Hello everyone,

I am planning to spend 6-8 weeks in Europe this summer. I will have my two kids (9 and 13) the entire time and my husband will join for couple of weeks. Instead of moving around too much, I am thinking about using two home bases for this trip and I am hoping to get some recommendations from experts on this forum!

We have travelled to Europe few times but not stayed in one place for longer than 4-5 days at a time. There is no restrictions/desire about any specific places we want to visit. My idea right now is to have one home base in a big city (museums, cafes, shows, parks, day trips, markets, food, parks, rich history etc etc) and then have second home base in a small town or village (hikes/beach, kids playing with neighbor kids, chilling at home, day trips etc etc).

I prefer to not have car but okay with renting it for the second home base. Also, given that we are looking at longer than a week long stay at each base, we will be staying in apartments/airbnb. No specific preference for countries.

I understand many places fit my criteria but would love to get some suggestions and recommendations from you all!

Best,
Meg

Well -- there are hundreds of places you could visit so you might want to narrow things down a bit -- where have you been, where did you enjoy, where didn't you like etc . . .

But for your city stay you really couldn't tick more of your boxes anyplace more than London. Your country stay could be in Italy, or France or Scotland or England or Germany . . . or anywhere.

<<There is no restrictions/desire about any specific places we want to visit.>>

Well, I'd rectify that because you are talking about an entire continent. Before you get people throwing darts at you all over Europe, you should do some (further) research.

Yes you should try to narrow down places you may like and places you have been and don't want to go back again. Trains are great everywhere now and good for going between main cities - cars great for places like Provence in southern France - for lots about trains and where to go check BETS-European Rail Experts - their free online European Planning & Rail Guide presents rail itineraries in various countries - other sources to help plan a rail trip - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com.

Certainly, London was my first thought for the city stay. Hard to help with the second location. A Greek island, maybe?

I agree with thursdaysd, London seems like a sensible choice as there is plenty to do and see (and no language barrier too). But then again, it's not the cheapest place to rent for a month... unless the budget is not a limitation for your family. But it boils down what kind of vision do you have in your head?