Budget family friendly travel to Europe Summer 2010
 

For our 20th wedding ann. my husband and I want to re-trace our trip to Europe when we decided that we would marry each other. This time, we want to bring along our three daughters, 16, 9, and 7.

We plan to visit:
Heidelberg, Rotenburg, Munich Germany (my husband knows this area from 20 years ago and attended HS in Heidelberg)

Vicenza Italy (we were almost stationed there !)

Milan

Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Spain

Paris, France (this is a possiblity and not a definite)

Our 16 year old will then travel to Wales to visit a friend.

We need help with the following:
1. Cheapest flights from Indianapolis (Chicago) to Europe.
2. Accomodation ideas (Requirements)
* affordable, clean, and safe
3. Itinery ideas
4. Guesstimate of a reasonable budget ($10-$12k?)

Thank you.

What a great trip to plan...how long is your trip for and that will determine some of the answers that you can get. With the kids along, maybe adding some of the fun things, like amusement parks and outdoor fun ( pools, hiking etc0. When I took my 9 year old to Europe, he and I looked through books and he choose things he wanted to see and do so he was really excited about the places we were visiting. Museums were done quickly and we didn't spend tons of time in them...your kids may be different..

For accomodations, i think if you could do apartments it would be easier with the kids, slowtrav.com, vrbo.com and MANY other sites could be helpful with this. Also farmstays in Germany would be fun too...

Flights from Chicago from a consolidator could save you money...

A budget depends on places you want to stay, how much are you going to eat out and activities you are going to partake in...
Have a wonderful time!!

Gregeva1,
Thank you for your quick response!
We are planning 3 weeks-ish.
Our kids will enjoy site-seeing, minimal museums, will enjoy hiking or biking, cafes, castles and cathedrals.

How do we find a consolidator?

As a ballpark figure, I think $1000 per flight, and $1000 for transport within Europe would be required. So there goes your $10K just on transportation. I would expect at least $500 per day for living expenses, for a not at all deluxe experience. So for 20 days, that would be another $10K.

With planning so many long legs to your trip, you increase the cost. I would leave Spain for another might rip and focus on Germany and Italy. You can save money be renting apartments and it might be cheaper with five people to lease a car which can be cheaper than renting. I think the minimum lease time is 17 days. Check with Renault for leases, but there should be a few others.

You might also find it cheaper to look at sites like go-today.com which does flight/hotel packages, flight/car or flight/train/hotel packages. Most will be for a set number of days, but they let you extend your return flights at no extra charge. You could book a 4 day flight/hotel package to Munich and just extend your return flights and travel on your own the rest of the time. I also find flights into Switzerland (Zurich/Geneva)to be cheaper than the surrounding areas.

Airfare is the largest component and is very variable. Since you have several destinations you have more flexibility than most. You can look at Kayak for historical costs for that time period to get an idea.
You might can do less than $1,000 for ticket and fees if you are flexible with your date and destination.
I don't know about the continent, but in the UK it is not common to find family hotel rooms. Rooms are for two people max. You may be looking at three hotel rooms or a villa. Villas are the least expensive, but often have a minimum stay of three days to a week.

check out Bavaria Ben's website for good ideas on inexpensive lodging in Germany.
www.bensbauernhof.com

One complication is that even when there are cheap airfares for a flight, there quite often are not five cheap tickets on that particular flight. So I don't think you can count on getting the cheapest deal in midsummer for five people.

I've never used these sites before but people I know have used them for booking flights and hotels.
http://www.itravel2000.com/HomePage.aspx
http://www.priceline.com/
good luck :)

Covering all that territory in only 3 weeks will be not only missing out on a lot - but also VERY expensive - even on budget city to city transit.

And are you planning on 2 rooms or trying to find family rooms that will hold 5 (very rare). ACtually apartments would be a savings for you (eat in breakfast and snacks and cook some meals to save money )_ but I doubt you'll be in any place long enough to rent one.

Agree that your budget is way too small, even if you assume staying in hostels (paying for a whole room for 6 with shared bath) and eating a lot of sandwiches form supermarkets. Just intercity travel and entry to sights will take up a huge amount of your budget. (Suggest you have a look at hotel prices now - a well as the entry cost of some of the major places you want to see - I think you'll be very surprised.)

We've taken our kids on two trips to Europe. The first time the kids were 8 and 12 and we went to 3 cities (Lisbon where I lived as a child, Bedford, England where DH lived as a child, and Paris)for a total of one month. We stayed in apts and were somewhat budget minded and the costs ran about 15k

This year the kids are older (16 and 12) and we spent 3 weeks moving throughout Italy (Venice, Orvieto, Rome, Amalfi, Capri and Sorrento) and again mostly rented apts. Our budget ran right around 10k but we also were able to get two of our flights free from miles.

While I understand that you are trying to retrace your steps from the past, remember that you are now traveling with small ones who will be tired, bored and will just not want to move from town to town every other day. That in itself will be tiring so keep that in mind.

I would personally suggest just one country or only a couple of cities in different countries so you won't have to move a lot. This way you can actually get to know the city you are in and not move so much. It will also allow you to consider renting an apt. Renting an apt will help your budget in so many ways; an apt is often cheaper than staying in a hotel where you'd most likely have to get 1-3 rooms. Apts offer more space and they often have washers and sometimes dryers which will allow you to pack lighter. The big plus is the kitchen which will allow you to save a lot of money of eating out.

"I would leave Spain for another trip and focus on Germany and Italy. You can save money by renting apartments..."

Very good advice.

I would plan to visit the cities mentioned but not necessarily overnight in them; accommodations are much cheaper in nearby villages.

Look for a village central to two or more destinations. In Bavaria, for example, you want to hit Rothenburg and Munich; Pappenheim is a peaceful, attractive little place along the Altmuehl River with its own castle roughly midway between the two:

http://www.pappenheim.de/Tourismus.3...7b1e38d.0.html
(the translations are ridiculously bad, but check the photos.)

An apartment like this one runs 40 Euros/night for 4, a little more for 5. You'd have a place with an equipped kitchen to make your own breakfast and pack lunches or have a light evening meal (soup? sandwiches?) "at home" - then have a meal out somewhere:

http://www.das-kernhaus.de/Die_Ferie...rnhaus%22.html

You could take daytrips to Rothenburg and Munich by train from Pappenheim. It's around 90 minutes each way to both - a bit long, but CHEAP if you use the Bayern ticket, which is good for 5 people on the regional trains and costs only 28 Euros per day. Can't beat that.

And why not explore some other nearby places that you may have missed the first trip? Nuremberg, Weissenburg, Regensburg, and Nördlingen, a Romantic Road town, are all reachable by train from there. If you spent a week there, and traveled every day, you'd spend under 200 Euros for transportation, maybe 350 for your apartment, maybe 700 for meals out, and a few Euros on groceries. I don't think that's bad for a family of 5.

The DB website offers good discount tickets to points foreign and domestic if bought well in advance. I can buy tickets right now for certain dates in November for Munich-Vicenza at 53 Euros each, or 157 for your family of 5 (the younger kids are free.)

Hope these strategies are helpful.

I meant to give you this site for looking at apartments - especially good for Germany and Bavaria but it includes other countries.

www.accommodation.de