Around the World - Switzerland in July with kids

bkderm - On your message , you said you are planning a 10 month trip around the world. How many months do you plan to spend in Europe? Besides Switzerland, what other European countries peeked your interest to visit?

The world is a big place, and I don't know how you plan to divvy up your time, but I want to be sure you're aware of the Schengen Zone limitation. Folks traveling on US/Canadian passports are limited to spending 90 days within any 180-day period in the group of European countries constituting the Schengen Zone. That includes most of the places people want to visit in Europe except for Ireland and the United Kingdom. Be sure you do not exceed the 90-day limit; doing so would subject you to a fine, and you'd probably be barred from re-entry for years.

The Schengen Zone countries are shown here: https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/visa-policy/schengenvisaen

When you count up your days in the Schengen Zone, you must include both your arrival day and your departure day.

For a week in the BO you might consider staying in Lauterbrunnen at Camping Jungfrau. https://www.campingjungfrau.swiss/en
We are renting a 2 bedroom 1 bath mobile home there in September. They have a variety of types of accommodations available, the prices are good in pricey Switzerland, and they have a lenient cancellation policy.

Yes, we are aware of Schengen rules. I don't think we will be in the Schengen area more than 3 months but even if we wanted to we can because my wife has an EU passport and we can apply for residence at any point in her home country. This guarantees us another 6 months or so.

Our rough plan is Paris (3 nights) to San Sebastian traveling around Spain for about 4 weeks ending in Barcelona. Fly to Switzerland, - there about 14-16 days then head down to Lake Como (3 days) then Rome (5 days). Fly up to Poland (her home country), staying there about 3 more weeks. We then head to Croatia followed by Dubai. The rest is still pending.

We aren't trying to hit every country. We have already been to many other places in the EU. We are pretty seasoned travelers but know we can't see everything and want quality over quantity.

Thanks for your replies!

I agree with Andrea that Camping Jungfrau (rent a trailer) is worth consideration. I've stayed there and it's a great location and they cover basic needs at the camp store.

Booking trains in Switzerland is no problem. They are never full and on the rare rare times they are (conventions), you can wait 30 min for the next one, or the Swiss will provide buses.

Yes, there is lots of great scenery to be seen out of the Swiss trains, but you are right, your kids will grow bored with that. Instead, why not WALK through the great scenery? That's what I did with my kids, and they were never bored. There's cows, there's goats, there's cheese farms, there's summer luge rides. Give them old phones as cameras to they get even more involved. There's enough to keep everyone busy for more than a week, easily. My kids loved the Berner Oberland so much they came back twice as adults to take the same trails. Click on my name to find the link to our dozen favorite hikes, with pics and maps.

Some of the higher trails are snow-bound until around June 15 or so, so they later you go in June, the better.

bkderm - On your itinerary you mentioned 3 days in Paris, You need at least 5 to 7 days in Paris. 3 days is not enough. Any plans to include Portugal on the itinerary?

I don't know anything about applying for residency when you're already in Europe, but you may be right about that. Do remember, though, that the Schengen limit is 90 days; it is not 3 months.

It is 90 days max within a 180 day period.