Traveling with 8 for a month suggestions tips welcome

If you are doing round trip out of Spain, and you have small children I would suggest cutting out a few spots and focusing far more on exploring a few areas. You are going to be miserable hopping that much and spending such a large amount of time in transit and setting back up. Not to mention the considerable expense every time you change country/cities with a larger group.

Fly to your furthest away point, work back towards Madrid.

1 week in Spain (Madrid area)
1 week in UK/London base

7 days Paris
5 days south of France
4 days Barcelona
Remainder back in Madrid, fly home

Focus on Spain or Italy or France or on one of the rest of the places you list! Too much moving around especially with children. You waste so much time when traveling to so many destinations. I am exhausted just reading this itinerary and I travel a lot!

Hi, Carmgo, welcome to the Forum.

Have you considered flying "open jaw," what is now known as "multi-city?" That's flying into one city, and out of another. If you book them as multi-city rather than two one-way trips, the price will be comparable to a round trip, and could save you some travel time at the end.

Will all 8 people be travelling together the entire time? (personal comment: Yikes!) How old are the children?

The logistics for hitting all your proposed stops are chilling. Please think about how much time it takes to get from one place to another, including not only actual travel time, but checking out of one place, getting to the airport or trains station, finding the new hotel or apartment, getting settled in... It takes more time than many people think.

It's great that you have that much time for a European trip, I agree with previous posters: lower your sights just a bit. Pick just a few places that interest you, and concentrate on those.

Happy travels!

Since you’re trying to stay conservative with your costs, limit the number of countries you’re visiting. The transportation cost will add up with all of those distances and especially the cost of the larger cities. You have listed 8-9 countries. Reduce it down to your group’s few priorities. This description “ I’m interested in exploring the historic spots but we love nature, country and the ocean…[and big cities]”could easily be fulfilled just by visiting France after Spain. Maybe, the beautiful variety in Spain, France areas ending in Paris and finish with some days in London, if you want to be moving quickly. If so, purchase the “multi-city” not a “round trip” ticket, so you fly to Madrid and fly back home from London (or Paris).

The trains are easy transportation. I haven’t taken an overnight train since 1975, but many people mention they don’t sleep well on the trains, and with small children, that could be a miserable experience. Just an example - I take a lot of trains and limit my distances to 1-3 hours per location change. There’s a lot of interesting places to enjoy within each country. Have a great time!

Traveling with a group of 8 is challenging. You need to limit the number of destinations and particularly the number of flights between them. Just getting to and from each airport, going through security, waiting around, etc. will become tedious. Then each time you move you have the process of checking in and out of hotels or whatever lodging you are using, which takes more time.

Another welcome to the forum, carmo -

I'll vote with the others: you are trying to do far too much, especially if moving 8-9 people (8+ yourself?) around, and a couple of them being young children. Every relocation eats time and money, and you're only going to move as quickly as your slowest dawdler or first to tire. I see some geographical issues as well: the French Riviera, for instance, is nowhere near Rome.

The Eternal City? It takes a minimum of 4 nights; 3.5 FULL days just to scratch the surface, and I can't see traveling halfway down the country just to leave it again after just 2 full days. You will barely have figured out how Italy 'works'. I can say the same for Paris. Austria? Great. Germany? Fine. Iceland? Sure. But you can't do fractional weeks of 8 countries any sort of justice in 31 days. At most, I'd pick Spain and two more within reasonable geographic distance. Spain + France + Germany, or Spain + France + Italy, for instance. Two might be even better: Spain + Italy, or Spain + France. There is enough to see in all of them to fill your time, and without exhausting your travel companions with a load of moves AND your budget with a load of plane and train fares. Some cities are good spots for settling in for longer stays and taking day trips to scenic countryside places or smaller villages. Time to acclimate to new surroundings is a factor as well.

