Suggestions on Accommodations

Two nights in inane place means only one full day there, frankly I think if if you think a place is only worth one day, maybe it's worth eliminating from you itinerary. You have a lot of places places on your list, so I would keep it to four , each each time your move you lose at minimum1/2 day, usually almost a full day...so you really only have 10 days fully free to sightsee...four places are enough.

Sorry can't help with hotels hotels as hotels as i do not look for luxury hotels ... ( which is partly why why we can afford much longer visits!)

Most hotel rooms in big cities like Paris and Amsterdam are small, smaller smaller then you likely are used to, so I would think teens will need own room. Quads are not not as available and even if you you find them, they will be tight, and bedding may be right up against each other. Of course in truly Luxembourg hotels perhaps rooms may be decent size, but prices will will be high, we find Amsterdam to have very pricey rooms, same with Rome, Rome and to some degree paris,,,but as I said I book economy rooms ( under 150€) ..and while they are clean and we'll located , they they most definitely are aren't luxurious, !

Ps. one does not usually meet a lot of locals in
hotels, I do meet European tourists,,but, locals sleep in their own homes!

I'll add some other thoughts.

First, the teens will be considered adults as far as bed count goes, so, yes, you may need 5 rooms.

Most B&B's are small with few rooms. Your potential of needing 5 rooms might fill up some completely.

Small hotels might not have many more rooms than a B&B.

Larger hotels with more rooms might or might not be more expensive.

No matter where you stay, the members of your group will have to work at communicating with anyone outside your group. If you all sit together or close to each other at meals or move as a unit wherever you are, it will decrease your approachability significantly.

Most apartments require longer stays than you are planning. Most are too small to accommodate all the group.

And it's not just the fees you'd have to be concerned about. You would have to stock up on groceries and other household supplies.

Unless you change your very short itinerary to stay 4+ nights, in fewer locations, I don't think the apartment(s) option is the best for your group.

You are planning to go in high season, so places will be more crowded and more expensive and will be filling up fast. I'd be hitting booking.com right now to see what's available and suitable for your group.

And I agree with everyone who is saying that you have too many destinations to see much of anything in them. You say 4-5 cities, then list 6 with some other possibilities. With only 2 weeks (14 nights?), I'd stick to your top 3 and fly multi-city to avoid backtracking.

Depending on whether you want to see the relatives first or last, Zurich could be your arrival or departure city. Remember that the currency there is Swiss francs, not Euros.

Beyond the time lost traveling among locations, getting settled in and packing up to go on to the next place, keep in mind that the group will go at the pace of the slowest member. Based on my experience, that is more likely to be one or more of the teens than the grandparents.

Trip planning is often an iterative process where what you'd like to see and do is matched up with what is actually possible in terms of logistics, time and money.

Speaking of money, I read once that for a moderately priced trip to Europe the per-person per-day cost is between $150 and $180, counting everthing except airfare to Europe and back home. Many people travel more economically, but it sounds like your group is not one where dorms and shared bathrooms down the hall sound appealing.

My husband and I don't find that appealing either. We do moderate kinds of trips, and we are always in that cost range. You can do the math for your group.

The major cities you've chosen (Berlin, London, Paris) typically require 4-5 nights - maybe more for a group as large as yours, which is much trickier to manage. Zurich, Munich and Amsterdam might be doable in 3. You need maybe 3-4 weeks, not 2.

With just 2 weeks you need to reduce the number of major cities, reduce the number of destinations, and reduce the ground travel involved.

"I've heard we might need TWO rooms for a family of four in Europe?"
Sometimes there are "family rooms" for 3 or maybe 4 but not often.

" I also like the notion of staying in smaller and/or family run hotels or BnBs where we might actually meet local people we can relate to."
That's a solid idea that's difficult in practice.

I have 2 basic suggestions.

