Where to start planning for European travel?

[scrooks]

What is the best place to start for planning European travel? We are thinking of a London trip next summer but the info on the internet is overwhelming! Any sites that are particularly good? Or any books?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Trip Advisor was helpful as was talking with my friends and asking questions here.
You can hit a bookstore or library and read and take notes from guidebooks too

[StantonHyde]

I grab a Fodors guide for logistics--good info on the most important sights plus info on smaller places. Decent picks for hotels and food. Then I grab a Rick Steves guide--great ideas to make things cheaper, good suggestions for lunches, and tips/tricks to make travel easier. From that, I develop an itinerary of how many days in each place. (based on how long I think it will take my family to get through places plus travel time)

I post that itinerary on Fodors chat rooms with days/places/planned sights for each day. And ask for comments. You could do the same with Trip Advisor. Do NOT post--going to London, give your best ideas. aarrrgghh. I hate it when people do that :-) You can also search both of those sights for trip reports from other users or answers to questions others have asked. People will often post itineraries so you can get an idea of what might be a good trip for your family.

Once I have that down, I book air travel and lodging. Then figure out ttransporation (bus/train/car). Then I look at the website for each attraction we want to see--what are the hours, dates closed, costs, etc. Look at the guide books for tourist passes/front of the line passes, etc. I have found some great stuff that way.

[DualvansMommy]

You got good suggestions already. I’d think about style of vacation your family typically do/prefer.

I’m not the go go go and neither my kids are. We prefer to do one big thing a day. Give us lots of downtime just to browse around, shop around and check out unique spots that comes up during trip. This is especially applicable if we have access to a pool or nearby gateaway for amusement park, water park or the like.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

You got good suggestions already. I’d think about style of vacation your family typically do/prefer.

I’m not the go go go and neither my kids are. We prefer to do one big thing a day. Give us lots of downtime just to browse around, shop around and check out unique spots that comes up during trip. This is especially applicable if we have access to a pool or nearby gateaway for amusement park, water park or the like.


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And we’re the opposite. well, the family minus dh is. The kids and I do so much better with a full itinerary. Standing on the street/sitting in a restaurant saying, “what should we do next” is my idea of h$ll. And leads us to make dumb decisions like forgetting to check opening days/hours of places and finding out only after we trudged an hour to get there that it’s closed. Or that tickets are sold out… (luckily I’m good about checking tickets for our must-dos way in advance!). I do a bit better when it’s just dh and I with the whole spontaneous thing but my head will explode if my family looks at me one more time and asks what we’re doing next.
That said, I do pick down days in nice spots where the itinerary is clear that it’s a lazy day. Scheduling it as such seems to work for my family.
Family travel is a lot trial and error.


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[AnnieW625]

We are going next July. We are currently planning on 3-5 days post a cruise or doing 2-3 days prior to the cruise and 3 days post cruise (which starts in Norway and there are no direct flights to Norway from California at least now so we would most likely end up in a hub anyway and it would be cool to spend a few additional days in London outside of our post cruise which maybe planned by my grandma/dad/uncle). The cruise is part of an family trip (with my dad’s sibling/spouse, my grandma, my 3 cousins (2 w/souses), and my 2 siblings (my brother and wife, and my sister).

We are starting with a list of must do items and so far we have: Stonehenge, Crown Jewels/Royal tour, Harry Potter, Big Ben, London Bridge, and The Eye. I am sure there will be more. I would also love to do a live Peloton class in London if time permits but not everyone will want to do that.

I anticipate that finding a place to stay that isn’t astronomically priced and is convenient for where we want to go and has space for four is going to be harder to come by than arranging airfare and tours and will probably determine if we can afford to do the extra days in London.

Good luck with your planning.


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[scrooks]

Thank you all for the tips!!! We are thinking London and maybe Scotland. I am worried about transportation once we get there and finding accommodations with A/C for a family of 5 to stay.
I ordered a Great Britain guide book and I am going to start by reading!

[scrooks]

I've been looking at TA forums and I'm glad i did. I think the olympics in Paris may be causing things to be very busy in London in July. We may push off London for a year! : (

[StantonHyde]

Here are my trip reports for London and Scotland. Also have Ireland if you are interested.

London
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/london-with-teens-trip-report-1433634/

Scotland
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...eport-1709431/

[StantonHyde]

And we’re the opposite. well, the family minus dh is. The kids and I do so much better with a full itinerary. Standing on the street/sitting in a restaurant saying, “what should we do next” is my idea of h$ll. And leads us to make dumb decisions like forgetting to check opening days/hours of places and finding out only after we trudged an hour to get there that it’s closed. Or that tickets are sold out… (luckily I’m good about checking tickets for our must-dos way in advance!). I do a bit better when it’s just dh and I with the whole spontaneous thing but my head will explode if my family looks at me one more time and asks what we’re doing next.
That said, I do pick down days in nice spots where the itinerary is clear that it’s a lazy day. Scheduling it as such seems to work for my family.
Family travel is a lot trial and error.


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My itineraries look like battle plans! I have several activities per day, scheduled out from 9 am to 5 pm. Then we crash at the airbnb and go to our separate corners :-) My family just has no talent for spontaneous travel. OR one person's idea of heaven is another's idea of hell. So I plan, plan, plan. I now send pix of the itineraries to everyone--but they still want me to recite the activities. i just tel them to look at their phones!!!