Where would you go?

Is temperature comfort important? Southern Spain and Italy offer a lot for visitors, but can be notoriously hot. Would you consider a family bicycling vacation? Bike-friendly countries like Holland and Belgium might be worth considering, either on your own or through a tour company.

Did your original plan fall through because it was a cruise? Could you still visit some of those destinations, but by making arrangements through other sources? One of our plans for some point in the future is to visit St. Petersburg, maybe by ferry from Helsinki, Finland or Tallinn, Estonia. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, and Lithuania are all in that general area too, although not necessarily the cheapest places in the world to travel, and that would involve making travel arrangements to get from Point A to Point B, then Point C . . .

At least summer is an ideal time to visit northern Europe, from a temperature standpoint.

Do you already have your plane tickets so you are locked into dates? Or could you go in May or September, instead of mid-summer?

Since the question is "what would [I] do", I will answer that. I would pick three cities and rent apartments for ten days to two weeks, spending the extra days in travel between. And the three I would choose would be Copenhagen, Berlin,band Venice (the latter only if it is not mid-summer). I know Venice has a reputation for being "too touristy" and too crowded, but one can easily escape that by staying off the main tourist routes during the daytime. It would be a real educational experience for the children to see how well people can live without cars.

If your trip is all set for mid-summer, I would switch a car-free village in Switzerland for Venice, and make it one week instead of two there.

I just realized that the age of your oldest child probably precludes travel in May or September because of school. In that case I would go as early in June as possible.

I haven't been but I am very interested in the fjords. So I'd look into Norway, I've seen wonderful things about a train to/from Bergen. Obviously I can't give details, but that's where I'd look first with kids. Then tie it to...somewhere else in Scandanavia, or even Iceland.

Alternatively, if you're OK with heat, Spain is my favorite country in Europe. My kids love Barcelona, it's a fabulous vibrant city. Then down to Andalucia -Seville, Granada, maybe a couple smaller towns or beach.

Why did the cruise fall through? That could be useful in making other recommendations.

kristy,

here is what i do.

1. i get ideas from travel books, here and friends and start there. I will make a list of things to do and see.
   
2. i try to work out some path and try to minimize my travel days/times so i can do/see more than the inside of a bus/train/plane.
3. I know about "wanting to go everywhere" but if i do that, i won't go or make it off my A$$ so i do small bite size chunks and work my way up to a trip.
   
4. From my experience and how i travel, i find that i can do about 4~6 cities in my 4 weeks of vacation time. Since you have traveled, you should have a "feel" for whats possible for you all.
5. If you still cant find a starting place, get your all heads together and put some of that gray matter to work. After all, the collective should be able to figure out a starting place. If after that, if you cant figure out where to start or go, put a map of the world up on the wall and give each person a dart and go where that dart lands.
   

happy trails.

So much to see so little time. Just some general ideas for planning:

I plan sweeps - Spain/Portugal, South of France, Amsterdam to Vienna, Berlin to Budapest (with Vienna and Prague as stops), Greek Islands/Turkey, Dalmatian coast, etc.

I'm always planning a bunch of potential vacations, then finalize based on time of year, preferences of the group, flight/lodging deals.

In summer I really like Scandinavia. We took a 12 night cruise out of Copenhagen, with three days in Copenhagen on either side, and really enjoyed that. If Scandinavia is out, I might go the other way and plan something that includes beaches to take advantage of the weather.

With six weeks, I really like leasing a car because you can make stops that are impractical any other way - plus leave on your schedule and stop when you like, which is a big deal when traveling with kids. With five, we leased a Renault Grand Scenic II seven passenger car. It was just about right for five of us with a carry-on each (two boys and a girl ages 16 to 8), if we were bigger or had more luggage it would have been tight.