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European Trip Planning (1 Viewer)

Senor Schmutzig

Senor Schmutzig

Footballguy
Yes, it's a bit late in the season to be planning a trip to Europe, but that's how we roll. Never ones to plan THAT far in advance, we tend to be rather spontaneous when it comes to travel.

I was let go from my company in mid-December and have a 6-month severance package so I'm hoping to start a new job on or around July 1st. My son is graduating high school in May so I wanted to put together a two-weekish European vacation in June as a somewhat graduation gift and a suitable end to my 6-month "sabbatical".

I am looking to book for anytime in June so there is some flexibility as to the dates and the locations. Not sure what the real purpose of this thread is but I always accept recommendations from FBG's for locations, hotels spots, restaurants, etc.

It's still early in the planning stages, but my initial idea has us flying FLL-LGW on Norse Atlantic Airways (startup in 2021 from previous execs from Norwegian Air that went belly-up during COVID). it seems to be relatively inexpensive for a late booking so that's where I'm starting. London is always an easy transition when traveling to Europe, plus I want to take a day to head up north to the place I spent my first year in college (Lincolnshire). I highly valued that year and want to instill the "travel abroad" spirit into my son so he can experience it as well at some point in his college career.

So 3 to 4 days in the UK before heading to Paris for a couple of days. Not sure if we will rent a car in the UK and drive, or just take the Chunnel train to Paris and rent a car there for the rest of the trip.

Again, this is still entirely up in the air, but I would like to get to Rothenburg ob der Tauber as that is where my family heritage is from before heading south. Want to make a stop at Neuschwanstein Castle because it's a castle, and I really like castles, especially this one (despite it not being that old by comparative European standards). We may stop in Frankfurt between Paris and Rothenburg as I have a friend that lives there that I would love to see.

After that, we will probably take a meandering route south through the Alps via Switzerland or Austria. We have an affinity for both so not sure which route we will take yet.

We will probably end up in Italy, most likely Rome as it's one of the few major places in Europe that we haven't been to and a logical place to fly back home.

For some context, we spent 5 weeks in Europe back in 2010 when my son was five. I had to be in Amsterdam and Lisbon for work for a week apiece and then had some planned vacation time as I knew I was leaving my company shortly thereafter. We ended up taking a train from Lisbon to Barcelona, then on to southern France, renting a car, and driving through Monte Carlo, northern Italy, Switzerland, and France before flying back home from Paris three weeks later. This may be the last "big trip" with our son so I want to make it memorable.

I'll update this thread as things get clarified but I am all about taking some suggestions from y'all about where we should go and what we should see while understanding the general route we are going to be taking. Our vacation choices are usually driven by our stomachs (we love food and are driven by culinary opportunities) and tend to focus on the off-the-beaten-path type of places.

Do your best FBG's.

Possibilities:
England - London and Lincolnshire
France - Paris (Paris is back on the table as a possible arrival/departure city)
Germany - Frankfurt*, Rothenburg*, Neuschwanstein via Romantic Road*
Switzerland (Zurich)
Italy - Rome*, Naples, Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, Capri

* if definite
 
Last edited:
Senor Schmutzig said:
We will probably end up in Italy, most likely Rome as it's one of the few major places in Europe that we haven't been to and a logical place to fly back home.
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Rome is an easy week all by itself. If you're bringing the kid Pompeii is mandatory - such an amazing place. If you take the trains watch the pickpockets south of Naples, though. I also vote for a day at the Vatican.
 
Sand said:
Senor Schmutzig said:
We will probably end up in Italy, most likely Rome as it's one of the few major places in Europe that we haven't been to and a logical place to fly back home.
Click to expand...
Rome is an easy week all by itself. If you're bringing the kid Pompeii is mandatory - such an amazing place. If you take the trains watch the pickpockets south of Naples, though. I also vote for a day at the Vatican.
Click to expand...
Been to Pompeii myself, work-related. Definitely cool and will add it to the possibility list.

Rome will probably get three full days.
 
