Hi everyone,
We are thinking of planning a family trip to Europe in April 2006. It would be me and my husband, my mother and stepfather, and possibly my brother or stepsisters. We are just starting to throw out ideas for places to go. So far we have come up with:

Paris
Rome
Provence
Amalfi Coast
Venice
Florence
Athens
Mykonos and Santorini
London

Most of us have been to Europe once before (me to Paris, my husband to Ireland, my parents to Rome) but none of us have been in the last few years. We are looking for plenty of historical/cultural/architectural sites to see, good restaurants, shopping, etc. We have all said of our own respective trips to Europe that we just loved the history and that feeling you get from being in such old beautiful cities.

Also, would any of these places work as a combined trip? I was thinking 3-4 days in Rome and 3-4 days in Paris, or 3-4 days in Rome and another few elsewhere in Italy. I am a teacher, so we would only have a week to spend, and we are flying out of Boston, so cost for flights is an issue, too.

I am open to any ideas or reasons that you more experienced European travelers have for picking one place over another. Thank you!

Beachgirl86, I too am in the stages of planning a family trip to Rome, Florence, Venice in April 2006. You mentioned that you are a teacher, does this vacation coincide with spring vacation? Our grandchildren will have April 17-21 off for vacation but we are adding another week, which brings us to the end of April.

It is a daunting task, if you are the one assigned to do all the arrangements. Being organized will help you tremendously.

Today I started e-mailing hotels in Rome asking about booking room reservations in April 2006. The replies should start coming in tomorrow or Tuesday.

Best of luck in your planning.

Kane: I just looked at a 2006 calendar, and if I had to guess on which week would be our spring vacation, I would say that yes, it will probably be the week of the 17th. It's usually the third week of the month.

And, yep, I will probably be doing all the organzing and planning! That is one of my hobbies with travel, and my family knows it and will definitely take advantage

For only 1 week, there are not many options. Perhaps the best, IMHO, would be the standard Rome, Tuscany, Venice jaunt. Can't get any more historical than Rome, and Venice & Tuscany are unmatched. Also, the train access to these places will cut down on wasted travel time.

A perfect trip (leave Boston on Fri & return Sun) would be to fly to Rome & spend 3 days there, rent a car or two & spend 3 days in the Tuscany countryside visiting small villages, then turn in the car(s) and take the train to Venice, spend 2 days, & fly home from there.

I would not try to do any more than this - especially with 4-6 people.

Stu Dudley

beachgirl86, I agree with StuDudley. One week in Italy with 4-6 or more people trying to visit too many cities is exhausting. Our group will have a total of 13 vacation days, and in addition to the big three cities, we will be in Sorrento and Capri:

Rome 3 days
Isle of Capri 2 days
Sorrento 4 days
Florence 2 days
Venice 2 days

There may be people who think our itinerary is too ambitious, but we are very comfortable with it.

We are flying open jaw, which you may want to consider. Flying: New York/JFK into Rome, and from Venice back into New York/JFK. It also helps that my husband and I have been to Italy twice before, and feel sure of ourselves traveling on trains, buses, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions Those places in Italy sound wondful!

One thing to mention, though, even though we may have a group of 4 or 6 people, we won't be doing EVERYTHING together. There are times when everyone may chose to do their own day trips/romantic dinners/etc...So I'm not worried about dragging everyone around to all these cities/places.

Any other comments or suggestions on any of our other choices?

April in Paris/
Chestnuts in blossom/
Holiday tables under the stars.....

You might want to check into some combination packages that offer flight, hotel and transport between cities. We did a London/Paris combo a few years ago, flying into London, Eurostar to Paris via the chunnel, then flew home from Paris. We've also done London and Brussels.
If I had only a week, my temptation would be to stay put in one place -- and I choose London -- but if you want to do a little more "Taste of Europe" the London/Paris combo is an easy option.

My family and I with children ages 14 and 8 just returned from our Italian Spring Break trip last week. It was wonderful and historic, since the Pope died while we were there.

We spent three nights in Positano and
four nights in Rome. I suggest that you pick one location in the Amalfi Coast, then take day trips. We stayed in Positano. One day we took the ferry to Ravello/Amalfi. On the second day, we took the ferry to Capri. On the last day, on the way to the Naples train station, our driver took us to Pompeii.

We stayed in the family suite, room 39, at the Villa Rosa in Positano. This hotel is a rec of Karen Brown. I loved it -- cheerful and clean with a fantastic view. The beds in room 39 might be better suited for children. By the way, there were 100 stairs to our room. Another larger cute town is Amalfi. A fellow traveler told me he picked Amalfi because he didn't like the stairs in Positano!

See Town and Country Traveler Magazine, April or March issue. The cover is Positano, our view. Le Sirenuse hotel is across from Villa Rosa.

If you want a different location in Rome, we stayed at the Capo D'Africa. The hotel is only two years old with very modern decor. They gave us two adjoining rooms, which worked well. So if you are looking for old Rome, you should go elsewhere. Since I did all the bookings, I was worried about the location. It's about two blocks East of the Colleseum. The big advantage was that the neighborhood was quiet. There was a lovely breakfast buffet. When we had dinner in the neighborhood (La Naumach....), there weren't tourists, but locals. It is a 10 minute walk to the subway. But you have to love to walk, we ended up walking about 10 miles per day in room.

Happy Travels!

From your initial post, I take it only you have been to Paris...and you loved it.

Given that, I would choose Paris for several reasons. They'll love it as much as you did. If you're going to "plan" the trip, your familiarity with Paris will make your job much easier. There are so many museums, landmarks, palaces, and daytrips to choose from. Everyone will have plenty of choices for striking out on their own.

Lastly, a week in Paris certainly wouldn't be too long. They'll leave there with a long list of things to do and see next time. April in Paris....Mmmmm.

Just remember that moving 6 people from one hotel to another takes time. Not all get up in the morning at the same time and they all have to pack. The less moving around you can do, the better.

With your time limits I would probably only do two locations...maybe ROME then FLORENCE or VENICE. Hard to beat those spots and plenty to see in both areas without changing hotels at all.

I fail to understand why it necessarily takes 6 people any longer to pack and get going than 2 people. You set a time and you all do it, unless you must all share one bathroom!

I agree with Stu, if you stick with Italy -- the big three are fine in one week.