We do direct flights only for the most part.

We did this. It's totally fine. Leave Saturday come back Saturday or Sunday. Easter Monday is always off and we have it to recover. If cost is an issue we do Monday to Monday. Cheaper.

Our spring break in mcps is 10 days. If we were traveling internationally, and leaving Friday night and coming back Monday 4/6 we’d have solid 8 days for sightseeing.

Leave Thursday before, arrive Monday after.

Our school also has the Monday after Easter off, so 10 total days including the weekends.

Miss some school days. It's an international school so the excuse is that they are learning more of their language

5 days off of school = a 9 day break. That’s plenty of time for a couple of Europeans cities.

Leave Friday and miss 1 day of school and then come back on Easter. We usually have Monday off but not this year.

We're just going to a single city that's a direct flight. We're leaving late because flights were a whole lot less less expensive so we depart on Sunday and return the following Sunday.

Our school usually has a half day before a long break, so we pick them up and head straight to the airport if it's a flight to Europe that is in the earlier bank of departures.

We leave Friday evening and return on the following Saturday.

Western Europe is easier for this. Night time flight after school gets out to London, Paris, etc. Arrive in the morning and hit the ground running. Fly back on day 5 and you will hae 4 full days in Europe.

Usually we take off the Friday before break so can fly overnight Thursday. That gives us a 10 day trip with only missing one school day.

If you’re out one week, you extend your trip to include the adjacent weekends. It’s not ideal, but given the limited time we have to travel as a family, we make it work. We have done Japan and France on spring break, as well as Mexico (much easier!).

Are you flying out the same day the kids get out of school? Our school is only out for 5 days.