Summer trip to Europe

[MaryE]

My husband and I surprised our kids (12 & 16yo) with passport applications for Christmas, along with a note saying we're taking them to Europe this summer. As you can imagine, they were most excited!'

 

Since then, we've pinned down the trip a bit more. We have a maximum of three weeks. Paris and London are musts. We're thinking about a week in those two cities, with a day trip (or two?) from them. Would you stick to just France and England, or try to tack on another place? Florence is a top contender, as DD is an avid art lover. I'm just concerned we'll feel too rushed and it will be too much moving around. (Those three weeks include travel days on either end.)  If you were going, or have gone doing something similar, I welcome any and all suggestions. Time frame is mid-June to early July. Thanks!

[Isabella]

How exciting for your kids and you both!  As far as your question…..Its  hard to tell….I guess you know your own family and what they'd like better than I would.  I'll let you know our experience, though, for some input/comparison.  

 

We had seven weeks about 5 years ago with our 3 girls, aged 13, 15, 16 at the time.  We did it very fast-paced, really. We spent 10 days in the UK…3 days with friends south of London (we spent one day in London), then the rest of the time we rented a vehicle and drove to Wales and Scotland.  I guess a lot of the time was driving. We saw lots along the way..scenery/attractions, and of course stopped at most, even if briefly.  My girls are farm/country girls, and none were big into culture/art/city things, so getting to travel around and see more was fun for them.  They saw Alnwick Castle in Northumberland (where Harry Potter was filmed). I think one day in London was enough for the girls at the time. We did the usual bus tour around London, saw the Tower of London, London Eye, Art Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace Stables tour, and several more things.

 

Then we went to Germany for a week and stayed with friends at one spot, before hiring a camper and travelling the rest of the time throughout Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium & Holland.  We stayed 3 times with friends for a night (in our camper), but the rest of the time in camp grounds.  Again, saw heaps, and got a good overall feel of the countries we saw, but nothing in depth.  We didn't spend time in any of the major cities, though.  

 

On the way home to Australia, we spent 3 days in Bangkok, Thailand, at a friends home.  This was quite good to get a good feel for the city, and do several-hour forays from her home.  By this stage we were pretty exhausted, and the heat and humidity was adding to the exhaustion, so we probably couldn't have done much else at this point.

 

This is just a brief overview of our time, obviously.  It was fast paced, as I said….lots of driving (thankfully, we all enjoy driving!), and we were EXHAUSTED when we arrived home (partly to jet-lag, but also because we were on the move almost constantly for seven weeks). I think the way we did it worked best for us as our first trip to Europe/UK.  We saw a huge amount, and I think after that we were more easily able to see where we'd like to spend more time when we go again.

 

In fact, Dh and I are going again this year in June/July, and we have different plans that suit us where we are at now.  Our girls are all independent now, so we don't have them to think about.  I'll be fulfilling a long-term dream of staying in Holland for 8 weeks, and getting an Au-pair (although 43yo!) job.  I want to be completely immersed in the culture, so I can learn the language.  I already have a bit of Dutch, as my father was Dutch, but I want to become fluent.  Dh, in the meantime, is shipping his motorbike over, and travelling around on that.  I'll probably join him most weekends wherever he is.  We are really excited! :-)

 

Hope this helps you with making your own plans. :-)  Have an awesome time, whatever you decide, anyway!  And if you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. :-)

 

Edited to add  a few more details. :)

[Liz CA]

Can you do almost a week in London, Paris and Rome calculating in travel time?

I would not want to miss Rome, however Firenze is a close second, perhaps a little hop over to Venice just for a glimpse at the Canale Grande? Unfortunately, peoople have told me that sometimes it seems rather dirty on the canals, other times they seem to clean them up. It's been 25+ years I've been there.

[Chris in VA]

I'd spend 4 days in London and 4 in Paris. I'm not much for the city. I would go to 

British Museum

Tower of London

various touristy places

Then I'd head to Salisbury and see the Cathedral and Stonehenge (1 day on a tour bus, guided)

I'd go to Canterbury or Coventry,  and take the hydrofoil at Dover across the channel and then head to

Louvre and D'Orsay

Eiffel

various touristy places near Paris (Chartres)

 

Then I'd spend the rest of the time in Rome

and see

Colosseum

Forum (and Arch of Titus)

Pantheon (and get gelato and hang on the piazza at night there by the fountain)

 

and I'd take a bus to the catacombs (day trip).

