$24K- Family of 4 in Europe this Summer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Price seems reasonable to me. It’s a lot of money but travel has gotten very expensive—and I assume you need two hotel rooms.

It won’t be super luxe at this price, IME. Nice, sure, but I don’t think your hotels will be the swanky kind of “4-star”—work it out and see.

People will say it’s lot but I think people with young kids don’t realize how expensive it is to travel with teens/young adults. It’s basically doubling the cost — twice the hotel cost, twice the restaurant bill (or, really, more, and even more if the kids are old enough to drink), adult tix to museums and activities.

Yes we will be getting 2 rooms. And I'm aware that 4 star in Europe is middle of the road, which we are absolutely okay with. We are "Marriott/Hyatt" type travelers. We've never stayed at a Four Seasons or Ritz level hotel, and have never flown first or even business class. Sadly even with our middle of the road travel and accommodations, it's $$$$. We've been saving up for this trip for a few years. I know for some it seems extravagant - and yes I know we are so very fortunate to even be able to consider doing this - but for us it's our last chance to really travel with our grown children before they go off and start lives of their own. DH will be retiring in 3 years time so after that it's solo travel going forward.

I think you’ll have a great time. Be prepared for meal costs and on the ground expenses—they will add up.

Thanks PP. We're really excited about it. And yes I told DH to expect our overall spend to hit $30K after all is said and done. He nearly fell over, but we both agree that after years of not taking vacations while all of our friends went away for 2-3 weeks every summer, doing domestic vacations only when it was in the budget, and saving where we could that it's our turn to just go and do it! I have family all over Europe so it will be nice to see them also.

Wait you are also adding in side trips to see family?

They all live close to the cities we are visiting. Maybe 45 mins train rides. And if time is too tight they can come see us, or we just skip it. I used to go to Europe every summer, for the entire summer when I was a kid - basically from age 7-16 when I started working and could no longer go every summer. Last time I went to Europe was for our honeymoon when I was 31. I'm now 58.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It sounds like a nice trip, OP, and we did the same thing with our college-aged kids only to find out that it was NOT the end of our family travels. That is, we still travel together on occasion and sometimes with grandchildren in tow. So don't put too much pressure on this one trip. I agree with the others that fewer destinations would be better for two weeks, especially if you've not been there with your children before. For example, London plus day trips warrants 2 weeks on its own; and it would be easy to spend 14 days with Venice/Florence/Rome alone. I like to do my own planning, but I'm sure it comes to about $15-20K (hotels/trains/meals/activities) without airfare for two weeks, so the price is reasonable. If it comes out a few thousand cheaper than your quote, it's because I like to choose non-chain hotels that are characteristic of the locations, but there are plusses and minuses to that. The exchange rate is very favorable right now, so I hope your travel agent is passing that on.

huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It sounds like a nice trip, OP, and we did the same thing with our college-aged kids only to find out that it was NOT the end of our family travels. That is, we still travel together on occasion and sometimes with grandchildren in tow. So don't put too much pressure on this one trip. I agree with the others that fewer destinations would be better for two weeks, especially if you've not been there with your children before. For example, London plus day trips warrants 2 weeks on its own; and it would be easy to spend 14 days with Venice/Florence/Rome alone. I like to do my own planning, but I'm sure it comes to about $15-20K (hotels/trains/meals/activities) without airfare for two weeks, so the price is reasonable. If it comes out a few thousand cheaper than your quote, it's because I like to choose non-chain hotels that are characteristic of the locations, but there are plusses and minuses to that. The exchange rate is very favorable right now, so I hope your travel agent is passing that on.

huh?

Absolutely...it depends on your goal for the trip. A whirlwind tour of a few capital cities or settling in and doing a location thoroughly. The former will tend to be pricier because of the intercity transportation and less efficient because you lose at least 1/2 day when you change locations. But if OP wants to cover a lot of ground and tick off a lot of boxes, that's another valid strategy. We've rented a flat for 2 weeks and not run out of things to do in and around London. And with young adult children, it would be nice if they had some time on their own, so staying in one place might hold some advantages. Fodor's Travel Talk and Tripadvisor Forums are good places for all manner of travel questions.

[Anonymous]

My new policy is 1 country at a time. Do Italy or France only. You won't regret it.

[Anonymous]

First class rail is a waste. Source: Lived in Europe 15 years straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My new policy is 1 country at a time. Do Italy or France only. You won't regret it.

Yep! +1

1 country at a time makes the logistics so much easier for our family.

