Summer sabbatical

Happy planning!

This sounds wonderful Carrie. A sabbatical is such a great opportunity to explore.

Happy to help when you are ready.

Sandy

Be sure to include your kids in your planning as your family dreams about this 2023 sabbatical. When you have some ideas and desires come back to the forum for bouncing ideas off of us and getting specific help. Sounds exciting for you all and welcome to posting on the forum!

Oh excellent and what fun! Hope by 2023 the world of travel is back to "normal"!

If you've not been to Europe, start with reading Rick's Europe thru the Back Door. It gives you a lot of travel basics which you may want to consider as you focus on the area you'll want to visit!

I second Pam's suggestion to read ETBD. It includes short descriptions of various destinations, might help you get an idea about where to spend this time. If you've been following this forum you probably know better than to try to spend your month "seeing it all." Much smarter to stick with a few places in one or two countries. And you know your kids best, but it's probably also wise to involve them as much as possible in planning the trip and maybe let them do some things on their own, at least the teens. Hope you have a wonderful time planning and then doing!

Carrie, welcome to the forum. How exciting for you to plan a month sabbatical with your family. Besides reading guidebooks, be sure to check out travel tips on this site. Also watch/listen to the RS Audio Europe app.
You didn’t say if you have been to Europe before. But you will have so much fun planning your trip. Get the whole family involved as others have said. Where do you want to go and what do you want to see?
The forum people are very helpful to bounce ideas off of.

Carrie B welcome to the active side of the Forums.

I'm looking forward to all your questions and helping all 5 of you have a great time!!!

About the kiddoes - what sort of kids are they? Bookworms, adventurous, sporty, introverted? (Probably one of each!)

Sounds like your first trip to Europe? Or maybe one or both of you visited BK (before kids)?

(Waving at Carrie)

A welcome to the forums from one of your MN neighbors! You're going to have so much fun figuring out where to spend your 4-5 weeks abroad! Along with browsing the threads here, the library is an excellent and inexpensive place to acquire resources for your research. Check out a variety of guidebooks and travel-related CDs. There are also tons of youtubes and other online resources.

What I wouldn't do is take minutiae like hours, ticket prices, transport pricing, sightseeing passes, etc. as gospel as much can (and likely will) change by 2023. At this point, just figure out where you want to go, how long to stay in each place, what sorts of things you and your young people wish to see, and most efficient ways of moving your tribe around.

Those young folks? Get them involved! This is a priceless opportunity for them to start learning what goes into researching and executing their own trips in the future. It also helps keep the whine factor down if they've had a hand in choosing sightseeing/activity choices versus just being herded about ...not that your children aren't or won't be cheerful, flexible travelers. 😉 It's just more fun if all 5 of you can enjoy terrific family discussions and collective dreaming about your wonderful opportunity.

As far as the forums, the more you can tell us about your family's interests and travel experience to date, the better posters can help you plan a trip you'll be reminiscing fondly about for many, many years to come.

You will have a great trip. Our now 24 yr old daughter has been to Europe with us 7 times. Once you've decided on potential countries, your entire family should occasionally watch some of Rick's shows that are available on this website to get a feel for what appeals to each person.

Those young folks? Get them involved! ...helps keep the whine factor down...not that your children aren't or won't be cheerful, flexible travelers.

Absolutely spot on!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

A little background. We have been to Europe twice as a family and once with my husband and I. The first family trip was a 10 day stay in London with several day trips. The second family trip was a 3.5 week and was a combo of a 12 day Norwegian Fjord cruise and a week in Paris with some day trips. The trip my husband and I took was a 7 day western Med. cruise with a pre-trip in Rome on our own. With each of those trips, the RS books were a huge help!

My kids are actually really good travelers. I'd honestly take them anywhere. They are well behaved, appreciate going and looking back at the places we've been. We have learned some things along the way about what works best for our family. If I were to break a typical day into 3 parts - morning, afternoon, and evening, we do best when we only use 2 of the 3 blocks. For example, we can't tour in NYC all day and then do a show in the evening. It's just too much. Plus we need time for regular life like groceries and laundry. So I try and keep that in mind when looking at how much time in each destination.

One of the biggest challenges I find is being a family of 5. Lodging is usually tricky. And someone is always left to sit on their own on the trains!!! Ideally I'd like this trip to be train only and no driving. I have a whole shelf of RS books that I've been reading and am enjoying it all so much! Personally, I may love trip planning even more than the actual trip!

Carrie

Aha! So not your first rodeo abroad, have the books, kids are great travelers, know your family's style, ... That's exactly the sort of info we need so that some beginner's details can be dispensed with. 👍

What about Spain? Madrid, Barcelona and Seville are great on their own, and they make wonderful bases for day trips, either by train or with a small-group tour. A family of five could probably "qualify" as a private tour for about the same price as 5 individuals in a "small-group".

I'm not one for writing long posts, but I suggest that you take a good look at Spain.

This is the time for a long family discussion of what your interests and priorities are: in depth visit to one country, a themed tour, hit the major cities, go across the continent (a best of Europe itinerary). All valid options.

And you have time for the kids to take language classes.

I agree with Estimated Prophet. I may be a tad partial, but Spain has a little of everything for everyone, between the varied and diverse landscapes, 1000s of years of history, unique culture/language/cuisines of each of our autonomous regions, I'm sure it would make for an excellent family trip. Spain also has 35+ UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (the most of any European country) and 2nd most World Heritage Sites in Europe (just behind Italy!).

Google has recently launched a fantastic resource called "Spain: a Crossroads of Culture", which is a curated collection through the 5 senses of Spain, with 360 virtual tours of art, museums, landscapes, gastronomy, music - https://artsandculture.google.com/project/discover-spain

Keep on traveling! 😃

I love Spain. I've spent over four months there since 2016. But you plan a summer trip, and much of Spain is extremely hot at that time of year. I'd urge you to take a careful look at recent historical weather data before committing. I use timeanddate.com, which has actual, historical, day-by-day statistics going back about ten years. I like to check the most recent five years, though three might be sufficient in this case. Be careful about depending on climate charts that give average temperatures. They hide extremes and in many cases cover time periods ending years ago, so they don't reflect the full impact of climate change.

If you decide to head to Spain, I strongly suggest starting as early in June as you can, beginning the trip in the south (if it's included in your itinerary), and maximizing the time spent on/near the northern coast between Galicia and the Basque Country. That part of Spain is usually temperate even in mid-summer. I believe there are some nice active-sport opportunities in the lovely Picos de Europa area that might be fun for your children.