How to plan a big trip? Help!
 

My DH and I are thinking about taking our two teenage kids to England or Europe for a two or three week trip this summer. This will be OD graduation gift. Don't mind spending some money, but this is not going to be top of the line. Probably along the lines of Radisson, not the Plaza.

Problem is, how to plan this? I have, in the past, planned most of our trips. Road trips and HI trips. But this one stumps me. Not even sure how to do it. Where do we go? Paris, Italy? How long to stay? We don't want "if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium" tour. Or a tour with lots of older people.

Yes, I know this is the US board, but I am much more familiar here than European board. My main question is how to plan it? Do I call a travel agent? On the web? Call the airlines... How do I know it is good tour, good price? The hotels are OK, the location is where I want to be? See my delimma? How do you get started and who do I trust with this?

HELP me Foderites...If you can. Thanks in advance.

Heavens, I think you kinda/sorta have to figure our where you want to go. Throw together a strawman itinerary, get comments on the board concerning how long to stay in certain locations, then start working on hotels/rental cars/rail transportation.

You could spend all your time in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, etc. Do you just want highlights?

Grab a map of Europe and try to draw out some sort of itinerary. For example, 5 nights in Paris with 2 day trips. 4 nights in Brussels, with 2 day trips, 3 nights in Amsterdam with 1 day trip, etc. ((b))

Take this post to the Europe forum and you'll get more help than you know what to do with.

I agree with the other post-ers. It would be helpful to have some idea of what you're interested in doing. Touristy-sightseeing, off-the-beaten-track, nature?? Have you looked at any of the past travel logs written by others on the 'Europe' board? That may help give you an idea of where you'd like to spend your time.

I personally prefer to go to cities on my own versus on a tour. I've been on the Contiki Europe tour which is for people from 18-35 years but I would have much rather have explored the cities on my own and spend how much time I want at various places vs working on the tour operator's schedule.

I think this forum is a great place to start though.

gtrekker
P.S. My Europe favourites would have to be London, Paris, Switzerland. I'd love to see Spain but have never been there. :)

start with your airline tickets. Start signing up with 'Fare Alert' watchers. Often you can save hundreds of dollars by picking weird dates for your trip.

I think Heavens needs to figure out where to go before buying airline tickets? ((b))

An unusual approach might be to check out some of the major tour companies and see what their itineraries look like - as a starting point, not in preparation for taking one of their tours. (Globus, Trafalgar, etc.) They each have tours that are concentrated time in one or 2 countries, and more frenetic tours of 15 countries in 4 days. (well, maybe not that much, but you get the idea). These tour companies generally have a good idea of main cities, sights, etc.

Another first step is to talk to your kids - for some unknown reason, both of our kids have/had definite ideas about what countries, regions of the world they have a strong desire to visit. We ended up going on a trip to Egypt instead of London because of such an off-hand comment by one of our kids.

That will give you a starting point - then it is just like planning any other trip, depending on your style. I usually start with destinations, then air, then hotels in each major stop - filling in after that.

I'm not sure why you are resisting but the Europe branch of Fodors is absolutely filled with information answering most all of your questions. Plenty of newcomers and highly traveled folks both post there.

You could plan it yourself, book everything online, call a travel agent, pay for a tour, telephone an airlines, or a combination of the above.

I think a good place to start would be some general guidebooks from the library, watching the travel TV channel, and/or travel magazines. I also endorse the idea of looking at the itinerary for formal organized tours to get some sense of various popular itineraries.

I would also post this on the Europe Forum once you have some idea of where you would like to go. ((b))

Heavens, what a great idea. We did the same with our two sons when they were 16 & 17. Looking back now, 14 years later, it was the best thing we could have done. We were gone 5 weeks. We spent one week with relatives in Germany and drove to Amsterdam, Brugges, Paris, south to the French Riviera, Italian Riviera, Venice, Austria, Yugoslavia, Budapest, Prague and back through Germany via the Romantische Strasse. I had a suitcase filled with travel guides alone. We took 1200 photos and 13 hours of video, which will be a great memory when we are too old to travel.

Since you will have only two or three weeks, don't bite off more than you can reasonably do. Once you have narrowed it down to which countries and cities you can focus on which hotels in each city, which restaurants, which sights and so on.

I would buy a comprehensive map of Europe and have a family brainstorming session, getting everyone's input and expectations. If they are involved in the planning they will enjoy it more.

Maggi

me again... if you don't want to post on the European branch you could still go there and do some "search" -ing. Using key words like organized tours, traveling with teens, etc. you will find all kinds of questions, answers, first-person trip reports about families traveling together and the like.

Suggest that a tour is not really a good idea with teens. Typically tours are folks middle-aged and older - if not primarily seniors - and teens will likely be bored stiff. If you find the entire process too daunting you might consider a package - with air fare and hotels - but generally you can do better yourself than almost any package.

Your first mandatory step is to at least pick a couple of destinations to build the trip around. For two weeks suggest 3 destinations - for 3 weeks four (and that is cities or areas - not entire countries).

