We're planning a trip to France/Spain/Italy and taking our 3 kids aged 15, 13 and 10. Anyone done something similar. hints? <BR>Planning to travel by train and stay budget. <BR>probably do london, paris, Barcelona, madrid and Rome.

Fodors <BR> <BR>For London the following web sites may be useful, though they are designed for younger children than yours <BR> <BR>Children: selections from a draft guide book: http://members.tripod.com/dswhite/samples.html <BR> <BR>Personal account of London with children aged 11 and 9 http://www.woodman.org/trip_advice.htm <BR>On children in London: http://www.KidsToLondon.com <BR>http://gouk.miningco.com/travel/gouk/msublonkids.htm <BR>http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/index.html: <BR>Link to Children's London in panel on left. <BR> London4kids (http://www.london4kids.com) <BR>http://www.interlinkbooks.com/londonforfamilies.html <BR>http://www.kidstolondon.com <BR> <BR>You may well find that thesurfacejourney from London toParis gives the children more to see and do than that through the tunnel by Eurostar. Certainly, it costs a half or a third the fare. Book a day ahead at the esasternmost window in Charing Cross station. Leave Victoria station at 0935. See the Medway, Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral from 1005 to 1015. See Canterbury cathedral far off at 1058, Reach Dover Priory station at 1127. Take the free bus to Dover Port. Send off bags, board, sail at 1215, see the White Cliffs and Dover Castle, lunch. Disembark at Calais at 1430 (which feels like 1330 due to atime shift). Collect bags from carousel. Free bus to Calais station, leave 1550, reach Paris Nord at 1920. <BR> <BR>Amore important point isthat your choicesof whatto do will be the better if thechilodren are the major playersin makingthem. They need to think what they know and like, what they read and see on TV, and what they want to know, and then look at web sites like "Expos" under htttp://www.pariscope.fr and similar from London, starting around: <BR>http://www.netguide.com/Snapshot/Arc...travel&id=1316 <BR>http://gouk.about.com/travel/gouk/mbody.htm <BR>http://london.cjb.net <BR>http://nav.webring.org/cgi-bin/navcg...ondonring;list <BR>http://londonguide.cjb.net <BR> <BR>Pleasewrite if I can help further. <BR> <BR>Welcome to Europe <BR> <BR>Ben Haines, London <BR> <BR>

We took our two daughters, ages 11 and 15 to Italy and France this year, and to England two years ago. We found that car rental was most convenient for us. It gave us much more flexibility to visit places that the kids were interesting. (But I wore a walkman to drown out the noise in the back seat!) We found the auto rates were less expensive than the train even with the cost of gas. (this year we leased through Renault Eurodrive and it was great) The kids especially enjoyed the visits to beaches and castles, not easily accessible if you were on a train. The car also gave us more options when choosing a place to eat. You also present quite a long distance iternary even when using a train. I'd suggest limiting yourself to two countries a month. (depends on your time traveling). When traveling independently learning the language of the country you are visiting is really quite fun for kids. But, absorbing more than one language is difficult.And it is more fun for kids to get to use the language they learned for a longer period of time. I found even for myself, that I was more enthusiastic with trying to communciate with the first country I visited. When we went to the second country, I felt more of a strain in trying to communicate in another language. I was a bit lazier in pulling out the dictionary in the second country. (And I actually had been educated in the language, so it should have been easier) Now, as we reflect back on our trip, my daughters frequently use words they learned in the countries they visited, and have motivation to learn more of those languages. I find traveling with kids with in Europe is as stressful as traveling with your kids at home, and more expensive. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. <BR>Also, I did a lot of searching on the net, and asking people (on this site) about specific places and hotels. As a result, there was only one hotel we spent over $100 a night. Most hotels were around $60-$70 a night for 4, not much more than hostel rates.

