For anyone headed to Venice with kids...I recommend http://www.veniceonboard.it/en/ for rowing lessons.

OP, there are probably easier and equally enjoyable options for a first European trip in summer: the UK, Northern Europe like Scandinavia, or Central Europe like Switzerland, Germany, Austria, etc. All very easy to visit these days; good for a land tour using trains, no driving required, cooler temps, and excellent base locations for day trips.

But as you say you have "narrowed it down" to Italy and Spain, I have experience with Italy, which as a young family you should probably DIY on land. Your money will go a bit further than on a cruise where you will be paying for amenities and services you may not need that are not central to visiting Italy, and you can choose among many family friendly accommodations and activties. It's a little more chaotic than Northern Europe: hotter, more likelihood of strikes, pickpocketing, crazier traffic. I don't know how the Jubilee year will affect this; it could be a factor, especially in Rome. Unless you stay in the few hotels that can accommodate four people, you will need 2 rooms or an apartment (AirBNB, ItalyPerfect, etc). But the food is familiar, the landmarks are well known, arrangements can be made largely online, and English is widely spoken in the most popular areas where you will want to go as a first time visitor. By the way, the cruise itinerary mentioned above sounded great to me, but I'd rather be immersed in Italy if I had not been before. So choose 2-3 cities and spend some time in them, take the trains between them, maybe a private tour or two. You haven't mentioned whether your family is more oriented toward history, culture, or outdoor activities, but Rome, Venice, Florence, the Italian Lakes, Cinque Terre, are all fantastic destinations. (Milan has some attractions that can be done in a day from Varenna on Lake Como, Pompeii can be a longish day trip from Rome.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:with kids that age, I would just pick one city in Europe and stay in an airbnb, with 1 or 2 side day trips. I have heard Italy won't be great this summer because of the Jubilee. I think London would be great for those ages, and you could do a side trip to Oxford or Stonehenge.

Agree that you should just pick one major city and do some day trips. Moving to a new place every couple days sounds exhausting for everyone.

ICYMI: this is precisely why a Med cruise is fun and convenient rather than exhausting - your hotel is the ship and you are in a new place each day.

Yeah. I think that’s the pros and cons of each choice. Personally I think with a land trip you are better off picking only one or two places for a week or up to 3 for a 2 weeks trip. (Although I’ve also been eying a Sicily itinerary where we would have probably 4 locations but I think it’s doable because we’d have a couple of days with short periods in car with one overnight at Taormina and Ragusa).

Anonymous wrote:Jumping on the rick Steve’s comments….i really liked his 90 minute audio tour of the highlights of the British museum and also thought his walking tour of Rome was okay.

I really think there is an untapped market for self guided audio tours to download. I really really looked for these when we went to London and Rome and downloaded a bunch of different ones, almost all of which sucked. Rick steves isn’t perfect but his were the best of the many I tried. I don’t typically like group walking tours in a city because they feel clunky and I like to be able to pause them to browse or go off track if I see something interesting or even just go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole to get more info. But I really love getting the historical or cultural context from a tour.

Try Context...
https://explore.contexttravel.com/audio-guides#all-audio-guides

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:with kids that age, I would just pick one city in Europe and stay in an airbnb, with 1 or 2 side day trips. I have heard Italy won't be great this summer because of the Jubilee. I think London would be great for those ages, and you could do a side trip to Oxford or Stonehenge.

Agree that you should just pick one major city and do some day trips. Moving to a new place every couple days sounds exhausting for everyone.

ICYMI: this is precisely why a Med cruise is fun and convenient rather than exhausting - your hotel is the ship and you are in a new place each day.

Anonymous wrote:with kids that age, I would just pick one city in Europe and stay in an airbnb, with 1 or 2 side day trips. I have heard Italy won't be great this summer because of the Jubilee. I think London would be great for those ages, and you could do a side trip to Oxford or Stonehenge.

Agree that you should just pick one major city and do some day trips. Moving to a new place every couple days sounds exhausting for everyone.