Senor Schmutzig said:
Sand said:
Senor Schmutzig said:
We will probably end up in Italy, most likely Rome as it's one of the few major places in Europe that we haven't been to and a logical place to fly back home.
Click to expand...
Rome is an easy week all by itself. If you're bringing the kid Pompeii is mandatory - such an amazing place. If you take the trains watch the pickpockets south of Naples, though. I also vote for a day at the Vatican.
Click to expand...
Been to Pompeii myself, work-related. Definitely cool and will add it to the possibility list.

Rome will probably get three full days.
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That's good - I was thinking of what your child will remember. Also a big fan of the Borghese Museum (need reservations, though!) and if you can stopping by Florence to see David is very worthwhile. David is the most amazing piece of art in the world and even more impressive than all the hype it gets.
 
If you are heading to Italy, one place that was a pleasant surprise for our trip there was the Amalfi Coast. it's beautiful and a place to relax a little between other sites.
Lake Como was also just as good, or even better than advertised.
If you go to Pompeii, I recommend touring on your own. We were on a tour and 3 hours was only enough to see about 25% of it, it's that large. We felt like we want to head back to see more.

I saw that you are from Rothenburg - we really enjoyed the day that we spent there.
 
It sounds like you will be driving the romantic road, between Frankfurt and Neuschwanstein castle. I did it years ago and cannot remember which towns to recommend, but there are a few that are worth stopping at.

I want to say Augsburg had the best old town, but there is at least a 50% chance i am remembering wrong.


Romantic Road Germany - information, maps and sights

Germany's Romantic Road - find out more about the towns, villages and sights along the tourist route with this independent travel guide.
www.romanticroadgermany.com
 
Funny timing. We also have a kid who's graduating high school (daughter -- as well as a son entering high school). And we're also planning a trip to Europe in June. (We had a trip planned in 2019, but literally three days before we were supposed to leave, my father-in-law was hospitalized and we canceled the trip. He was OK, but because of covid, we weren't able to reschedule it until this year.)

You probably know this by now, but earlier in June is cheaper than later in June, as far as airfare. We booked our main flight three weeks ago. We live in San Diego, but the cheapest nonstop I found was Vegas to London, so that's what we booked. We're going for two weeks total, with four nights in Berlin and the rest split between Paris and the Loire Valley.

Because of what happened with my father-in-law last time, we bought travel insurance. Not sure if that's a consideration for you, but if it is, make sure to buy the insurance within 14-21 days of purchasing your first flight (depending on insurance company). We're spending a lot on this trip, so the insurance is nice for peace of mind. We're also booking Airbnbs with cancellation policies that are within a week of arrival.

I would also say for big tourist attractions (in our case, things like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre), look to see how far in advance you can buy tickets.
 
Mr. Mojo said:
If you are heading to Italy, one place that was a pleasant surprise for our trip there was the Amalfi Coast. it's beautiful and a place to relax a little between other sites.
Lake Como was also just as good, or even better than advertised.
If you go to Pompeii, I recommend touring on your own. We were on a tour and 3 hours was only enough to see about 25% of it, it's that large. We felt like we want to head back to see more.

I saw that you are from Rothenburg - we really enjoyed the day that we spent there.
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I definitely want to go to the Amalfi coast. That will probably be on the list. My wife and son went to Lake Como in August when they were in Italy with some friends. My son got to captain the boat they rented. It looked awesome but we probably won't duplicate that destination since they were there pretty recently.

gianmarco said:
Senor Schmutzig said:
Long Ball Larry said:
Doesn’t the pig in the poke schedule all that for you?
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I have no idea what that means.
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"Look kids ... Big Ben, Parliament"
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Ohhhh.....right. I knew it sounded familiar. Got it. And no. LOL

I'm updating the first post with a rough itinerary/destination guide. It's mostly for me to keep track of what the heck we are doing but also to let the FBG's play along...
 
