Winter Itinerary with Kids--Too Ambitious? Alsace/Rome/Bavaria

We lived in Augsburg, Germany for four years and didn't like those long Winters. It gets dark at 4:30 pm and it will be cold.
Take a very warm coat, hat, gloves and for skiing long johns.

As for your itinerary, it is OK, but I wonder why you picked three places that far apart. I always try to avoid flying within Europe when we go there.

Of course, the skiing will be fun, but be aware that if you rent a car and go into the Alps you might encounter ice or snow on the highways. How are you getting from Rome to Garmish?

Whatever else you do, l would definitely fly into Frankfurt rather than CDG. Strasbourg is closer to Frankfurt and Frankfurt is a much easier airport to maneuver than CDG, which I always try to avoid if possible.

That said, I would think seriously about the timing. It will be cold then and gets dark very early as was pointed out above. Your kids would have a much better time, imo, if the weather was warmer and the days were longer. I understand you wanting to plan something special for them because of the holiday issue, but have you considered waiting until spring? That will give them more time to anticipate and think about a wonderful Europe trip. You know them best, of course, but I have 4 grandchildren about the ages of yours, and the idea of vacationing with them in the dead of winter with all the logistical issues makes me cringe.

Have you talked this over with your husband? What does he think about this?

I can't offer any help with this itinerary, but will give a bit of different advice as far as time of year. We always took the kids with us on all of our travels, including overseas in the dead of winter. They did great. The only time I remember them getting a bit whiney was in Scotland during basically a blizzard and our daughters feet were cold. Mine were too though, so we just stopped into a store and bought extra socks to put on and we were good to go. They loved running through the snow at castles, etc. As long as you bring proper winter footwear, coats, hats and mittens, they will be fine. We did one trip that was 3 weeks when they were 5 and 8, and they had as much fun as we did. I think a lot of it is that as usual, kids take cues from parents. Anyway, I just wanted to give you some encouragement as I think this trip can be a lot of fun for all of you.

Given the ages of the kids, I think a day trip to Pompeii would leave everyone miserable. Look at Ostia Antica instead, for the 'ancient city' experience.

Assisi also looks to be 6+ hrs of total travel time, so may not be a good choice for a day trip.

Sincere thanks for the feedback (and for the encouragement mikliz!)

I know it seems at first a little convoluted to do the Alsace bit first, then hop to Rome, and back up.....I wanted to explain my reasoning and see where the error is. I would like to leave the alsace piece up front because that's the only way we'll be able to see the Christmas markets. We would have to rent a car I think to be able to move with any freedom between the towns there. As I understand it, there is a Christmas shuttle, but it may be hit or miss with so many of the markets closing by that time of the season and we'd definitely be much more restricted if we had to rely on that. My husband is from Buffalo, NY which gets a great deal of (lake effect) snow, so we're no strangers to winter driving. Rust is less than an hours drive so that is a short hop to our second accomodation. I agree at first glance that it would seem to make sense to head to Bavaria next, however it seems train travel would take in the ballpark of 5 hours between Rust and Munich and a flight (out of Basel) would take 1 hour (plus the extra 1.5-2 hours at the airport. Flying from Basel to Rome is 1 hr 35 mins, so the real time difference seems negligible. Is that incorrect? I'd like to keep Rome second if possible because I would love to catch the end of the Christmas season (the precepi as mentioned above and the epiphany in the Vatican with the parade of the "three magi" and people in period costume, le befana, the carousel/market in navona square etc). I had a few extra days after rome and wanted to find something that might involve a  bit more relaxation in the traditional sense. I had read about the kinderhotels that dot Austria and Germany and how phenomenal they were for families and thought that would be ideal. Munich would be a quick flight from Rome or we could do the nightjet train and travel overnight with a 6 berth couchette. Vehicle rental is plentiful and cheap in Munich and I'd thought this would be the best way to get about there as well. I know we could get unlucky with a heavy snow storm, but for this leg that wouldn't be a travesty because the hotel has more than enough to keep us busy and happy (multiple pools, kids clubs, VR, sledding, skiing, full spa services, childcare included for the odd dinner alone etc) Honestly, my husband is nervous about the big geographic leaps as well and thats a large part of what I'm reaching out for as to my inexperienced eye, it seems like really no more time to travel between the alsace and Rome as it would from there to Munich directly. As for short days and such, it gets dark about 5 where we are currently so that wouldn't be a change for us. Again, very much appreciate the thoughts!:)