We did a six week trip through Europe with our kids when they were 12 and 15. It was their first time in Europe and we didn't have any problems at all, I think they were just so amazed at all the new sights, not to mention the tastes We spent two weeks skiing in Austria which they loved. For the rest of the trip we tried not to move hotels too often. We bought Eurail passes before leaving home and found that fantastic because after seeing the city where we were based, we would hop on a train and just go, getting off at interesting towns along the way. We would usually keep doing that, getting further and further from home base until about 7 or 8pm and then catch the next train directly back to 'home'. We all loved the trains because it was our relaxing time before hitting the next town, and we would just sit there, admiring the view out the windows while sipping steaming mugs of hot chocolate. Also if the kids were tired they could nap till the next stop. They loved doing fun things like walking down the Eiffel Tower and of course climbing all the way to the top of St. Pauls and Notre Dame. They loved the shopping, we gave them a lumpsum before leaving home and they had to budget for the whole trip, I think they really enjoyed that. They also loved going to the museums to see all the things they had studied in school, like the Rossetta Stone, Mona Lisa,mummies, etc. We also stayed in budget hotels and most of the time could get a family room or interleading rooms. We did the trip from the UK to France by train and ferry, we loved it, except that the sea was very rough and my son was very sea-sick. I must add that when we were planning the trip we made it very clear to the kids that the trip was costing a small fortune and we all wanted to have a good time and we would not tolerate moans and groans, we would all compomise and do a little of what everyone wanted, it worked out just great, a memory to be cherished forever. Hope your trip works as well as ours did, good luck

The best resource for you would be "Take Your Kids to Europe" by Cynthia W. Harriman, published by The Globe Pequot Press. It has some wonderful ideas for traveling with children and teenagers. Some suggestions: before your trip, read age appropriate books about the countries you will visit. Also, read novels set in those countries. Do a time line to put history into perspective. Chose items of interest to find in each museum, such as Degas' Little Dancer at the Musee d'Orsay or the Winged Victory at the Louvre. Always plan a little physical recreation time, even for a teenager. Climbing around a ruined castle, hiking on a marked footpath (numerous in France), or the gardens at Versailles will make the day go smoother.

I may be no expert on this having no children, but we've traveled in Europe a lot and seen lots of folks with kids, some having a great time and some having what appeared to us to be having a less than thrilling time! I think the key to the thing is get the kids actively involved in the planning stages. Let them pick specific places they want to visit, let them research those places too. The more they participate in the planning the less apt you are to hear "this musuem/cathedral/castle/park/whatever is so b o r i n g !!" Teenagers can be a delight or a nightmare we've noticed, we met two families at the Ceremony of the Keys in London (plan for this if you go there) and they each had teens, the kids really enjoyed it alot but both sets of kids told us they did not enjoy the "countryside" very much, that it was "boring" (they had been in Kent before coming to London). They liked the excitement of the city it seemed. Your kids are all old enough to appreciate some of the sights and places, but I'd still take it easy on the heavy duty sightseeing. Try and dilute it a bit with "fun for teens" things. (Even my husband can't handle hours in a museum and he loves history)! Plan for time to wander away from tourist stuff and experience the city/country you are in, often those times end up being the best times. Another thing I'd mention is that have you done much traveling as a family before? This can be important, if not take some kind of trip closer to home as a trial run and see if everyone can stand everyone else for any length of time. You will be together a great deal. Also, it is difficult to find hotel rooms in Europe that would accommodate 5 people. You may find that you will need 2 rooms in many places. There are also apartment options, but it depends on how long you play on staying in each place whether it makes it worthwhile or not. I also think as one previous poster said a car can give you more flexibility (altho you might want to consider a van with 5 of you). It may be more enjoyable for the kids in the long run.

visited england and scotland last year with boys 9 & 11. One thing we did was stay a week in one place by renting a cottage. It was cheaper and we didn't have to find a new place each night. <BR> <BR>If you get a car (recommended unless you are just visiting large cities), be sure to get one that is big enough. <BR> <BR>Stay at least 2 nights in each place.