touring multi-countries Europe trips for family of 4 (1st time visit)

We have family of 4 (ages 7 & 16, (+/-)50), and planning to do minimum 4 countries trip in Europe for 12 - 14 days this ~May/June 2020/2021. I checked a few tours and I think Costco�s one is pretty good. The required countries are England, Germany, Italy & France. Since we don't speak the language, for the 1st time visit with kids, we thought going through the guided touring would save time & hassle.

Here are the tour companies that I checked:
1) Contiki which is for young adults.
2) Globus. It is a bit expensive, and they don't have all countries that we wanted to visit.
3) getours.com. It looks like it is same as Costco�s. It is $2,175 per person
getours.com/tours/european-experience
4) Costco. It is $1,958 per person after logging in as Costco member.
costco.ttc.com/en-us/vacation-search/tour/costsaver/74/609

Here is our cost estimate for this trip. We are using May 2020 as example:
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Guided tour package: 4 x $1,958 = $7,832
International flight: 4 x $800 = $3,200
Additional lunches,
dinners, tours for 14 days = ~2,000
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Total = 13,032

Let us know if you have any experiences using getours, Costco or other similar tour package, and any suggestions that you may have on the above info.
Thank you!

Jack

You apparently speak English so you don"t need a tour there.
As for the other countries, they are used to hosting people speaking languages other than their own and they all use the Latin alphabet.

You want to pay almost $8000 to have someone tell you what to see and do?

That is one horrible itinerary! Have you looked at the number of one night stays? Have you considered how long those bus rides will be? Your kids are liable to stage a mutiny before you are half-way through. Have you checked out the hotels? The London hotel is a bit out the way, but close to a tube station, and my favorite museum (the V&A), but the Amsterdam hotel is out by the airport! Reilingen is in the middle of nowhere. The Bon Alpina is in Igls, not Innsbruck, the Palladdio is on the mainland, not In Venice. I stopped checking at that point. You will be marooned in the hotels, at the mercy of the tour company for getting anywhere (extra cost), and probably eating hotel food. They seem to be cheap hotels, too.

Why are you trying to do four countries in 12-14 days? (And does that include travel to/from Europe?) Maybe four cities. You could spend a week in London, with a couple of day trips, and still not scratch the surface. Take the train to Paris (NOT a bus and boat!), fly to Venice, train to Rome, fly home. Or train from Paris to Amsterdam, fly to Venice, fly home.

You don't need a tour, you need some guidebooks (maybe start with "Europe Through the back Door", or "The Rough Guide to First-Time Europe"). But if you insist on a tour, look at these, at least there will be other kids so yours can hang out with people their own age: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eur...ondon-florence and https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eur...amsterdam-rome There will still be a lot of time on the bus, but the hotels will be central, and there is only one one-nighter on one of the tours. The tour leaders get proper salaries so they aren't working for tips or to upsell you sightseeing, and the guides will be good. They are more expensive, but you are getting a better trip for your money. If you want to save money, DIY and don't move around as much.

It seems you are making several imagined assumptions as bases of your planning.
You did not say where you are coming from, but since you mentioned Costco US site, I presume you are coming from the US.
>>> 1st time visit with kids >>> going through the guided touring would save time & hassle.
Is this your 1st time and you happen to take your kids OR you (parents) have been to Europe before, but not with your kids?
A tour not specifically targeted to the kids' age and their special interests would be simply boring for most kids when most of the participants are likely to be people in the retirement age. Tours might save time, but not necessarily where you want saved. They can choose to save time where you want to spend more time and keep you locked up in souvenir stores where you rather not want to spend time. Whether it is a hassle or not also depends on many factors. With tours, there is less hassle before the trip, but you incur hassles during the trip in the form of group imposed time limits, early morning starts, luggage packed the night before, etc. Many consider these to be intrusive hassles and rather want to front load hassles before the trip by scheduling them out of the itinerary.
>>> Since we don't speak the language,
Almost all the people working in tourist facing jobs speak very good English. Many first timers from the US mention this for some reason.

I have used tour packages because I was a teacher and took high school students to Europe. Frankly, my students were lucky because I had enough travel experience in Europe to pick pretty decent tours. On 8 & 9 day trips, I never did more than one country. On a 13 day trip, I did do two countries, and even then, they were all very rushed. So, a few points.
1. Tours by bus waste a lot of time, both road time and doing things that may not be of interest to you.
2. One of your suggested tours mentions “viewing” The Basilica and the Doges Palace in Venice. They do not actually take you inside. That kind or tour is really pitiful. You are just seeing the outside of some of the biggest sights in Europe. They also write about all the beautiful landscapes. They have to justify keeping you on a bus all day! One time, I actually checked highway time on one of these tours and it was more than sightseeing time. Not even considering the occasional traffic jam.
3. The more time you spend moving around, the less you see, on your own or on a tour!!!
4. Trains are fantastic in Europe, fast, comfortable, cost effective, efficient, go city center to city center.
5. There are great, cheap, European airlines to take you longer distances from one major city to another.
will continue. . .

