Travelling with 3 little kids - car or train/bus?

Hello Sarah,

I've been lurking on this forum for a while and have decided to take the plunge with this, my first post. :)

I can't speak to your option 1 as we have not travelled by public transport with kids in Europe, but we did take our then 3-year-old son on a road trip that covered parts of France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in 2014. We leased a car at Charles de Gaulle airport and returned it 5 weeks later at the same place. We stopped at Epernay, Colmar, Rothenberg, Fussen, Lauterbrunnen, Verona, San Gimignano, Arles and Carcassonne. We appreciated the ease of travel through these regions with the car and not having to drag our son- who still needed a stroller at that time- and all our luggage on public transport. As we mostly visited areas that are outside of big cities, the car was a help and not a hindrance. When we wanted to visit cities that were close by (Florence, Munich), we took the train and that was easy enough as we could leave all our stuff at our accommodations and just take what we needed for the day.

One thing that we had not considered when we planned that trip, but that worked out great for us, is that by staying in the smaller towns rather than focusing on cities, we spent more time doing things that our son enjoyed (e.g., taking cable cars around Fussen, wandering around a vineyard in Epernay) and less time doing things that drove him crazy (he was done after 1 hour in a museum).

In short, I think option 2 sounds doable, and hope you will have a wonderful trip, whichever option you go with!

I like a car over public transportation with three children and luggage. You and your wife will be handling three small children and several pieces of luggage, getting on and off trains, often with little time to accomplish this. However, you will pay a high drop off fee if you pick up the car in one country and drop it off in another. I would have a car in both Italy and Spain but never in the cities, separate rentals.

Thanks for your replies.

mili613, you have made me more optimistic about driving this trip. I agree small places will be nicer with the kids. We did a US road trip a couple of years ago and the highlights were the suburban duck ponds and doughnut shops as much as the guidebook attractions.

Did you find the stroller okay for getting around in cities? I have read a few comments that it is hard with cobblestones, stairs etc, but I think it might still be preferable to putting the 2 year old in a backpack.

With 2 months I would look at some extended stays. Utilise public transport, or rent a car to explore locally. Connect your bases with train journeys, and a couple of plane trips

Rome - 5 nights
Amalfi Coast - 7 nights
Tuscany - 10 nights
Venice - 4 nights
(Fly to Nice)
Cote d’Azur - 7 nights
Provence - 10 nights
Barcelona - 7 nights
(Fly to Granada)
Andalusia - 10 nights
(Depart from Sevilla)

Hi Sarah,

We went to a few places that had cobblestones (e.g., Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Montefioralle) and did not have too much trouble with the stroller. There were the occasional steps that we had to navigate (this involved my husband and I hoisting the stroller up or down the stairs) but overall the stroller was extremely helpful. We used the basket under the stroller to carry our stuff (e.g., water bottles, diapers, etc.). The stroller was definitely preferable to using a backpack. YMMV of course.

I would suggest deciding which towns or villages you would like to visit, then perhaps trying to get a sense of things like the condition of the streets and sidewalks and prevalence of stairs. We are going to Mont St Michel this year with our 7 and 2 year olds and after looking at some pictures and reading the experiences of others, we are definitely leaving the stroller at our rental home that day!

Look into leasing. Forum users have reported that leasing is cheaper than renting if you want a month or more and you won't get dinged with high drop-off charges if you don't end in the country you started in.

Take into account that European cars are smaller than US ones. Look at the specs for cars on one or two websites. Even the larger "hockey mom" cars will often say 6-7 passengers but only 2-3 suitcases. That means you may have to leave belongings visible in the car at stops, inviting break-ins.

How do you think your kids will do being strapped in on long drives?

I didn't try a trip to Europe until my youngest was eight and able to pull his own suitcase. However if I recall correctly, Cynthia Harriman's book "Take Your Kids to Europe" has some advice for travelling with younger ones. If you can't find it in a library, I think the gist of the message was "rent a place with a kitchen and stay there rather than using a series of hotels."

You've got some time to take practice trips as a family to see how they do - maybe five hours by car or train, stay 2-3 days, return home.

To follow up on what Marty said, we mostly rented apartments with kitchens. We typically made breakfast before heading out for the day's activities and ate out for lunch. Our son still needed to nap then so our sightseeing days usually ended by 3pm. Then we all went home for a nap before cooking dinner.

Thanks everyone for your replies! I will have a look for that book. Apartments with kitchens will indeed be the way to go. We did this for a five week trip of the West coast US with a then three year old and baby, and it worked pretty well.

I expect that if we drive, about 4 hours a day will be the limit, split into one session after breakfast and another in the afternoon. I will try Google maps to work out a plausible itinerary. Please tell me about any particularly lovely villages I should try to fit in.

I will have another look at car leasing - the travel agent ran a comparison and hiring a car came out a bit cheaper, but I think leasing has some advantages. Chani, that is an interesting point re boot space. I think we will be able to keep it to 2 small or 1 large suitcase, but will have a portacot and stroller too.