travel with teens to Europe

3 cities in that time is pushing it a bit. Relaly you will only have 10 days when you take out arrival and departure . then you lose at least 2 days getting between cities. Why not pick two? London and Paris make a good match and you can use the EuroStar or a cheap flight between them. Or better yet, pick one and do several day trips. You could rent an apartment and save a bit on room costs and be able to fix some of your own meals. We did that with our kids and it was great!

I am traveliing to Europe with my 15 year old daughter in March. Based on my own three trips to Europe, I decided to have at least three to four nights in each city and do day trips. I also picked areas with easy train connections. Paris, Nice, Florence, Rome. I have set it up so Kelsie plans the afternoon adventure and I plan the morning. No early departures as teenagers hate to get up early. I am quizzing her on each destination and she earns her travel spending money based upon those grades. She loves this idea! The essay question on the quiz is for her to list at least four things she wants to see in that area which will help alot with the planning.

I vote with Toni- 2 cities are plenty, London and Paris, or else Rome and Venice. Does 12 days count the day you leave the US and the day you fly home, so really 10 days for 2 or 3 cities? Have traveled with my 2 teenage sons who are 2.5 years apart four times to Europe; they've also been to Europe with school groups and to Japan. They are always better when I give them a vetted list and they pick 3 attractions each. They liked the Tower of London, Windsor Castle and the Eye, and did not care for long dinners or the theatre. Liked the Eiffel Tower and 2 hours at the Louvre and walking the Champs. You didn't ask, but it works for us to separate during the vacation, for a morning or even for a day while on the trip; let one parent and one child do something while the other two knock around doing something else.
Have a good time!

If you want to have the twins see another city besides London and Paris, I would chose Amsterdam which is a 3 1/2 hour train ride from Paris.

Two cities is about right, but you could also include a visit to the D-Day beaches of Normandy; Bayeux and Arromanches are great places to pick up some history lessons. Do an outing from Paris, or use a ferry from Portsmouth: http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/guides/france/basse-normandie/calvados/landing-beaches

I am going to be the contrarian here. I don't think it is crazy. Traveling with teens means keeping things moving. Slow travel is a great concept, but kids don't always buy into it. Thanks to the Eurostar, Paris and London are a painless trip that doesn't gobble up much time. 3 nights in London. See a show, all the major sights, etc... Relatively quick train to Paris, 3 or 4 nights.
Fly to Rome, 3 or 4 nights and fly home from there. Your goal should be to maximize their experience and instill and appreciation of other people/places. It will give so much more meaning to their studies if they can picture of the places. Next trip you can slow it down. At least that is my theory and I have a 14 year old.

I think the best way to assure your children won't act like an adult is to treat them as if they couldn't possibly act as adults. 10 days may or may not be a sane way to see three distincly different and somewhat distant sites. That is debatable. What isn't really debatable is that you have chosen three of the largest cities in Europe bang-bang-bang in a short amount of time. Even ADD teens will grow tired of the gritty bustle of Europe's largest cities quickly. This only succeeds in creating maximum photo-ops of famous places. This does almost nothing whatsoever to "educate" the children about the three countries involved, or what life is like anywhere outside the largest city. Personally, I think taking children on a trip like this needs to be about more than giving them the ability to say "I was there". They can do that on their own 4-5 years later, and would probably enjoy it more. Imagine if a family in Germany wanted to give their children the chance to see America and then chose to spend 3-4 days each in NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles. Did they see America?

According to my daughter, and she's an older teen, that is too much to cover in 12 days! Where are you flying to? If into London first, are you going to fly from Paris to Rome? Think airport time...delays, getting there etc. You know your kids and how fast they want to move out each day. Mine would like to at least have a sit down breakfast and breathe a little before rushing out.

I think trying to Guesstimate what someone elses kids might like or dislike is a futile discussion. Some kids adore big cities and will have an absolute blast there and it doesn't have anything to do with whether or not they have ADD or if the parents are treating them like adults or not. ????? Letting your kids help make the decisions about what to see and do is a big plus and gets them involved in the trip. The suggestion about splitting up is a good one and you may even want to give them a bit of free time too, as all of these cities are safe for teens to walk around in on their own. James made some outstanding points, that others may want to note. Everyone travels differently and part of traveling is learning which style suits you and your family the best. I know both of my kids as teens, would have enjoyed doing a whirlwind trip to 3 big cities. Sometimes it depends on what you are doing in the city. It doesn't have to be about just visiting the big tourist attractions, one can enjoy a big city simply by walking around, going to markets and grocery stores, strolling through neighborhoods and so on.