Leaning how to use the rail systems will be essential for Western Europe locations. In many cases they'll be your most economical and efficient ways to get from points A to B. You do NOT want a car in the larger cities nor (and this is a personal view) deal with one of a size to handle 8-9 plus luggage. You'd probably need multiple vehicles to accommodate your entire tribe.

Absolutely, fly into Madrid and out of another country (open jaw) to avoid backtracking.
Pick the 3 countries that are of most interest to you and your family.
Enlist some of them to help you as this is really too big a job to be handled by one person.
Gather the troops, determine your 2-3 countries, and then a few locations within each to bed down
Assign a couple to search and book the accommodations (a significant task if housing 9)
A couple others of you will handle transport
Someone else should research sightseeing and attraction tickets.

Time IS of the essence as visiting some of the top 'historic sites' is going to involve advance tickets/reservations.

Editing to add: when booking apartments, look very carefully at additional fees which are often applied, and understand that they may not be as easy to check into as hotels. For instance, where hotels will often store your bags if you arrive before check-in, the same may not be true of a flat. You may need to meet your host at a time convenient to their own versus your schedule. Also, look carefully at what they call a 'bed'. Those could be sofas or pull-outs in shared areas, such a living rooms. That's not to say that apartments aren't your best bets for a large group; just some things to look for? Number of bathrooms will be important too.

Slow down partner for traveling with 8 folks is akin to herding squirrels!

Time is your most precious commodity so research flying "open jaw" to avoid backtracking solely to catch a flight. Cost may be a tad more, but spend dollars to save time and travel stress.

Booking apartments is critical for the addition space to spread out, kitchen (save $ by taking control of breakfast), separate bedrooms and many may offer a clothes washer (important for a large clan traveling for 30 days).

Do everything you can to avoid being "luggage mules". The more you lug the greater the pain in so many ways. All you need can be found in Europe.

Travel more by going to fewer places. Take the time to inhale and relax for you should desire a trip creating wonderful travel memories, but not of memories of travel. With a clan of 8 each location change adds time, stress and expense of getting form point A to B.

A week in Madrid is a good starting point, many day trip opportunities and a good place to start the journey.

Keep in mind you will be competing during prime tourist season for entry tickets with gaggles of bustling crowds. Beware of baking your crews meat while standing in the heat. After selecting your destinations carefully plan the days to maximize effective enjoyment while minimizing crowd hassles. Be sure and plan some "time off" from being a tourist as 31 days of travel, which we have done, is a huge mental/emotional/physical commitment.

Forthrightly I recommend a week at each destination. Yep, sounds awful to consider "giving up" the ability to jaunt around Europe since you are "so close" to everything. Ask yourself, Do you want to make memories of "seeing there" or "being there"? You can take a lot of selfies standing in a spot at many locations, but creating wonderful memories of experiences requires the investment of time.

A thought.............
A week in Madrid
A week in Rome
A week in Paris
A week in London, depart from London for home.

The above provides destinations offering HUGE diverse menus to explore.
Minimizes travel transition impacts.
Taking deep dives into planning for each destination will be a worthy investment.

Good luck!

How wonderful to be planning a trip to share with 8 for a month! I wholeheartedly agree with others to limit locations. My motto: “Less is more.” https://bearfoottheory.com/slow-travel/

I have traveled a lot, to 81 foreign countries, lived in Europe, lived in the Mid-East and done rail, rental car, bus tours, cruises, you name it.
One thing that I learned years ago was to pick an itinerary that avoid travel within Europe as much as possible. This has worked well for me, since I have visited all the countries in Western Europe, most at least 3 times, some more. Also, I have traveled extensively in Eastern Europe (its cheaper there) and all the continents except Antartica.

I suggest eliminating any thoughts of visiting England, Ireland, Scotland, Austria and Germany.
Since you are starting in Spain, why ONLY the Madrid area? What about Seville, Granada and Barcelona? You could easily spend 2-3 weeks just in Spain.