For me flights are just different from trains, even if the train takes 5 hours. What you're not including in your calculation is the time it takes to get from your hotel out to the airport and then vice versa after the flight. If I'm heading to a train station, I usually just walk. I know how far it is, I allow a modest amount of extra time, and then I relax. When I'm going out to an airport, I start off (usually) with more travel time, and then I have to allow for things to go wrong, so that usually comes to a considerably longer commute. The advice these days is to be at the airport at least 2 hours before an intra-European flight, not 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Also consider that if you take a train, you can pack a nice picnic and eat on the way. It's not quite as easy to do that on a short flight since the tray tables need to be stowed for part of the flight. And flights are more subject to delay than trains. In sum, I figure any day with a flight is a lost day, but I admit to being conservative about such calculations.

I think all your destinations sound child-friendly, and I don't have kids, so I have no kid-specific advice from the destination-selection standpoint. I agree with the warnings about travel time to Assisi and Pompeii, which would apply even to a solo adult traveler.

In addition to the travel time, Pompeii is physically challenging because the streets are paved with large, rounded cobblestones and the sidewalks are much higher than the streets. Some of your children will not be able to get from the street to the sidewalk without assistance, and hopping down onto a rounded cobblestone is a bit tricky under the best conditions. If the cobblestones are wet, they will be very slippery. Based on historical statistics, you can expect about 8 days of rain per month in Rome during your travel period. You'd probably want to buy the Freccia tickets from Rome to Naples well ahead of time (before having access to a reliable weather forecast) to get a good fare. From a quick look it appears the full (last-minute) adult fare from Rome to Naples would be 96 euros round trip. I don't know what sort of deal you get for children (they might even be free).

If you want a smaller-town side trip from Rome, I'd recommend Orvieto. It's a lovely hill town no more than 90 minutes away on a regional train (so 9.15 euro one-way tickets available at the last minute). You take a funicular from the train station up to the historic part of town.

But there's so much to see in Rome, I'd probably just stay in the city, with a possible easy part-day side trip to Ostia Antica if you want to see more Roman ruins.

I don't hate this itinerary OP. From CDG the train to Strasbourg is 1h45m to 2h30m, and you don't have to go into Paris. Departure times can be a problem though so I would take a look at how flight arrival times work with departures from CDG. If schedules don't match up well I would chose FRA.

Southern Italy is the PITA part of the itinerary. I'm not against flying internally in Europe on a two or three week trip, but I want to do so between hub cities that I will visit, not have to do a lot of travel to and from airports as well. If Rome isn't a must, the train connection between the Venice area and Munich is fast and easy.

Kinderhotels are 👍 awesome. Also usually pretty pricey, and to an extent not that much better than a regular hotel If the regular hotel has some amenities that kids will like. I wouldn't limit myself to Fussen for the ski part of the trip. Fussen has fairly low elevation and is really just barely up in the foothills. I'd go deeper towards the spine of the Alps, get up a little higher.

One day of skiing, particularly if you are a beginner, is a pretty big time and resources suck. The whole enterprise of doing one day is expensive, time crunched in that you have to process your rentals for a whole family for just the one day, and on a trip where you're not skiing much then you have to bring some specific stuff for skiing and drag it around for 3 weeks. And people flounder at skiing on the first day usually, midday on the second day and the third day it starts to get more and more fun. Probably you could do tubing or some sort of luge slide far more easily and kids generally will still love it. If they haven't skied yet Either that or cut out more of the trip to be a skiing part of the trip, like 3 days of skiing.

A single half day of skiing just exacerbates all of the hassle for less of the reward.

You say that you're getting a car in Alsace. If so Europa Park is under an hour from Colmar. There's not much reason to stay in Rust. Your life is going to be much easier with all those kids if you're able to rent a big apartment somewhere nice like Colmar or Eguisheim for longer chunks of time and then do day trips.

You might gain an easier more efficient trip flow If you went fly in CDG, Alsace, Ski Dolomiti (or Innsbruck area) Veneto, Tuscany, Rome (cut out Veneto or Tuscany if you want more time in Rome), fly home from Rome.

Your trip sounds rad though, like you are set on doing a whole bunch of fun and wonderful things with your big family. Have a great time :)

Oh yeah one other super option for kids is the Badeparadies Schwarzwald indoor water slide park up near Titisee in the Black Forest. That's an 1h20m minute drive from Colmar, huge place and incredibly fun. Something of a cultural experience too, going to a big pool complex with nearly all German people. Bonus points, kids will walk up 100 flights of stairs with pleasure, without even realizing they're getting exercise.