If the trip is primarily for the benefit of the kids, why not ask them what they want to see and plan around that? This method will give you a much better perspective of how long you need in each city than to ask a bunch of strangers who don't know them. I can tell you what I would want to see in those cities, but that's probably significantly different their preferences.

Although a more seasoned traveller has the luxury of going back to a City or area we love, and get to know it more throughly; when we all first travelled we wanted to see evrrything at once. that way we got to decide for ourselves what area we wanted to go back to, and which we didnt need to se again. I am sure you have discussed your selection as a family. i would expect that your teens have heard about your experiences and likes and dislikes. I qlso assume they are in favor of/not against your three chosen Cities. they are all great Cities, (probably what everybody would choose as the 3 most "emblematic" cities) why not see them all and whet their appetite for more. The easy connection is London/Paris by train. now your choice is - do you want to do Rome first or last

"And do you really need to go out for two months just to find out if you're compatible with someone?" I am not saying James is preoccupied with the topic of dating/sex/love, but somehow he weaves it into all sorts of topics!!! Perhaps a Europe Loveline column is in your future James. I'd subscribe.

Did I miss the gender of your 14 year old twins? It makes a difference. When I asked my teen boys what they wanted to see in Europe, they answered, "Castles." When I asked whether they prefered ruins or restored castles, they replied, "Ruins." So I attempted to schedule in some castle ruins that they seemed to enjoy. They also enjoyed the crime and punishment museum in Rothenburg. When I asked my teen daughter what she wanted to see on a similar trip through Mexico, I think her response went something like, "Stop yelling at me. You're ruining my life." In fact, that was pretty much her resonse to any question from "Do you have any laundry?" to "What would you like for dinner?" We chose not to bring her along for the later trip to Europe, opting for a stay at grandma's house. Meanwhile our youngest daughter, who has now achieved teendom, is complaining because we didn't bring kids on our trip last summer. It goes something like, "Why don't I get to go to Europe?" I'm tempted to bring her because she was a joy on her last trip - but she really tries mom's patience right now.

10 days spent between Rome and Florence with 2-3 days of rural Tuscany in between would be a terrific trip. 10 days between London and Edinbourgh with a couple of nights in the lakes district in between would be a terrific trip. 10 days spent between London and Paris with a few carefully planned day trips out of the city (or a couple of nights in Brugge, Belgium including a nice long bike ride through the countryside) would be a terrific trip. There are other options, too.

Agree wholeheartedly with the advice to build an itinerary around what the kids want to do, especially since you and your husband have been all over Europe already. It may be disheartening to hear your kids later say that your trip was "just okay" because they didn't care for a destination as much as you might have (or as much as others they've visited).

Rural Tuscany? personally, I don't think my kid would be so enthused seeing rural anywhere on a European vacation. My kid has loved visiting smaller cities - he's seen some of the big ones too but says his favorites are: Evora (Portugal), Haarlem (Netherlands), Krakow (Poland). For big cities - he loved Paris (and funny enough wasn't thrilled with Bayeaux - it was very dead in February!). If in France with kids I think seeing the Normandy Coast is a must - they've all studies WWII and seeing the cemetary and the landing beaches was interesting and beautiful - we were there on a glorious mid February day and had Omaha Beach to ourselves. My choice would be Paris and Amsterdam - with perhaps a stop in Belgium. One of my favorite cities is Ghent - that place just clicked with me. Small, lots of students, a castle, good food. While my kid is badgering me to take him to the UK - it's not my cup of tea.

