We're planning on spending the entire month of June 2002 in Europe with our 2 kids (ages 10 & 8). Our only "planned" event is that we are going to fly into London to start the trip. Everything else, including what we're going to do in the UK is up in the air. I do imagine that my wife will want to go to Paris. <BR> <BR>We've got tons of ideas from this site (thank you for your postings). However, I have a couple questions and need some opinions... <BR> <BR>*Should we do most of our travel by rental car or try to navigate the train system? <BR> <BR>*Is it possible to just "wing it" for hotels or are reservations a must in most places? <BR> <BR>*I don't want to do the Chevy Chase <BR>"Vacation" and hit 30 places in 30 days. How many places/countries should we limit ousrelves to? <BR> <BR>Thanks for you help. If you can't tell, this will be our 1st trip to Europe. Maybe there's a "Europe for Dummies" book!!

Mike, <BR>In response to your questions: <BR>How many places should we limit ourselves to? How about four? England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. You'll be exposed to totally different cultures and languages in a limited geographic area. <BR> <BR>Rent a car or train? Why not both? You certainly won't want a car in London or Paris. Why not train in London for day trips and to Paris; train in Paris for day trips and then a car rental for the balance of your stay. <BR>Wing it for accommodations? Depends upon where you choose to stay. Wise to reserve in London and Paris for example, particularly with four traveling. With a car you can stay outside of major cities, find accommodations more easily and usually cheaper and probably can wing it in certain areas. <BR> <BR>I'd suggest flying into London and flying out of Amsterdam. Elimanates doubling back and optimizes time. <BR> <BR>Drop me an Email if you've any questions. I have a few driving itineraries of Belgium and the Netherlands that might be of interest.

Mike, <BR>In response to your questions: <BR>How many places should we limit ourselves to? How about four? England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. You'll be exposed to totally different cultures and languages in a limited geographic area. <BR> <BR>Rent a car or train? Why not both? You certainly won't want a car in London or Paris. Why not train in London for day trips and to Paris; train in Paris for day trips and then a car rental for the balance of your stay. <BR>Wing it for accommodations? Depends upon where you choose to stay. Wise to reserve in London and Paris for example, particularly with four traveling. With a car you can stay outside of major cities, find accommodations more easily and usually cheaper and probably can wing it in certain areas. <BR> <BR>I'd suggest flying into London and flying out of Amsterdam. Elimanates doubling back and optimizes time. <BR> <BR>Drop me an Email if you've any questions. I have a few driving itineraries of Belgium and the Netherlands that might be of interest.

Wes's suggestions are good ones. I would suggest you use the train in England and rent a car for traveling through the other three countries. It will give you some European train experience and you won't have to deal with driving "on the wrong side," which can be unnerving for first-time travelers to Europe. Besides, as a veteran train traveler with two children,I can tell you that schlepping bags on and off trains gets old pretty quickly. <BR>You can do a nice loop through England in the first week, then take the Eurostar to Paris. Stay a few days, then take a train out of the city and pick up a rental car (avoiding the sometimes intimidating effort of driving out of Paris). Then do a loop through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and back to France (to avoid sometimes hefty charges for dropping the car off in another country). With a few guidebooks and a good map, you should be able to plan a nice three week trip with stops in a few strategic places that will sesrve as bases for exploration in different regions. <BR>

In trying to decide how many places to visit, you need to decide (as a family; get the kids' input) what kinds of things you want to see (i.e., city vs. countryside), whether you want more culture, more scenary, or more just people-watching. Give a lot of thought to how comfortable you'll be moving from place to place. In my mid-20s I spent a month visiting France (2 weeks), Austria & Switzerland (about a week each place). We moved around far too much (about every other day), and I was very tired of traveling at the end (and I LOVE to travel). <BR> <BR>Four big places sounds about right, but that depends on how you classify "big places." You might end up spending 2 weeks in England and Scotland, 1 week in France, and 1 in Italy. Or 1 in England, 1 in France, 2 in Italy. England and Scotland might be easier for the kids, because of the language thing, but I would imageine that varies from kid to kid. <BR> <BR>In terms of avoiding travel fatigue, you might want to consider spending an entire week in one location. Maybe, for example, rent a place in southern France. You could make day trips from there, but have a home base. <BR> <BR>I would agree about the car and train suggestion of the previous poster, though that depends on what your final itinerary looks like. I'm a big advocate of car travel (among other things, it will give the kids room to spread things out in back without having to pick up all the time), but there are some stretches where it makes more sense to train it (i.e., from Paris to Provence). Also, your kids would probably love to take public transportation (unless you live somewhere where you take it all the time). A long time ago, when I was 13 and my brother 10 years old, my parents took us on a family trip (2 weeks) to England, Scotland & Wales. We took an overnight train from England to Scotland, and thought it was the neatest thing! (On that segment, our rental car was loaded on the train, if I recall correctly.) <BR> <BR>Re booking hotels ahead, I would say you definitely want to do that for the big cities. Of course, the more you plan ahead, the less flexibility you'll have. In June, things will be starting to enter the tourist season, and rooms will be a little harder to find. How stressed out does your family get at having to find a hotel in a new town or city? One option is to book most of it ahead, but leave pockets of time open. For example, 2 years ago we went to Italy and France. After visiting Florence, we spent 3 days in Tuscany, none of which was booked ahead, and we had no problem finding places to stay. The rest of the trip we'd booked hotels ahead. <BR> <BR>Have a great time planning!

"Maybe there's a "Europe for Dummies" book!!" <BR> <BR>Actually there is!And I bought it. <BR> <BR>It does have sample itineraries.

Mix trains with rental cars - for long hauls (like Paris to Munich, as an example), take the train. Lots of room for the sprouts to get up and move around; *everyone* gets to see the scenery and take naps; refreshment carts, bar/snack cars, and dining car means no stopping for food - or you can bring your own food, and there's room to spread out (fun to share with others, too, like chips and cookies); if the sprouts are up for it, there are night trains (like Paris to Venice) where you rent a couchette for four and sleep while traveling long distances. <BR> <BR>Rent a car to visit small towns (like in Provence or Tuscany); parking and driving are easier there than in big cities. <BR> <BR>Hmmm....London for a week, Paris for a week, Tuscany for a week, the Veneto for a week, fly home from Venice or Milan. Rent a house or apartment i/o a hotel room and take day trips. The sprouts have a place to spread out and settle in; no uprooting every couple of days which can be very exhausting. A week in Tuscany (the countryside) gives everyone a respite from the rush of big cities; maybe rent a house with a pool? <BR> <BR>Other suggestion would be a few days in London, a few days in Belgium, a week in Paris, week in Provence, week in Barcelona, fly home from Barcelona. <BR> <BR>Don't wing reservations; with four people (including two sprouts), you don't want to wander from door to door at 9pm at night.

Our family of 4 (2 girls ages 6 and 9) are going to France for 3 weeks and we are spending just a few days in Paris at the beginning and end of trip with family. We will have one week in Antibes (daytrips the Cote d'Azur), 4 days in Provence based in a small town between Salon and Aix, 4 days in Burgundy based in Auxois. We figured the kids will need a base for at least 4 days in the same hotel/b&b with sightseeing and just lazying around the pool or biking/hiking mixed together.

I know that Eurail offers a ride/drive pass that allows you to mix train travel with car travel. Rick Steves' web site has good information about rail pass options. This might allow you to have the best of both worlds. I also might suggest adding Germany to your itinerary -- fairy tale castles, trip down the Rhine, easy to get around. Just another thought as you plan your trip.