:blackdot: - My wife has been looking at a Europe trip for a few weeks now. I'm hesitant as it'd be with our 8 and 5 year old's. I'm 100% for culturing them and exposing them to new places, but I just worry it's a little early for them to appreciate 85% of what Europe has to offer. My son just wants to catch Pokemon and my daughter just wants a beach.
 
Fat Nick said:
:blackdot: - My wife has been looking at a Europe trip for a few weeks now. I'm hesitant as it'd be with our 8 and 5 year old's. I'm 100% for culturing them and exposing them to new places, but I just worry it's a little early for them to appreciate 85% of what Europe has to offer. My son just wants to catch Pokemon and my daughter just wants a beach.
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At that age, a successful vacation came down to: Is there a heated pool or not?

My kids are 16 and 14 and we are going to Italy this June. Lots of good info in the Smails Italy thread here on this board. My wife and I previously did Florence area and Como. This family trip we're doing Rome and Amalfi Coast.
 
Fat Nick said:
:blackdot: - My wife has been looking at a Europe trip for a few weeks now. I'm hesitant as it'd be with our 8 and 5 year old's. I'm 100% for culturing them and exposing them to new places, but I just worry it's a little early for them to appreciate 85% of what Europe has to offer. My son just wants to catch Pokemon and my daughter just wants a beach.
Click to expand...
My son was 5 when we went on the aforementioned 5-week European tour. It was probably three weeks too long. Once we hit Switzerland, about halfway through the trip, he was toast. Meltdowns pretty much every day. It probably had to do with being outside his usual environment for too long. He missed his bed, his food, his friends, etc.

I think a two-week trip would probably work well with kids your age. One of the highlights of the trip for my son was playing a pick-up game of soccer with a bunch of kids in a park in Portugal one night while walking back to the hotel after dinner. He saw the kids playing and wanted to join, so we just let him go. It didn't matter if he couldn't speak a word of Portuguese. All he had to do was mention that Cristiano Ronaldo was his favorite player and he was in. LOL. I think he may have been wearing his Ronaldo jersey if I'm not mistaken.

Also, the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne was awesome. For kids and adults. Another highlight of the trip for him. It had a lot of different buildings/exhibits around a central plaza. To get one from one building to another, you just grabbed a bike or a scooter that was sitting outside and made your way over to wherever you wanted to go next. Here is a pretty good YouTube video that goes through most of the exhibits. 10/10, highly recommend.
 
MTskibum said:
I want to say Augsburg had the best old town, but there is at least a 50% chance i am remembering wrong
Click to expand...

Can't really help on Augsburg, only went there for a game (which obviously finished 0-0) and I didn't really have the time to look around anything other than find beer hall right next to the Hbf which was 90% Schalke fans

OP - seat61.com is your friend for planning travel, I would be surprised if a lot of what you plan can't be done by not using planes in between destinations. If only to know not to take a quick train between Köln and Frankfurt as you miss all the amazing scenery
 
Senor Schmutzig said:
So 3 to 4 days in the UK before heading to Paris for a couple of days. Not sure if we will rent a car in the UK and drive, or just take the Chunnel train to Paris and rent a car there for the rest of the trip.
Click to expand...
Definitely can say I did not enjoy driving in France, particularly in/near Paris.
 
I’ll just throw out that Florence and the small towns around it in Tuscany are worth the hype. If you like food and wine, that’s hard to top. Austria is beautiful. Both Vienna but also the small towns around it. Budapest is underrated as well. It’s more beautiful than Paris imo and much cheaper, less crowded.
 
titusbramble said:
MTskibum said:
I want to say Augsburg had the best old town, but there is at least a 50% chance i am remembering wrong
Click to expand...

Can't really help on Augsburg, only went there for a game (which obviously finished 0-0) and I didn't really have the time to look around anything other than find beer hall right next to the Hbf which was 90% Schalke fans

OP - seat61.com is your friend for planning travel, I would be surprised if a lot of what you plan can't be done by not using planes in between destinations. If only to know not to take a quick train between Köln and Frankfurt as you miss all the amazing scenery
Click to expand...
Trains and cars are going to be our primary mode of transportation. I life the flexibility of having a car but also like the convenience of the train.

