$24K- Family of 4 in Europe this Summer

[Anonymous]

Have been quoted $23,400 for our trip. How does this quote sound? We haven't traveled to Europe in a long time so am unsure if this is a fair number. Family of 4. Two weeks in June. LAX to London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice. Includes 4 Star hotels (we do not want short term rental homes). First class rail, all air travel, all airport transfers, $800 tour credits for any tours we may choose. We are considering dropping one city from the itinerary, but for the time being does this quote seem fair?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely drop at least one stop, even with first class everything that is exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Sounds about right to me. I’m looking at about 12k for a bit more than a week in Ireland so I think with all the internal moves you are making, it sounds right. Honestly sounds like too much to me.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Meant to say it sounds like too many stops for just 2 weeks. You will spend a lot of time in transit.

[Anonymous]

Sounds high. Price it out yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Meant to say it sounds like too many stops for just 2 weeks. You will spend a lot of time in transit.

OP here - and yes this is also what I'm thinking. DH wants to try to squeeze in as much as possible because our kids will be with us. They are early 20's so this could be our last big family trip of this kind. Still with that, I think we could drop Venice from the line up. DS wants to see London. DD wants to see Paris. We all want Italy, but Venice can likely go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Meant to say it sounds like too many stops for just 2 weeks. You will spend a lot of time in transit.

OP here - and yes this is also what I'm thinking. DH wants to try to squeeze in as much as possible because our kids will be with us. They are early 20's so this could be our last big family trip of this kind. Still with that, I think we could drop Venice from the line up. DS wants to see London. DD wants to see Paris. We all want Italy, but Venice can likely go.

I think that if you even do 3 cities, you need to buy tours ahead of time with skip the line. You won’t have time to deal with lines and reservations are required for many places. So it will be worth it. 800 may not be enough.

[Anonymous]

If Venice can likely go, you can focus on London, Paris & Rome then do a day trip to Florence.
We were in Rome a few years ago and book a semi private day tour to Pisa and Florence through Viator. We were picked up in a nice minivan and the day was very well planned out to enable us to see the Tower of Pisa and all the highlights of Florence.

[Anonymous]

I think that sounds cheap tbh given 4 star hotels. Are you in two separate rooms each night or all in one? If two rooms, that's over $1000 a night for a decent hotel. Really good price if you're doing 2 rooms.

And I would also drop Venice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Meant to say it sounds like too many stops for just 2 weeks. You will spend a lot of time in transit.

OP here - and yes this is also what I'm thinking. DH wants to try to squeeze in as much as possible because our kids will be with us. They are early 20's so this could be our last big family trip of this kind. Still with that, I think we could drop Venice from the line up. DS wants to see London. DD wants to see Paris. We all want Italy, but Venice can likely go.

Still too much if 2 weeks. My rule for a substantive city like London/Paris/Rome is minimum 4 days, otherwise it feels rushed and you barely unpacked before you are packing again. With the transit times that means 3 stops. I would also not go city-city-city. We did a trip like that years ago and got worn out by city activities. Our next one we blended city time with more countryside time and everyone liked it so much more. If London and Paris are required, I might actually do two flights instead of train rides, and go:

London 4 days
Fly to Milan
Lake Como or Maggiore or Iseo- 4 days
Fly to Paris- 5 days

The flights will be short and easy, and multiple per day so no issue if there are delays, generally. Northern Italy instead of southern/central to avoid heat.

[Anonymous]

Agree on flying. Recently priced it out and inter-Europe flights are really cheap. it was cheaper for our family to fly from city to city than to take the train.

[Anonymous]

What I would give to have the “problem” of deciding how best to do this! I’m not being snarky. It sounds amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree on flying. Recently priced it out and inter-Europe flights are really cheap. it was cheaper for our family to fly from city to city than to take the train.

Yes it just depends on your route. Anything which crosses the Alps is generally faster to fly, unless its two cities close to each other like say Milan-Zurich. Also most train rides over 5 hours or so flying will often be faster and similar price- just that that distance is farther than in the US because the trains are usually faster. But good to search both options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Meant to say it sounds like too many stops for just 2 weeks. You will spend a lot of time in transit.

OP here - and yes this is also what I'm thinking. DH wants to try to squeeze in as much as possible because our kids will be with us. They are early 20's so this could be our last big family trip of this kind. Still with that, I think we could drop Venice from the line up. DS wants to see London. DD wants to see Paris. We all want Italy, but Venice can likely go.

Do a week in London and a Week in Paris. That's just too much to see anything.

[Anonymous]

Oof this is hard to wrap my brain around. We did a family of three for 10 days for 7K. Not first class airfare. Three cities.

This seems like an excessive number of stops.