck on the way back to Munich. You'd be just a couple of hours south of Munich.