Family Vacation
 

Would love to take our family of 5 to Europe summer of 2006. Kids will be 16,14,12. We are thinking about a 2 week trip visiting Rome, Venice, Luzern, Paris, and either Vienna or Prague. Any help on hotels that would accomodate us or any ideas on rail passes, number of nights at each stop,or any other valuable advice that might help us to plan would be greatly appreciated.

I like several days in each city minimum, and remember to allow for travel time between places. So in two weeks maybe just the first 4 cities you mention (skip Vienna and Prague)?

You can not evaluate rail pass vs. point-to-point until you decide on your itinerary. And with 5 people possibly a car rental would be an option to consider?

I'm guessing a double plus a triple hotel room is what you'll want? You could look into apartments, but they often have a longer minimum stay than a night or two.

The most logical and efficient thing to do would be open-jaws into Rome, then Venice, Vienna/Prague, Luzern, and fly home from Paris. Or you could do it in reverse order.
If it were me, I would leave out Vienna/Prague, add Florence, and get SelectRailPass covering the 3 adjacent/contiguous countries of Italy, Switzerland and France. You could use one of the railpass days to take one of the many scenic train rides in Switzerland such as the Panoramic Express, Bernina Express or Golden Pass, all easily done from centrally-located Luzern.
Number of nights could be:
Rome 3
Florence 2
Venice 2
Luzern 3
Paris 4 (includes daytrips to Versailles, Reims, Chartres, etc)

Happy travels!

We like the idea of dropping Vienna/Prague and doing just 3 countries.

I'm glad you liked my suggestion. Add platzman's idea of 'open jaw' ticket (into Rome and out of Paris with the revised itinerary) and you've got a trip!!

As suze alluded to, since you have five people travelling, a car rental would probably be cheaper overall than 5 railpasses. However, I personally love hopping on a train, not worrying about gasoline, tolls, traffic flows and laws. Enjoy the scenery, have lunch in the train compartment and let someone else do the work of driving!

Oh, I think using the trains is better even if it turns out to be a bit more expensive than a car rental. It's "more European", gives everyone the freedom to get up and walk around, get some space from each other, watch the scenery, read, whatever during the trip. No stress of someone having to drive, figure out directions, purchase gas, etc. etc.

A family of five packed into a car reminds me too much of summer vacation at home!

If traveling with kids vital you get their input too, had you thought perhaps about places like the greek islands, this is great for adults and teens, you can hop by air or take the ferry boats inter-island, you get history and culture but you also get some beach fun time too. Our kids are younger but when we went to Coratia and Greece ( sorry rest of Europe out of our league pricewise ) they loved the Greek islands, depends what their interest are but at those ages I would do the old trick of asking everything to suggest vacation 'things to do', visiting historical sites, culture, music/theatre, restaurants, shopping, add in scenary, mountains and throw in beach as well, add travel options by air, train, road, or boat, get everytone to list from 10 down to 1 their favorites/priorities and then add the voting up, this works 2 ways, if everyone is basicaly looking for the same things to do you won't have any problems as you have all shared in the decision, and if it turns out that there are some split decisions then you can arrange compromises first. Kids when they are young aren't too bad but teens will have their own ideas of a vacation, hey, you know this!! I would try and add some beach time somewhere.

Neither car rental nor rail pass purchase make sense for this itinerary, as I see it.

Fly into Paris - - the most "welcoming" of the four major detinations, in my opinion. Fly onward - - see www.whichbudget.com for Easyjet, I think - - for Paris Orly to Rome Ciampino. Buy ordinary point-to-point tickets (and get a family discount) for Rome-Venice. Likewise, ordinary point-to-point tickets for Venice-Lucerne (not sure about a discount going into Switzerland). Fly home from Zurich.

Best wishes,

Rex

We're doing 2 weeks with teens ages 15 and 18 this June. We decided to stay in just 2 places - a week in Paris and a week in Rome. We'll do day trips from there as desired. We rented apartments because hotel rooms were just too expensive. We booked a few very expensive tours - a Segway tour in Paris and 2 walking tours in Rome.

