cheska15

Lauterbrunnen is not a city. Two streets only but a great place to stay. Spectacular views and great walks. Book very early for accommodation as it is limited.

StCirq

Florence is never relaxed, not even in the off season. I tried to take a 2-year-old to Florence once and left after 24 hours, and this was with a 2-year-old who was already pretty used to being carted around Europe. The place just frayed all of our nerves. We ended up spending a week on Lago Maggiore and having a ball.

suze

Still too many places, too little time, too much moving around, especially with little kids. You don't have time for "day trips" when you are only allowing a day or two in a major city.

How about this -
6 days - Paris
5 days - Switzerland, I suggest the Lac Leman area
5 days - Venice
5 days - on a lake somewhere
1 day - fly home from Milan
___
22 days

ssander

As a general rule, you can never fully predict how long it will take to do anything with a two-year-old or whether or not he/she will love what you're doing or fight you all the way. (Of course this is generalization, but most generalizations are based on some truth/experience.)

We spent a week in Paris four years ago with our son, his wife and 2-year-old grandson, so I speak from some experience. It was fun, but we often had to throw our planned schedule for the day out the window and ad lib. Give yourself lots of extra time for everything.

I think four places is reasonable for three weeks, remembering to allow a whole day to go from one place to another regardless of how many hours the train/plane schedules say.

ssander

janisj

In a perfect world - with a 2 year old and older child and three weeks to play with -- I'd stay three places for one week each. Renting apartments or cottages where that is possible. That gives one time to ad lib, make allowances for toddler 'issues', give everyone a chance to settle in/get acclimated to a place, leave time for a day trip if the stars align, and not hassles with so many trains / planes / transfers.

4 places would be OK -- but IMHO a week each in 3 destinations would be so much easier.

rickymorty

StCirq thursdaysd I hear you. I will consider dropping Florence off my trips.

cheska15 I will book accommodation as soon as itinerary and flights bookings are done.

ssander janisj Also, I will extend my stay in each base longer so that we have buffer time to ad lib. Will definitely prepare ourselves for when things don't go our way.

suze I will go back to the drawing board and come up with new itinerary based on your suggestion.

ahbonvraiment

ymmv.
We took a 2 years old on a trip around west coast with her 5 years old bro. Never more than 3 nights same place. 3 weeks. Gorgeous trip.
We took the same team year after 3 weeks in Cuba. Fantastic trip.
Depends n you your kid and some luck.

StCirq

ahbonvraiment, I was specifically referring to Florence with the 2-year-old. We had already taken her to Paris a couple of times, Strasbourg and Obernai and Colmar, Rome, and probably a couple of other places I have forgotten. No problems with any of those. It was just Florence where we all had a meltdown. But yes, it could have just been bad luck.

rickymorty

Hi StCirq, can you elaborate what in Florence that put you off?

StCirq

Crowds, lines, prices, general attitude of catering to tourists instead of locals. I had been in Florence many times on business before I had children and enjoyed it, and the escalation in a general frenzied atmosphere just put me off. I adore Italy, but have no desire to revisit Florence. If you've never been, of course it is a treasure-trove, but with a 2-year-old I can think of hundreds of places in Italy I'd rather go.

thursdaysd

The reason Florence is on all the top ten lists is "great art". Specifically, the Duomo, the baptistry doors, Michaelangelo's David and the Uffizzi. None of which are going to be of interest to the two year old. Also, Europe is overloaded with great art. You are going to Paris and Venice. Unless you are an expert, you can easily OD on art in both places. Adding Florence is overkill on a first trip.

It may once also have counted as a "charming town", but from everything I read the charm has been overtaken by huge crowds. And again, Europe is overloaded with charming towns, you don't need to go to Florence (along with so many others) to see one.

rickymorty

StCirq thursdaysd given my original route was Paris > Lauterbrunnen > Venice > Florence, if we were to drop Florence what would be your suggestion for alternatives? Lago Maggiore seems lovely but a bit off the track (which will require rental car to get there?)

thursdaysd

No, you don't need a rental car, you can get there by train, but it does involve several changes (see bahn.de ). Lauterbrunnen/Interlaken is a bit of a dead end for getting anywhere.

Tulips

I would also substitute one of the lakes for Florence. Maybe Como, which can be easily reached by train, and you can travel around the lake by boat. No need for a car.
Garda is lovely too.

jpie

It seems to me that is you decide to drop Florence then maybe you could add somewhere between Paris and Lauterbrunnen since Venice could make a good endpoint for the trip since you should be able to get good flight connections from Venice to hubs for your flight back to Asia. You might consider breaking the train trip between Paris to Lauterbrunnen in a nice mid-size city like Dijon for few nights that is on the train line. It would give you a chance to see a bit of France outside of Paris and cities this size are usually pretty easy with kids-nice parks, carousels etc. Or another idea would be to take the "faster" TGV to Geneva or Lausanne and spend a few days there someplace near the lake and then continue on to Lauterbrunnen. That way you could break up the trip a bit and it seems less out of the way than Maggiore to me. We liked Maggiore but I think many of the areas right around Lake Geneva are equally as beautiful.

thursdaysd

If it were me I would stop in Strasbourg, with a day trip to Colmar, but Dijon is a good suggestion too.

StCirq

I wasn't suggesting you go to Maggiore - that just happens to be what we did. As noted, there are many options for beautiful lake/mountain venues that are easier to get to.

rickymorty

Hi guys,

I do like the idea of breaking up my long trip from Paris to Lauterbrunnen. Will look into Strasbourg vs Dijon.

Geneva and Lac Leman look appealing too but I'm worry about the expensiveness of Switzerland considering that I plan to spend 3-4 days in Lauterbrunnen already.

neckervd

"I do like the idea of breaking up my long trip from Paris to Lauterbrunnen. Will look into Strasbourg vs Dijon"

First you wanted to do the big detour via Zurich (nobody knows why) and now you want to do a detour via Strasbourg.

Dijon is worth a visit, but that cuts your 2nd day journey by 1 hr only.

rickymorty

I think you misread my posts. I originally wanted to go from Paris to Bern (not Zurich) and use Bern as a base for other Switzerland trips. After considering all advice I chose Lauterbrunnen as my base and explore Oberland only.

Since I've also decided to drop Florence and I've got some more days to spare, either Dijon or Strasbourg are suggested by others as stops between Paris and Lauterbrunnen as they're on the train route anyway.

I've done some more research and Strasbourg appeals more to us. Would it not make sense to add 3 days in Strasbourg in between Paris and Lauterbrunnen?
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