August - London/France and Swiss Alps?
 

I've been working on a new itinerary and would appreciate help. I'm working on a new plan for our August trip.
We are a family with kids ages 11-18 traveling last week of July into August. We have 18 days on the ground.
We will fly into London and out of Paris from the West Coast US. Here is my basic framework at this point.
I know this is very rough. Please help :)

Fly into London arrive around noon
Days 1-3- London
Day 4--6 Chunnel to Paris; Paris
Day 7: Train - Visit Versaille, rent car travel towards MSM
Day 8: Visit MSM
Day 9-10: Normandy
Day 11: Travel to Swiss Alps (train?)
Day 12-14 Swiss Alps - Lauterbrunnen?
Day 15: Travel to Castellane, France
Day 16,17: Verdon Gorge and surrounds
Day 18: Travel Back to Paris
Day 19: fly home

I'm just beginning and know there is a lot let to figure out. I'm not sure how to best travel between our destinations. We are not opposed to renting a car.
We are a large group and train tickets could add up quickly. Does this seem doable or is adding the Swiss Alps too difficult?
We would like to mix cities with beautiful nature and a bit of adventure.
Thank you!

Trains will get you to those places just fine and as you are basically going to cities except Swiss Alps where cars are banned anyway except from a few base town. Fly from Rennes or Cherbourg, etc to Switzerland and return to Paris by train. for lots on trans check www.ban.de/en - great for schedules of all European trains - www.seat61.com; www.budeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Ever been to London or Paris before - if not add days to each.

That plan might work for you, but I must admit that I would find it painfully rushed, and I travel solo! Moving that often with a lot of people can involve some challenges. For my tastes, you are spending much too much time getting from place to place and far too little time actually seeing or experiencing any of these wonderful destinations.

Good luck!

A comfortable trip for me would involve half that number of places.

May be you tell us what you mean with "MSM" and where you plan to go in Normandy.

Mont St Michel I suppose.
There is so much to see and do in Normandy and Brittany, I would spend more time there and drop the Swiss Alps.

I agree with flying London to Zurich, train to Lauterbrunnen (and take the funiculars to go higher to Murren or Wengen and base yourself there; the children will love it); then train to France. (skip Vernon, Castellane).

Thank you for your recommendations - we will be eliminating the Verdon Gorge portion of the trip. We have added one more day to the itinerary and are flying in and out of London.

The tentative plan - We will fly from London to Zurich. Train from Interlaken to Paris. Visit Normandy and then chunnel back to London.
We have 19 full days on the ground.
How many nights/days should I plan for Murren or Wengen?
Are there any stops we should make on our way from Interlaken to Paris?
Are there any family beaches you recommend in Normandy? Will it be too cold and Windy in August?

Thank you for your help.

It depends, but in general, I would say that 3 days (so 4 nights) would be a reasonable starting point for your research. And FWIW, I strongly prefer Wengen to Mürren.

Depends on your interests! There's a LOT in between those two.

You can get good climate data at weatherbase.com

If your destination is Interlaken etc., you may also fly into BSL or GVA.
I suppose you will buy a kind of Swiss Travel Pass. https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/...om-abroad.html
The cheapest train fares from the Swiss border to Paris don't allow any stopover.

Otherwise, check the following seeworthy places, according to your itinerary:
viaBasel - Strasbourg: Colmar, Strasbourg
via Basel - Belfort: Dijon
via Vallorbe: Lake Geneva, Dijon
via Geneva: Lake Geneva, Macon

BTW: you could also visit Switzerland. Interlaken/Wengen/Muerren/Grindelwald is only a tiny (and by far not the most representative) bit of this country.

off topic bickering posts deleted