RECONSIDER HOSTELS. Not backpacker hostels but official hostel association (DJH) hostels (there are about 500 of these all over the country.) Germany's hostels have been largely remodeled - the 20-bed dorms are gone and have been replaced with modern family-sized rooms with private bathrooms; FAMILIES are a major target for their marketing efforts. There are often common areas where families and individuals hang out (play ground, game room, etc.) and you have a good chance for that contact you are seeking. Many hostels have a "FAMILY HOSTEL" designation - click on "All Family Hostels" on the right side of THIS PAGE for a list of them. You might just find a suitable hostel or two.

VISIT SOME SMALLER PLACES TOO. Europe has lovely old-world towns and places of historical and cultural interest with much smaller populations, places that make it easier to get around on foot rather than on complex public transit systems. In Germany such places tend to have apartments for rent to vacationing families like yours. The villages of the Middle Rhine Valley (Bacharach, St. Goar, Oberwesel, Boppard) come to mind here. Perhaps you could secure one (or all three of the) "Loreley apartments" in St. Goar (where my family stayed several years ago.) If you can't find apartments in the same building, the town is quite small, so staying in separate places won't make it tough to get together. It's a beautiful area with numerous sights and towns of interest nearby; take a castle tour, a river cruise, a clifftop walk, taste some wine, take the summer bobsled ride or a chairlift ride. Great area for 2-3 days.

St. Goar and Rheinfels Castle
Ferry and view from St. Goar
Area map and information
Boppard's chairlift
Bobsled ride

If you're going to have an enjoyable trip to Europe in just 2 weeks you need to limit your number of bases (either major cities or rural areas) to 3, 4 at the most. With that many people and 3 generations what you are suggesting would be more like a death march than a vacation. If everyone in the group is used to kamikaze traveling then maybe it wouldn't bother you, but changing hotels and traveling from place to place every couple of days would be a nightmare for me. You're correct that you will need several hotel rooms in some places and rental apartments/homes would work best for you but to do that you would have to spend more time in each place, at least 3 nights maybe more, 2 night rentals of this type are rare, especially those that would sleep 10 people. I understand the desire to see as much as possible and I have done that (on a guided tour and it was solo or as a couple) but you really need to lower your expectations a bit.

1. Two weeks off work is 16 days.
   
2. 16 days can be a good 4 or 5 city tour if it is 3 large cities (4 nights each) and 2 small towns (1 or 2 nights each).
   
3. What is most important is an easy flow and a short travel time between destinations. Example: Prague (4) + Cesky Krumlov (1) + Vienna (4) + Gyor (1) + Budapest (5) = 15 nights with about 2.5 hours between destinations; and a real nice trip. Someone else can suggest a similar version using the locations you are interested in.
4. Finding enough closely located apartments to make it work might be a insurmountable challenge.
5. You may not need 5 rooms. Use http://us.venere.com/ and put in the number of rooms as 1, then put 3 or 4 people and see what you get. “Family Rooms” are not terribly uncommon in Europe.
6. Different people have different styles. One post says rooms cost 150 euro a night and another says the average is $150 a day including the room. If budget is an issue, go to cheaper cities before you compromise and end up someplace you can’t afford to really get a lot out of.
7. To get an idea of relative cost look at: http://www.priceoftravel.com/world-cities-by-price-backpacker-index/ its for backpackers but you can see how the cities are ranked for cost.

Start looking at booking sites to see what's out there.

Planning before you go: will your large group break off into smaller groups for some sightseeing and then meet up, or always be together? What are the wish lists for the various members?

Your ability to only stay a couple nights per city is definitely going to impact how many VRBO/Airbnb places will be willing to work with you. You are going during peak tourist season and many of those places want you to commit to stays of at least 5-7 nights. And you are correct that the additional fees charged can make apartments less ideal for a short stay of 2 nights. Unless you get a rental where you can access the keys via a lockbox whenever you arrive, there is the added hassle of needing to meet up with the Airbnb host to gain access to your rental. Traveling in a pack of 10 people can slow you down so if you miss a train, you then have to deal with making sure you reach out to your host to set up a new time to meet for the key transfer.

