Italy/Europe with three kids

[Anonymous]

We are starting a VERY long term plan to take the kids to Europe (specifically, at least Italy) next year or maybe in 2017. Kids will be 12, 7, and 5 (2016) or 13, 8, and 6 (2017).

Tell me about your European family trips...Can anyone help me get started in terms of planning and budgeting?

When is the best time of year re: crowds/prices/weather?
What did you do that you consider "can't miss" - and what are the places that you'd drop from your itinerary given a second try?
What travel websites or booking agencies did you use? Do I need a travel agency?
Did anyone rent a house? How?
Do we need a car?
What's a ballpark trip cost for a family of 5 who doesn't need anything too fancy?
Any great books or planning websites I can check out?

Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

I've been there 3x, but never with kids. As for best time to go, *not* August, as that is when the Italians (and a lot of Western Europe) take their vacations.

Rome is an obvious with all the ruins.
Venice is "interesting", but two days may suffice.
Personally, I love the Tuscan area, but not sure kids would.
Mountains/lakes - northern Italy has the Dolomites, which I hear is spectacular (never been myself, but friends have). The lake area is so beautiful.
Beaches - Almafi coast. I've heard Naples is nice, too.
Pompeii - absolute must for older kids, younger will enjoy running around the outdoors. This can be a day trip from Pompeii

Most of the big towns/cities have direct train access, but warning, you are in Italy, and trains can be slow/late. I guess you could try vrbo for rentals. Never used it in Italy, but I have in the UK. Have fun. I'm jealous. We'll probably take our kids in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been there 3x, but never with kids. As for best time to go, *not* August, as that is when the Italians (and a lot of Western Europe) take their vacations.

Rome is an obvious with all the ruins.
Venice is "interesting", but two days may suffice.
Personally, I love the Tuscan area, but not sure kids would.
Mountains/lakes - northern Italy has the Dolomites, which I hear is spectacular (never been myself, but friends have). The lake area is so beautiful.
Beaches - Almafi coast. I've heard Naples is nice, too.
Pompeii - absolute must for older kids, younger will enjoy running around the outdoors. This can be a day trip from Pompeii

Most of the big towns/cities have direct train access, but warning, you are in Italy, and trains can be slow/late. I guess you could try vrbo for rentals. Never used it in Italy, but I have in the UK. Have fun. I'm jealous. We'll probably take our kids in a few years.

ooops.. should read " This can be a day trip from Almafi". This is what we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been there 3x, but never with kids. As for best time to go, *not* August, as that is when the Italians (and a lot of Western Europe) take their vacations.

Rome is an obvious with all the ruins.
Venice is "interesting", but two days may suffice.
Personally, I love the Tuscan area, but not sure kids would.
Mountains/lakes - northern Italy has the Dolomites, which I hear is spectacular (never been myself, but friends have). The lake area is so beautiful.
Beaches - Almafi coast. I've heard Naples is nice, too.
Pompeii - absolute must for older kids, younger will enjoy running around the outdoors. This can be a day trip from Pompeii

Most of the big towns/cities have direct train access, but warning, you are in Italy, and trains can be slow/late. I guess you could try vrbo for rentals. Never used it in Italy, but I have in the UK. Have fun. I'm jealous. We'll probably take our kids in a few years.

Thanks! I studied in Florence in college, but it feels like a million years ago...and obviously, I had a different set of interests in those days.
I never did Pompeii but my kids (especially the older 2) are dying to see it.
I am curious about any posters who have rented a house - it certainly looks to be an affordable way to stay in Italy (lots of houses under $100/nt./)
Do people rent a house for the whole time and then use it as a home base for day and overnight trips to other cities (leaving the house empty overnight sometimes)? Or do you tack it on at the start or end of a trip as a place to relax a bit?

[Anonymous]

This is a great place to stay near Florence: http://fattoriadimaiano.com/en/

You'd need a car but each "room" is like a mini apartment and there are some with at least three bedrooms.

[Anonymous]

We are heading to Italy on Friday with our two kids, ages 6 and 8. Rent apartments, you'll save money there. We got good deal on our flights. We chose spring break for Italy versus the summer as the crowds are larger in the summer and temps warmer too.

[Anonymous]

We've rented in Italy a few times. HomeAway and Tripadvisor are good resources. Look for places with consistently good reviews. I like to combine a week rental someplace central with a hotel tacked on the end as a vacation in a vacation.

Also, I wouldn't rush to see all major sites in one trip. Just pick one or two regions and enjoy them.

You could do a Rome apartment for a week or so and then a hotel on Amalfi Coast for 3-4 days.

Mountains, lakes, beaches are all great options too. Depends what you like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are heading to Italy on Friday with our two kids, ages 6 and 8. Rent apartments, you'll save money there. We got good deal on our flights. We chose spring break for Italy versus the summer as the crowds are larger in the summer and temps warmer too.

Out of curiosity, what's a "good deal" on flights, roughly? I have no concept of what international flights cost. $1000 each? More? Less?

[Anonymous]

We are going in June/July- Paid $1700 per ticket- ouch!

[Anonymous]

$1000 is a pretty good price for summertime flights to Europe-- Italy may be a little on the high side, esp. if you want the nonstop flight.

