sallymomo

Hello All,
I am new here and needed some help. My husband and I were planning to do a Tour of Europe in the summer of 2015 for about 2 weeks. The places we wanted to go are London, Greece, Paris and Rome. Would you guys recommend doing a tour with a company that includes stay and meals? Or do it on our own? Which tour company would you recommend? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

jamikins

How old are your children?

nytraveler

Age of kids is vital since many tous do not allow small children - for obvious reasons (sitting on a bus all day will be tedious for them and hell for many of the other group members)

Also, the list of places you have picked does not lend itself to one of the usual trips.

As for which tour company is best - it depends on:

Which one has an itinerary close to what you want
Which has a budget you can live with (if you are lucky you get what you pay for - often less)
Almost all involve long days sitting on a bus along with very early starts (often not realistic with kids) and short stops to briefly see a sight - or go "shopping" so guide and driver get commissions

You really need to provide more info about kids, what you want to see/do and what kind of budget you are looking at.

janisj

You have two weeks, you want to see one 'country' and 4 very major cities, you have kids . . .

Yes, how old at the children? Many (most) tours are inappropriate for young kids and many (most) would be a hellish experience for teenagers.

Two weeks could give you a 'taste/ of London-Paris-Rome . . . but that would be about max.

sallymomo

My kids are 12 and 8. Budget wise, I think 2K per person is reasonable for us.

bvlenci

2K what? Yen? US dollars? Canadian dollars? Euros?

Also what will the 2K cover? Door to door, or just travel within Europe, hotels, meals, and entrance fees? If it's door to door, where is your door located?

nytraveler

You don;t say where you are coming from - but I assume that airfare is additional to the $2K you mention. If not - let us know where you are coming from - since airfare will probably take more than half your budget.

Many tours will not take kids as young as 8 - and I think a 12 year old would be bored stiff. Strongly suggest you limit your locations and fit in a bunch of activities the kids will like - which you will not find on most tours.

janisj

Tours won't work for your family . . . ESPECIALLY the 'if it is Tuesday, this must be Belgium' fast paced tours to cover the territory you want.

Yes - you can do 2 weeks for $8000 (if you mean US$) for the 4 of you. Airfares might push you over that -- but since your don't tell us where you are traveling from that is really guard to say.

The easiest way to travel w/ a family . . and really save $$/££/€€ . . is to cut down on the number of stops and rent flats instead of hotels. Say for instance London/Paris for a week each in apartments. Or Paris/Rome. Something like that. The more moving about the more expensive thing are and the less time you have to see/do.

For a family w/ kids the ages of yours -- London+Paris would be a dream trip.

Hint. The more info you can provide us - the easier it is for us to provide useful advice. Right now we are all sort of shooting in the dark.

janisj

should be >>that is really hard to say.<<

FrenchMystiqueTours

If two weeks includes your arrival and departure days then you really have 12 full days. If this is correct then cut Greece out of your plans and you'll have enough with Rome, Paris and London and fly into London and out of Rome, or vice versa. Even then that gives you four days in each place, not counting travel time between them. You'll lose half a day traveling from Paris to London (check out, get to train station, train travel, get to new hotel, check in) and more than that going from Paris to Rome. Personally I would stick with one country (moving around within that country if need be to keep travel time/logistics to a minimum) or do Paris and London and from each of those places there are loads of day trips you can do.

Sassafrass

Big cities are fun, and although each has unique architecture, a variety of food, and great museums, they do not provide the cultural variety that visiting a small town does. So, you might consider cutting your list to two or three cities and do some day trips, or including a couple of rural areas.

Consider transportation costs and travel times. You probably want to see more and not waste too much time getting places.

Two weeks is a short time and Greece is really the outlier.

London and Paris in apartments would be prefect, but for a rushed trip, you could do
London - 4 nts (3 days)
Transfer to Paris
Paris - 5 nts (4 days)
Fly to Venice or Florence
Venice or Florence - 3 nts (2 days)
Train to Rome - 4 nts (3days)

If you have less time than that,
Fly from Paris to Rome.
Do day trips (perhaps to Florence) from Rome.

Knowing these things can people give better advice.
Exact number of days and nights you have.
Departure city.
Even exact dates, if possible.
Interests, such as history, culture, food, architecture, museums, etc.

griz_fan

Hi - father of four here my wife and I took all 4 kids on a 19 day European trip this summer. Our kids range in age from 12 to 19.
As others have mentioned, if you have 2 weeks, two stops is the max, any more and you're just inviting trouble.
Back in 2010, I did a 2 week trip with my oldest (15 at the time) and we went to London and Paris. I second JanisJ's suggestion; that would be an ideal trip, especially if this is the first time out of the US for you and your family.

