A guy I work with has two teenaged kids. What with college looming, this might be their last chance for a family vacation. He’d like to go to Europe this summer and expose his kids to the cultures and the arts. He thought of starting in France and then taking a road trip. (His wife’s [something]'s brother – a relative anyway – lives in France, I think near Paris.) But he doesn’t think the kids would like all the driving. They like going to Hawaii and lying on the beach. I’m not much help, since my friend and I would hit a city and wander around to see whatever interesting happened to appear, and we stayed in hostels. We loved it. I don’t think he’s the type. (He’s about 50 and likes hotels.) And unlike us, he doesn’t have five or six weeks to wander aimlessly.
So where should my coworker go on a European vacation that would give the kids a bit of cultural exposure and also allow them to lounge about and not be confined to a car or train compartment? Since he has a relative in France, he feels he should go there at some point during the trip.
Wasn’t there a movie with this premise? It didn’t work out well.
France is about the size of Texas which makes it European big but still not all that big. It is easy to come up with an itinerary that only involves drives of a few hours. I would recommend France since he is leaning that way anyway. You don’t need a car in Paris (it probably isn’t advised even) but there are lots of places within short-ish driving distance from there.
My favorite place that tends not to be overmentioned is the Loire Valley also known as the valley of castles. The whole area is just peppered with gorgeous, enormous castles and estates. You can freely tour many of them and the area is spectacular. We just don’t have anything like that in the U.S.
They can always head to the South of France if they want beaches. It is on the Mediterranean.
Valencia might be a bit of a no-go area from April till July this year. This is because the Americas Cup is being raced there, and accommodation prices have gone crazy. But if (like me) you go in September, things will have settled down.
How much time do they have? With teenagers, I think I’d stick to big cities for the most part. What about a week in Paris, visit the relative, then a cheap flight to Rome. There’s lots of good arts, history and culture in those two places. If time allows, head up to Florence for more arts and maybe Venice for culture.
They shouldn’t start in Paris because they’ll spend so much money they’ll have to be extra frugal everywhere else. They should end the trip in Paris. That way they won’t be in total sticker shock.
I would suggest flying in to Paris, and sloping around there for a bit - Versaille, Fontainebleau, The Louvre, etc. Parc Asterix and EuroDisney too. They even truck in some sand so you can lie on the banks of the Seine.
Then take a high speed train down to the south and hire a car - San Tropez, Nice, Monaco, Italy and all the beaches you could want.
Not too painful travelwise, should keep the kids happy too.
My parents did this when my brother and I were teenagers. We went to France, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Switzerland. I have two pieces of advice which I cannot stress enough: Don’t try to see and do everything, and remember that sleep deprivation is much rougher on teenagers than it is on adults.
It was a great experience, and one that turned me into a lifelong Europhile, but it also felt like a forced march a lot of the way – my brother and I had never been on an overnight flight or experienced the time change before, and two days into the trip while we were still stumbling around half-blind from exhaustion, my parents decided it would be a bright idea to take the overnight train from Paris to Vienna. :rolleyes: Giving the kids some time to adapt, and limiting both the physical distance and the number of countries covered, is a much better way to go.
If the relative has kids the same age then they will probably have a lot of fun. Kids in Europe stay up later, go to discos to all hours, smoke cigarettes, drive mopeds, drink and do all kinds of things teenagers would find fun. Key is making sure that the kids don’t have to be hanging out with the parents all the time. If the kids studied a foreign language then going to a country that speaks it would be fun as well. They can learn how to swear, hit on the locals, etc.
I heard of one guy - typical kiwi on the big OE - went to Europe and got a month long European Rail pass. Spent all day looking at the city, being a tourist. In the evening, he went to the station, got on an overnight train - didn’t matter where - and went to sleep. Woke up in the morning with a new city to explore.
Some guidebooks I’ve seen (and websites, too) have some travel advice specifically geared to families travelling with teens. I’d urge your co-worker to consult some of these once he determines a rough itinerary. Sometimes they point out interesting attractions or activities that you might not otherwise think of, or that might not be highlighted in a more general travel guide.