Jumping on the rick Steve’s comments….i really liked his 90 minute audio tour of the highlights of the British museum and also thought his walking tour of Rome was okay.

I really think there is an untapped market for self guided audio tours to download. I really really looked for these when we went to London and Rome and downloaded a bunch of different ones, almost all of which sucked. Rick steves isn’t perfect but his were the best of the many I tried. I don’t typically like group walking tours in a city because they feel clunky and I like to be able to pause them to browse or go off track if I see something interesting or even just go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole to get more info. But I really love getting the historical or cultural context from a tour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Land based and you don’t need to do a tour and why are you planning a vacation 18 months out FFS.

DP, but I’ll share why I sometimes book/plan in advance:

1. Better deals on hotels and cruises.

2. Getting the dates on our family’s very busy schedule.

3. Having a trip to look forward to…everyone in our family does their own research and makes recommendations (including our kids who often find great restaurants/cafes/spots thanks to recommendations from their friends or social media or random articles that hit their feed).

PS - This comment was rather enlightening. Apparently the cruise haters aren’t planners. They overpay at the last minute and probably follow a land based itinerary built by Rick Steves or randos from Dcumlandia.

I'm going to weigh in here to say that it may feel elite to take shots at Rick Steves, but that's just PP talking to feel good about themselves.

I make all my travel arrangements myself but I have used Rick Steves' itineraries as a starting point for popular destinations that I've been showing my kids for the first time (major European cities). His guidebooks' scheduling estimates, advice on when to see popular destinations, and indie hotel recs have been useful.

There are also pretty good reader-supplied tips on his website's forums. I used them a lot when I planned a trip towards the end of the Covid pandemic and I wanted insights from very recent, savvy travelers. Occasionally he promotes a particular less well-known place (e.g., the castle being built in Guedelon in France) that seems very interesting but is time-consuming or hard to access without a tour like his. So there are also occasional indie recs among the typical info summaries.

I’m the pp who made the snarky comment about Rick Steves…and I watch his videos and read his tips myself. And for the cruise haters: Rick Steves actually has videos and books on cruising the Mediterranean.

Fwiw, we’ve found the best places by simply wandering around or hiring a driver or captain and asking to go where the locals go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Land based and you don’t need to do a tour and why are you planning a vacation 18 months out FFS.

DP, but I’ll share why I sometimes book/plan in advance:

1. Better deals on hotels and cruises.

2. Getting the dates on our family’s very busy schedule.

3. Having a trip to look forward to…everyone in our family does their own research and makes recommendations (including our kids who often find great restaurants/cafes/spots thanks to recommendations from their friends or social media or random articles that hit their feed).

PS - This comment was rather enlightening. Apparently the cruise haters aren’t planners. They overpay at the last minute and probably follow a land based itinerary built by Rick Steves or randos from Dcumlandia.

I'm going to weigh in here to say that it may feel elite to take shots at Rick Steves, but that's just PP talking to feel good about themselves.

I make all my travel arrangements myself but I have used Rick Steves' itineraries as a starting point for popular destinations that I've been showing my kids for the first time (major European cities). His guidebooks' scheduling estimates, advice on when to see popular destinations, and indie hotel recs have been useful.

There are also pretty good reader-supplied tips on his website's forums. I used them a lot when I planned a trip towards the end of the Covid pandemic and I wanted insights from very recent, savvy travelers. Occasionally he promotes a particular less well-known place (e.g., the castle being built in Guedelon in France) that seems very interesting but is time-consuming or hard to access without a tour like his. So there are also occasional indie recs among the typical info summaries.

Anonymous wrote:More than 40 trips to Europe, and never a cruise. Cruises are trash for people who can’t plan or travel on their own. So that’s my answer.

Frankly it is trashy to judge something that you have never tried.

