NEDSIRELAND

I would be concerned too with Euros at $1.60 USD; you're probably going to break that $10K estimate for two weeks in Andalucia, especially in peak Tourist season (i.e., 16 Jul to 15 Sep).

As for leaving kids with GrandMa, that's pretty selfish. We always took our daughter with us and she now has children of her own who she took to Spain last fall.

Food in Spain is generally more expensive than in the U.S., but there are HyperMarkets like Pryca (used to be Carrefour) in larger Cities.

I'm hoping that after the Election the Dollat will 'firm up' against the Euro & things will improve for US visitors to Spain. So we are waiting for things to get better

I can't remember the Hotel's name but one year, in Malaga, we got a Suite with a Terrace overlooking the Hotel Pool and the 'Med,' for the three of us.

Mimar

Have you looked into exchanging homes? You'd not travel around Spain as much but you'd live like the natives and maybe learn more. Plus it's easier to find a house for 5 people than 2 or 3 hotel rooms or even an apartment.

Marija

Note OP says "my twin girls" and "our son." Perhaps that's the explanation for the husband's behavior?!

Sally30

Have you considered shorten the trip to a week or 10 days to save money. Two weeks can be a long time for adults to travel, I can only imagine that it feels even longer for kids. That said, I am not a Spain expert but from what I've seen (Seville), I think your kids would love it. It feels very exotic but is easy to travel in, many people speak english, "normal" food if your kids are picky.

Check the Air Iberia website for inexpensive flights. We got a very good deal with Air Iberia last year in September.

checkerspot

Hi.

Please, please take the girls. My wife and I always travel with both our kids. IMO kids are never too young to travel. Whether they forget or not, looking at the pictures a few years later and seeing their smiles and amazement is priceless. My daughter was 1 and my son was 3 when we first brought them to Europe (Paris, Lourdes, Luxembourg, Brussels, Koln). My kids look at them regularly...and you know what, my son could remember bits and pieces of Paris. They have since been back across the pond 2 other times (they are now 9 and 11)...the 4th trip is scheduled later this year...

budget? stay away from eating in restaurants or sitting outside...and yes...McDonald's every now and then. $60 per meal for the 4 of us in Rome last March. Nothing fancy or healthy but necessary for putting the budget on track...

good luck...

nytraveler

Just notice the "our" son and "my" girls mentioned by another poster. Unless the girls are not the daughters of your husband that is VERY odd terminology. Does he have a bad relationship with them overall? This trip might help fix that.

I really can;t imagine how any parent could come up with such a stupid idea as he suggested.

kenderina

Nedsireland, it's just the opposite ,Carrefour used to be Pryca some years ago

greg

Momplaygroup,

I comment from a different frame - memory.

When my children were about your children's age or younger, we have taken some long trips but not many. Our thinking was that they might appreciate trips more when they were in their teens.

It did not turn out that way.

The fond memories are the few big trips we have managed to take.

Once they reached 12, neither cared to travel with us anymore: too many other fun things to do.

I wished we have reconsidered our finance to have taken more trips with them before they turned 12.

No amount of money now can recreate opportunities we missed.

ComfyShoes

Greg has the right advice, momplaygroup. Spain is a wonderful country specially with kids. Well, unless they are the unruly kind! We have never taken a long vacation without our kids and now at 7/10, it is a real privilege/pleasure to see them experience slightly different cultures. Regarding the money and stay etc, many ways to go about it including making it a bit shorter, staying in apartments, watching where you eat etc etc.

MomDDTravel

good point Greg.

momplaygroup

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions about saving $ in Spain! I liked the suggestion to rent two apartments in two cities and do day trips from them. Great suggestion! We've decided to save a bit more and do this trip next summer *unfortunately can't go in low season since kids are in public school.

