family tour with kids
 

we are leaving on the 13th feb for hungary. with me are my kids. we want to extend our trip to austria, italy and france. however we want to do it by train. which one to start to. btw, its a 8 day vacation only. best itinerary u can suggest.

how many kids ? How old ? where are you starting and ending ?

8 days in Austria, Italy, France, and Hungary via train is really overstretching.

You will all be much happier choosing one place and get to know it in depth - traveling with kids requires more downtime...

please share more details -

we will arive in budapest. we have 3 kids aging 4 and 5 yr old. jst wanted to maximize our trip. how about if we rent a minivan, do you think its practical?

THREE children under five and all that travelling. S and M. . You will be exhausted and the kids will be cranky.
Choose one other place, and take the train.

Are you flying in from North America?? You will have jet lag for first day or two, doing the death drive when tired and marshalling three kids.. I am sorry, I really do not get it one little bit.

I should say, I HAVE three kids, older then yours, and I would never do more then one or posssibly two big cities in 8 days.

Kids( even as young as yours) enjoy travel, but they hate being harried and rushed. Doesn't seem like there will be much time for an afernoon in a park.

I'm inclined to think this is a post from someone kidding around.

Feb 13 is next Wednesday. Sane people do not take small children overseas without reservations anywhere, especially on a first trip as this is portrayed.

And yes, I'll fall for your screen name: What is your name??

we are definitely leaving on the 13feb ticket confirmed. Arrive early on the 14th. I read that can ride jetfoil from hungary to vienna that is 3 hrs travel.
not sure of the travel time in train from vienna to rome. then rome to paris. anyways thank you for the replies.

Could it be that askminame is really "Ask my name" -- an old fodorite trolling around w/ a new screen name? (first post alert)

I also believe this is a troll but in case some real posters are curious about the hydrofoil between Budapest and Vienna, it only starts running in April.

Yeah, Janisj, that is what I was getting at.

In 8 days and traveling with 2 small kids you can do 1 or at most 2 cities. Otherwise you will be spending all of your time sitting on trains.

Assuming you already have plane tickets to and from Budapest I would stay there and do day trips.

If you have other flight plans you could try to being that city into it.

If you MUST go in and out of Budapest and MUST do another city - you could spend a couple of days in Vienna (fairly close by train). Anything more is close to madness.