The three sentence version of the article below:
Understand that travelling to Europe with your entire family during Christmas week is not a time for bargains – flights are expensive and rarely go on sale. Rent an apartment, because you’ll have a common area to gather, and your very own kitchen in which to cook. For those with adult children, a strategically planned trip abroad is a good way to bribe convince your children to spend Christmas together!
The long version with fun family anecdotes and details:
I am very fortunate to have a family that enjoys traveling as much as I do. Actually, compared to my sisters, my own travel history is puny. Laura was in the Peace Corps in Mauritania (West Africa) for 27 months. Michelle took a 10 month trip around the world post-college. Lisa is currently in Ethiopia where she’s volunteering for a few months. And even though she’s just 19, Alice has been hauled all over the world (a clear benefit to being the baby of the family) and went to Africa for the first time at age 16. Not too shabby.
Even though they try to deny that it’s a bribe to get my family together for the holidays, my parents have begun a new family tradition of traveling to exotic locales during Christmas. In 2007, we all met in Paris for a week. This Christmas, we’re already researching our next destination: Italy! This non-bribe plan of meeting somewhere fun and interesting turns out to be a great way for our family to get together. We all clearly enjoy traveling, and the logistics of getting home (to the Midwest) are almost as complicated as just going somewhere else. So, somewhere else it is!
As the resident family travel planner in my family, my research for our Italy adventure started a few months ago. My dad originally wanted to spend a week in Rome (history + museums = dad is happy), so Drew and I got our research hats on and looked for apartment rentals, and some generic flight price information (from the 4+ airports we will be flying from). Flights from the U.S. to Italy around the Christmas holiday are expensive, and you’re unlikely to score a deal since travel dates are inflexible and the airlines understand that people are willing to pay big bucks to be in their desired destination in the several days surrounding December 25th. We figured the savings would be had on the accommodation side of the equation.
I’m a huge (HUGE!!) fan of apartment rentals if I’m traveling somewhere for more than, oh, a weekend. Typically you’ll get a much better deal than for a comparable hotel, the locations are amazing, and there’s something to be said for making dinner ‘at home’ or even having breakfast items around for easy, cheap and healthy alternatives to pastries in cafes. Let’s just say that our Rome apartment hunting did not go well. Turns out, for reasons we haven’t yet uncovered, apartments in Rome are super-duper expensive. Even compared to Paris! And London! Drew and I theorized that it’s probably a simple economic problem (not a lot of rentals in Rome + not many apartments with 4+ bedrooms = paying out the wazoo for a boring, characterless, poorly located apartment).
After having a talk with my parents about priorities and what’s really important to them, we reconfigured our search. For example, my parents really want to go to Italy, so we sacked our alternative idea of Barbados and concentrated on other cities in Italy. And, while we are all happy to share bedrooms and beds, it’s easier to get out the door in the morning if there are 2+ showers. Also, our family needs ample space to lounge (read: large living room + plenty of seating) and we like to cook instead of go out all the time (read: vegetarians and picky eaters + a willing cook who made dinner every night in Paris for 10 people = thank you Drew!).
Our new plan: a week in Florence, Italy. Florence (or, as the Italians say, Firenze!) has plenty of history and museums for dad, and is turning out to be a much better option for our family. There is a glut of apartment rentals with 4+ bedrooms, so the prices are literally less than half the cost of similar accommodations in Rome. Flights will be roughly the same price, given the whole flying over Christmas issue (you could get a stellar deal if you went the second week of December). In Florence, there is no need for a subway system, because everything is within walking distance. There is also a great, large train station (also within walking distance) so we can take a day trip to Rome, or Pisa or Lucca (where Drew and I stayed for a week) easily and cheaply.
Bonjourno!
We are finalizing our apartment this week hopefully, but in the meantime, here is my favorite website to check out flights with flexible dates and locations, and my favorite apartment rental websites (note: many rental owners list their properties on multiple sites).
Good, I like Florence better anyway. And that’s a good point-if you all are coming from all over the world anyway, might as well go to some exotic location if its just as expensive and complicated to get to the midwest!
i would appreciate a post on how to prepare for a trip such as this. for example, we looked like a bunch of crayola crayons in paris so perhaps a how-to-dress-in-europe guide. or, what not to say on public transport. we need to tone ourselves down this year and i would like some tips. thanks jp.
good call binks. We did look hilarious in Paris, but it was easy to pick you out of a crowd
[...] an exotic locale, it really can be done. I’ve written about some of the logistics of this previously. Here are a few simple [...]