Fun, Family Places to stay in Italy
 

My wife and I were in Italy in 2000 and enjoyed ourselves so much, we are going back with our kids (13,11) and another couple ( kids 12, 11) in May 2004 for 17 days.

We are going to Rome for 3 days, Tuscany-Siena for 3 days, Florence for 3 days, Venice for 3 days, Salzburg-Austria for 2 days and Munich for 2 days.

I am looking to stay in "family-fun" oriented hotels. Something with a taste of Italy. We would require rooms that can accommodate 4 people each or 2 connecting rooms. I want it to be nice, but not overdone.

Parents, friends, please help me with your best suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your reccommendations.

Hi bsteele,

I suggest you read some of the previous posts on traveling with kids. I have the feeling that you are doing too much and that the kids will suffer overload.

May I suggest that you base yourself in Florence for 6 days and daytrip from there?

Also wondering, why Austria and Germany on a trip to Ialy?

Since you will have kids with you, have you thought about staying in an apartment, rather than a hotel? Sometimes they are more affordable for many reasons, and you would have more room to spread out with your family.

If you are intersted, we recently used the following for rentals and were very pleased.

Florence: sleepinginflorence.com
Venice: venicerentals.com

Good luck with your plans!

We were in Italy with kids (10 & 12) in March '01. We stayed in quad/family rooms in:
Rome - Santa Chiara 3* - this was a 2 room suite. Our bedroom was facing a busy street. With the window opened (we hit a hot-spell and the bldg a/c wasn't on yet) the noise was troublesome. The breakfast buffet here was the best of the 3.
Florence - Hotel Casci 2* - the decor isn't as charming as some but the family that run it are delightful. We had one large room, very quiet.
Venice - Hotel FLora 3* - this was the most charming of all. Also 1 large room, but 1 1/2 baths. There also is a lovely garden here where we enjoyed taking an afternoon break.

Each of these hotels were very pleasant, clean and well-located.

My kids loved Italy (so did I). It's a very kid-friendly country.

In Venice we stayed at the Pensione Accademia www.pensioneaccademia.it

It's a very popular place so book early. They have 2 family rooms. Also some of their larger bedrooms can accommodate 2 roll aways if they have them.

We really liked the location, away from the hustle and bustle of San Marco but close enough to walk it.

I am working on a very similar trip and have asked lots of questions here. Do a search under my screen name and you'll find my posts. Also do a search under Bobthenavigator and others who have answered you--they've given me the best advise.

I have three kids and two are the same age as yours. At first we had a very ambitious itinerary and have greatly scaled it back based on many excellent suggestions here.

I have used many of the Fodors travel forums under the screen name SAL over the years. I stopped for about a year and restarted when they required registration and cleaned up the board. Now it's better than ever for trip advice and I have NEVER been steered in the wrong direction.

Happy planning!

We took our kids (13 & 17) to Italy this summer. Here is an excerpt from my trip report on this board that references a good family hotel in Venice. I highly recommend the annex of the Hotel Bernardi for families:

We stayed at the Hotel Bernardi, 4366 Calle dell'Oca, near the Ca'd'Oro vaparetto stop, off the Strada Nova, the neighborhood's main drag. ([email protected]). We had two large connecting rooms with a shared bath in the annex. I gather that the annex is much nicer, newer and more spacious than the main hotel but I never did see any of the regular hotel rooms so I don?t know for sure. The annex has good, quiet A/C and very large rooms. It was 170 euro for both rooms w/breakfast. It felt like having an apartment because we were around the corner from the hotel and completely independent -- that suited us just fine.

I just wanted to propose taking them to Gardaland in Verona. If you want to see Venice for 2 days and take a day trip by train to Verona, you can have a day at a nice amusement park. Like a Six Flags or Magic Mountain.
Check out their website
www.gardaland.it
It would be a nice break for the kids, and I honestly can see Venice in two days and have covered everything.
Just an idea.
Melissa

We did a very similiar itinerary summer 2002 with out two kids who were 12 and 17. We had no problem finding quads, booked them all on the internet. Every place we stayed was "kid friendly" in the sense that they liked kids and were welcoming of them. The children you mention are not that young, almost teens so I don't think you'll have the problems traveling that more often occur with the under 10 year old kids. We had mostly 2 and 3 night stays on our 22 day trip and they didn't get too sick of moving around. In fact some kids that age get bored in one place too long, so all good intentions aside, renting an apartment for a week may not be the best idea. Parents know their kids better than anyone else, but I was even surprised a couple of time by what my kids like. I had figured they'd be happier in the cities (more to do) than the quaint small towns, but the opposite was true. So a variety is good.

The only really "fun" place we stayed was in Perugia (which is actually in Umbria, not Tuscany, but very well located for many hill towns). It was the Etruscan Chocotel - chocolate themed. It's not a "kid" centered place, but the chocolate themed breakfast was wonderful and they have a roof top pool which my kids loved.

I think your trip sounds doable - busy but, since you've been there before, you have an idea of what the trip will be like. We stayed 5 km. outside of Siena (in the direction of Quercegrossa) at La Loggia with our 2 children this summer. We had a nice connecting room and the lovely swimming pool was a big hit. The only drawbacks were no air-conditioning and being a little bit out of town. I wouldn't say the hotel catered to families in particular but they welcomed us warmly. Have a great trip!