Just fyi, my husband isn't mean or favors boys. He loves his twin girls just like he loves our son. My girls love their grandma and get along very well with her. My son is a bit less obedient to his grandma. My son is actually 22 months older than my girls (my girls will turn nine in May and my son will turn eleven in August). He is very smart and reads a lot about geography, history and cultures. That's the only reason why my husband suggested we take him. He already asked them individually if they would be fine with it and they were/are. However, as a mom, I just would feel guilty about doing that.

So, we're going somewhere else in the US and leaving Spain for next year. Thanks everyone for your great suggestions on how to make it less expensive!

NEDSIRELAND

momplaygroup writes: "So, we're going somewhere else in the US and leaving Spain for next year. Thanks everyone for your great suggestions on how to make it less expensive!"

Your kids are at the right age to really enjoy Disney World & Epcot Center, with its little patches of Europe.
Mexico might also be a good coming attraction for Spain: not 'border' Mexico like Tijuana or Matamoros, or even Mexico, D.F., but places like Guadalajara, Jalisco where you can attend a folkloric extravaganza any Sunday at Teatro Degollado. The architecture in the old section of Guadalajara is identical to that of Alcalá de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid.

Now, let's all hope that the Dollar regains some strength against the Euro!

isabel

I see you've already decided to wait till next year. The costs could be less, but they could also be more. I think it mostly depends on your family's financial situation. If that amount of money is a real issue for you I'd think twice about taking any kids that age. The youngest of my children to go to Europe was when my now 18 year old was 12. My kids are now 18, 23 and 25 so I have a bit of a different perspective. I love Europe, my 23 year old, who went for the first time when she was 16, is so in love with it that she did two study abroad years in college and is now planning on moving there for at least a year in another year (when she's saved a bit). So I think European travel is wonderful. But unless money is no object I wouldn't take kids under 14 or 15 or so. Not that they wouldn't enjoy it, but will they enjoy it enough? It's a cost value thing. If I'd had tons of money I would have taken all of them many times but I don't regret not taking them. By the time they are teens they have definite interests and you can tell if a certain place or type of experience is worth the money.

After the trip with my 12 year old we didn't take her again. She just wasn't that into it, she's heavily into horses and preferred to have any discretionary money spent on having a horse and lessons. The middle girl as I said is so in love with Europe and with travel that she gladly went to the state university so she could afford two studies abroad. She saved her pennies so she and I could do several additional trips. Neither she nor I are happy if we don't have a trip planned. But the oldest, my son, could take it or leave it. He's been once, and now has plenty of income and is thinking he might go again in a few years - so no deep desire. My husband goes about every other year, he enjoys it, but some years would rather spend his "share" of the extra money on other things. I don't even buy coffee out that often because I want every penny available for more and longner trips. Everyone's different.

I just don't think that at 9 or 10 or even 12 that they or you know if it will be extremely valuable or if it will just be a vacation. We did one or two nice family vacations a year closer to home (and airfare was cheap 5-10 years ago compared to now). I don't regret those vacations, but I'm glad they didn't deplete our savings or take two or more years to save for, as it appears your trip will take. And by the way, I'm a budget traveler and the trip with the four of us, in 2002 when the euro was only .85 (half what it is now practically) it cost us over $8000 (for three weeks) so I think the 10K is going to pretty tough with five people in this economical climate.

How much European travel have you done? If not much I'd suggest you go alone (with or without hubby, I love mine, but I love leaving him home sometimes too) and get used to European travel, learn the techniques to save money, the best places to go, etc. Then maybe take one or two kids each in a few years.

Viajero2

maomplaygroup-- I have read your latest post and, I am sorry, but there still no good reason to leave your daughters behind.

There are hints all over your post as to where the discipline problem you are having with your son might be coming from...

