I've actually done everything I am recommending to you and wouldn't change any of it. To sum up, my

Interesting! I thought 3days would be needed. I think it's a package deal with the hotel and the hotel has a really cool indoor pool . . .I'll see if we can take a day off and do an extra day at Rheims though. Thanks guys
There's lots to do in the Cotswolds plus they are close to Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick Castle, the latter would be a big hit with your kids, I expect, but don't know their ages. If your children are very young, choose the area which interests you and your husband because both the Cotswolds and Cornwall have gardens and parks for little ones plus things like petting zoos, minature villages, tourist trains.
Cornwall is also loaded with family-friendly attractions plus beaches. In Cornwall, I like the Fowey-Polperro area on the south coast or further out, in or near St Ives. Look for a cottage for your Cornish holiday.
Have not read your other thread, are you planning to take a rental car across to France? I would not do this, would instead go to the Cotswolds or Cornwall first, then turn in UK rental, spend time in London, then take eurostar London to Paris, use public transport in Paris, go out to Disney via RER, then pick up another rental at Disney.
You should think through the time and effort to drive in and out of the number of cities renaissance hotel asheville you've chosen. Consider cutting renaissance hotel asheville back on the number of moves. From Day 36 to 55, do you need to change locations so much? Would two bases be better? Siena, for example, is interesting, but I enjoyed it as a day trip from a country base. By the time you reach Italy, it is going to be very crowded and hot. I would want a place with a pool in the country from which I could do day trips.
In common with many itineraries renaissance hotel asheville we see on this forum, your trip seems to revolve largely around large towns and cities (apart from your week in the Cotswolds/Cornwall). I sometimes wonder if this is because these are the only places renaissance hotel asheville people from the other side of the world have heard of, or they are genuinely not interested at all in countryside/scenery. European cities have many many things to see and do, but visiting one after the other for several weeks could be exhausting and repetitive.
can you name any bases for cotsworld or cornswell so we can end up in dover but still get the chance to see all the great things renaissance hotel asheville in those areas. We ideally would love just one or two places to sleep in and then do day trips to all of those great places.
Gordon_R More then happy for you to suggest other places. We just had a look on the drive to Prague from Italy to choose renaissance hotel asheville those days and again Paris to Barcelona and Barcelona to Varenna ..but if you know places that would be better please suggest away. We don't mind a longer renaissance hotel asheville drive if the place is better and we can stay a few nights rather then one etc. So far we have booked in London,Paris,Barcelona and Varrena the rest is still able to change so suggest away
Wow, this is some trip with a pair of little kids in tow. I hope they're good in the car! We did something similar with our kids at the same age but slowed it right down and made an effort to give them three or four home bases from which we set out to explore each day. It worked well and they were able to form relationships with local people and know they were going 'home' each day - it's interesting renaissance hotel asheville how disoriented small children get when they're moving on all the time. It meant we missed out on a few places we might have visited if we had just been two adults travelling child free but in retrospect I think it made the whole trip less frazzled and more enjoyable.
Siena is a joy but it's a day trip, or two at the most, with young children. My advice would be to rent a villa in the country, with a pool for the kids, and explore the plethora of lovely hilltowns and villages that are within easy driving distance. You can easily reach all over Umbria and Tuscany in day trips. Have a look at Il Palazzo outside Arezzo for a pleasant place to stay for a week.
From Rome take a train to Bologna, if it interests you, and Verona. I think a day or two in either place is sufficient. renaissance hotel asheville Then get the train up the valley to Austria, a magnificent rail journey. I'd recommend getting off at Bolzano to see a very different side of Italy, where they speak German and eat wurst! There's a superb renaissance hotel asheville museum there where you can visit Otzi the Bronze age iceman renaissance hotel asheville who popped out of a glacier a few years back. You can travel for the rest of your trip on the excellent trains and you certainly won't need a car in any of the big cities you list to follow.
I imagine your trip will take you from Innsbruck renaissance hotel asheville to Salzburg to Vienna before you go on to Prague. Both Salzburg and Vienna are wonderful, more so than Innsbruck which is more of a sporting centre I think. If you do decide to travel by train, they are also logical stopping points.
renaissance hotel asheville I've actually done everything renaissance hotel asheville I am recommending to you and wouldn't change any of it. To sum up, my advice would be to slow it down, even if it means coming back some other time to see the things you've missed this trip.
