Winter trip in Europe with teens

Okay, I am biased so a well traveled tour is the Central American Imperial Tour. You asked for three cities, so this is a quick sampler tour. But nothing wrong with that, especially with kids.

12/26 Thursday, Depart CA
12/27 Friday, Arrive Budapest

• https://www.generationtours.com/blog/21-reasons-why-you-need-visit-budapest
• https://youtu.be/1nd5AtZIrTk?feature=shared

12/28 Saturday, Budapest Christmas Markets still open
12/29 Sunday, Budapest
12/30 Monday, Budapest
12/31 Tuesday, morning train to Vienna. NYE in Vienna

• https://www.top10vienna.com/blog-vienna/39546/10-reasons-why-vienna-should-be-on-your-bucket-list
• https://youtu.be/HhuP2_Cf-54?feature=shared

01/01 Wednesday, Vienna
01/02 Thursday, Vienna
01/03 Friday, Morning train to Prague

• https://www.prague.eu/en/articles/the-top-10-reasons-to-visit-prague-10591

01/04 Saturday, Prague
01/05 Fly home from Prague

But if it were me, I would chose Budapest and either Vienna OR Prague, but not try to do both. I think with 2 cities and maybe a day trip out of each you will get more out of it. My leaning would be like this:

12/26 Thursday, Depart CA
12/27 Friday, Arrive Budapest
12/28 Saturday, Budapest Christmas Markets still open till the end of the year.
12/29 Sunday, Budapest
12/30 Monday, Budapest / Szentendre day trip, maybe Esztergom too
12/31 Tuesday, Budapest for NYE
01/01 Wednesday, train to Vienna
01/02 Thursday, Vienna
01/03 Friday, Vienna / day trip out of Vienna (I will let the Vienna Wonks help you with that)
01/04 Saturday, Vienna
01/05 Fly home from Vienna

EDIT: Like many, I generally list my favorite places, then put in a little information so people can see for themselves if it interests them. But to be honest and fair, the Holy Grail of first trips to Europe is London, Paris and Rome. If you have no buring interest for anyplce in particular, that I believe is the best advice.

First timers to Europe, all that you're asking for can be done with splitting your time equally between 2 cities - London and Paris. Zero fancy travel plans, just 2 cities. Fly into London, fly out of Paris. It's immersive travel, a laying of the ground work for future travelling endeavours. Oh, and by the way, with 5-6 nights in each city you'll barely scratch the surface of all that makes those 2 cities great for 1st time travellers.

The only problem with planning a week in one city is what if you get there and discover that dont like that city, or that culture or ?

I know, 2 cities is exactly what I recommended. But that is always the risk. I made the mistake once. Now its a long stay in a familiar place that I know I enjoy and then some short visits to explore the new. If ne of those turns out well, it becomes the next long stay. Anyway, off topic. Sorry.

London and Paris .... excellent choices. London can be a bit expensive, but Paris is only on the upper side of average for Europe.

I would suggest only two cities. You have to allow for travel time and maybe being tired.
Recently I spent 6 days in London and it was not enough. I truly loved it. I can not imagine anyone not liking London.
The only other European city I have spent time in was Lisbon and loved Lisbon as well.
I think that others on this site would be better at suggesting a second or third city. Paris or Rome seems a natural.

Any issues with arriving in London on Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is the 26th isnt it? Not something we do, so not sure. They said travel to europe on the 26th so they will arrive on the 27th, but a good point if I am wrong. They would do so much better and get exactly what they asked for if they stayed one more day. That would buy them another day and the 3 cities would work much better. And I dont see a problem with shorter stays. If you dont have any burining interest then shorter stays to get an overview isnt bad, as long as you are up to the schedule and the packing and unpacking. Many RS tours arent much different, but they are curated and that helps with logistics, but if the intent is just city stays there arent a lot of logistics.

Thank you all so much for your replies! I should add that my husband and I have been to Paris and London. We loved being there and agree they’d be great for a first-time trip. We may go there but we are leaning towards going to places that are new for us. (We honeymooned in Italy and recently had our 20 year anniversary in Switzerland and the Alsace region).

ALWAYS helpful to forum contributors to get as much info as possible in / from the OP's opening salvo.

ranarakowdds; excellent, then back to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. There are two ways to look at winter travel. Go where it isnt quite as cold and try and enjoy it, or go where the cold is a part of the culture and where it brings a whole new life to the society and enjoy what many others have chosen to miss. Naturally I am talking about Central Europe. I love the winter here, so much different and new, so much culture they dont survive it, they shrug it off and live it.

First thought is that you should only do two cities so that you have a good trip and not just memories of moving from one place to another. Second thought is that you should definitely get the kids involved in the planning. They might surprise you with their ideas, and the more input they have the better the trip will be.

Two cities is good advice. I also like the idea of considering what languages they are learning or want to learn. What are their particular interests? For example, if one of your kids is super into horses, then maybe Vienna for the Spanish Riding School, while a WWII buff might enjoy Normandy. A city like Budapest, which has a market still open, is worth visiting.

You need to get your head around the idea that not everything is going to be open in the time you're planning to travel. 26 DEC is a holiday for most of Europe and nothing is open. As is 31 DEC and 1 JAN. 29 DEC is a Sunday, and so is 5 JAN. Nothing will be open those days either. Basically half of the days you have planned to travel you're going to be stuck in your hotel room or walking empty streets. There will be restaurants open, but not all of them, and on 31 DEC you will need reservations no matter where you go. Travel on 26 DEC and 5 JAN will be difficult as trains will be limited and taxi's minimal. Plus very slow airport services.

If you're coming from a CA Metro area you need to understand just how different it is over here. People do not work holidays, or Sundays. Stores close much earlier than you expect, and nothing is open 24/7.

Which brings me to the next point, you should plan to visit a city with a major New Years Eve Celebration if you decide to come over. Because that is a night for parties and fireworks and thing do get out of hand. New York has nothing on a major city in the EU (or London).

“ You need to get your head around the idea that not everything is going to be open in the time you're planning to travel. 26 DEC is a holiday for most of Europe and nothing is open.”

This simply is a too broad statement. In the Netherlands December 26 is a holiday, but everything a tourist might need or wants is open. Museums, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets are all open and public transport is up and running. The same goes for December 31 and January 1.
In Belgium, December 26 isn’t even a holiday, so everything will be open as usual.

And if I understand the OP's post, they depart on 12/26 meaning they arrive 12/27. But, if the OP is arriving the 26th, then based on what is above, the OP would be well served to spend that half day in Budapest as for tourism, sightseeing, entertainment it will be life as usual. And I suspect that will be universally true in most cities.

So, now, with the latest info from the OP regarding the parents travel history in Europe, it appears the parents are looking for new locations for them to visit, a visit which will now include their 3 teenagers. Who knows how much of a say the teenagers will have in the final planning.

What they don't need is to visit countries with complicated languages and history and a myriad of logistics planning. Coming from CA, Spain should most definitely be one of countries of interest and I still say one of either Paris or London. Turn the teenagers loose, let them dig down into the trip planning and see where that takes the whole family.

Will you be traveling by rental car or only by train/public transit? Do you want winter weather or something a bit more like CA weather? Without knowing the answers to these questions, you could do Amsterdam, Brussels and either London or Paris using the Eurostar line. That gives you 3 cities/countries which are easy to maneuver using trains/public transport and where you can hit the 'highlights' with 4 nights in each.