Regarding your budget, $2,000/person can be done, but you may need to allow a bit more per person. So much depends on your starting location and the exact time of year you travel. Airfare will be the biggest variable. Based on my limited experience, it does seem like fares are a bit lower early in the summer, so if late-May or early-June is an option, that could really help with the budget.

For places to stay, holiday apartment rentals are a great option because they often include laundry facilities and you can cook a few meals of your own, saving on dining out. Try to get as central as possible, though. Some may be tempted to save money by staying in a more remote location, but the time lost in transit each day can be a real hassle.

Start your planning with a spreadsheet to estimate costs and to model out your trip. You will need to track costs for flight there and back, local transportation (such as a Tube pass), transportation from one city to the next, accommodations (hotel or apartment rental, food, admissions and souvenirs.

So... cut back to only 2 cities for your 2 weeks, skip the tour, apartment rental over hotel, and create a spreadsheet to start your planning and budgeting.

The process may sound a bit intimidating at first, but its not that bad and you can wind up with a plan that is completely customized you your family's needs rather than a tour where you're forced to follow the group.

sallymomo

Sorry guys. I am new to this so I didn't include much info. So kids are 8 and 12. We would be flying from Chicago. Would prefer to fly to anywhere (of those 4 places) that would give us a good airfare rate. If we do it on our own, we would stay 2-3 days in each city. View some of the major tourist attractions and prefer to take the train into the next city. We could cut Greece out if it makes sense to stick just to the other 3 places.

Pintxos

I highly recommend slow travel with children. I have traveled to Europe with a small child, since he was 3 years old. But the trips were we had to pack and move every two days were the most stressful. Remember, it takes time to adjust to a new city, country, language. If it is your very first trip abroad, i would recommend sticking to two places: London and Paris seem like great candidates.

Pintxos

You cannot see the major tourist attractions in London and Paris in 2-3 days. It is not America. There are just too many sights and you will need time to eat, relax, sleep, go to the bathroom. You will have vertigo if you try to do too much and the kids will not be happy.

colduphere

I suggest thanking everyone profusely and then forgetting you started this thread. They'll have you down to one place for 14 nights (13 days) if you stick around.

flpab

Colduphere is so right. Just for fun we did five countries in one day, lived and remember everything I did and ate that day. It was with a great group of people, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Do whatever makes you and your family happy.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Nobody can throw a hand grenade into a room and run away faster than colduphere.

Sue_xx_yy

Greetings

If you want to do a tour, Globus offers a 9 night London, Paris, and Rome for $2500 pp double occupancy, without air, and some meals aren't included. One takes a high speed train London to Paris, and then flies to Rome.

So with a budget of $2000 pp and a desired length of 14 nights (don't forget to add the overnight for the flight over) I think you may want to consider self-organizing this trip. It will be cheaper, but I don't advise trying to match the pace of commercial bus tours.

I think Greece might be a bit of a stretch on top of the other stuff in 2 weeks. Perhaps even Rome is too much, let me give my reasoning. I think especially with the 8 year old, you need to get out into the countryside of either Paris or London or both. I'm trying to think of things like bike rides, a hike in the woods, maybe take the train up to York in England (2 hours from London) a smaller city, maybe even Disneyland Paris just for a break from the culture stuff. What do you think?

Tabernash2

sally, I agree with those who say two (or three places, max) are best when you're traveling with kids.

The good thing is that you can probably get just one hotel room-- a "quad" room-- rather than having to pay for two rooms which you will need, when your kids are bigger.

Check airfares first. Then plan around that.

If I were you, I think I'd go to London and Paris. With day-trips from each city, you'd have plenty to do. The kids would love those two cities.

I liked Rome a lot, but it is more hustle/bustle than the other two.

In Paris, our family had a reasonably priced and nice room for four, at the Hotel de la Bourdonnaise. We had little balconies with full on views of the Eiffel Tower. There's a market next door, and Rue Cler a block or two away. Also an ATM on the corner.

Across the street is the Champs de Mars, so your kids could run and play. Easily walkable to the Eiffel Tower.

Use the Batobus hop-on-hop-off boat on the Seine. It's cheap and gives you break time to sit and watch Paris float by. Especially gorgeous after dark. (It only runs until about 10 p.m., or earlier, depending on the season.)

Have fun planning your trip. You don't need a tour, since you have plenty of time to plan your own itinerary.