If price is not a huge issue, do a Tauck Bridges (the family oriented) tour. We went to gladiator school, got a private tour of the Sistine Chapel, with dinner on the grounds, pizza making at a farm, stayed at excellent hotels, and there were other people for your kids to hang with when you were getting tired of all the togetherness. I’ve heard that the Adventures by Disney are similar, but we’ve not tried those,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cruises disgorge so many people that there is no such thing as a quiet day. At least by land you can rent a car and go somewhere not so over run with tourists

Um, savvy cruisers hire private drivers or boats to take them off the beaten path. And some cruise ships venture to less touristy areas (particularly the smaller ships). Fwiw.

Nope, sorry. There’s no way you can spin one day in port as a valid form of traveling. It’s just sad.

Riiiiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt.

Because 8-12 hours in a location having fun with your familiar followed by 8-12 hours in another fun location the next day is “sad.”

Honestly, I think it’s sad if you’ve never been on the various bodies of water throughout the Med/Aegean/Adriatic/Ligurian, etc.

The sunsets are breathtaking.

Sailing into the Bay of Kotor surrounded by the mountains is something you can’t experience on land.

Curious what cruise line you used—Crystal? Regent? I looked into some of the smaller cruise ship options for next summer but didn’t pull the trigger. The best one I saw was the disney adventures small ship in the Adriatic — that one looked like a lot of fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Land based and you don’t need to do a tour and why are you planning a vacation 18 months out FFS.

DP, but I’ll share why I sometimes book/plan in advance:

1. Better deals on hotels and cruises.

2. Getting the dates on our family’s very busy schedule.

3. Having a trip to look forward to…everyone in our family does their own research and makes recommendations (including our kids who often find great restaurants/cafes/spots thanks to recommendations from their friends or social media or random articles that hit their feed).

PS - This comment was rather enlightening. Apparently the cruise haters aren’t planners. They overpay at the last minute and probably follow a land based itinerary built by Rick Steves or randos from Dcumlandia.

OP here - thanks for the helpful suggestions! I’m planning so far ahead because my husband is turning 50 next November and said wants to take a big trip in 2026. June is the best time frame for us. If we don’t do the cruise, I wasn’t planning to do a scheduled tour. 2026 cruises can be booked now and I’d like to book early if we go that route.

I do like the London suggestion but we’ve both been to London and Paris twice so would like to do something new.

Again thanks for the actual helpful and non snarky insight!

Cruises do book up early and you get better prices when you book far in advance.

You also get your choice of rooms. We once were among the first bookers for a cruise and got the big suite right at the front of ship so beautiful views. I posted up thread that I think land is better for the Italy and Spain just because of the geography and what there is to see/do, but I like cruises for Caribbean, and think they can be a good choice for other places as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Land based and you don’t need to do a tour and why are you planning a vacation 18 months out FFS.

DP, but I’ll share why I sometimes book/plan in advance:

1. Better deals on hotels and cruises.

2. Getting the dates on our family’s very busy schedule.

3. Having a trip to look forward to…everyone in our family does their own research and makes recommendations (including our kids who often find great restaurants/cafes/spots thanks to recommendations from their friends or social media or random articles that hit their feed).

PS - This comment was rather enlightening. Apparently the cruise haters aren’t planners. They overpay at the last minute and probably follow a land based itinerary built by Rick Steves or randos from Dcumlandia.

OP here - thanks for the helpful suggestions! I’m planning so far ahead because my husband is turning 50 next November and said wants to take a big trip in 2026. June is the best time frame for us. If we don’t do the cruise, I wasn’t planning to do a scheduled tour. 2026 cruises can be booked now and I’d like to book early if we go that route.

I do like the London suggestion but we’ve both been to London and Paris twice so would like to do something new.

Again thanks for the actual helpful and non snarky insight!

Cruises do book up early and you get better prices when you book far in advance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Land based is my vote. We visited Italy in 2023: Rome > Venice > Amalfi > Rome. Italy was very easy to visit. We did not use rental car and used mostly train and taxis. The people were incredibly welcoming and their English was worlds better than our Italian. The sites and food were amazing.

What a unique and original itinerary! lol

What part of OPs first trip to Europe did you not understand?