Family travel: lodging options

Oh, wow. Your question is definitely a broad one. Your "kids" aren't kids for lodging purposes. They're adults. In hotels, you'll need at least two rooms - one a triple. Hostels have varying arrangements but it would be an unusual one to accommodate five adults in private rooms.

For 16 days in Italy, I'd suggest looking into rental apartments.

For Cinque Terre, you might see if the apartment at La Marina Rooms is available:

http://www.lamarinarooms.com/apartment.htm

Christian, the owner, is very responsive to e-mails.

for the Dolomites, it might be hard to find an apartment as most rent weekly during the high season (summer and ski season). But two rooms (double and triple) in a nice little hotel or garni shouldn't be hard to find.

Garni Delta in Colfosco is very reasonably priced and well-located for hiking.

Yes, our "kids" are only still kids in our minds! Good ideas so far; thank you. We are open to dorm-style accomodations. Anybody have experience w/ campgrounds? We will not have tents, but hear that some sites provide walled tents or simple cabins. May try for Florence/Hill Country as well. Early August, 2010.

For dorm-type accommodations in the Dolomites, you might look into mountain huts.

I would consider 2 nights at Rifugio Bolzano to be pretty close to heaven:

http://www.schlernhaus.it/

You do have to hike up, though. . .

Another possibility in the Dolomites would be to hike the circuit that goes around Sasso Lungho and Sasso Piatto---it is described in Rick's book. It is a fairly long hike, and there are huts along the way for an overnight stay. I would suggest Rifugio Vicenza for the location:

http://www.langkofelhuette.com/

My travel group last year consisted of 4 adults and a 15 year old and we were successful at securing lodging in various room configurations. My advice would be to email any of Rick Steves suggested accomidations and say that you need rooming arrangements for 5 adults and let the hotel/hostel/B&B let you know what they have available that might work. We had better luck with an open-ended request than asking for a specific room arrangement(such as a double and a triple). We did get the double/triple response but also had some suites that we wonderful, as well as a double/double/single combination that was the same price as a double/triple. Let the hotel do the legwork, so to speak, and you can just say yes or no.