Need help planning trip for 5 this summer

To me that is too much territory to cover for 14 nights. Or is it 13 nights that you'll have because Night 1 will be on the plane?

I'd cut back to just Italy particularly if you choose to do CT.

Night 1: On the plane to fly in to Venice

Nights 2/3/4: Venice

Nights 5/6/7: Florence

Nights 8/9: CT

Nights 10/11/12/13: Rome and fly home from there

To me you don't even have time to go to Paris and that's my favorite!

However, your trip, your choices!

5 major cities and one overcrowded minor location in 2 weeks is way too much. Each of those cities could easily eat up a week on their own. And Mediterranean beaches aren't like those in California- most are pebbled, not sand. Of your current choices, you can get a half decent beach in Monterosso in the CT, or the Lido in Venice.

And dont forget that you lose a half to a full day of sightseeing time every time you travel to a new location. I think you need a family meeting to winnow down your plans to only 3 (4 at the most) places before you go any further.

The best introduction to Europe is London, Paris, Rome. It's a classic tour for a reason.

Hi from RI,

Have you thought about Portugal and Italy. From Lisbon it is very easy to go the Cascais and Guichino beach (lots of sand dunes- looks similar to Cape Code from decades ago) and from Porto the Beach is close too. Last year TAP airlines was very affordable and you could book a 2 day stop over in Lisbon or Porto on your way to Rome or on your way home. The airports in both Lisbon and Porto are close to the cities.

If British Airways has the stop over in London for 2 days on your way to/from Rome you could book your ticket that way. Then do train loop in Italy for 9 days for cities/sights you want to see. I don't remember Delta offering stop overs when I booked my tickets to Amsterdam.

(FYI Stop overs are different from layovers)

I always use Bookingdotcom to search for hotels or apartments as I like the maps with location information and the pictures were accurate for our trip last year to Portugal.

My favorite European cities: 1. London/Rome tied; 2. Copenhagan, 3. St. Petersberg 4. Porto 5. Lisbon 6. Istanbul 7 Oslo
8 Helsinki, 9 STockholm, 10 Tallin (old town)

On my list: Paris, Bruges, Vienna, Prague, Barcelona,Madrid,Munich, Amsterdam

Happy Planning!

have about 2 weeks.

How many nights in Europe is 'about 2 weeks' ?

Question 3-- Doing a r/t would be a big waste of time. Not knowing your dates or origin makes commenting on whether you are searching correctly and getting significant cost difference is hard to say.

Given the push back on London and the desire for a beach stop, dropping London from your ambitious wish list makes sense.

We look for two-bedroom apartments (you may need 3 bedrooms, which are harder to find) on both AirBnB and Booking.com. Our trip to Portugal in June was booked months ago.

In your planning, don't forget that you'll lose your first day to jet lag, and your last day may be shortened so that you can get to the airport. And each time you move from city to city you could easily lose a day. That's why your plan to five or six different places is waaay too ambitious.

If you end up booking a round trip to and from the same city, you can easily hop a flight to get back there. We flew EasyJet last year between Naples and Milan, for example, to save time.

With only two weeks, you should just do Italy. Even if you go to Paris and spend time there, you won't have enough for all you want in Italy. Also, you still waste time traveling from Paris to Italy.

If you do Paris, then consider taking the night train to Italy.

For Italy you wanted to see: Venice, Florence, and Rome - maybe Cinque Terre.

Frankly, while CT was nice, I like the Amalfi Coast more.

First plan what you want to see in the big three, Venice, Florence and Rome.
You should plan on at least 3 days in Venice, 3-4 in Florence and 5-6 in Rome. If you do CT, then your time is used up.
The Naples area has Pompeii, Naples. Sorrento, Capri and the Amalfi Coast. If you go there, you need minimum of three days.

With 5 persons, if you do hotels, you would need two rooms. If you do AirBnB or something similar, then try to get something close to the city center, sometimes that can be hard. Taking busses into the city can waste a lot of time. Do you research on lodging. I like to use Kayak.com for finding nice hotels for affordable prices, along with TripAdvisor which has a great feature with a map showing the location of lodging with the prices. Also, Booking.com is a good source, but when you do Kayak.com Booking.com is included.

Open Jaw flights are usually a bit more expensive than RT, but that depends on the places you plan to arrive/depart from. Consider flying into Venice and departing from Rome.

First, make the teenagers emotionally invest in this journey by doing their own research.
Second, apartments are the best answer for space and a kitchen.
Third, open jaw tickets can be more expensive, but the saving is in the use of your most valuable commodity; vacation time.
Fourth, slow down and make the moment last. Essentially you are moving a platoon from point to point.
Fifth, July = HOT + Dense Crowds which makes for a slog while baking your meat in. the heat.
Sixth, Back to One; your crew needs to take ownership of defining priorities ASAP!