Yikes

4 countries, is that a random number?

12 days, you're having a laugh

I have no experience of taking those tours but I have done some mini tours like that and I've travelled Europe a fair bit. I recommend choose 2/3 bases say London, Paris and Amsterdam and take a train between each.

Language, don't worry.

Hi Jack, I see that you just joined, so welcome! I think you can only post a limited number of answers after just joining, so think about the feedback people gave you.

As others have said, 4 whole countries in 12-14 days is just absurd. You must have a reason for wanting to visit Europe, and some places that you really want to see.
What is most important to you?
London is an easy start, and has loads to do for children of all ages. Stay there for 5 nights.
Then take the Eurostar to Paris, and stay there for a further 4 or 5 nights.
Unless you want to go to Italy instead, in which case fly from London, and go to Rome and one other place. Maybe Venice and Rome, and fly home from there.

Don't worry about the language.
Come up with a few places you really want to visit, get advice from guidebooks, internet and the people here at Fodors and do it yourself.

Jack9006, welcome to Fodors! You've found a great resource to making European travel fun. Please don't be deterred by some of the less than kind posts you'll likely receive on this thread. Many of the people on here have been to Europe more times than you've been to the grocery store. They've long forgotten what it's like to be: going for the first time, wanting to see as much as possible, wanting to show kids highlights vs sitting in one spot...etc, etc. But in spite of that, they do have good nuggets to share. Just ignore the less than kind way some of the advice will be delivered.

You can absolutely do 4 cities (not countries) in 12 to 14 days (let's focus on the 14 day end of that range tho). I've done this type of trip 6 times and loved almost every one of those trips (1 was too ambitious, there are limits I've learned).

As many above have stated, I absolutely would not do a tour. With kids that age they'll be miserable. Just plan on seeing 4 cities and you do a bit of planning on how to get from place to place. If you really don't want to learn a lot about each city you can always arrange to have local guides give you tours for as many of the City days as you can afford. With the internet and forums like this planning a trip like this is easy. For me the year of planning is half the fun.

(feel free to ignore this part...it's just the way I do it) Let me get into my planning style a bit to let you see how to do the planning. I use Google for everything. I'm assuming you've got a google account. Use Google Drive and set up a folder for the trip. In the folder set up 2 documents: Google Sheets and a Google My Maps. Start with the Google Sheets document (it's like excel, which you can use as well if you don't know google). The basic idea is to have the dates of your trip down the left side of the document and for each column you play around with different itineraries, shifting days back and forth between each city (see below as example). You list very simply what you'd do on each day (TOUR PARIS or FLY TO ROME or TRAIN TO LONDON, etc). By the time we're ready to buy airline tickets (usually first step) we'll have 10 itineraries that we've pondered, tweaking each one to get to something that works.

The other Google tool I use is Google My Maps. You basically create a LAYER for each place you want to visit. Then start dropping pins on the sights you want to see and hotels you want to stay in. That helps you understand where everything is and how you should arrange each of your days. I could go further into the details of this, but I'm already likely going on too much about Google. So....that's how I do it. But you may find other tools are more helpful for you.

To wrap up...do it yourself, enjoy the planning, and use the internet to do the heavy lifting. Below is what I'd do in 14 days in your 4 locations. This could be your itinerary 1 in your Google Sheets.

I'm assuming your travel dates are part of your 12-14 day range. If you were assuming travel days weren't part of that then you get 2 more days to put somewhere.
1 fly toward london
2 arrive london, tour london sleepily
3 london
4 london
5 morning train to paris, tour paris afternoon
6 paris
7 paris
8 early flight to berlin, tour berlin afternoon
9 berlin
10 berlin, evening flight to rome
11 rome
12 rome
13 rome
14 fly home

In my opining Berlin (or whatever stop you want to make in Germany) has been shortchanged and needs 1 more day.

That's an example of how I'd do it. Obviously you're not settling into any of those cities, taking cooking classes, learning a language, you can do that on future trips. You'll be giving your family a great first time visit to an awesome continent, seeing the touristy things to do in 4 major cities and whetting their appetite to come back again and again.

If you decide to do it yourself please consider grouping your cities so you can get the train between them rather than flying.
An excellent resource for train travel is https://www.seat61.com/

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Correction/Additional info:
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I should have written … we want to visit some specific cities in 4 countries. I need to gather all specific cities where she wants to go. I will post them later. My wife has limitation on walking too much but wants to see many cities when we visit Europe. We, most likely, are not going back for 2nd round.
As far as bringing 4+ luggage, with family, moving around many cities/counties use public transportation such as train/bus/others, it would be hassle for us unless we only stay for a couple of countries or a few cities. That was the reason we were thinking to use tour package.
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@thursdaysd, I did check the distance. It is about ~300 to 700 miles a day unless staying 2 days for the same city. For the hotel, they are not that great. If we go to England one day before touring, it would cost ~ $160. The package does not include international flights. We just want to hit the famous spots, and we may never go back. Thanks for the book and the link. The Rick Steve’s link is referring to "$4,395 + Air" per person. The Costco’s one minimum age is 5, and we hope we may see some kids in the tour. We will take a look. Thank you!

