Hello,
I just booked round trip airfare from LAX - CDG December 25 - January 7.
We will be traveling with our 8 and 12 year old girls.
My husband and I have traveled a bit but my girls have only been to Paris.
Can anyone recommend an itinerary?
I was thinking of Paris, Amsterdam, Venice and Rome but we are open to all ideas. There are so many ways to spend these two weeks I'm kind of overwhelmed.
Where would you do New Years?
And will shops and restaurants be open in that first week of January?
Thank you!
Posted by
Rockville, MD, USA
654 posts
I don't know much about New Year's activities but I think you can search this forum (or the France one) to see if there have been posts. You might want to check the Trip Reports forum too.
As far as recommending an itinerary, that's really hard to do without knowing the interests of each person and what they've seen already and how they feel about seeing it again. We use Cynthia Harriman's Days to Choose method from her book Taking Your Kids to Europe to get everyone involved in the planning. Everyone brings suggestions and from there we build an itinerary.
Four cities is a lot of days of travel for such a short trip. Here's what I mean:
12/26 arrive Paris, wander around in a jet-lagged fog
12/27 train to Amsterdam
12/28-29 two days exploring Amsterdam
12/30 fly to Rome
12/31-1/3 4 days exploring Rome
1/4 fly to Paris
1/5-6 two days revisiting Paris
Even leaving Venice out it's pretty fast-paced, just a taste of each location, really. And you might run into bad weather on one of your travel days.
Start by building your family's list of "Must Sees" for each location. You might find you need 7 days for Rome/Venice and 4 for Paris with a day for traveling between them.
Hope this helps!
Posted by
Rockville, MD, USA
654 posts
Posted by
11614 posts
Stay away from Rome over New Years! It was mobbed this year, mostly Italian tourists. You could barely shove yourself through crowds in the Piazza in front of the Pantheon, for example. Prices were much higher then too, for both hotels and AirBnBs. Some were double and we spent six nights there. New Years Eve dinners were 150€ and higher, started at 10 pm. Fire crackers were shot off in the streets, stopping after midnight which was OK. We wished we had remained in London where we had spent a lovely Christmas. And Rome was colder than London too, down coats, gloves, hats. And I love Rome, but never again at New Years!
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20497 posts
This is sort of silly without knowing anything. But the exercise can be fun
LAX - CDG December 25 - January 7
So, you arrive Paris on the 26th. You missed Christmas (not really).
Saturday 26 Paris
Sunday 27 Paris
Monday 28 Paris
Tuesday 29 Paris to Budapest
Quick flight for about $100 non-stop. But wait till July when all the discount carriers have their schedules published. Christmas markets are open till New Year day. So you still get some western Christmas tradition.
Wednesday 30 Budapest
Thursday 31 Budapest
Friday 1 Budapest
Saturday 2 Budapest to Lviv
Okay, so Lviv is sort of the stretch. But its orthodox so Christmas isnt until the 7th of January which means Christmas festivities are in full swing. Amazing time to be there. Figure a 4 to 6 hour flight with one change costing $150 to $200. But wait till July to book when all the discount carriers have their schedules listed.
Sunday 3 Lviv
Monday 4 Lviv
Tuesday 5 Lviv to Paris
Figure a 4 to 6 hour flight with one change costing $150 to $200. But wait till July to book when all the discount carriers have their schedules listed.
Wednesday 6 Paris
This gives you 3.5 days in Paris. Okay, since you have been there before.
Thursday 7 Paris to LAX
Posted by
Ottawa, ON, Canada
174 posts
Actually, James, the population of Lviv is mostly Ukrainian Greek Catholic : "Currently, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church predominates in three western oblasts (provinces) of Ukraine, including the majority of the population of Lviv, but constitutes a small minority elsewhere in the country." But yes, they do celebrate Christmas and Easter according to the Julian calendar, the same as the Eastern Orthodox churches, and I agree with you that that is a wonderful time of year to visit. There is a Christmas market and a colourful parade of carollers, all in traditional dress and carrying the "zvizdy" (stars) that carollers carry when they go carolling house-to-house, and many other festivities.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20497 posts
I have been there for orthodox (calendar) Christmas (if you must) and the celebrations were pretty amazing..... Yes, they celebrate catholic (calendar) Christmas too....
Here is some information:
https://destinations.com.ua/events/festivals-holidays/255-orthodox-christmas-2018-celebrations-in-lviv-2
https://hotel-edem.lviv.ua/en/christmas-in-lviv/
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/find-orthodox-christmas-celebrations-kyiv-lviv.html
Actually the point was to give the OP a European Christmas despite having missed it.
Posted by
🏝️ Hobe Sound, FL⛱️
3294 posts
Back to reality...
I think that 4 cities in two weeks is too much. You only have 12 full days and I think you should narrow down your plans to see only 2 cities. I would take half the time in Paris and half in ONE of the other cities. Amsterdam would be the easiest, especially with two children. The train takes about 3 1/2 hours and you don’t have to travel to and from airports, go through security, etc. Get on the train in city center. Get off the train in city center.
Another option would be to take the train to London. I just feel that you would be eating up a lot of time traveling if you went to more than two locations in 12 days and not savoring where you are.