mocha_dolce

Unless it's a presidential suite or the like, I suspect 4 to a room would take away the "luxury" feel a bit. When our children were the age of yours, we booked two bedroom apartments in Europe, or occasionally the "family rooms" mentioned previously, but with those it's hard to coordinate bedtimes and such. When they were a bit older (say 15 & 18 in our case), we booked adjacent rooms on the same floor in smaller hotels. (The hotels were always quite nice with a lot of local flavor, but we couldn't afford $2000-3000 a night.)

I'm sure your kids are excited about this adventure. How wonderful to have 5 weeks holiday as a family! I might have offered them the opportunity to plan some day trips out of Madrid (possibly to other places in Spain) rather than some trips to other countries, but you have to judge how important it is to stick to the original plan. Day trips wouldn't require you pay for lodging in two different places since you have the condo for the whole 4 weeks.

Dogeared

I take it you are ignoring the 'hot' comments. I would do the same. Hot is a relative term and there is nowhere you are considering going that is hotter than some parts of the USA in summer.

Your initial 5 countries in 5 weeks was misleading. Fair enough, you have now clarified. Those questioning your actual time you will be in a place are correct. You cannot spend 4 days in a place without spending 5 nights in that place. Count travel days separately from day spent in a place.

So the question then becomes, are you going to have enough time in the places you plan to side trip to? Most people would agree that less than 3 full days in a place really doesn't make a lot of sense for major cities like Paris. Many would agree that even 3 days is not enough time for somewhere like Paris.

Then you have to add that you are going to spend a day going to and returning from these side trips. Those are basically lost days. Doing that from a base in Spain several times, really will be a waste of quite a few days.

I'd say the reason you are feeling it is overwhelming, is because your plan has changed due to circumstances and you are trying to adapt your plan rather than stopping and making an entirely new plan. My advice is to tear up your modified plan and start over.

You say the Munich flights are already booked. Are they not cancellable? How much would it cost you to cancel?

I would plan a trip with zero backtracking to anywhere. I would do no sidetrips from Spain at all.

StCirq

IF you end up visiting Marrakech, I would highly recommend La Maison Arabe for your luxury accommodations. They have a wonderful cooking school.

janisj

Your title is pretty misleading . . . You don't have 5 weeks for 5 countries. You have essentially 1 week for four countries and 4 weeks in Madrid.

dwdvagamundo

Agree with dogeared. Spend all your time in Spain, with trip to Morocco. Look at spending some time in Seville and other southern cities, and Toledo, Avila, Segovia nearer Madrid.

This is a much more realistic itinerary than trying to fly all over Europe in one trip.

suze

I would do the month (already committed to) in Madrid and one week in Paris and call it good.

PalenQ

Seeing mainly touristed cities and airports and tarmacs but little of the Europe in between- you may have picked those cities for a good reason but if not try to do at least a few closer together and take Europe's fantastic trains and see a bit of Europe too.

Or at least take trains on day trips from bases - like in Munich or from London.

Mad Ludwig's fantasy Neuschwanstein Castle at Fussen is just a few hours by train from Munich. Or take a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and take the thrilling mountain train up the Zugspitze.

Or a short train ride to Dachau to see the horrors of a concentration camp.

Don't stay in big cities all the time.