I know my kids, they like to settle in, and I know they won't be happy getting dragged around too much (me neither). We are flying Ryan Air from Paris to Rome - quicker, cheaper than train. You are going to have a great time. Good to plan ahead.

Congratulations on planning a family trip! How exciting for your family.

Well, it wouldn't be a discussion forum without differing opinion, now would it? We took a family trip to Europe two summers ago and decided on renting a car which we picked up as we left Rome and dropped off in Paris after visiting Tuscany and Switzerland en route. We felt the car gave us flexibility to visit out of the way places and we liked not having to haul the suitcases in and out of trains.

You don't say if this is your first trip to Europe or not. We had driven in Europe before although it had been more than 15 years since we had been there. If this had been our first trip, and if we had planned to only visit major cities, I think train or plane trips between locations would have made more sense.

With only two weeks, I think it is wise to limit yourself as already suggested. Rick Steves has lots of information about rail passes on his website and you might want to check a few travel books out of your local library as well.

One slight problem might be finding hotel rooms which accomodate 5 people, but perhaps you plan on more than one room. I'm sure some rooms for 5 can be found, but they'll take a bit more research. I know some travellers here have rented short stay apartments with good results.

Happy planning!

Apartments may work well for a family your size. Few hotels have rooms for 4, so you may have to book 2 rooms (a double and triple). I don't know what your budget is, but in Rom I know the Santa CHiara hotel does have a apartment type suite that can accommodate 5. We had a quad suite there, but down the hall from us was a family of 5 staying in a larger apartment-style suite. This is a nice hotel in a great location. In Venice we stayed in a quad at Hotel FLora, but I think this was the only quad room they have, and I don't believe they have a larger one. You should research hotels in general, then email the ones that interest you and ask them what kind of setup they have a family of 5. Most hotels will come up with an option (most likely of 2 rooms).

<<Number of nights could be:
Rome 3
Florence 2
Venice 2
Luzern 3
Paris 4 (includes daytrips to Versailles, Reims, Chartres, etc)>>

If you have only 4 days in Paris, I would definitely not recommend scheduling 3 daytrips. Pick one at most, or just stay in Paris.

Thank you all for the good advice! My kids actually picked 3 out of the 4 cities! Rome because of the history and they want to see the Vatican, Paris because they want to see the Eiffel tower and have heard so much about it on the news, and Venice because they wanted to ride down the waterways in "one of those boats". I picked Luzern. I have traveled to Rome and Paris and Luzern once before with a sports group. Venice will be new to me! My kids are use to traveling in the states and have been to Mexico and the Bahamas. This will be their 1st time to Europe. I think the train is a must (kids request). Just don't know if we will take it the whole time or just a couple of point to points. My big concern is finding housing for 5. This is a problem every where we go! I wish I had enough money to open a chain of hotels for families of 5 or 6.

I didn't intend to imply that all three daytrips from Paris should be taken. I'd probably pick Versailles first, since its so close. Then I'd hop on the train and go a little further afield to Chartres for the rest of the day before returning to Paris.

The beach time idea went over big. Pesaro Italy might be a nice stop over between Rome and Venice.

I'm curious, why Pesaro? Its not on a rail line and haven't heard of it as a tourist destination before.
Why not Rimini (its on the rail line), or the Lido - the most convenient of all.

Is it because you want all 5 people in 1 hotel room that is the difficulty finding a place?

Aren't there many hotels that offer connecting double rooms that you could add 1 cot?

One room? with one bathroom? Not my idea of a "vacation" - - with kids that age!

Triples are not so hard to come by. Rediscover your spouse on this trip.

Use the "ne derangez pas, s.v.p." sign!

Best wishes,

Rex

Quad rooms are not uncommon, but I don't recall ever seeing a room set up for five. I would just spring for two rooms in a small budget hotel or pensione, at least for the type intinerary you have planned. I have travelled with small children and survived by staying a week or two in an apartment and taken daytrips.
This is easy to do from cities like Paris, Munich, Luzern, and Rome. There are many daytrip possibilities.