Planning a family holiday in Europe can be accomplished without too much time or effort, and it can be done to accommodate just about any destination and budget. The main things are to decide initially which countries to visit based on personal interests and time constraints, the preference between quantity or quality in terms of seeing places in the chosen countries (spend little time at each destination but see many places or see the top two or three places but spend enough time to really enjoy everything those places have to offer), and finally set a budget and itinerary accordingly.

For example, say it’s your first trip to Europe and you want to get a general sense of a good number of countries. You have four weeks to spend in Europe and decide that if you visit two countries per week you can get a good sense of what there is to see on future trips. You also decide that you want to see the majority of places of interest possible in each country, and you are therefore willing to miss out on really absorbing the essence of any particular place. Taking advantage of the vast amount of information available on the Internet, you can decide which country to fly into based on personal criteria such as most desired country to visit or lowest fares available.

A popular initial destination based on both is Paris, France. You can then stay there for about a day and then head down the western coast of France by train. A great option is to purchase unlimited travel one month pass on euro rail and to sleep on the train at night while you travel to a new destination to make the most of the time and money available. The next destination could be Spain, and a similar approach could be followed travelling down the western part (or through Portugal) down to the southern cities of interest then back up the eastern coast. The trip could continue up the eastern coast of France and then on to Italy. Again, using a similar approach you could travel to southern Italy and then take a ferry to Greece. After seeing Greece, you could return to Italy and proceed north along the eastern coast. You could then proceed to Switzerland and then Germany. Following a route up the western portion of Germany you could then go to the Netherlands and then back to Germany. You can see the rest of Germany and then fly out of Berlin. This is only one example of planning a trip to Europe. With such a great variety of destinations and approaches to seeing those destinations, there are vast amounts of ways to plan such a trip. With a little bit of time and effort, you can determine what’s right for you and come up with a plan for an excellent European holiday.