Steps for Planning a Vacation to Europe with Kids

Planning a trip to Europe with your young family can seem like a daunting task, especially if you have not started the process.  Choosing a destination, figuring out how much you can afford, finding quality hotels and restaurants, and booking flights are all factors that add to the stress.  The below tried and true tips will help you plan the perfect European vacation for you and your family.

Choose a Destination (six months or more from your travel dates)

You may already have a country or city in mind, or you may just know that you want to travel SOMEWHERE. There are many factors to consider when choosing where to vacation, including:

• Cost: Just getting to Europe from the United States or elsewhere abroad with airline tickets is very expensive. Once you factor in hotels, transportation (such as Ubers and trains), meals, tickets to attractions, and so on, the trip cost can really add up in a hurry
• Accessibility:  Between work, school, and summer camp, most families only have certain times of year they can travel and for a limited number of consecutive days.  Whenever possible, choose destinations that are easy to get to. It may not be worth spending multiple days reaching your final destination if you only have a week or so total of vacation time 
• Age-Appropriateness of Sites: Depending on the age of your children, there are some destinations that may be more suitable than others.  For example, Paris, London, and Rome may be better for younger kids who are likely already familiar with the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and the Colosseum.  Conversely, hiking in Cinque Terre or touring a war museum may be more suitable for families with older kids.
• Stress on the Parents: It is your vacation too, and it should be enjoyable. The more complicated a trip itinerary, the harder it will be for the parents.  For families with young children, a trip with only one or two hotels may be best. Consider this: for every hotel or city change, it is usually the parents that are lugging bags over uneven cobblestone streets and onto busy trains.  Then there is also the packing and unpacking of the luggage and reacclimating young ones to strange new rooms.

For a starting point, try picking up guidebooks for destinations that are of interest to you. If you are starting from square one, the travel section of the local library or bookstore is a great place to start. Guidebooks lay out the popular sights, local cuisine, best times to visit, and other high-level considerations. Some of my favorite guidebooks are from:

• Rick Steves: By far the most informative guidebooks for information such as museum hours, recommended hotels, and everything else. For high level planning, the guidebooks use a very helpful and easy system to rank a country or city’s attractions in order of priority. The books are geared towards adults, but can be used for planning a trip with children as well with some tweaks (fewer museums, more outdoor/interactive activities)
• DK Eyewitness Travel: These guidebooks are beautiful, with illustrated maps and other drawings. While light on actual useful information, the Eyewitness Guides are great for initial trip inspiration

Create a Budget for Your Trip (six months or more out from your travel dates)

Before planning your trip, one universal truth must be accepted: traveling with a family of three or more to Europe is expensive. There is a minimum cost involved, and there is no escaping that fact.  Realistically, a week somewhere in Europe for a family of four in 2024 will be AT LEAST $10,000. However, there is a pretty wide range of costs after that.  Work with your partner to develop a rough budget for various line items such as flights, hotels, ground transportation, eating, tickets and so on.  It is probably smart to bake in a “hedge”, or cushion, as well for unexpected costs.  For example, I often forget about adding the dog sitter or parking at the airport in the United States to my budget. 

Flights are going to be your least elastic cost. In other words, you won’t have a lot of options to choose from (other than Coach or First Class). Try going to Kayak.com or a similar website to see how much flights will be.

Once you have a budget you feel comfortable with, you will have a rough idea of how much you can spend per night for hotels and food.  This will help with the next phase of planning.

Research and Book Hotels (three or more months out from travel dates)

It may seem odd to make hotel reservations before booking your flights.  However, many hotels in Europe allow you to make a reservation without a deposit and one that is cancellable up until a few days before the stay dates.  Booking hotels early allows you to make sure your itinerary is doable - aside from flights, all other reservations for sights and restaurants can be made closer to your travel dates.

In many European cities, options for families of four or more can be limited. Overall, buildings in Europe are older and smaller, limiting the options for larger families. The most common solutions are either Communicating Rooms or Suites:

• Communicating Rooms are essentially two separate hotel rooms that are adjoining and connect to each other from the inside. When we stayed in Paris in July 2023, this was our arrangement and it worked great. Hotels that have this room setup will advertise it on their website.
• Suites: Also known as family rooms, suites are one hotel room that accommodates three or more people. The bed combinations can vary, from two queens, a queen and two twins, and so on.  Be aware that many hotels count sofa beds as a bed.

I have used several different travel websites to find hotels in Europe, and have found Booking.com to be easiest and most helpful to use.  After entering your travel dates and number of travelers, a list of recommended hotels is generated.  You can filter further on price, breakfast inclusion, neighborhood, and so on. Each hotel has reviews from other travelers.  Many websites have these features, but what I believe sets booking.com apart is the ability to see the sleeping arrangements (ie number and type of beds) and an easy map to quickly see how far a drive/walk certain points of interest are.