I'd go to the Vatican last and see it all.

 

We did something similar (w/o Paris) and had a blast.

 

 

[J-rap]

If I were you, and if you think you might be going again, I might hold off on Italy for now and do that trip later.  Perhaps you could do England, France, and Scotland this time?  Or, England, France, and Ireland?  A couple of my kids and I did a London-Paris-Scotland trip once.  Two of my daughters did an Ireland-England-Paris trip. 

 

When we did the London-Paris-Scotland trip, we landed in London and immediately took the Eurostar from London to Paris.  We spent at least a week in Paris, with a couple of day trips.  Then we flew to Glasgow on one of those inexpensive European airlines -- either Easyjet or RyanAir.  We spent a little time in Glasgow and then trained to Edinburgh, where we spent most of our time in Scotland.  We did do a couple of day trips to the Loch Ness and Highlands area.  Then we flew to London and spent the remainder of our time, several days, there.

 

On another trip, my daughters flew into Dublin, spent a couple days there and then took a tourist bus to Galway via the Cliffs of Moher, with a tour guide.  They really enjoyed that day.  They stayed in Galway for a couple days, and then trained to Kilkenny, which was their favorite spot of the three.  After a couple days there, they trained back to Dublin where they caught a ferry to England.  They spent most of their time in London while in England, and then took the Eurostar to Paris. 

 

Of all of those countries, Paris was our favorite spot and the one we wanted the most time in. 

 

Have fun planning!

[LisaKinVA]

You can see a LOT in 3 weeks -- but it's about prioritizing and knowing there is just no way to see/do it all.  Most museums/palaces will take a couple of hours to see (that's not a lingering walk...it's lingering here and there on some pieces...less time with others). Art-wise, Italy trumps pretty much the whole of Europe for vast collections. Sixty percent of the World's Art Treasures are in Italy...so if art is really your thing, Italy needs to be on your list.  

 

Personally (and I do love Paris), I couldn't spend a week in the city (having a limited amount of time to see Europe), but that's me.  Two to Three days?  Sure. I'm kind of the same way with London...although I would want to see some of the countryside around London more (England/Ireland/Scotland), and Normandy/Omaha Beach is not too far from Paris.  Travel throughout Europe is easy by train -- and you can get some great pricing on a Europe Rail Pass when you buy ahead of time (plan your trip ahead of time, and you can save nearly 50% on the cost of the trains...my parents saved an incredible amount of money).  The hop-on-hop-off bus tours are a great way to see a LOT of sights quickly -- then spend focused time in places you really want to go.  

 

By train, Rome is about 3 hours from Firenze (Florence), and 4 hours from Venice.  You really do need 2 days in Florence, and a FULL day in Venice (you can see quite a bit in an 8 hour day in Venice...not everything, but a LOT).  With Venice, you can stay out of town (like Verona), take the train 2 stops to Venice and be there all day...and you get the bonus of Verona (a nice city to see, with an amazing Roman Theater still in use today.  You can see an opera (Romeo and Juliet..or others) in the Theater. Or, you could stay in Florence, leave on an early fast train and get to Venice around 9 or 10 in the morning. Keep in mind, nearly EVERY attraction costs money (Casa di Guiletta is about 10 euro per person, in Italy, most churches are free (or very low cost) -- museums are not, historic sites are not.  If you can buy tickets ahead of time, do so.  Lines get crazy.  Herculaneum is a better site to visit than Pompeii (if you want to actually see structures, and the mosaics still on walls and on the floors of the buildings), and is about a 2 hour train ride south of Rome.

 

If you put Rome on your list, the Vatican is a full day of walking (assuming you do the tour, then want to spend some time in the museum).  The best way to SEE Rome is on the bus tour, plan a day for the Vatican, and then a day for a few other things, and maybe a 3rd.    After awhile...much of what you see tends to blur together...lol.  My husband and I greatly disagree on where a huge nativity was.  I say it's at Castel Nuovo in its chapel, and he says it's at the Palace in Naples.  My parents are going there today, so I guess we'll see! 

 

You can't do it all, but you can do a lot!