I understand wanting a car for most of your trip but work the numbers-- where are you going to park in London and Paris and for how much? You will not want or need a car in either city, in fact, major liability.
Can you return a leased right-side steering wheel car in Frankfurt? I suppose you can and certainly you can drive right-hand cars on the Continent but it takes just that much more diligence. Can't your lease commence after Paris?
The Cotswolds renaissance hotel asheville is a relatively small area northwest of London. Cornwall is a large county, the furthest southwest in England. Viamichelin gives the driving distance to Dover as 3 hours from The Cotswolds and 6 hours, 42 minutes from St Ives in Cornwall but you need to add at least 50% to those times.
mbloggs THANK YOU! We already have slowed it down! We had planned on doing greece and the south of italy but have taken that out because of the kids. Since we are leasing a car we won't have the luxury of doing train trips to move to different countries. We really didn't want to be on trains with our luggage.
We also agree that staying in one place for a few days to a week is best. Can you think of a good base in Tuscany that would allow us to take a train to Siena and such places. We would love a place to stay base at.
I would substitute Mantova for both Verona and Bologna. Mantova is in between them and has much easier logistics if you have a car -- although you MUST be careful about not driving the car into the off-limits areas of the historic center. If you find a place to stay within the center, a b b will give you a temporary permit to park near them. HOWEVER, you should go to the police station yourself renaissance hotel asheville and confirm that your license plates were recorded by them. Just double check that. Othewise, if your license plates are photgraphed, you could later be sent a huge ticket.
This is also true if you stay in Bologna or Verona. Some areas of the cities are off-limitis for cars that whose license plates are not registered with the police as having permission to be in the old historic center.
Mantova is a great place in its own right, and you can easily drive around and find towns to visit, like Modena, renaissance hotel asheville Ferrara, towns around Verona and the Lago di Garda. You can park your car and take a train to Milan for an afternoon.
PS: Verona holds its HUGE opera festival during the time you will be in Italy, and this year it is the 150th anniversary of the festival. That means prices in Verona will be very high, and the city will be crowded on days when there are opera goings on. It is another reason to avoid staying in the city, and if you decide you want to visit Verona, you might find it much easier to take a train from Mantova that day.
I can see that you are trying to avoid one-night stays, and that is the right plan, but you are still buying a long highway drive from Lago Bracciano to northern renaissance hotel asheville Italy, even if you make Bologna your first stop. It gets even longer if you take my suggestion of Mantova instead, or Peschiera del Garda.
You might consider going just past Florence and stopping renaissance hotel asheville for the night, and then going on to Peschiera del Garda for 3 nights. The area just north of Florence is known as the Mugello, and you can find lots of small places with swimming pools. I think you will need air con too for that time of year.
Also, I've forgotten, but aren't your children really very small? I realize this is an expensive trip no matter how you slice it, but Disneyland is going to be nothing but paying through the nose for everything at every turn. Unless you want to go, I think your kids would probably more appreciate not being cooped up in a car for some of the long drives you could shorten by taking the Disney days adding them to the latter half of your trip, where you are moving pretty much all the time.
Cathinjoetown we don't pick the car up until we are leaving London and we are lucky that the apartment we are staying at has given us parking when in Paris The great thing about the lease is that you can drop it off anywhere with no penalty ... not sure if it will be right or left hand??? Our budget is for most places is trying to be no more then 120 pounds a night. With B B's how do they work when we need to bedrooms . .are they like apartments? I hat the thought that a stranger might be able to get into my kids rooms etc.
goldenautumn thank you ever so much for letting us know about Varona . .we have been before and don't need to go again so thanks! and I will check out your suggestion! So would you stay that we would be able to find one place in Tuscany to stay at and then take our trips from here by train to the different towns including Rome?
However, in general, I think you are missing an opportunity in Italy to take a break from all the driving and city hopping, and just enjoy some extended relaxation, since Italy and the Italian countryside and lakes are so wonderful for relaxation. It is especially time consuming that you are coming from Mediterra