MrPepper

Ok, I'm planning my trip a year in advance and need some help with the itinerary because I need to book some of the flights and hotels a year in advance. (points) I have an itinerary but I'm concerned it might be a bit much for my family (wife and 2 kids (16 & 14). I plan to travel some of it by car and some by train. Below is the daily schedule. Is it too much travel? If I should cut things out, what? and replace it with what?

1 - Flight
2 - Rome
3 - Rome
4 - Rome
5 - Siena
6 - Florence
7 - Florence
8 - Venice
9 - Monaco
10 - Cannes
11 - Nice
12 - Avignon (train to Amboise)
13 - Amboise & Chenonceau
14 - Orleans
15 - Paris
16 - Paris
17 - Flight

StCirq

Skip Monaco and add to Cannes, or skip Cannes altogether. Overpriced glitzy places where you'll spend way more money than you need to.
Really rushed trip, but do-able.

valtor

You have 1/2 day less each time when you move to a new city, so there are places in your list where you have very, very little time.

I would eliminate Monaco, Cannes, Nice and Vaignon (keep them for another trip when you can see Cote D"Azur and Provence).

Also, keep Loire Valley for another time.

I would change as follows:

1 - Flight
2 - Rome
3 - Rome
4 - Rome
5 - Florence
6 - Florence - Day trip to Siena
7 - Florence
8 - Venice
9 - Venice
10 - Venice
11 - flight to Lyon
12 - Lyon
13 - train to Paris
14 - Paris
15 - Paris
16 - Paris
17 - Flight

paris1953

I'd do more Paris and less Rome, but that depends upon your interests.

Sirhan

I agree with the posters here.

The French Riviera is over-priced and over-hyped. Save Monaco, Cannes and Nice for antoher trip and instead more days to Venice and Paris, you'll need them.

Siena is a very easy day trip from Florence (hour by train), so just stay in florence another night and avoid the hassle of checking in and checking out an additional time. Orleans is also doable as a day trip from Paris, so if you want to see it I'd recommend the same.

I'd also recommend taking an overnight train stright from Venice to Paris, freeing up an extra day's worth of sight-seeing.

1 - Flight
2 - Rome
3 - Rome
4 - Rome
5 - Florence
6 - Florence - Day trip to Siena
7 - Florence
8 - Venice
9 - Venice
10 - Venice
11 - Paris
12 - Paris
13 - Amboise and Chenonceau
14 - Paris
15 - Paris - Day Trip to Orleans
16 - Paris
17 - Flight

tuscanlifeedit

I'd knock a night off Paris from the itinerary that Sirhan gave above and add it to one of the Italian towns.

sundriedpachino

I would personally not enjoy 17 days of only cities, but that's just me.
You did not say if your teens are boys or girls, or what their interests are.

I know this is "totally random", but if I had a couple of teens, I would drop Florence, fly from Venice to Toulouse, rent a car and drive a couple hours to the Dordogne region. Truly sensational, the dueling chateaux of Castelnaud and Beynac, the former resplendent with dungeons and recreated medieval weapons, very cool.
http://www.castles.francethisway.com...castelnaud.php

Also see the caves at Lascaux with their prehistoric artwork.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/lascaux-caves

There's the very impressive town of Rocamadour, carved out of the hillside, like it's hanging from the rocks! If you stay overnight in one of the hotels there, and fling open your shutters in the morning, you could very well be greeted by a passing hot air balloon "Bonjour, Monsieur!" (happened to a friend).

Many other wonders await for kids both young and old.

Return the car at Brive la Gaillard and train 4 hours to Paris.
This may be totally impractical for you, or not within your realm of interests, but my guess is the teens would enjoy this more than Chenonceau.

ira

Hi MP,

>7 - Florence
8 - Venice
9 - Monaco
10 - Cannes
11 - Nice
12 - Avignon

That is not an excursion it is a forced march.

A single day for Venice?

You have the time to visit Paris, Venice and Florence OR Paris and Rome OR Italy.

Enjoy your new itinerary.

Weadles

I took my kids to Monaco once when they were the same age as your kids, and they still ask why.

When are you going? For instance, Italy from mid-July to late August is miserably hot, especially in Rome and Florence. And are your kids art lovers? If not, I would skip Florence and add to Venice.

Anyway, the best trips we've done with our kids were a mix of resort and city. If your plane tix have not been bought, I'd suggest flying into Venice and out of Paris.

Venice: 4 days ( one to recover from jet lag)

Plane to Rome: 4 days ( barely enough time to cover major tourist sites, but you can do it if you base yourselves in the historical center of Rome)

Plane to Nice: 4 days with side trips to some of the hill towns like St. Jean, Eze, Monaco if you have to, Cannes, St. Paul de Vence. Also gives you some beach time, although the beach in town is pebbles, it's still fun for a late afternoon break.

Train (TGV) or plane to Paris: 4 days with possible day trip to Giverny

*** I purposely planned this so that you were staying several days in each location. I've learned over the years that my family suffers much less from "Irritable Travel Syndrome" when they are not forced to pack/unpack and travel from destination to destination every two days.