 

 

 

 

[Twolittleboys]

It really depends on your preferences. I would spend at least a good week in England. There is lots to see and do in London - the attractions are very family friendly. The nice thing about London is that you can easily take a day trip to see some of the countryside. Staying in London is probably a bit more expensive but I always feel packing up/moving around is a bit stressful and you can avoid it that way. You can easily visit Oxford, Brighton, Bath, etc. from London. Windsor, Hampton Court, Kew Gardens, Greenwich are also great possibilities.

 

I haven't been to Paris/France so don't really know whether the same is true there. If you are only visiting Paris I would think four days would be enough.

 

Personally I would spend seven full days in London/England, four days in Paris and another week in Italy (maybe split between Rome/Florence/Venice). Another option might be to combine London & Paris with a 7-day-cruise. That way you could visit the highlights of Italy, Spain or Greece without having to pack/move around etc. It might be a nice, relaxing end to your trip which would still allow you to see a lot.

[mumto2]

I would definitely plan some day trips out of London. Two or three days on Central London attractions, the Tower, Buckingham Palace, etc. A good walk book will help you tick things off pretty quickly. For instance, tube to Green Park, walk to Buckingham Palace, walk to Big Ben/Westminster seeing Number 10 and horse guards on the way. If you aren't tired after that take a boat to the Tower and London Bridge. There are great Asian restaurants near the Shard near the Tower for dinner.

 

For countryside attractions, three underground outings come to mind. Frist, A day divided between Hampton Court and Kew Gardens, really easy. Second, Windsor Castle, years ago the connections were a bit time consuming but possible. Third, which we never tried is the undgerground to Watford for the Harry Potter movie studio which is the best :) but we now live here and drive. I think you could either take a taxi or arrange a private hire car from the station.

 

For your big countryside day out I would take a train from Kings Cross and go to York. Under three hours on a reasonably fast train. York is lovely and a completely different feel from London. So much to see and do. List of highlights, great cathedral, can walk the walls, fun touristy shops and pubs including Betty's tea room, a few really interesting museums. National Rail museum is free and Hogwarts Express was there.Always a dig happening somewhere if you want to chat with an archaeologist ... Roman and Viking artifacts galore. Believe the trains to Bath are good too. Would not advise Coventry by train right now.

 

Pretty much all I can think of regarding being based in London.

 

I don't know if we could survive Paris based activities for a week without someone having a break down. Lines are really long and the crowds aren't well controlled in terms of numbers. Versailles in tourist season was a nightmare, shoulder to shoulder packed like sardines moving throgh a maze, saw very little and really looked at nothing, and you are smack in the middle of school field trip season too. Go and plan carefully to get what you want to get done.

 

On the other hand staying in the countryside is great. Remember every country also has less famous but equal attractions in terms of historical value.

[Melinda in VT]

How fun!

 

Honestly, I would stick to just Britain and France, or, better yet, Britain OR France. They are both great places with easily enough top-notch sites for a three week trip. Why travel past world-class sites to get to other world-class sites? Save the travel time and see the world-class sites in the area you are already in. :-)

 

London and Paris are nice, but the best parts of Britain (especially) and France are outside of the main cities.

 

Rick Steves has country guides for both Britain and France with three-week itineraries.

 

I've (almost) done his three-week Britain itinerary. (We only had 17 days and we were traveling with a 2.5 year old, so we had to trim a few things.) I've never done his France tour in its entirety, but we have used his guidebooks to plan three two-week trips to various parts of France.

 

My top sites for England (ordered by geography):

Tower of London

British Museum

Stonehenge (I disagree with Rick Steves on this one. Much better than Avebury)

Bath--tea in the Pump Room, the Roman baths, the bus tour that talks a lot about Jane Austen, the costume museum, the Royal Crescent

Southern Wales--castles!, Tintern Abbey, the Welsh Folk Museum. (We didn't get to Cardiff, but I think there is a new Doctor Who museum there now.)

Blenheim Palace in the Cotswolds--Don't recommend with a 2.5 year old (his only bad site in the entire trip), but great for other people.

Northern Wales--more castles! (seriously, Wales has the most atmospheric castles and the greatest variety)

Edinburgh--the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle (day trip)

Hadrian's Wall

York--the walls! (we have a thing for walking along the top of city walls), the museum, the cathedral.