I'm going to be enforcing the one rollaway + one additional bag/backpack rule to make it easier regardless of the mode of transportation.
 
Ilov80s said:
I’ll just throw out that Florence and the small towns around it in Tuscany are worth the hype. If you like food and wine, that’s hard to top. Austria is beautiful. Both Vienna but also the small towns around it. Budapest is underrated as well. It’s more beautiful than Paris imo and much cheaper, less crowded.
Click to expand...

Budapest is going to be a bit further east than I am willing to go on a 2-week trip. If we look to extend it at all, I would definitely like to go back there (my wife and son haven't been).

I have traveled to most of western Europe with the exception of anything south of Florence in Italy.
 
Senor Schmutzig said:
Ilov80s said:
I’ll just throw out that Florence and the small towns around it in Tuscany are worth the hype. If you like food and wine, that’s hard to top. Austria is beautiful. Both Vienna but also the small towns around it. Budapest is underrated as well. It’s more beautiful than Paris imo and much cheaper, less crowded.
Click to expand...

Budapest is going to be a bit further east than I am willing to go on a 2-week trip. If we look to extend it at all, I would definitely like to go back there (my wife and son haven't been).

I have traveled to most of western Europe with the exception of anything south of Florence in Italy.
Click to expand...
Yeah that’s the kicker of Budapest. It’s pretty far out there.
 
Been on Euro trips about a dozen times over my life so far.

- I greatly prefer the trips that spend a longer amount of time in fewer destinations. The kind of trips where you go to a ton of places but only for a day or two to try and maximize your locations are never as good. Just bite the bullet and narrow your choices down. For a two week trip, I'd ideally only visit 2-3 major hubs. Just my opinion on that.
- Train travel in Europe is excellent and so easy. Just check for rail worker strikes leading up to your departure date.
- Most people speak English. If you know at least the basics of the language and approach people with it, they will be much more enthusiastic to respond to you than if you walk up like an arrogant American and just assume they speak your language. Also on that note, when visiting local shops, it's courteous to say hello and thank you upon entering and leaving.
- Eat your frites with mayonnaise.
 
Totally agree with Scoresman. 2-3 major cities and a few day trips from there. The less checking in/out the better. For Italy we made Florence a base camp for a week and LOVED it. I could love there. Day trips to Siena and other cities. Overnight trip from there to Venice. 2 hour high speed train to Rome. Didn’t try to get everywhere. Amalfi Coast will be our next trip to Italy.

We’ve done London, Amsterdam, Barcelona in one trip. Paris, Florence and Rome in another. Porto, Lisbon, Algarve, Seville, Granada, Barcelona in another (more cities only because we were in a car in Spain - day or two in Seville and Granada). I just don’t like moving from hotels every 2 days just to check boxes.

One poster mentioned appropriate ages for kids to travel. I agree 5 and 8 are too young for them to appreciate these kinds of trips. At those ages take them to Disney or beach vacations. Then early teens they can start appreciating culture. We took them for a weekend in San Francisco. Plays, museums, bike the Golden Gate, etc. Then a few years later did a full week in NYC. They were hooked at that point and ready to appreciate Europe. Screaming kids at the Louvre? Don’t get it. Take kids on age appropriate vacations.
 
Scoresman said:
Been on Euro trips about a dozen times over my life so far.

- I greatly prefer the trips that spend a longer amount of time in fewer destinations. The kind of trips where you go to a ton of places but only for a day or two to try and maximize your locations are never as good. Just bite the bullet and narrow your choices down. For a two week trip, I'd ideally only visit 2-3 major hubs. Just my opinion on that.
- Train travel in Europe is excellent and so easy. Just check for rail worker strikes leading up to your departure date.
- Most people speak English. If you know at least the basics of the language and approach people with it, they will be much more enthusiastic to respond to you than if you walk up like an arrogant American and just assume they speak your language. Also on that note, when visiting local shops, it's courteous to say hello and thank you upon entering and leaving.
- Eat your frites with mayonnaise.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's a good point. We will probably end up doing something similar if we can cluster our "want" destinations together which would allow us to do some day trips from there versus a point-to-point. I agree, packing and unpacking is the suck.

