Questions and Answers

I’m planning a trip to Europe next year with my wife and 2 kids. We have never been to Europe or anywhere over seas before so this will be out first. We would like to visit the UK and Italy. I know this site is more about earning points & miles and so forth but besides credit cards you have to travel to earn those points and or miles so I though this would be a great place to ask or get ideas.

What’s the best (preferably) easiest way to get to those to countries at reasonable price? Where to stay? What time of the year to go? What cities in those country should I visit, etc.? How to get there and back? As far as hotels go I would like to stay somewhere safe and fairly close to everything.

I know this is a lot but any ideas or tips to be able to enjoy with my family and have a good experience.

Where in the US are you based? Are your kids little – do they do okay on planes even on shorter trips?

Those are quite a lot of questions without to many specifics.
So, first, best way to get there. Preferably of course using miles&points. Depending on your situation, that might be a bit difficult to reach when starting from scratch, but if interested, look around the site and read some startersposts.
Flying into UK and out of Italy would be best, and the intra-EU flight will be inexpensive and perfectly fine.

Then, destination. Totally dependent of what you like. Italy has all sorts of amazing places, from the dolomites and alps up north, to beautiful coasts, to amazing little cities, not to miss the bigger ones.
Best way to go around is with a car, so rent one. One of my favourites is Umbria, just beneath tuscany. Beautiful hillside scenery, picturesque villages, wineries, fantastic food, and great location for (multi)day-trips to Rome, Florence, Sienna, eg. Very peaceful and safe, but the kids might enjoy some beaches or mountains more. Dolomites are wonderful, and lot’s to do over there. The popular lakes are fine, but may be very very crowded. Would skip them.
Rome is a great city with centuries of history and maybe the best art-collection in Europe. Just ignore the tourist traps. I would suggest renting a secluded villa in the countryside and pick a nice hotel for the cities where you want to overnight (for Rome: not around Termini train station or after that).
I don’t find Milan that nice, and I would put Rome above Florence and Venice, but that’s personal.
You could just visit the cities, the trains in Italy are fast, cheap, and very comfortable, but you will miss the real Italy.

I am not that well-known with the UK besides the bigger cities and Scotland. Scotland is beautiful, here goes the same, rent a car, drive around, do some hiking, enjoy the scenery, skipp Loch Ness and all the cities except for Edinburgh (very fun, very safe, not thát touristy).

Timing is dependent on when you can go. For Italy, spring (early in the south, late in the north) is pretty unbeatable. Autumn can already get pretty cold. UK can have bad weather every time of the year, but my best experiences were late spring-summer.

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 59734, member: 1436″]Where in the US are you based? Are your kids little – do they do okay on planes even on shorter trips?[/QUOTE]

Sorry for getting back so late, I didn’t get any notifications that I got replies. My kids are 11 and 5, yes they are fine on airplanes, they never have flown for so long so this would be their first. I live in the DFW area

[QUOTE=”DanielT, post: 59748, member: 3788″]Those are quite a lot of questions without to many specifics.
So, first, best way to get there. Preferably of course using miles&points. Depending on your situation, that might be a bit difficult to reach when starting from scratch, but if interested, look around the site and read some startersposts.
Flying into UK and out of Italy would be best, and the intra-EU flight will be inexpensive and perfectly fine.

Then, destination. Totally dependent of what you like. Italy has all sorts of amazing places, from the dolomites and alps up north, to beautiful coasts, to amazing little cities, not to miss the bigger ones.
Best way to go around is with a car, so rent one. One of my favourites is Umbria, just beneath tuscany. Beautiful hillside scenery, picturesque villages, wineries, fantastic food, and great location for (multi)day-trips to Rome, Florence, Sienna, eg. Very peaceful and safe, but the kids might enjoy some beaches or mountains more. Dolomites are wonderful, and lot’s to do over there. The popular lakes are fine, but may be very very crowded. Would skip them.
Rome is a great city with centuries of history and maybe the best art-collection in Europe. Just ignore the tourist traps. I would suggest renting a secluded villa in the countryside and pick a nice hotel for the cities where you want to overnight (for Rome: not around Termini train station or after that).
I don’t find Milan that nice, and I would put Rome above Florence and Venice, but that’s personal.
You could just visit the cities, the trains in Italy are fast, cheap, and very comfortable, but you will miss the real Italy.

I am not that well-known with the UK besides the bigger cities and Scotland. Scotland is beautiful, here goes the same, rent a car, drive around, do some hiking, enjoy the scenery, skipp Loch Ness and all the cities except for Edinburgh (very fun, very safe, not thát touristy).

Timing is dependent on when you can go. For Italy, spring (early in the south, late in the north) is pretty unbeatable. Autumn can already get pretty cold. UK can have bad weather every time of the year, but my best experiences were late spring-summer.[/QUOTE]

lot of information here DanielT, thanks. I’ll make sure I read it thoroughly and get back with any questions