 

My top sites for France:

Notre Dame

The Louvre (not that I've actually been--darn Icelandic volcano that scratched that part of the trip)

Musee d'Orsay

Versailles

Fontainebleu

The Loire Valley chateaus (including the one where Leonardo da Vinci spent the end of his life; you can see and touch life-size models of some of his inventions)

The ruined Cathar castles around Carcasonne

Carcasonne

The papal palace at Avignon

The Roman amphitheater at Nimes and the Maison Caree

The Roman theater at Orange (great audio guide)

There is an excavated Roman town around Orange whose name is temporarily escaping me. Southern France has amazing Roman ruins.

Pont du Gard (amazingly impressive Roman aqueduct)

The hill towns of Provence

The D-day beaches

Mont St Michel (honestly, this one fell a little flat for me, but everyone else in our group loved it)

The Bayeux Tapestry (excellent museum and audio guide)

 

One things I would caution against is seeing too much of any one thing. As much as your DD loves art, she will probably enjoy the art at the end of the trip less than she did the art at the beginning. At the beginning of your trip, you'll want to stop and look at each and every castle you see. By the end of the trip, you'll barely turn your head. It seems crazy now, and I doubted it before we started traveling, but it has held true for us. Humans can get used to amazing sites. lol

 

For us, the trick is to try to pick the top sites in each category and mix up the categories and time periods. A trip that includes art museums and castles and grand houses and ancient monoliths and Roman ruins and a living museum will stay fresh whereas one that is all castles will grow stale for most people.

 

[Laura Corin]

Another option for seeing London efficiently is the open top tourist buses - you could get an all-day ticket, then jump on and off as you like.  It's a good way to see the bits of the city that you don't want to devote a lot of time to.

 

L

[lailasmum]

In London it works really well to do a walking tour or two. you get to see loads because things are pretty close together and don't waste time underground. I did the pool of London walk on this page early last year and it's a great way to cram in loads, there are loads of other walks on that page. This street art tour is great too, encompasses the permissive street art culture of east London and loads of history. 

[MaryE]

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied so far. Lots to think about!

[Negin]

In London it works really well to do a walking tour or two. you get to see loads because things are pretty close together and don't waste time underground. I did the pool of London walk on this page early last year and it's a great way to cram in loads, there are loads of other walks on that page. This street art tour is great too, encompasses the permissive street art culture of east London and loads of history. 

Thanks so much for this. We're hoping, if all goes as planned, to spend 3 days in London. I grew up in Britain and am quite familiar with London, but that was all so long ago. 

[Harriet Vane]

The others have given great suggestions.

 

Our family loves to travel.

 

One thing we learned is that, while we enjoy the city and love the big sights there (Tower of London being among our most favorite), we do not like spending a full week in the city. It ends up feeling like a lot of traffic and congestion. Also, our kids get overwhelmed seeing lots of museum-type places. (Even if it's not a museum, cathedral tours and stuff like that end up feeling like another museum.) They need more variety, and we all need to see the countryside sometimes.

 

As such, I would strongly recommend day trips outside of London and Paris, or even limiting your time in the cities to just a few days.

 

A combination that worked well for us, for example, was a couple days in London, then four days in Dartmouth, then we swung up to Stratford-upon-Avon for the sights in that area, then back to London again for a few days. We interspersed history tours with a day on the moor and riding horses, and tooling around the village of Dartmouth.

 

Don't overschedule. For example, we found that the Tower of London really can comfortably take a day to comb over. When we were in England, we tried to schedule two major outings per day, but this plan ended up shortchanging both as we were rushed.

 

Remember that just being there is an experience and an education. The grocery stores are different and the customs are different. Slow down just enough to explore non-touristy things and absorb the atmosphere and the regular life swimming around you.

 

BRING WATERPROOFS. This is the number one best travel tip I can give. It rains a lot in England. We bought high-quality waterproof pants and jackets and also carried compact umbrellas. We never had to stop for weather. Being damp and chilled for hours is a sure way to ruin a day of sightseeing.

 

Pack three changes of clothes and wear one. Absolutely no more. You will really appreciate how easy it is to travel with less luggage. You can carefully re-wear some things, and go to laundromats at intervals. We found that we appreciated a little down time at a laundromat when our senses were overstimulated by all that we saw and were doing.

[lailasmum]

The others have given great suggestions.

 

Our family loves to travel.

 

One thing we learned is that, while we enjoy the city and love the big sights there (Tower of London being among our most favorite), we do not like spending a full week in the city. It ends up feeling like a lot of traffic and congestion. Also, our kids get overwhelmed seeing lots of museum-type places. (Even if it's not a museum, cathedral tours and stuff like that end up feeling like another museum.) They need more variety, and we all need to see the countryside sometimes.

