Winter in Europe with 2 teens
 

We are a family of 4 (two boys 19 and 13) are cooking the idea of a 2-week trip to Europe in the winter. We will land in Paris on 13 Dec and will leave Paris on 25th Dec. For me and my husband , this is our 3rd trip to Europe , we have been to Berlin, London, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Rome, Venice and Barcelona. But this is the first time we are bringing our boys.

Our original plan is to visit Athens, London, Amsterdam , Paris and Spain. Being fanatic football fans, my boys would like to visit football stadiums. We are open to any suggestions.

We seek your expert opinion on what is the most efficient itinerary, i.e. not spending too much time on the road. We dont mind taking the night train as long as we can save on the hotels. Being four of us, we wanted to bunk in all together in a room.

We will mainly rely on trains while in Europe or maybe low cost regional flights or even low cost Eurolines buses.

Thanks in advance

Visiting London, and your boys' interest in football stadiums, I'm surprised you haven't tagged this post for the UK. As well as the national stadium at Wembley, there are several top football clubs in London, e.g. Arsenal, Chelsea, etc.

Don't know if you will be able to tour the 2012 London Olympic site, but that's something to check into. I toured the Sydney Olympic site about five months before the games, and it was very interesting. :-)

Hi sabhaida,

trying to cram London, Athens, amsterdam, Paris and spain into 2 weeks is a tall order - in fact I'd go so far as to say it can't be done. i would drop Athens and amsterdam as being lest relevant to your stated interest.

and if your priority really is football, I'm puzzled about why you are starting and ending in Paris - anything you can do about this? do you know about open-jaw flights? [fly into one place, out of another]. they are generally no dearer than round trips, which is what you've got.

however, if you are stuck with this, depending on what tickets you can get, I would go immediately from Paris to Barcelona [or madrid - which do your lads prefer?] and having see the stadium/s or even if you are lucky, a match, head to London [or Manchester?].

then back to Paris for the end of your stay, Christmas shopping etc. that will mean you are ending your trip in the place you are flying home from - a more efficient use of time.

as for rooms, go to trip advisor, put in your dates, and that you need 1 room for 4 people. you may or may not be lucky. The alternative is to go for 2 doubles, and ask for them to be adjoining; that's the option we always went for [something to do with our kids claiming that we snore!] and we were usually successful.

We will mainly rely on trains while in Europe or maybe low cost regional flights or even low cost Eurolines buses -

I would forget about Eurolines buses which run limited routes and hop trains which go all the time everywhere - for an experience you may want to book a 4-person couchette compartment on an overnight train and also relocated long distance at night and also save on a night's hotel cost.

Great sites IMO for lots of info on European trains (and railpasses which you may consider, such as the Eurail Select Saverpass for 3, 4 or 5 countries) - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - check out the latter's online and susperb IMO European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of rail itineraries for each country.

Being fanatic football fans, my boys would like to visit football stadiums. We are open to any suggestions.>

In Amsterdam the AJAX stadium has tours and a museum to this storied club's history - it is a short metro ride from the town center.

I think the proposed itinerary is daft. You can handle into London, through Paris and home from Amsterdam in that time frame, but going to Spain (where, it's a decent-sized country?) and Greece (by train? insane), which are two of the farther reaches of "western" Europe, is too much. (I know, Greece isn't geographically in the west of Europe, hence the quotes).

If you stay a bit longer and go Amsterdam-Paris-London, you can try to get tickets to the Boxing Day matches in England (that's December 26) - the Premier League has a full slate of games, and both Chelsea and Arsenal are home (bring lots of money!).

I like the Ajax suggestion - have the kids read How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer (no, it doesn't, but the title's catchy), there's a good chapter on Ajax. Considering its cultural importance and its influence on the game (three words: total football, 1970s), that's a fine choice.

BigRuss makes a lot of sense here - Spain and Greece should be cut if you want to see the other three cities, which are really close together by train - and you could also check out Rotterdan if into soccer as their team also is famous and has a museum/stadium tour also I believe.

If you wanted to include either Spain or Greece I would end up in one of those (flying there from northern Europe and then flying back to Paris - if you could change your ticket to an open jaw (flying into one airport and out of another) would be great to just fly home from Greece or Spain.

Spain is not so far from Paris actually by train since there is an overnight train between Paris and Barcelona and Madrid. But as BigRuss says Greece is a long long way by rail and only makes sense on such a short trip to fly there.

We seek your expert opinion on what is the most efficient itinerary, i.e. not spending too much time on the road. We dont mind taking the night train as long as we can save on the hotels.>

In 12 days -

1- Land in Paris
2- Paris
3- Paris
4- Paris - day trip to Versailles perhaps
5- Take Thalys train to Amsterdam - goes up to nearly 200 mph
6- Amsterdam
7- Amsterdam
8- Take train and boat combo to London (via Hook of Holland and Harwich) - thrill of going to England by boat as one used to have to do and also some great discounted advance deals - all-inclusive ticket and timings, etc.
9- London
10- London
11- London
12 - Take Eurostar Chunnel train to Paris
13 - Fly out of Paris

Again open jaw - flying into Paris and out of London would be much better, time-wise and money-wise on land transport.