Here are some key considerations when looking for a hotel in Europe:

• Location, Location, Location: Do you want to be close to a train station or certain sights? When I book a hotel in Europe, one of my top concerns is maximizing walkability. I would rather be in the city center and be able to walk to sights and dinners instead of staying further afield and having to call (and wait) for an Uber or navigate public transportation every time we go somewhere.  Having a centrally located hotel also allows for the clutch midday respite to quickly recharge.
• Breakfast: All things equal, I prefer hotels that offer breakfast (either as part of their rate or as an add-on).  The buffets are often bountiful, and I find we save a lot of time and energy by knowing where breakfast is each day. The hotel dining room is also a great place to plan out the day before a long day of sightseeing.
• Sleeping Arrangement: Travel websites such as https://www.booking.com/ allow you to see what types of beds will be in the room.  For example, I prefer standard beds for my kids instead of sofa beds, so I scroll past the rooms with sofa beds.
• Other Factors: Aggregator websites often contain reviews that will help you gauge considerations such as hotel cleanliness, friendliness of staff, safety of the surrounding neighborhood, and so on. When reading hotel reviews, I often discount or ignore reviews from people with only one or so reviews.  These are likely from people (real or fake) who never stayed at the hotel and were paid to write a positive review.

Research and Book Flights (three or more months out from travel dates)

After you have your travel dates set and your cancellable hotel reservations made, it’s time to book flights.  There are many websites that have in depth airfare tips, so I won’t go into too much detail here.  Below are the main things I consider when booking a flight to Europe with my family:

• Direct Flights: Whenever possible, I try to book direct flights even if it means paying a little more. Delays and navigating unfamiliar airports becomes an issue whenever connections are added, especially with young children.  This is just a rule of thumb, as not all airports are accessible via direct flight. For example, there are few direct flights from Venice, Italy to the United States.
• Flight Times: We live on the east coast of the United States, so the best time to travel to Europe for us is on an overnight flight that gets us into our destination city early morning local time.  The first day of the trip can be rough as everybody had little or no sleep. However, if you can make it to evening local time your jet lag will be gone by the next day (although sometimes it takes children an additional day to get acclimated to the new time zone)
• Seating: We are a family of four, and whenever possible I try to cluster our seats together.

Purchase Tickets for Attractions (one or more months out from travel dates)

To me, this is the fun part of the trip planning process: filling in your schedule with your dream itinerary! If your children are old enough, involve them in the planning process.  YouTube is a great source for ideas.  Pro-Tip: figure out ahead of time which sights YOU want to visit so you can nudge your kids in that direction! If there is a museum or historical site that may lose your child’s attention, consider creating a fun scavenger hunt or downloading one here.

Decide which places you are going to visit and on which days, keeping in mind that some sites are not open every day.  Additionally, some sites are more crowded in the morning and others in the afternoon or evening. 

Once your itinerary is loosely in place, begin purchasing tickets.  If the attraction is a significant highlight of your itinerary, it is worth purchasing a ticket in advance. When we traveled to Paris and London in July 2023, we purchased tickets for the Louvre, Musee Orsay, Pompidou Center, Eiffel Tower, Paris Saint-Germain Stadium Tour, and London Eye well ahead of time.  If you are reasonably sure you will be visiting a place, it is worthwhile to avoid the risk of waiting in long lines or being turned away at the door when you arrive.

Also consider booking any train travel ahead of time.  Most of the major European railways allow you to purchase tickets in advance, which usually includes better choices of seats.

Print out your tickets or save them on your phone for easy access.

Make Restaurant Reservations (one to two months out from travel dates)

Traveling with children in Europe can be challenging when it comes to eating.  Without planning, you may find yourself wandering the streets aimlessly, and even worse, settling for a tourist trap with crummy food.  Think about it: you will likely only have ten or less dinners on your trip.  Don’t waste any on bad restaurants.  It is possible to find restaurants that have great food and ambiance while also offering cuisine that your children will enjoy. If you are struggling to find kid-friendly restaurant options in certain cities, check out our articles here.

Double Check Your Plans (one month out from travel dates)

Life is hectic, and everyone can make mistakes.  One month or so from your travel dates, go day by day through your itinerary and make sure every reservation is for the correct dates and times.  If anything is incorrect, there is likely enough time to make changes.

Planning a trip to Europe with children takes a lot of patience and extra considerations. Following the above tips will allow you to plan the perfect European vacation for your family and have fun doing it. Happy Travels!