@historytraveler, The Rick Steves link cost "$4,395 + Air" per person. We will take a look. Thanks for the comment.
@Tulips, good tips, I will reply all of you in one post.

@ Wekiva, my wife got the ideas from her parents who went to Europe trip for 5/6 countries in 2 weeks when they just retired years ago, and they had great time (Rushed, a lot walking & good experience. The tour was using public transportation). They just want to see many famous areas in many cities and they are not going back. I will take a look at how you did it using google tech. Thank you for the detail info.

@hetismij2, Thanks for the info.
@ all others, thank you!
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Questions:
If we don’t use tour package from Costco, any particular website you would recommend? I have been checking TripAdvisor site such as tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g187147-Activities-c42-t235-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

For Uber, I checked the followings:
uber.com/global/en/cities/paris/ ($~25 for 7 miles)

For train:
seat61

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We will take a look at the " Rick Steve link" and see if it is a good match. In their site, it stated "Kids ages 8 through 17 are welcome". I will email them if they would take 7 yrs old.

My co-worker just went to Spain 9 days tour for x'mas through globus for family of 4, cost ~ (4 * $2100 + international flights), and they enjoyed it very much. It is a bit pricey for 1 country for ~$11,000

Jack9006--I have never taken a tour, so can't give any first hand comments on that aspect. We have always travelled with our kids though, starting at ages 4 and 7 for our first family trip to Europe, so I definitely understand that aspect. You can certainly do 4 countries in this time frame, of course depending on just where, but Wekiva has one good example. It can be done and without regrets. The Rick Steve's suggestions are good. Check out his website as well as books. He has a lot of basic practical tips for first time travelers and makes it not so intimidating, especially if planning yourself. Which, that is my recommendation, plan this trip yourself. You will save a lot of money and time, and will be able to see what YOU want to see and not be on someone else's agenda. Let us know your thoughts and if you decide to plan this yourself, let us know and we can help you with details etc.

It doesn’t matter if it is $11,000 for one country or a dozen. You can actually see only so many places or things in a given amount of time. Imagine, if you will, strolling by a dozen restaurant windows with Views of wonderful food, but you never stop to taste or eat anything at all or driving down the highway with signs to interesting places, but you can’t stop, or visiting an amusement park known for rides, but you never go on one, or going to NYC and seeing all the marquees for plays, but you never see one. You get the picture. That is exactly what it is like to rush through more places than you can actually realistically see anything.

Everybody want to see as much as possible and make the trip count, but to spend most of the time racing around from place to place means you see less. The problem is that Europe has so much more to see that it is impossible to imagine until you go. So, the solution. Research and select carefully the most important things to you, and make sure you allow enough time to see them, not just drive by the outsides. Don’t let some “fast food” style tour company tell you what to drive by.

For someone with difficulty walking, long, fast paced, walking tours may not be good either. Either individual guides or DIY allows some time to sit a bit at a cafe and rest.

If you have not done it, you cannot imagine how comfortable trains are, and with one adult and two kids who could pick things up, it is easy. Strongly recommend you really consider them.

If you choose carefully, places within countries that are close or easy to get to from each other, you could do four places in different countries. Some combinations work really well. Other do not.

These are just examples of making it to spots in four countries with minimal travel time and maximum sightseeing time.

Day 1, Arrive London, expect jet lag, have an orientation walk or take a sight seeing bus. I hate HOHO bus, but might work well for your wife.
Day 2, London, two or three sights, Tower of London, Westminster, London Eye, a Museum, etc. lunch in a crypt, concert in a church, etc.
Day 3, More London, perhaps Hampton Court Palace
Day 4, Eurostar to Paris, afternoon in Paris
Day 5, Paris, heavy, heavy sightseeing and one museum
Day 6, More Paris or Versailles

Day 8, Train to Belgium
Day 9, one city in Belgium (Bruges?)
Day 10, train to Amsterdam, afternoon for walk, canals, etc.
Day 11, Anne Frank House, Museum, etc
Day 12, Day trip to Haarlem or Delft, etc.

or Day 8, Fly to Venice
Day 9, Venice
Day 10, train to Rome
Day 11, Rome
Day 12, Rome

Any extra days should just be added to major city like Rome or London, or Venice and go to the islands in the Lagoon.

Exactly what sights to see depends on your personal interests. If you will share your top two or three priorities and your interests (art, history, architecture, food, theatre, etc.), people can help you make a plan that gives you the best for your family, or perhaps even good tour suggestions. You can also easily get yourself from city to city, then have a good local guide for a morning or afternoon.

Thank you for the info. I will come back with a list of specific in a few days.