After Spain, head to the South of France and spend a few days there. Then head to Italy and finish up there. Still, that alone is a lot of area to cover.

My wife and I rented a car in 2017 and did a month driving around S. Wales and England (didn't even visit London-we had already been there). We saw a lot in Great Britain, and still could have spent more time there.

Avoid doing if it is Tuesday this must be Belgium.

Regarding your group of 8 with two young kids. Not sure how old the two young ones are, but, if their are under 10, don't expect them to enjoy a museum for more than 20 minutes.

Still, when I traveled with elementary school kids, I didn't try to go to the beach (beaches in Europe generally aren't as good as Florida, California or the Caribbean) or Disney. Do whatever you want to do even if you were all teens or adults.

Still, any travel within Europe with 8 will be expensive, so minimize the travel.

Yes, take a night train, it is a lot of fun. There is a great high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona. Also, another high speed train from Barcelona to Paris. Not sure about one to the South of France.

Italy is my favorite foreign country, it has ancient history, Renaissance history and the Vatican. Also, it is scenic. My kids loved doing a gondola ride in Venice and going up to the top of the tower on the square in Venice.

Rome's Sistine Chapel is magnificent and my kids were amazed by it. My Son wanted me to explain who all the frescoes were and what was going on. Also, the ancient Roman places like the Forum, Coliseum, Pantheon were super.

Florence is great for a few days with its art and Renaissance structures.

Steven's itinerary is good if you really must go to 4 different countries.

This helps a lot! yes the last part of the trip was a list of possibilities, it so tempting to try and do more. I will take your advice and spend a little more time in less places. Good to know about the beaches. Thank you for the suggested areas and time frame. Barcelona sounds great for the train leg of the trip. You are all wonderful!

You've expressed an interest in taking breaks from big cities. I like that idea; variety over the course of a trip is a very good idea. That really argues for a trip that doesn't cover a huge stretch of ground. It's really difficult to make a first trip to Italy and not include Rome. (One could say the same about Florence and Venice.) If you go to France, you naturally want to see Paris. And if you go to Great Britain, London will almost certainly be a must. The thing is, those are huge, world-class cities that require quite a few full days to begin to take advantage of what they offer. So a bunch of countries is going to mean a great deal of time in big cities. And, as already mentioned, it's going to mean a lot of time wasted on transportation from one city to the next as you cover so much ground. Plus the airline and train tickets, of course. When you travel from Madrid to coastal France or to Paris or to Italy, you blow right past many worthwhile destinations.

Spain and France (and Italy for that matter) are countries with a great deal of internal variety. Madrid and a few stops farther north in Spain (Zaragoza? Barcelona with its nearby beaches? Girona? the wacky Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres?) would offer some interesting contrasts in culture and size. Those are just examples; there's a great deal more to see in Spain. (Many people will suggest the very atmospheric cities of Seville, Cordoba and Granada in southern Spain, but they will be very, very hot at the time of your trip.)

You could very easily spend all your time in Spain without going south of Madrid/Toledo. Or you could spend less time in Spain and then take the train up to France, seeing a few smaller places on the way up to Paris. A coastal stop could be included.

If you find yourself thinking, "But we really want to go to X", you can of course do that. If X isn't in southern France, you can fly to a nearby airport from either Madrid or Barcelona. Personally, I hate dealing with airports in the middle of a trip, but if--for example--Rome is your #1 priority outside Spain and you'll be sorely disappointed not to see it on this trip, go for it! Just allow yourself enough time to soak up all the wonderfulness of being there and make up for the travel time it will cost you.

I planned a trip for 10 to Spain over the holidays last year. Here is the trip report:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/2-lovely-weeks-in-spain

We had so much fun, we are doing another trip this summer, to Greece this time with a couple more folks along for the ride 😊

Tips:

Don’t move around too much. We had a couple of one night stands at the end of our trip and agreed it was hard. This trip, we’re staying fewer places, more nights.