[Anonymous]

I would drop Venice and Rome especially if going at a peak time.

[Anonymous]

Fair, yes. Can cost be lowered - yes.
For one, I’d drop first class rail.
If dropping a city: drop Florence, not Venice.
Florence sits in a valley that gets no breeze at all and becomes unbearably hot in the summer. Also Venice is more of a must see vs. Florence, imo.

[Anonymous]

I think the pricing sounds right and I agree with dropping Venice. I’d spend 4 days in London (I find I need a day to adjust to time change so it is really more like 3 good days there), take the eurail to Paris for another 3 days, and then fly to Rome and spend the rest of the time in Rome, Florence and could do a couple of day trips to small towns in Tuscany or even the seaside.

[Anonymous]

WE went to Scotland and Ireland last summer. 10 days - Less than 4k. I booked it all myself. WE rented a car in Scotland and drove all over - took one tour in Ireland and hated the tour bus thing.
Booked AirBnBs the entire way, and made sure they offered a free breakfast. We only had to buy one meal at night then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fair, yes. Can cost be lowered - yes.
For one, I’d drop first class rail.
If dropping a city: drop Florence, not Venice.
Florence sits in a valley that gets no breeze at all and becomes unbearably hot in the summer. Also Venice is more of a must see vs. Florence, imo.

DP - I agree with this. Esp with kids - Venice is the best. Doesn't matter young or old. Florence is beautiful but it's a lot of museums. I love Florence but I'm 51 years old. Florence is that sweep me off my feet the scenes in movies set to opera. It's picturesque. The thing about Venice? It's unique - there's glass blowing, sitting and hearing jazz and just chilling out. You can't really do this right in summer but you can get lost just walking around and it's cooler than it sounds. Venice is accessible. For having seen it once you will never forget it - it's just different than all other places. I have been to Venice, Florence, Rome, Tuscany all more than once and Venice is the place I tell everyone they must go. The other towns are wonderful and definitely worthwhile but Venice is the one place you gotta go once in your life. I do think Summer is a hard season for it but between never going and going in summer, you know..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fair, yes. Can cost be lowered - yes.
For one, I’d drop first class rail.
If dropping a city: drop Florence, not Venice.
Florence sits in a valley that gets no breeze at all and becomes unbearably hot in the summer. Also Venice is more of a must see vs. Florence, imo.

DP - I agree with this. Esp with kids - Venice is the best. Doesn't matter young or old. Florence is beautiful but it's a lot of museums. I love Florence but I'm 51 years old. Florence is that sweep me off my feet the scenes in movies set to opera. It's picturesque. The thing about Venice? It's unique - there's glass blowing, sitting and hearing jazz and just chilling out. You can't really do this right in summer but you can get lost just walking around and it's cooler than it sounds. Venice is accessible. For having seen it once you will never forget it - it's just different than all other places. I have been to Venice, Florence, Rome, Tuscany all more than once and Venice is the place I tell everyone they must go. The other towns are wonderful and definitely worthwhile but Venice is the one place you gotta go once in your life. I do think Summer is a hard season for it but between never going and going in summer, you know..

I think that's true, Venice was incredibly unique. But personally I get so frustrated with the crowds that its very hard to enjoy. And yes that's hypocritical, I know (you aren't in traffic, you ARE traffic, etc). As you said, the summer time crowd levels would be enough for me to make it hard to enjoy those unique things. If I were traveling without kids I think I could enjoy it more, because I would be more likely to be out later at night once the crowds die down. But of course this is personal preference/taste, so everyone has different tolerances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WE went to Scotland and Ireland last summer. 10 days - Less than 4k. I booked it all myself. WE rented a car in Scotland and drove all over - took one tour in Ireland and hated the tour bus thing.
Booked AirBnBs the entire way, and made sure they offered a free breakfast. We only had to buy one meal at night then.

How were the crowds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WE went to Scotland and Ireland last summer. 10 days - Less than 4k. I booked it all myself. WE rented a car in Scotland and drove all over - took one tour in Ireland and hated the tour bus thing.
Booked AirBnBs the entire way, and made sure they offered a free breakfast. We only had to buy one meal at night then.

I don't get the WE emphasis, but ok. Also 10 days in two countries that are not as touristy as the areas OP is talking about is a different story. also you didn't say how many of you traveled. I find $4K hard to believe in this scenario, very hard. You can't even take a domestic beach vacation for $4k, much less under $4k. You're leaving stuff out.

[Anonymous]

That's a lot of stops but the quote seems low to me!