We have traveled with 5 before, similar ages, in summer. I would recommend that you start by taking a look at what is still available for accommodations in your top places and see if that changes your mind. For example, when we took all 5 to Paris, we were struggling to make a change by April. But we were also trying to stick to a budget, and perhaps you have a bit more spending room. You will also find it a lot easier to find rooms in some smaller cities or towns, so I would recommend taking a look at those.
I agree with two weeks, I would only do Italy. And I would skip London. I'm not sure I agree with other poster's comments about making the kids be responsible for planning, as I love to plan the trips myself, and frankly they are not paying!

Donnagin, when you are researching flights, be careful to select “multi-city,” rather than two one way flights. Two one way tickets are usually much more expensive than a round trip or open jaw (multi city.)

And heed what a previous poster said: an open jaw ticket is more about saving precious time than money. If you can can afford the extra, it may well be worth it.

We are a family of 5 like you, (53, 51, 24, 20 and 20). We are also like you as far as how much we want to see in the record time of 3-weeks :) We are doing Paris, Florence, Tuscany, Rome, Croatia, Venice and Amsterdam) :) Very ambitious, yup. It will be hubby and my only trip to Europe as there are many more places in the world we want to see! We are doing a day-trip on the Eurostar to London, on one of the few days we are at Paris. I was the only one that voted NOT to go to London, got outvoted, however if for whatever reason we are exhausted then we will have to take the loss of the Eurostar tickets we have bought.

I booked all my accommodation through booking.com. Hubby and I are in Canada before we meet the kids for their three weeks in Europe, then once the kids go home hubby and I go on to Santorini for 5 nights then Singapore for a week on the way back to NZ.

Our accommodations are 90% apartments with a few hotels thrown in. I'll be reporting back on how we get on. I knew you would get mostly replies here saying "too much", but sometimes its just the way others roll :) Where someone will say "oh you need to spend at least 4-5 days there", yeh nah, not us :)

All 3 countries you propose to visit have been affected by strikes over the past 6 months at least, and there is no way to know if this situation will end by summer. Many of us here have experienced the disruptive effects of these strikes on our recent trips to Italy, France, and/or the UK. It is no fun, I’ll just say that. Among other problems, it can end up adding considerable cost and stress to your trip if you have to revise your trip at the last minute.

By including all 3 countries, you are not only traveling too fast, you are increasing your chances of encountering strikes that affect your transportation plans.

So, I will join with others above who have suggested that you confine your trip to Italy. There is plenty to see for two weeks—in addition to Venice, Florence and Rome, you could include some beach and/or lake time. Amalfi Coast and one of the northern Italy lakes (Maggiore, Como, or Garda) are all good choices ( I am not a fan of. Cinque Terre due to the crowds). You could fly into Milan (or Venice) and out of Rome, or vice versa.

I believe it will be a much more enjoyable trip for you and your family.

When looking at airfare, you would use the “multi-city” option on the airline website. Sometimes this appears in the Advanced Search option, and may not be available in an app. The savings in flying into one city and out of another is your time. You don’t have to waste a full day backtracking.

For 5 people to sleep in real beds you will need 3 bedroom apartments, at minimum. Be aware that a living room with a sofa bed is considered a “bedroom” so you may need 4 bedrooms. We are a family of 6 traveling this summer, it’s very challenge (and expensive) finding lodging. We are staying in 3 hotel rooms in some places.

I would eliminate London. And CT is not what I would prefer if the intention is beach time, so I would drop that one. Consider flying into Venice, go to the beach at Lido, then Florence and Rome. Air conditioning would be a must for me. Here is an apartment we have stayed at in Venice. It’s a short vaporetto ride from the main area - quiet area with great ac and plenty of space. The same company manages several apartments in the area. https://abnb.me/wllAnxgvsyb

As you can tell, opinions are all over the map. You've received some good advise above. And obviously traveling with 5 people is not easy. Traveling by the path of least resistance is best in your situation.

You should simplify your itinerary and travel from city to city by train when possible. Everyone should travel with a 21" carry on bag, and they should be prepared to handle their own luggage on the trip.

You might consider flying into Rome and spending 4 nights there. Then take the train up to Florence for 3 nights and taking a train to Venice for 3 nights. The girls can go out to the Lido for their "beach day". You can fly inexpensively from Venice to London Gatwick on EasyJet or Wizz Air and getting back to the U.S. should be easy out of Heathrow Airport.