I'd stick with hotels and see what options you come up with. Small, family run hotels may only have 1 "family room" that could accommodate a set of parents and 2 teens. This creates a problem for the other family you are traveling with. Look at large chains like Accor. Ibis is part of the Accor brand and sometimes with enough advance booking, or pre-payment (if you are confident your dates are locked in and plans won't change), you can get a good deal. You will need multiple rooms for a group that size.

In big cities take a look at Apart'hotels - a cross between an apartment rental and a hotel which is professionally managed with the amenities of a hotel (ex. 24 hour front desk, daily housekeeping services, etc.). Chains like Citadines have multiple locations in places like London and Paris and they also have a few properties scattered throughout Germany, including one in Berlin and another in Munich. You are not going to get 10 people into one apartment. In some cases apart'hotels may have a 2 bedroom unit that could possibly fit up to 6, and some only offer studios and 1 bedroom units. You would need more than one unit in an apart'hotel to fit your entire group. Accor's Adagio brand is another option for apart'hotels.

Your only other option is to get more comfortable with the idea of hostels or possibly look into alternative lodging - like universities/colleges that rent out dorm rooms to tourists during the summer months (ex. London School of Economics). While the Hosteling International/YHA ones do tend to attract families, I find some of them a little frumpy and sad. Some of the newer, purpose built "flash packer" independent hostels are also looking at marketing more to families or those travelers who want a more stylish experience and they have taken every opportunity to often squeeze in an ensuite, private bathroom which means no more walking down the hall to use the toilet or shower.

I've stayed at hostels where they featured Aveda hair and skin products in an ensuite bathroom and a computer lounge with big screen Mac desktops. Read reviews carefully at websites like hostelworld.com to see what other travelers have to say about any hostel before you book. You still will need multiple rooms, many have family rooms which might contain a double bed and 2 twins, or you have the option of turning a quad into your own "family room". Others have rooms for just 2 (for the grandparents or parents that don't want to share a room with 2 teens). Plenty of lounge areas, plus access to a communal kitchen and coin-op laundry facilities help you manage costs and give everyone more space to go off and do their own thing, as well as ample opportunities to engage with travelers from other parts of Europe who are also hosteling.

A lot of good points were made in the posts above, so I just want to emphasize the following words of wisdom:

"Beyond the time lost traveling among locations, getting settled in and packing up to go on to the next place, keep in mind that the group will go at the pace of the slowest member. Based on my experience, that is more likely to be one or more of the teens than the grandparents."

Yes, and the larger the group, the slower it moves. Yours is a large group.

"Trip planning is often an iterative process where what you'd like to see and do is matched up with what is actually possible in terms of logistics, time and money."

Yes, we all start with a "wish list" for a trip, then have to cut some things for reasons of time, money, logistics, etc. It's painful, but it really does make for a better trip in the end - I promise.

"If you're going to have an enjoyable trip to Europe in just 2 weeks you need to limit your number of bases (either major cities or rural areas) to 3, 4 at the most."

Remember the principle that two nights in a place equals one full day, so one night in a place is less than a full day. Also remember that getting between two close together places takes at least a half-day, and between further-flung ones (e.g., Munich and Berlin) more like a full day. That's why you may think you have time for 5 cities, but you don't (unless you want a miserable trip, with lots of time and energy expended on logistics of getting from place to place rather than enjoying Europe).

"What is most important is an easy flow and a short travel time between destinations."

Right - zigzagging and backtracking waste time that you don't have.

A great quick way to get an idea of what's involved in connecting any two places is Rome 2 Rio: http://www.rome2rio.com/
However, don't rely on it as the final word, and know that it doesn't take into account any discount train tickets available.

Harold, as usual, speaks the truth -- even when he's aggregating others' thoughts! ;-)