 

As such, I would strongly recommend day trips outside of London and Paris, or even limiting your time in the cities to just a few days.

 

A combination that worked well for us, for example, was a couple days in London, then four days in Dartmouth, then we swung up to Stratford-upon-Avon for the sights in that area, then back to London again for a few days. We interspersed history tours with a day on the moor and riding horses, and tooling around the village of Dartmouth.

 

Don't overschedule. For example, we found that the Tower of London really can comfortably take a day to comb over. When we were in England, we tried to schedule two major outings per day, but this plan ended up shortchanging both as we were rushed.

 

Remember that just being there is an experience and an education. The grocery stores are different and the customs are different. Slow down just enough to explore non-touristy things and absorb the atmosphere and the regular life swimming around you.

 

BRING WATERPROOFS. This is the number one best travel tip I can give. It rains a lot in England. We bought high-quality waterproof pants and jackets and also carried compact umbrellas. We never had to stop for weather. Being damp and chilled for hours is a sure way to ruin a day of sightseeing.

 

Pack three changes of clothes and wear one. Absolutely no more. You will really appreciate how easy it is to travel with less luggage. You can carefully re-wear some things, and go to laundromats at intervals. We found that we appreciated a little down time at a laundromat when our senses were overstimulated by all that we saw and were doing.

Yeah getting out of London is a good idea. I live in Devon So I'd always suggest people head this way as It's really beautiful and different pace of life. Only problem is travel time can be a bit much from London. Dorset or East Anglia are great as no too far by train and really nice beaches/history. There are more flights into Devon and Cornwall now though so that could be an option to see Cornwall particularly.

[Anne]

One thing that worked well for us when our kids were young was to schedule one day of museums and then one day of something different. This helped alleviate the museum overload.

 

I've found that I'm good for about 4 hours of museums in a day, max. Then it all becomes a blur.

 

Such a fabulous trip - you and your family will make terrific memories this summer!

 

Anne

[SKL]

I took my two 7yos to Europe last summer.  We flew into Athens, took boat rides to a couple of Greek islands, flew to Rome and then traveled mostly by train to:  Venice, Salzburg, Zurich, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Dublin.  (Did I miss any?)  The trip took about 2.5 weeks.  :P  Mostly we did river boat tours and city bus tours, ate at small restaurants, and stopped at 2-4 important places in each city.

 

I know most people would want more than 1-2 nights in each city, but I just wanted to suggest that traveling by train might open up more possibilities for your trip.

 

As an unexpected bonus, we discovered that there really is a Platform 9+3/4 at King's Cross Station.  :P

 

I would definitely add Florence by train if your daughter is interested.  I don't know how far that is from Rome, but if you can also make it to Rome / the Vatican, it would be worth it IMO.

 

 

[shawthorne44]

Plan on sleeping on overnight trains, and you won't lose any time.  

Florence would definitely be worthwhile.  

[rainbird2]

 

If your daughter's an artfan, I'd definitely try to add Italy. Seeing David and the Pieta in person blew my mind.

 

Ditto this. 

 

If you are going in the summer, I would definitely book tickets ahead of time.  I booked mine months in advance...I would really recommend this, especially for a summer vacation.

 

Also remember, many European countries take a long holiday in the summer with lots of places closed during that time.  Be sure to book your vacation around this.  Can you go in early May or late September?

 

I would do London/Paris/Florence.  Florence is more slow paced than Rome.  (Although I LOVE Rome...that can be another vacation!)  You'll get plenty of city with London and Paris.  Enjoy a few days walking the cobblestone streets in Florence.  Eat gelato for breakfast, lunch and dinner...

 

...aaaaahhh...the life.  :)

[hornblower]

We did 3 weeks with the kids a couple years ago. Flew open jaw - into London, home from Rome. Itinerary was London, Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome.

We took the trains everywhere. Eurostar train between London & Paris, and an overnight train from Paris to Venice. Sleeping on the trains is awesome :)

We're very happy with our trip. For dh & myself some of it was a repeat but it was all new to the kids. It didn't feel rushed. We even had time for a day trip to Cambridge while in London, Versailles while in Paris & Ostia Antica while in Rome.  fwiw, everyone here would probably happily skip Versailles but would make extra efforts to get to Ostia Antica. That was SO amazing.