Planning trip with 17yo granddaughter

What kinds of things does she like to do? Museums? Shopping? Outdoorsy? City? Likes to relax on beach? Curious? Foody or picky eater?

I would consider London and Paris because of the Eurostar. There are so many things to see in London like Westminister Abby, The Tower, Trifalger square and the Natinal Gallery, and something she might really like, the Harry Potter studio tour. The London tube is very easy to travel on. Taking the Eurostar to Paris is fun and fast (2hr 15 min) and easy. Paris is again filled with amazing places and experiences with an excellent metro system. By visiting these two iconic cities you would maximize your time to see and do things verses spending too much time just traveling between places. I would skip going to Disney Paris as it is not really all that great instead I would go for experiences like a cooking class or a river cruise or concert in Saint Chappel. Most importantly, I would take a day and go to Versalles to see the palace and spend a afternoon in the gardens. I cannot think of a better gift to give a grandchild than travel and to experience different cultures, she will remember it for the rest of her life and it will enlarge her perception of the world we live in. Have a great time.

Having traveled with teens about your granddaughter's age, I agree with everything donseery said - as long as your granddaughter is interested in those cities. That was the itinerary we did on our first trip to Europe. They loved it. My teens also really loved Rome and Venice. That could be another option. A third place that we have visited and absolutely loved is Switzerland. You can spend a few days in the Lauterbrunnen Valley area and a few days in another location such as Lucerne, Lausanne, or Montreux.

I fully agree that you should not be doing more than 1-2 cities on this trip. Any more and you will spend most of your time in transit vs. enjoying the cities.

Is she taking a foreign language in school? What are her interests? My teens very much wanted to be involved in the planning so encourage her to look at a guidebook or browse some websites. Let the discussions range in crazy directions then narrow things down based on practicalities. For example, one of mine wanted to see the Grand National (it's a horse race), but compromised with a day at Lingfield near London. Don't feel restricted by the "must sees" at your destinations. You can have a great time renting a rowboat on a Scottish loch or spending the day at a wildlife refuge. In Amsterdam we took a food tour. Get a map of Europe and pay attention to the scale. With google maps you can roughly calculate the length of a train ride between to destinations.

Have fun with the planning!

Her interests are dance and music. She lives near the ocean and beach so I don't think we need to a beach time into the mix. She did take Spanish the last couple of years in high school. Last year my husband and I went to Spain (Andalusia and Madrid). I'm wondering about Barcelona and what other city would be reasonable? Rome? Paris?

I'd choose 2 from London, Paris and Amsterdam. If you go to Barcelona, you could take the train to Paris. Anywhere else you'll have to fly - too much time and hassle for only 9 days.

I'm very weather-focused and for April I'd be looking at somewhere like Spain or southern Italy. April in Paris is not for me because--though I love museums--I spend a lot of time pounding the pavement, enjoying the architecture and atmosphere. YMMV.

London and Paris or Amsterdam and Paris. Amsterdam and Paris are easy because of KLM/Air France. I'd go in May and it'll still be chilly at night.

"April in Paris" is great as a song, but less so as a touring suggestion -- took my daughter for spring break her freshman year in college and we had to bundle up most days and every evening. Was still a fine trip seeing museums and walking and eating crepes. We had a week and spent it all in Paris.