There is a football hiatus during the holiday season, but there are guided tours of the Stade de France at all times.

There is a football hiatus during the holiday season,>>

in the UK they usually play on boxing Day, which must make Christmas Day fun for professional footballers, which is why I suggested the OP checked what teams are playing when.

i think we've lost the OP.

Thank you for all the value reply.

Heimdall - Definitely, the boys would love to go the Stadiums in London. Although , my husband and I have visited Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge. we will definitely be going to there again. My youngest son , he has even save his own pocket money to tour his favorite Stadium Bridge. We intend to stay in London for 2 nights before going to other countries.

We will definitely check out 2012 London Olympic site. My elder son he loved history , so we also intend to visit Imperial War Museum. For my husband and me, we have been to all those sites , just doing it this time with the boys :)

Coming from a tropical country , we really wanted to fell the snow. Hope that this coming trip , we wont be disappointed

I also agree that you've bitten off too much. I'd cut Athens and Spain, as others have suggested--or at least Athens.

Since your husband loves history, he might find Churchill's War Rooms interesting.

Annhig.

Thank you for your advise.

The tickets are presents from my boss so definately , we must start and end in Paris. In facts its already confirm.

Barcelona and Madrid is a definately MUST . In fact , to save cost, there are night buses in between this 2 cities that we might be interested to take as the train ride is quite expensive though. Being a Barcelona fan, I have been to Camp Nou, last Jan. My eldest son is a fan of Real Madrid , so definately we will be going there too.

We are not into shopping, we just want to view as much places as we can. Athens has always been my dream city to visit. Thats why I wanted to visit Athen this time round . But if time does not permit, perhaps next time.

Any idea how cold is the weather in Spain? The boys really wanted to feel the snow :)

Thank you PalenQ,

In Jan, my husband and I had a bad experience with a night train from Venice to Rome. It was a 6-person couchette and the one siting in front and besides were very roudy and a small arguements happens between them, I will try to look out for your receomendation on 4-person couchette overnight compartment.

We even have look into Ryan air and Easy Jet for low cost flight .

Thank you for your suggestions, will definately look for www.seat61.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

PalenQ,

These a flight via EasyJet from Paris Orly to Athens on 14th Dec , it cost EUR 35. We wanted to take that but worry we dont have enough time in Spain,. Perhaps we will skip Athens this time round.

Thank you for your proposal. My husband and I had taken Euroline bus from Paris to London , where we were transfered to a big ship and cross the English Channel. We wanted to do the same with the boys either via Paris - London or Amsterdam -Paris. It cost only EUR15 each , if we book early .

Any idea, which country is snowing during 13-Dec to 25 Dec?

PalenQ,

There is a flight via EasyJet from Paris Orly to Athens on 14th Dec , it cost EUR 35. We wanted to take that but worry we dont have enough time to venture Spain,. Perhaps we will skip Athens this time round.

Thank you for your proposal. My husband and I had taken Euroline bus from Paris to London , where we were transfered to a big ship and cross the English Channel. We wanted to do the same with the boys either via Paris - London or Amsterdam -Paris. It cost only EUR15 each , if we book early .

Any idea, which country is snowing during 13-Dec to 25 Dec?

Any idea, which country is snowing during 13-Dec to 25 Dec?>>

sabhiada - european weather doesn't quite work like that. if you want as good a guarantee of snow as you can get, you'll need to go to somewhere mountainous like the french or italian alps, austria or switzerland. it might snow in london, Paris or Madrid, but then again it might not.

My suggestion would be as follows [ignoring Athens where it is MOST unlikely to snow, and the alps]

Day 1 - land in Paris, get easyjet immediately to Madrid or Barcelona [which ever has the best flight times]

Day 2-4 Madrid/Barcelona

Day 4-6 Barcelona or Madrid

Day 7 - fly [easyjet?] to London. Stay london. take in matches/visits to stadiums.

day 10 - eurostar train to Paris. finish trip.

you might have to play with this according to days of the week/what tickets if any you can get. I would prioritise getting tickets to at least one match, [probably doesn't matter which so long as it's premiership or similar] and then adjust your itinerary accordingly.

you have the greatest chance of doing this in London because there are so many premiership teams there.

good luck!

. We wanted to do the same with the boys either via Paris - London or Amsterdam -Paris. It cost only EUR15 each , if we book early .>

Well since you have done it before, as I have the Eurolines transfer and found it OK then OK go for it - folks who have not done the Eurolines may find it way too congested and confining as opposed to trains - there are great discounts on the Amsterdam- Hook of Holland to Harwich to London and IMO that would be even a great experience for kids then the bus as this boat ride is 3 or 4 hours with lots of entertaining activities on board - but 15 euros is so cheap that could be a factor. Is that an overnight bus?

annhig

Thank you for your proposal. Will definately look out for any match . and work around it.

annhig

Thank you for your proposal. Will definately look out for any match . and work around it.