I've never traveled with children in Europe before. My family consists of my husband, me, and our 2 daughters who will be 10 and 6 years old this summer (2008). I'm trying to travel "back door", but I'm not sure what's culturally OK when travelling with children to minimize hotel expense, but still be comfortable. Most of the hotels are listed per person - can I approach reservations some way other than the rate*4 since two of our family members are younger children? Can we plan to share beds? Can one of the kids sleep on floor in sleeping bag since she doesn't like sharing a bed with her sister?
Last summer (2007), my family and I spent 2 weeks traveling throughout North Carolina staying at 7 different places. Some places we booked a simple hotel room with 2 queen beds, a couple places where we stayed multiple nights we booked at the inexpensive suite hotels to have a bit more space. I'm trying to plan a 9-12 day trip with 3-4 stops in Northern Italy: Milan, Lake Cumo, Lake Garda, and possibly the Cinque Terre area. I would love any advice on how I respectfully ask about reducing costs for a family of 4.
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
Several of the places you want to go are pretty close together. You might look into renting an apartment or a villa and doing day trips from there.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23240 posts
No, to most of your question. The general procedure in the US is to rent the room where in Europe, it is more common to rent the bed. You need to request, "Family Rooms" not all hotels and B&B will have family rooms but most will at least one room. It is bad form to rent a room for two and put four in it. The family room will generally be less than 4 individuals.
Posted by
Portland, Oregon, USA
320 posts
Deborah - We travelled with an 8 year old and a 13 yr old in 2004 and it worked great. Like the other poster said - request a "family room" they are out there, just keep looking. It is quite acceptable. Plus travel in Europe with kids is great - most every hotel and restaurant would dote on the kids and give them just what they wanted (whether it was on the menu or not). We were in France for two weeks and Italy for two weeks and the kids are still talking about it. Have fun.
Posted by
OP
Leesburg, VA, USA
8 posts
Thank you so much to the two people who have provided suggestions so far. Sometimes the simple things like knowing to request a "family room" make all the difference. This is exactly the type of basic information I need.
I welcome any other suggestions/encouragement. I really want to do this trip, but I almost chickened out when I first started researching the possibilities.
Posted by
Scottsdale, AZ, USA
1127 posts
Solid advice from the above posters. Be sure to request a room for 4 people or you may find yourselves searching for a hotel room at the last minute. No reputable hotel will allow your children to sleep on the floor. Hotels are allowed to rent rooms to a certain number of people based on the size of the room.
Posted by
Queensland, Australia
87 posts
When we travelled and I sent emails/faxes requesting prices/availability for our time frames. I stipulated the children's ages in the request. I think it helps them choose whether they have something suitable - we were offered 2 rooms a couple of times, but this was fine as mine are teenagers. If you can talk your kids into sharing a bed it may make it easier - you are only looking for a room with 2 beds, not 3 which may be harder to come by. My kids were prepared to share to enable the travel experience to happen.
Posted by
Atlanta
800 posts
As Robyn said, it is very helpful to contact the hotel with a direct email describing your family. I would state "we are a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 young children (ages 10 & 6). Do you have accomodations suitable for our us?". In doing this I was sometimes offered the family room that was not listed on the website or, in the case of a very nice hotel in Venice, we got a Triple room and they added a cot (rollaway bed) to the room for my youngest.
Otherwise be sure you are looking for a Quad or Family Room. A Double is a room with one bed for 2 people (not 2 queen beds). A Twin is a room with 2 single (twin size) beds for 2 people. A family or quad room is not always the cost of a double times 2 so it really is best to ask specifically before you get too scared about the price. Also, in smaller B&B's we did put our kids (9 & 11) in a separate room so that we were not always sleeping together. And they loved it when we rented an apt. so they could have their own room - cheaper too!
Posted by
gaston, oregon, usa
842 posts
Deb, Doug has an excellent suggestion for you......look at renting apts, and then doing day trips from your base. In some cases an apt can be rented for a day only (though this is not often the case). We did this with a Rick Steves rec apt in Rio M.in the Cinque Terre.
Check out VRBO.com. We have rented from them thruout the world. When you rent an apt it is like home, people can seperate or get together and talk. You can do simple meals if you feel up to it, or prepare a lunch to take on your day trip.
We are putting together a Dec trip to Portugal with friends, and will be using an apt for at least one of our stops.
Posted by
Denver
787 posts
All of the suggestions above will help you in your search.
B&Bs (usually called just that) are starting to become more common. Places like that may have a family room, or two rooms where you feel comfortable having the kids in a separate room from you.
Double beds are less common in Europe than they are here (mostly twin size; double beds are usually twins made up as a double), so you may find that your kids won't be "forced" to sleep in the same bed. (Our kids are the same way.)
So far, we've only taken one of our two kids to Europe, but I did find that even hotels that did not list triple rooms, often did have them. So email and ask (except you will need, of course, room for 4).
One of the reasons that you would probably need something like a "family room" is that hotel rooms in Europe tend to be MUCH smaller than in the U.S. It has been rare in our travels (staying at 3*-level places) that there is enough floor space for an extra bed, cot or even sleeping bag.