sdfamily

I am currently planning an October 2010 to Europe trip with kids about the same age. Last spring we did London / Granada, Spain / Sevilla, Spain for 14 nights. So, I have a little background. We also did London, Paris, and France when our first two were littler.

My first comment is that any where you are thinking of renting a car, you will need two. Our family of five, barely fit into the largest size car available in Spain. And, fitting our compact McClaren stroller into the trunk was next to impossible.

I understand the desire to be flexible with your travels, but with this many people, you're going to need to be the opposite of flexible. For example, for our trip to Spain, I knew the exact turn by turn directions to get to the car rental counter. Also, you are traveling during peak season, so you will definitely want to have all your accommodations in place and not be trying to re-arrange things on 'on-the-fly'. Our Spain trip was awesome. We spent a week in each location, with several day trips (as we felt like it). The day trips can be your flexible part.

Any new thoughts? I've planned several sample itineraries for the region for our family. We think we would enjoy the castles in Southern Germany, Legoland (of course), the mountains in Austria, and the lake district in Italy. A much more muted, but manageable, itinerary.

Or, just stay in Italy. Crowded and hot, but also manageable. Rent an apartment in Rome for 4 nights, rent a place in Tuscany for 5 nights, 3 nights in Venice, 2 in Cinque Terra, 1 in Milan on each end.

Being the over planning guru, I have several spreadsheets for several trips with kids. I'd be glad to help you re-organize, but I think you need to limit the destinations and the traveling around.

Nicci

We just returned from 15 days visiting the same countries in May - 3 in Munich, 3 in Alsace, France, 1 in Belagio, 6 in Langhe, Italy, 1 in Verona and 1 in Salzburg. We travel like this all the time and do not have children, but felt very rushed in our one day stops. Although one day in Salzburg was enough for me since it was small and full of tourist. I was surprised how much I liked Munich and it has much to see from lovely parks to museums to open air markets. A lot of people on bikes, great public transportation and easy to walk everywhere.
I would suggest skipping France and spending your time Italy and Southern Germany/Northern Austria. See Paris another time, so you can really enjoy it. Keep in mind that you will have at least a couple days of rain that could slow down the itinerary. We had a rental car for all days, except Munich.

ira

Hi Zaf,

Drop Paris. Your stay will be too short to make the schlep worthwhile.