I lived in Europe for over a year and have spent a lot of time on trains however I like the flexibility of having a car and being able to go EXACTLY where you want, deviate from the intended path, and just have a little more control over the vacation versus a train. That being said, by the time we settle on how we want the vacation to look trains MAY be the better alternative.
 
Senor Schmutzig said:
I'm going to be enforcing the one rollaway + one additional bag/backpack rule to make it easier regardless of the mode of transportation.
Click to expand...

We're going for two weeks, and as much as I'd like to do carry-ons, my wife and 18-year-old daughter are going to try to pack the entire house in their suitcases. I've been booking Airbnbs that have washer/dryer (or at least a washer) to try to discourage having to bring so much stuff. But I'm pretty sure that I'll be the one packing light, and half my suitcase will be hair dryers, straightening hair irons and my wife's and daughter's shoes.
 
I’m formulating a plan for summer 2024. my Thought is to establish a home base in Italy, Croatia or Slovenia For at least a month. Daughter and niece are both turning 18 and graduating high school. Both sets of parents will be celebrating 20 years anniversaries. The kids will use the house as a jump off point to go wherever And we will host whoever wants to visit. With ann occasional side trip of our own. Ideally it would be longer than a month, we’ll see.
 
Any things your kid really wants to see? Soccer game, WW2 sites, history museums, art museums?
 
Klimtology said:
Prague is the largest European City not to be seriously damaged in WW2.

It's like stepping back in time. Amazing and highly recommended.

:thumbup:
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I dunno. When I was last in Prague it was so overrun with tourists it was almost unbearable. I enjoyed smaller Eastern Europe cities more, like Bratislava for instance.
 
Ron Swanson said:
Klimtology said:
Prague is the largest European City not to be seriously damaged in WW2.

It's like stepping back in time. Amazing and highly recommended.

:thumbup:
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I dunno. When I was last in Prague it was so overrun with tourists it was almost unbearable. I enjoyed smaller Eastern Europe cities more, like Bratislava for instance.
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Same. I just Happened to roll into a tiny German town, on it‘s 2000 year anniversary celebration. Every day and night was just the best folksy, awesome party. We stayed 3 days it was so great.
 
Ilov80s said:
Senor Schmutzig said:
Ilov80s said:
I’ll just throw out that Florence and the small towns around it in Tuscany are worth the hype. If you like food and wine, that’s hard to top. Austria is beautiful. Both Vienna but also the small towns around it. Budapest is underrated as well. It’s more beautiful than Paris imo and much cheaper, less crowded.
Click to expand...

Budapest is going to be a bit further east than I am willing to go on a 2-week trip. If we look to extend it at all, I would definitely like to go back there (my wife and son haven't been).

I have traveled to most of western Europe with the exception of anything south of Florence in Italy.
Click to expand...
Yeah that’s the kicker of Budapest. It’s pretty far out there.
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It's one of our favorite cities. I recommend it to everyone.
 
Mr. Mojo said:
Ilov80s said:
Mr. Mojo said:
It's one of our favorite cities. I recommend it to everyone
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At night when everything is lit up, the bridges and capital all look so incredible from the Danube. Budapest is a wonder.
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How do you insert a picture here? I have one from Budapest in 2022.
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You would have to have the picture saved online like in a Google Drive or online photo album and then paste the link here.
 
DA RAIDERS said:
I’m formulating a plan for summer 2024. my Thought is to establish a home base in Italy, Croatia or Slovenia For at least a month. Daughter and niece are both turning 18 and graduating high school. Both sets of parents will be celebrating 20 years anniversaries. The kids will use the house as a jump off point to go wherever And we will host whoever wants to visit. With ann occasional side trip of our own. Ideally it would be longer than a month, we’ll see.
Click to expand...

following
 
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