Calmasaurus

This may not be what you want to hear, but I would suggest to leave all three of the kids with grandma. Obviously it will save you money and allow you more flexibility. Take them when they are 15/16 when they can appreciate it more. Besides, being with grandma could be fun.

girlonthego

We are taking our kids for the first time and they will be 14 and 15 1/2 when we go this summer. I am still wondering if my 14 year old will have the stamina to tour. (I will still wonder that when she is 25!). The 15 year old was ready to travel when she was born .
So, I agree that if they were a couple of years older, you could do and see so much more.

tower

Mom, dear:

Let an old man chime in here. Leave the kids home.

Back in the 50's and 60's when our three "kids" were young, it was rare for most families to take their young children on overseas journeys. We didn't. Instead, we happily took them to many major and minor spots in the US, Canada and Mexico (where we had a time-share).

For one of our more adventurous and memorable "locals" trips, 1967, we rented a GMC camper (from my son's sixth grade teacher, no less) and took six weeks in August/Septemeber(kids missed the first three weeks of school, and each kept a journal and wrote detailed reports for their teachers and class mates, accompanied by hundreds of pix of places not many of the other kids had ever been)...I gave mini-lectures on the local history each night.

We started from L.A., drove through Nev, UT, Colorado and the South , took in three days in DC, spent a few days with their grandparents in Massachusetts, on to Montreal EXPO, Niagara Falls, the upper midwest, several National Parks, and usually stayed in the KOA's..kids had specific daily chores.

Meantime wife and I traveled regularly overseas, and they always stayed behind at friend's houses (we, of course, returned the favors) or later with their set of local grandparents who had come out here to live.

To say that all this worked out exceptionally well for wife, me, AND the kids, would be true in every sense.

When each of the three were in either their junior year in college, or the summer they graduated, they took their own part-time work savings which we heavily subsidized accordingly and off they went to Europe on their own (or with friends) to anywhere they chose, staying in hostels, backpacking it, etc. Talk about great memories!

I vowed to do the same thing with THEIR children and thus far, I have sent two of the five grandchildren to Europe (additionally one also had spent her Junior year in High School in Argentina on an exchange)...even though each also had the experience of a European visit with their own parents while in early teenhood. One more is going this summer, and the two younger ones eagerly wait their turn, mesmerized by the storytelling of the two oldest(one of whom is engaged to be married this year).

Leave the kids home, mom....you and your DH need a break (yeah, it's very romantic!), and so do the kids!...and perhaps plan to do what we did...send your kids when they graduate college, and then the grandchildren. All of our gang still talk often about those many aforementioned adventures. The pleasureable rewards are stratospheric!

Stu T.

travelgourmet

I think there may be some confusion. I read your original post to mean that $10k is more than you wanted to spend, rather than $10k is what you were planning on spending.

To that end, I'm not sure many of the (good) money-saving suggestions are going to really help you that much. They might enable you to do the trip for something in the $10k-range, but I don't think you will be able to save real money off of that number, particularly when you are looking at $4000 to $6000 in airfare, alone. Quite frankly, $10k is already a pretty tight budget, and doesn't leave you that much room to cut.

If you are concerned about spending that kind of money, then I think it tells you everything you need to know, don't you? I would wait until next year, or until you are more comfortable with the cost.

suec1

Wow what a range of opinions on traveling with / without children! Obviously some people's buttons are easily pushed too and family disfunction so easily detected! IMO being a good parent may mean catering to differences in your children, not making everything the same for all of them. I have taken about six trips to Europe with one of my daughters and only two with the other - she has different preferences and interests. And then there is DH who really wants to just stay here and play golf - if my neighbors have opinions like some of the people on this board, my family must give them alot to talk about! Happy travels all, whoever you make your trips with!

nytraveler

I don;t think anyone suggested that the two daughters didn;t want to go to Spain - just that the father was happy to leave them behind to save some money.

And the "our" son and "my" daughters was also a dead giveaway - IMHO.

Perhaps the man meant nothing by it - and just spoke when his brain wasn't in gear - but to me it looks like favoritism based on gender - and think what that will do to those little girls for the rest of their lives.