[carls888]

Hi

I am currently feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of apartments available in Europe.

We are going in July (instead of Asia we are starting our big trip in Europe now-for anyone who knows my history) and we are spending:

2 months in UK-Scotland, Wales, maybe Ireland.

2 months in Italy- looking at Florence and either Umbria or Tuscany at this stage.

1 month in France - but we will come back here later on for an extended period so I am open to all suggestions, looking at just the month in Paris but considering a two week Paris/ two week somewhere else in the countryside.

Basically we want to introduce the children to Europe and stay for at least a week in each place.

We are also tossing up whether to add Bulgaria or ??? for a winter snow fest instead of going back to Asia for 4 months. So any experience in the European snow would be wonderful.

Thanks

C

[kandj]

We just came baack from a month in Italy and France. We loved Uzes in France (south france), the piedmonte region in italy (we stayed in a small town near asti). Also loved a little town called Borla in Emilia Romagna region. Lucca for Tuscany was a great choice with kids.
We went with a 3 year old and 18 month old. we used www.vrbo.com as our main source of apartment rentals...

[2bubbygirls]

Sorry to barge in - we have just booked our flights for our Parisian-Italian adventure next September, for 3 weeks.
The plan is to stay in Paris for a week, then catch the train to Florence, and stay in Lucca for just under 2 weeks.
We will stay in Rome for a few days, before heading home.
Any accommodation recommendations in either Paris or Lucca?
We have 3 children; who will be aged 8, 7 and 3

[kandj]

Lucca accomm - I would definately try and stay either just inside the walls or just on the outside. Its a lot nicer to be able to walk into the town centre then have to drive in and find parking.

That or I would stay in a small town near it and use that as your base.

Annoyingly I can't find where we stayed to put a link in - if i find it i'll add it. We stayed just outside the walls (literally across the road) but it was nice to be able to have a park for the car for day trips but close enough to town that we could walk everywhere when we wanted to stay local. We also found that the food options within the walls were a bit hit and miss whereas we found some amazing options just down stairs from our apartment.

Paris I have no recommendations as the times we have been there it was pre kids. I do know that there is a website similar to vrbo that deals with parisian rentals - I believe its quite easy to get a decent apartment for reasonable rates. If I think of the name of that one I will post it

And I am very jealous of Caris888's holiday! I would love to spend that much time!!

We honestly felt like we could have just kept going, its so much easier travelling at a slow place with kids and hiring houses etc, it meant we didn't feel like we need to go home to rest!

We've been back for nearly a month now and I am still in holiday mourning

[traceybrown]

C, yep European winter....go go go! We should be headed to Austria for my 40th but did the Canadian winter last Xmas and I have to wait (so I will be 39 for the next two years) There is something magical about a white christmas, ours asked if we can do it again today, the things they remembered was amazing.
Now do you need a bag carrier/drinking partner/map reader?

[Ehill]

http://www.destinationlucca.com/index.html

This is who we used when we stayed in Lucca 2 years ago. It is such a great town and we had an amazing week. We stayed in a beautiful 3 bed apartment inside the walls. The managers are Australian so everrything was very easy and their daughter even babysat for us! We didnt have car when we were in Lucca but we had a car for the previous week when stayed in Piedmont region.

OP, in France we had a few days in Lyon which is on the TGV line between Paris and Italy. It is a fabulous small city that we fell in love with. We fully plan to try and have an extended holiday there at some stage. Amazing food.

[maiteland]

Sorry to barge in - we have just booked our flights for our Parisian-Italian adventure next September, for 3 weeks.
The plan is to stay in Paris for a week, then catch the train to Florence, and stay in Lucca for just under 2 weeks.
We will stay in Rome for a few days, before heading home.
Any accommodation recommendations in either Paris or Lucca?
We have 3 children; who will be aged 8, 7 and 3

your holiday plans sound great. Paris is such a fun city to visit. there is so much culture and the food is amazing. in regards to finding a place to stay you could always have a look at a company called nextaway. they have plenty of a apartments to suit all budgets in both Rome and Paris. what time of the year are you planning on going?
You also said that you are taking a train from Paris to Rome. The journey takes roughly 14 hours and cost

• Economy – Cost ≈ USD 170-250
• Freedom – Cost ≈ USD 210-280
• Comfort – Cost ≈ USD 250-350
• Comfort flexi - Cost ≈ 280-450

you might be better off getting a flight unless you are up for the adventure and the long train ride!

[carls888]

Thanks everyone.

We are so looking forward to our trip but have lots to do between now and then! (sell our house and most of the stuff we own.)

I will check out those links and recommendations.

C