I agree with the suggestion to rent an apt in Rome. You could also look at Lucca/Pisa/San Gimignano.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are heading to Italy on Friday with our two kids, ages 6 and 8. Rent apartments, you'll save money there. We got good deal on our flights. We chose spring break for Italy versus the summer as the crowds are larger in the summer and temps warmer too.

Out of curiosity, what's a "good deal" on flights, roughly? I have no concept of what international flights cost. $1000 each? More? Less?

I'm the PP going to Italy this week. We went to Germany two summers ago and I paid roughly $623? per ticket. I got very lucky there. For Italy we are flying into Milan because the tickets were much cheaper than Rome or another city. We are connecting in JFK and paid $827 per ticket. It would have been cheaper if we decided to drive to JFK from DC. We used credit card points to cover two of the tickets, so for a family of four we ended up only paying $1655.60 for four tickets to Milan. I was aiming for tickets under $1000 per person. This past summer my husband and I had to pay $1400 + for tickets to Scotland.

I write a travel blog when I'm on vacation (mostly so my parents can see what we are up to without me having to constantly email them pictures or recap our trip to them). I don't want to post the link on here, but if you are willing to share your email address I'm happy to send you the link to my blog. I have details from our trip when the kids were 4 and 6 and we went to Europe and I'll also be adding the details for our upcoming trip.

[Anonymous]

PP again. I'm looking at my expenses spreadsheet right now and for our trip from Friday, March 27 to Tuesday, April 7 we are spending $4416.08 for plane tickets, hotels/apartments, attractions (one per day), and train tickets. You get much better deals with train tickets if you buy them in advance. We are not renting a car at all in Italy. My expenses do not include food, but we eat food daily at home so I never consider that part of a vacation budget. The attractions price will rise during our trip as I only bought tickets for the attractions that sell out in advance, but any other attractions we do are on the minor side compared to what I have booked.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, PP! Yes, please send me the link - I'd love that. [e-mail]

How do you go about finding the cheapest international tickets? I haven't bought an int'l ticket in 10+ years...how lame am I? I always use Orbitz or Cheaptickets for domestic stuff. Is there a comparable int'l site or do those work for int'l flights as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, PP! Yes, please send me the link - I'd love that. [e-mail]

How do you go about finding the cheapest international tickets? I haven't bought an int'l ticket in 10+ years...how lame am I? I always use Orbitz or Cheaptickets for domestic stuff. Is there a comparable int'l site or do those work for int'l flights as well?

Try kayak.com. It looks across a lot of the travel sites.

[Anonymous]

We are starting a VERY long term plan to take the kids to Europe (specifically, at least Italy) next year or maybe in 2017. Kids will be 12, 7, and 5 (2016) or 13, 8, and 6 (2017).

Tell me about your European family trips...Can anyone help me get started in terms of planning and budgeting?

When is the best time of year re: crowds/prices/weather?
What did you do that you consider "can't miss" - and what are the places that you'd drop from your itinerary given a second try?
What travel websites or booking agencies did you use? Do I need a travel agency?
Did anyone rent a house? How?
Do we need a car?
What's a ballpark trip cost for a family of 5 who doesn't need anything too fancy?
Any great books or planning websites I can check out?

Thanks so much!

We lived in Naples for 2 years a few years back (with 2 children younger than yours will be) and traveled all over Europe and of course Italy as well. My first recommendation for a guidebook would be Rick Steves. His Italy guidebook is wonderful, and he has more in-depth regional books for different areas of Italy. One thing I would caution is try not to do too much. How much time will you have in Italy for this trip?
The Rick Steves book lays out itinerary suggestions for various trip lengths and they are pretty accurate in my opinion.

If your trip is on the shorter side, it doesn't make sense to travel south of Rome. It is beautiful and gorgeous there (I know- I lived it everyday!), but it is out of the way and there is just SO MUCH to see in Italy that you can easily fill 7-10 days or more with Rome, Tuscany/Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre....

For accommodations, I highly recommend VRBO. We used VRBO extensively in Europe and never had a bad one. It is so much nicer with kids to be able to spread out a bit, and we would get breakfast stuff to have in the place because it's much easier to eat breakfast while getting everyone ready before starting the day. Here were our favorites from Florence and another agriturismo (farm stay in Tuscany) we adored:
Florence: http://www.casacaterina.it/index-florence.html Great location, lots of room for kids.
Tuscany: http://www.romitoriodiserelle.it/

We used a VRBO in Rome as well, right off the Piazza Navona that was good, but I don't think it would be large enough for your family of 5 (it just had 2 queen beds IIRC).

My other piece of advice is to be realistic about what you can and can't do. A trip with children is a little different than a trip you'd do on your own. Prioritize the most important sights for each place and try to get those in first. For example, we really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel and at the time had a 1 and 3 year old. Obviously their patience for a long museum tour in the heat of summer was not very long. So we got to the museum, headed straight for the Chapel, and then while the kids were still "happy" to be in their stroller with a lollipop we walked around the other areas of the museum for a bit. Until they were ready to get out, and then we left.
Also, pack snacks. Especially in Italy dinner is not until at least 8, if not later, in most restaurants. Prepare for this with lots of snacks!!
Also try to seek out parks and other things that your children might enjoy for a little break here and there to balance out the museums. And realize that your youngest children will NOT appreciate the trip the way you will. And that's okay! It's just their first taste of international travel and they have many years to return and hopefully this first taste will expand their basic understanding of other countries and cultures different than ours.