Make sure you split up as a group and do different things during the day. You will NOT like each other if you spend every day, all day with each other. Divide and conquer!

Book apartments. You will appreciate the extra room and space to cook when you want to. Book different bedroom configurations in each location and split your group differently in each place so people aren’t tired of their roommates. It happens.

Make a plan each day for when you are eating/gathering together and when you are splitting up. For us, it worked great to have a group breakfast in one of the apartments (whoever had the biggest kitchen hosted for that location; it rotated, which worked really well), then we split up for the day, and then usually met back up for dinner, either cooking in that same apartment (group shopping/cooking effort) or dining out at a restaurant.

Go with the flow. Especially in Spain, this means going with the pace of Spanish culture. Slow down, enjoy your relax time, eat dinner at 10, love your paseo and tapas. Really.

In the Madrid area, try and spend a night or two in Toledo. It’s one of our favorite places and great for unwinding.

Very honestly, with respect to your overall itinerary and having done the planning for a big group, I would spend the whole month in Spain. It’s easy to move around (trains, public transportation, taxis, private transfers), it’s cheap, it’s tourist-friendly, it’s relaxing, there’s a ton to see (huge country with very diverse regions), the food is amazing. Some/many of the destinations you mention would require flights and/or long distance train rides. This is a serious PITA for large groups! Don’t make your trip a slog; slow down and smell the roses.

Have a great time!!!

So I've noticed flights have gone up, should I just hold on and will they most likely go down? From US to to Europe, I saw them about $6,880 for 7 roundtrip, and oneways- were about $3500, in September and wished I had booked. Any suggestions on this? Should I wait it out? Currently Im seeing $9,000 (for 7) round trip and one-ways $6-7000.

Don’t search for “one-way” tickets if you want to fly into one city and out another. Use the “multi-city” option instead. This usually results in a fare closer to a round-trip. Sometimes it’s even cheaper!

For flights did you try Kayak.com to see what was available?

Don't book directly with Kayak, but check with them first for the best fare.

What was the flight per person? Did you try open jaw?

Air fares lately have been running at $1200 pp rt to Europe.

Be sure to book your flights directly with the airline, not with a 3rd party online ticket seller.

Try skyscanner.com for flights. They seem to have good rates!

Regarding flights. Icelandair has a big sale on through today (11/25). If you live near a location they fly from you may want to check them out. You had originally mentioned something about Iceland in your post. The airline allows stopovers where you can break your journey there for a day or two and then continue on without it impacting your airfare.

I’ll join the chorus of minimum changes and efficient route planning.

Lots of advice. You need to do things in several parts:

1) Decide on the trip. I agree with many - limit yourself to 2 countries, assume you will return. Just because you don't go to Scotland does not mean you are missing out - it means you will have a different trip. You have a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out). Our motto, and the motto of many, is "less is more". We just went to Italy. We confined ourselves to Northern Italy, did not go to Rome or Venice, and had a great trip. We spent 2 or more days in each place.

I would consider starting in Spain and adding Portugal or France. Don't even think of other places - stick to 2, find fun stuff.

2) Once you have the trip planned, begin to look for airline tickets. Use the multi-city option to fly into 1 city and out the other. But don't choose the flights until you have the trip outlined.

3) We have done the "fly back to the city for the round trip" thing. It's always more expensive even though it seems cheaper. Better to do the "multi-city" plan.

4) Once you have the trip planned, down to stays in various places, begin looking for accommodations. With this group size, you want the entire trip planned before you get on the plane. Use booking.com or airbnb to find places. Sometimes you will come up with a hotel, and these should be booked directly to avoid the fees going to booking.com.

The advice from DebVT is vital. Don't try to do everything together. Make sure to agree -- ahead of time! -- that the group can split up and go separate ways for separate interests. Share the evening meal and the day's experiences. And for your own sake, insist that you are not the travel guide and that others take on responsibilities.