Hey guys,
you have been very helpful with all the information here. can you please tell me what you think of my trip itinerary. we have 3 kids, age 8,10 and 12.

Day 1. arrive in London
Day 2. London sightseeing
Day 3. London sightseeing
Day 4. take a channel ride to Paris
Day 5. Paris
Day 6. Paris
Day 7. paris, then rent a car and go to Provence
Day 8. provence
Day 9. provence
Day 10. french riviera
day 11. french riviera
day 12. italian riviera
day 13. italian riviera
day 14. italian riviera
day 15.venice
day 16.venice
day 17.venice

i wanted to do 3 weeks so i have some flexibility. would you reccoment to stop over somewhere else?

I'm already exhausted just reading this itinerary.

Day 7 - Rent a car and drive to Provence ?
DON'T. Take the TGV to Avignon or Aix and pick up your rental car there- it's 2.5 hours versus at least 8 sitting on busy roads in a hot car.

I don't know if your plan is to take the rental car into Italy, but the drop off charge will probably be enormous - if the company will even let you drive the car into Italy in the first place.

Since we don't know where you want to go in Provence or the Côte d'Azur or the Italian riviera, we can't really offer much on that part of the trip.

PB

Where are you returning from - if London, I'd suggest check the low costs airlines from Venice to London in order to get back. In that case I'd cut one day from the London sightseeing & add it to the end "just in case" of flight delays

Asumming Eurostar for London to Paris, you'll have to book now - it's also only 3.5 hours so you can have a half day more sightseeing in either London or Paris

And why 5 days at French/Italian Rivera's, if it's for the children, knock a couple days out of that & spend them on the Venice Lido so all the "downtime" with the children isn't in one lump

If you have a few more days to play with, I would add at least one more day each to London and Paris, preferably two more days to London where you'll be jet-lagged.

You are going to be heading into the French Riviera and the Italian Riviera at the height of the season. Is this really what you want to do? Where exactly were you thinking of going? Both have innumreable towns to choose from. As mentioned above, renting a car in one country and dropping it off in another country is extremely expensive.

Do you need a sandy beach? Do you want to hike?

There are other cooler, less touristed locations in Europe, with plenty of things for kids to do. Have you considered Amsterdam, for instance? Switzerland?

I wouldn't enjoy Venice in August.

I suggest you add time to both London and Paris, and then pick a nice, cool, out of the way place to enjoy nature in Europe with occasional sightseeing.

With children that age, you might think of London, Paris, Switzerlan, and then perhaps Lago di Garda in Italy, with its lakeside fun and amusement parks, and then Venice if you think the kids and you can take the heat and humidity.

thank you very much for this answer. we have looked it over and decided to completely change our itinerary to Eastern Europe. i will post a question if you dont mind, on the next post. Many thanks!

And who says this board doesn't have any influence on people?