Good luck!

mamcalice

Let me chime in with the rest and tell you that this trip probably won't happen as you have planned it. You will find you have no time to see anything and will skip places. I say that from experience. It involves far too much rushing from place to place and far too little time actually seeing the places you are rushing to get to. I like Sirhan's plan - I would cut out the Riviera altogether and save it for amother trip.

bab706

I cannot imagine spending only 3 days in Rome, 2 days in Paris and 1 day in Venice. All of these places deserve more time. When you move around so much, you will find your time being taken up by checking in and out of hotels, packing and unpacking, going to and from airports or train stations. Our minimum is 3 nights in one place, and ideally more. Whatever you decide - relax and enjoy your trip!

nytraveler

Sorry - way too many places in too little time. You will be moving almost every day - which means that more than half you time will be spend just sitting on a train.

Remember that a full day someplace requires 2 nights there. Yuo have 2.5 - at most - days in Rome and 1.5 days in Paris. this is jut silly unless you have been there before and seen most of hte major sights.

Our first road trip in Europe was from Rome to Paris. We took 3 weeks. And we had alredy been to paris twice before -s os spending just 3 days there wasn't a problem. We had 6 stops altogether in the 3 weeks (23 days since it included 4 weekends) and today I would probbly make that a total of 5 stops.

You really need to cut way back on the number of destiantions.

PalenQ

Well after spending some years all told in Orleans I would wonder why you would stay there - must have family to do so IMO with so many other much much more interesting places to hit - not that Orleans ain't a nice town but it was blitzed to bits in WW2 and not all that romantic - yes a lively regional commerical town (dead as a doornail on Sundays and at night) but save one of France's truly monumental cathedrals rather ho-hum for the average visitor.

Anyway for great info on trains I always spotlight these IMO fantastic sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com. You may want to investigate a France-Italy Rail and Drive pass where you can buy certain number of days of train travel in both countries and also 24-hour periods of car rental - with cars being picked up at train stations and driven thru say the Provencal countryside and returned at another train station to continue on by train. Not sure the France-Italy Pass has this option but many passes do - Eurail Select does for sure.

MrPepper

These are fantastic responses and exactly what I was hoping for. I too am a little concerned about ITS (irritable travel syndrome). I like some of the ideas for cutting back on the French Riviera. At least that seems to be a consensus. Staying longer in some of the locations might also let me rent a flat instead of staying in hotels.

The wife and I have been to Europe multiple times (big cities only) but the kids have not. I just want to make sure they get a broad exposure.

Please don't stop the replies. I am enjoying the input and using all of it to make adjustments.

MrPepper

Forgot to mention. We are going in June. It seems to be the best time to avoid crowds, heat and coincide with our summer schedule.

PalenQ

June is the perfect time IMO to travel in Europe - days are long, temps not boiling yet in south and yes tourist crowds do not really materialize in huge numbers until July and August. Good choice. Start in south and work north IMO.

Dukey1

I would NOT go to Orleans on one separate day trip and then go to Amboise on yet another one; you'll be more or less going in the same general direction for both of these so why not go to Orleans and then ON to Amboise for Chenonceau?

Unless Orleans is an absolute MUST I would skip it entirely.

And yeah, Paris is great but do YOU have enough interest in it to spend five nights? I'm not saying you can't and there's at least one poster here who thinks it is the ONLY city on the planet BUT this is about you and YOUR interests. Now that you've kept them under wraps, how about some insight? You did say you've been MULTIPLE TIMES, right?

Weadles

I may be repeating myself, but I think that when traveling with kids the most important thing you can do is give them some down time so that they are not constantly battling sightseeing fatigue.

That's why I would strongly suggest booking a combination of cities and resorts ( beaches, Italian lake country?). My kids who are now 24 and 21 really loved visits to Stresa for instance, where we didn't do much more than eat well, take boat trips, and water ski.

And, while there seems to be a consensus here that the Riveria is too glitzy/expensive for a family, some of our best trips have been the ones that included Nice. Granted, it's a watered-down version of Cannes, but that's what we liked best about it. It's a much more welcoming city, less expensive, and offers some of the easiest transfer connections around ( bus, train) for visiting other cities/towns along the coast.

Anyway, you've gotten a lot of ideas here. Now the thing is to fine tune them according to your family's interests and budget.

ssander

MHO:

1 - fly
2-5 Rome
6-7 Florence (w/day trip to Siena)
8-10 Venice
11 - travel day
12-16 - Paris
17 - fly

Rome-Florence = ~1:35 on train + "station time"
Florence-Venice = ~2:10 on train + "station time"
Venice-Paris = ???, but probably the better part of a day

Fares between the Italy stations can be as low as 9 euros ("Super Economy") if bought in advance on the Trenitalia website.

Take your time and enjoy Rome & Paris, both of which have so much to offer. (You could spend weeks in Paris an never run out of things to do & see.)

SS