Traveling to Europe is best when taken slowly. You don't want your trip to be a complete blur to "the kids." Italy alone can be pretty overwhelming with so much history, art, food and culture. And finishing up in London is much easier than traveling through Paris.

Venice in October is magic. Venice in summer leaves people wondering why people go there, it's hot and crowded (some add stinky). I'd drop that for now and make it a later trip.

Rome will be really hot and crowded, bordering on miserable, but it is Rome and I'd never suggest skipping it.

Cinque Terra is overrated, especially for a short trip. That would be the first place I'd skip.

If it was me I'd spend five nights in London, five in Paris and the balance in Rome. That's more than enough for one short trip.

...Open Jaw flights are usually a bit more expensive than RT,.... That can be true but we have often found open jaw to be the same or cheaper especially if you add the costs in time and money returning to your starting point unless you do a loop or a circle. London is an expensive airport to fly into so I am surprised that an open jaw ticket with Rome is more expensive. IMO, you are planning too much. I would cut off London and maybe Rome and shift my emphasis to northern Europe at that time of year. Most of Italy can be pretty miserable -- temp and humidity wise -- in July and August.

PS Just did a quick check for flights out of LA for two weeks, mid-July -- The fare, coach, RT to London was $1150. Sames dates into London and home from Rome was $1325. You cannot get back to London from Rome for the difference of $175.

Regarding beaches. I grew up in San Diego (decent waves and beaches) and now live in Panama City Beach (great beaches, no waves).

My favorite beaches in Europe are on the Costa de la Luz in Spain. The include the stretch from Tarifa at the south tip of Spain to the Portuguese border. Tarifa is known for wind surfing. I love other areas because they feel remote; miles of beaches separated by short stretches of rock cliffs. There are very few people and just enough services to survive.

I've also been to beaches in France and Italy. I've been from the Italian Riviera by the French border to Cannes, specifically to decide which beach(es) I liked best. The winner hands-down was Antibes in the French Riviera. Beaches on the Riviera are either mostly or entirely gravel and rocks. Antibes is the only place in the stretch I visited that has actual sand beaches. Antibes has areas of sand beaches separated by areas of rock cliffs. Antibes also has a great art gallery, a medieval walled old center with plenty of dining choices, a small town feel in the middle of the Riviera. If you want a bigger city, Nice would be a good choice. The beaches aren't as nice but there are more choices of everything you would expect from a city, and you can fly their directly with Air France.

Another area, includes some of Spain and France, is the Basque area. They have really nice beaches but the weather is only reliable for beach activities in the high summer months. The beaches south of Bordeaux, France are also nice - and they have surfing and waves. I was there in mid-June. The weather was great for bike riding and swimming. They were just gearing up for the big tourist season.

I've been swimming in the Baltic Ocean on the north end of Zealand. In August the water was warmer than I'd expect. The beach was okay, but not as nice as those previously listed.

Barcelona has man-made beaches that are more like playground dirt than actual sand. Still, there's a lot of activity when the weather is nice, and it feels like a beach area.

Last place, for me, was Cinque Terra, Italy. Only Monterosso has anything you could call a beach. It's small and at least half is private (meaning you rent a chair to stay on the beach)

Northern European cities often use parks or stretches along the rivers the way we'd use beaches. You might enjoy those on a hot summer day. Nudity is common, not flaunted at all, and not frowned upon. Northern Europeans don't consider nudity to be necessarily prurient, sometimes your just naked getting sun or relaxing in a spa/sauna. They think it's odd when Americans, and other tourists, gawk.

I still have a lot of beach areas to visit. Life's too short.

Regarding your lodging request, take a look at private and/or family rooms in hostels. Many hostels have have expanded their family and priviate room facililties. As a bonus, your kids might enjoy a couple evenings meeting other travelers from around the world.

Have the kids jump on the internet (e.g. Hostelworld.com) and see what they find.

Private rooms in hostels also sometimes pop up on booking.com. They could sell be cheaper booked direct.

Thank you to everyone who responded. Your comments and suggestions have (mostly) been SUPER helpful. I especially appreciate those of you who took the time to include sample itineraries. That was very thoughtful of you!!!

We have decided to drop London, as many of you suggested, and as I had already suspected we would do. We will fly into Paris on July 9th and out of Rome on July 23rd. We were able to book the outbound with points, so that was a win. Still working out the details and accommodations, but I think we will visit Paris, Florence, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast. That will provide a little something for everyone.

If anyone has any specific hotels or apartments that are a good value for 5 adults, we would appreciate any links.

Thanks again!!

No specific hotels to suggest, but will offer the thought that I would fly Paris to Naples( for Amalfi coast); then head to Florence and finish in Rome to facilitate the flight home.