I dunno - I did a London/Paris/Venice trip in two weeks in my early 20s and it was one of my best vacations ever. We were moving a lot, yeah, but it was great. I was young and motivated. Only you know what your kids can handle. With your timeframe you're only going to get a taste of each city anyway. Old-style cafes where you can sit, relax, and people-watch and lazy lanes of pretty houses loaded with local character will still be there to stroll by when your kids are adults. Mix in some more interactive activities along with museums and the like. London Dungeons, for example, is gross and silly, yes, but a teen favorite. A half day there with the other half at the British Museum or the Tower of London is a mix that can make many families happy. Our entire family really enjoyed Hampton Court as well. If your kids will need it, don't underestimate how much they will appreciate the ability to sleep in every few days. It's a vacation, not a forced road march (as I have been pointedly reminded). My son is no problem, but my daughter needs sleep like a stereotypical teen (e.g. 25 hours a day). Include the kids in the planning. Have them each pick one day's activities in each city or something of the like. That way no matter what you do, they will each get to see their own list of highlights. Give them a budget for their special day and some guidelines and set them free to plan and dream. My kids always especially enjoy planning where and when we'll eat. We've done days of nothing but frequent snacks or days where we were pretty much starved for the day but had a wonderful "splurge" at dinner. Figuring things out for yourself is one of the best parts of travel anyway, isn't it? The more the kids are invested in their trip, the more fun they'll have. Your kids are super lucky to be able to take such a trip... Have a wonderful. time.

I did the same trip with my 16 year old son in May/June 2009. We did 5 nights in London, 4 nights in Paris and 5 nights in Rome. Quite honestly, we were looking foward to going home the last couple of days. It was a bit long for us. I am taking my 15 yr son in March to London, Paris and Munich. We will only have 13 days, so we know that this trip may feel a bit rushed. But like he says, as long as he gets to go, he is fine with seeing what we can in that time. PM me if you have any questions regarding our ininerary and what my son enjoyed the most etc...

Thanks for all of the great advice! We will keep it to one or two cities with day trips. My kids are really getting into the planning.

My family of 4 just went on a 12 day trip to Europe in July. London and Paris (5 days each) - my 14 year old son loved London best and my 15 year old daughter loved Paris best. We took the Eurostar between the two. With 2 days travel - then 5 days in each city, we still didn't see everything we wanted to. In London we took a side trip to Greenwich and my kids really enjoyed it. His favorite things were the British Museum, climbing St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London. In Paris the best side trip would be Versailles. My daughter's favorite things were The Louvre, Notre Dame, and they both loved the Musee de l'Armee (Army Museum). I agree with other posters that it all depends on what your kids enjoy. My daughter is more adventurous and liked Paris best, my son felt more comfortable in London. If you have 5 full days in two cities, you will have plenty of time to explore everything and also have some down time. If you have as much energy as we did, then a day trip to somewhere within train distance is fun. Since you and your husband have been to much of Europe already - I would pick the two cities that your kids would enjoy the most. Additionally my daughter and I went through Italy for 10 days and she loved Cinque Terre and Rome the best out of all the places we went. One last thought - since you will be going in March - will the weather make a difference in where you go? Just something to think about. Have fun!

We are doing 16 days to the UK in July this coming summer, and even though we have final say, have given our two boys, aged 13 and 16 some say in where we are going, and what we are seeing. I bought the Eyewitness Travel book, which has tons of pictures and background history on the areas we are going, and the boys have really enjoyed looking through this book. The other night there was a program on the history channel all about St.Paul's cathedral in London, our 16 year old watched it solely because we were going there. That was a much better tv choice than his usual fave "Family Guy"....haha I have had people tell me that teens aren't ready for Europe, or they wont appreciate it, but honestly, the trip is for me, and I will cherish the memories with my teens, even if they don't really appreciate it the same as adults would. We have given the boys lots of information, and they have come up with some great "must sees".....we are even going to castle "Duone" in Scotland, from the Monty Python movies :) Let your teens take part in the planning, it makes for great family time before you even get on the plane !

Someone mentioned the difference in the genders at this age. If they're girls, depending on their tastes, be ready to schedule time to shop. Like others have said, try to involve them as much as possible. There's links on the website on books to read before traveling, some of them might be good for teens. You can also check out Cynthia Harriman's book, "Take Your Kids to Europe." It's got lots of practical info on traveling with kids of all ages, plus specific places in different countries that can appeal to kids that might not make the other guidebooks.

"I have had people tell me that teens aren't ready for Europe, or they wont appreciate it...." That is crazy if you asked me, quite a generalization. If someone said that to me I would internalize it as them saying "I wish I could go, I would appreciate it more than your kids."