Perhaps the idea of looking at a bunch of tour catelogs is good - then you'll at least have some "I must see thats" to start with. Or alternatively look at either a couple of good general europe guidebooks or the desinations section of this site to help you narrow down your choices.

Also, agree you must do this on the europe board to get the most meaningful advice.

Thanks for all of your help. I KNEW you guys would come through. I posted a response earlier and I have no clue what happened to it. Very odd.

Chicgal, that sounds like a great plan and something H and I had discussed. He is a golfer. We have been to London and St. Andrews. Loved it. He does want to try and golf on this as well.

And taking in Paris would be a first time for me. And I used to be an international flight attendant! Saw a lot of the Pacific and other odd spots. Not too much of the "desirable" destinations. Yes, I was not sr enough.

How much is the chunnel per person? How do I book a Paris hotel? I know I am lame but I am seriously considering a TA to do all of this for me. Not lazy but just too busy.

Thanks so much for all of your help. This can all be so overwhelming.

Budman, sometimes the price of the airline tickets are what dictate my destination.

Well, that's one way to make a decision. ((a)) ((b))

At the risk of being far too general, I'm going to suggest an approach that is different from the above responses.

1) Determine your family's broad objectives: landscapes or urban scapes,
mountains or beaches, museums or outdoor activities, sports or not, fast-paced or leisurely, large cities or villages, see a little of lots of places or see a lot of only a few places, rent a car or use public transportation, hotel rooms or apartments, cooking for yourself or not, etc., or the combinations of those choices

2) Once you've determined your objectives, explain them to the Europe forum. Ask for suggestions about areas of Europe they might suggest that you visit.

3) Research those areas to get a feel for how long you might want to spend in each place you visit. Draft a tentative itinerary and run it by the Europe forum. It should be VERY general: two days in City A, three days in City B, etc.

4) With that feedback in hand, draft at least one revised itinerary and run it by the Europe forum again for suggestions.

5) Once you've got your itinerary reasonably (though still only tenatively) set, ask the Europe forum about suggestions about how to get from one place to the next: plane, train, bus or car? If you generally plan to use a car, are there any large cities in which you should plan on not using it?

6) Keep narrowing down the details, such as areas within a large city to stay, including which hotels and restaurants would be recommended. It will be helpful to provide an idea of your budget, if not in monetqry terms at least in terms of 3-star vs 5-star hotels.

Oh what fun!!!

Definitely get input from the teens and find out what they would like to do and how they'd like to spend their time. (Surprises may await you... our 18-year old son simply loved napping in Paris, taking photos and exploring on his own... We made plans to do certain things as a family and certain things separately.) You might do some searches on the Europe forum with teen in the search criteria. You'll find a lot of tips and learn a lot.

Get frequent traveler cards for whatever airline you purchase your tickets. If the airline you travel with is partnered with other airlines, you might ask to have miles put on a domestic partner airline. I have found more flexibility when cashing in airmiles when I use them for flights on the airline with the miles rather than one of their partner airlines. Miles to Europe really make a big dent in a free ticket someplace else.

You can easily book your hotel reservations and airline tickets on-line. For hotel reservations, sometimes I do this through e-mail. Kind of depends on the hotel. Actually now is a good time to hone down dates and places so you can start watching airfare sales. Do NOT go in August!!! (That's when many Europeans are on holiday.) Time of year and weather are important decision factors.

I'd skip the tour idea. I think Europe is very easy to do as independent travelers. (My experiences are traveling in the UK, France and Spain.)

Stay no less than three nights in any one place. Read the trip planning tips on Slow Traveler... http://slowtrav.com/europe/index.htm

You can read background information on the different countries and they will steer you clear of problematic neighborhoods:

US - http://www.travel.state.gov/

Canada - http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/menu-en.asp

UK - http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?...=1007029390554

Australia - http://www.dfat.gov.au/


Hotels: Find a location that is convenient to what you will be doing. Trip reports and reviews on Fodor's Europe forum as well as guidebooks will point you to nice places to stay. Renting an apartment for a week could be a great idea for your family.

Here's a recent thread that recommends several Paris hotels: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34540414

For Spain, Maribel's guides are essential: http://www.maribelsguides.com/. (These are downloadable pdf files.)

Everything you want to know about Italy: (many thanks to Ira who started this posting)
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34443340

Lurk around on the Europe forum and seek out what appeals to you and your family.

Have a great time planning!
-Sharon

Heavens, I hope you are not getting information overload. ((a))

You must have some idea what you want to do/see. Like others have said, put your thoughts down and go on the Europe forum and start asking questions. ((b))

Lots of good suggestions above.
It may be useful for your teenagers to obtain International Student ID Cards. Many sights & museums have students prices and they check student ID cards.
I think the website is www.isicus.com
also you can probably purchase them from your area colleges or universities.

Thanks all. You have been more help than you know. I will talk to the kids. I think that is my next step, especially daughter for who this trip is for (hubby is getting golf clubs ready as I type). And the little tips like passports and IDs I can work on now. As much as we would like this to be a surprise, to get her in the loop of planning could be more fun.

See, I knew you all would be immense help. Thanks, Fodor friends. I literally would not go ANYWHERE without checking things out with you all first. :)