Help me with my Europe trip

[mrspez07]

We booked a trip last year for our family and had to cancel because of an illness with DH. We’ve re-booked for the same 2 weeks in May-June this year but the flights to-from are different. We seem to be having a bit of a brain-freeze with creating a new itenerary, and trying to decide how much we should recreate. Last year our trip would have been arrive in London,then Rome, Ticino area of Switzerland (family there), and fly home from Zurich.
This year we are flying into and out of Zurich and need to keep some time in Ticino but can’t decide whether we should do a loop around Switzerland, including Geneva and maybe pop into some adjacent countries, or try to go back to Rome and Italy. When I think of our last trip, I had spent a lot of time planning Rome.
Have you spent time in this area and how would you plan it out? Our boys will be nearly 10 and nearly 7 and we are thinking a castle focus would be good, and do plan to hike too.

[neonpink]

It's so cheap to fly around Europe and the flights are short. If you ware still interested in going to Rome I think you should fly their visit. It's such a beautiful city and a lot for your kids to enjoy too. I've flown in/out of one city. London, Rome, Amsterdam but used the short flights to go visit another place.

I would probably fly in visit your family and and then go visit another city.

[dutchgirl678]

That is a tough one. Switzerland in itself is so beautiful and there is so much to see as well. But it is pretty expensive. My kids are the same age and I think the most important thing for me would be to try to spend 2 weeks without too much time taken away by traveling itself. Are you driving down to Ticino? You could do a circle and head south of Zurich to Lucerne and then Interlaken. Stay in that area to visit Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Murren, and take the train up to the Jungfraujoch. There are some great gondolas up there and some very easy hikes that kids could do and the views are so amazing!

I do love Rome as well and went with the kids, but they were much younger then.

[goldengirlz]

Lake Como and Milan would be easier to get to than southern Italy. That trip is high on my “want” list since you can fly direct Zurich to SFO.

[ribollita]

Jan 28, 2019 16:11:46 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

That is a tough one. Switzerland in itself is so beautiful and there is so much to see as well. But it is pretty expensive. My kids are the same age and I think the most important thing for me would be to try to spend 2 weeks without too much time taken away by traveling itself. Are you driving down to Ticino? You could do a circle and head south of Zurich to Lucerne and then Interlaken. Stay in that area to visit Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Murren, and take the train up to the Jungfraujoch. There are some great gondolas up there and some very easy hikes that kids could do and the views are so amazing!

I do love Rome as well and went with the kids, but they were much younger then.

I totally agree. Lauterbrunnen area is one of my favorite in the world and would be fun with your kids’ ages!

[pittpurple]

While the flights are short, the faff of getting to an airport early / checking in / messing around with all sorts of luggage restrictions on budget airlines / getting into a city from whatever airport you end up at (budget airlines often use a secondary airport) would eat up almost a whole day each leg. Trains are so much nicer and simpler so if there's enough to interest you by train I would stick to it unless this is the only chance you'll have to see Rome and you've always wanted to do it.

There are tons of castles in Switzerland and they're gorgeous. We were in Switzerland years ago in May and it was stunning - we spent a morning at Chateaux Chillon on Lake Geneva and it was warm enough for ice cream and then took a train up the mountain and played in the snow.

Only caveat is that Switzerland is crazy expensive so it might be worth hopping over a border at some point for budget reason. I'd definitely look at renting a place with a kitchen / breakfast included as you'll spend a fortune on 4 people eating out all meals. But the weather should be nice enough for picnics and it's a gorgeous place. I would look up some castles and let each kid pick one and plan a trip from there - there's really no bad direction.