To Europe with Our Teens and Tween

By Kelley Messer

Have you considered planning a family trip to Europe with your teens or older children before they are grown? This book provides information and inspiration for you to plan a family trip to Europe of your own.

To Europe with our Teens and Tween is part how-to guide and part travel memoir. It details trip planning on a budget, planning in order to make the most of each day, and tips for both parents and teens. Follow the adventures of the Messer family as they make memories at some of the most iconic places in Europe—and also in places not on anyone's travel radar. Whether visiting the Louvre or distant relatives that don't speak your language, sometimes the most memorable part of family trips are discovering the things you love together!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098318086

Book preview

Author

Introduction

In 2017, we took our two teen girls and our ten-year-old son on a whirlwind trip to Europe. To make the best use of our precious time and to be economical as well, I planned the trip down to every last detail. We wanted to see the best of Europe with our children over the course of fifteen days, and with a limited budget. Digital nomads and travel writers may say that I’ve done this all wrong. What you will read here is the opposite of slow travel or flexible, unplanned travel. However, I am in midlife with adolescent kids. We didn’t want to quit our jobs and sell everything in order to travel around the world. My husband and I remain committed to our jobs, our community, being near extended family, raising our kids, and saving for their college education. Planning a trip during a limited two-week period, just as we did, is what many other people in our situation can also accomplish. My hope is that this book will give you the inspiration you need to make it happen.

Chapter One

Planning is Part of the Fun

I went to Europe with a school group when I was fifteen, and then took another trip two years later as a summer Rotary exchange student. That was 27 years ago, and a lot in life has happened since then. I don’t know where the time went, and grieve that it has been so long since I have made another trip to Europe. When I was young, I briefly considered practicing international law, but then discovered that I needed to be at the very top of my law school class and fluently speak a foreign language. So, instead I took other wonderful opportunities that came my way, and eventually started practicing municipal law. I love working for the city, and I absolutely love Abilene, my hometown. Nothing beats West Texas, its people, its culture, its subtle beauty, and its big skies. But, I’ve always had a passion for travel and a love for Europe.

My great-granddad was Czech, and several years ago my mother started talking about wanting to go see where his parents had come from in the late 1800s. When I got serious about wanting to take the kids to Europe, convincing my parents to join us in the Czech Republic was my goal. My parents still had complicated lives, responsibilities, and were not yet retired. Frankly, getting my Mom to solidify plans was a little like nailing Jell-O to the wall, but when the first half of their trip was planned, a river cruise, we both thought that God had had a hand in making it all come together. We then began to plan how they would meet us in the Czech Republic and travel on from there.

I also wanted to take my kids, Kathlyn (16), Melia (13), Reid (10), and my husband Jeff, to Paris and London to see the major sights there. What a tough decision about where to go! My favorite place when I was 17 was hanging out with my German exchange family on holiday in Southern France. I had hoped to also go to Italy, Greece, or Southern France again. But, this first time trip with the kids needed to include the Tower of London, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the British National Gallery, and of course, a bit of Harry Potter.

Of course, I could not leave out the wonderful country of Germany I had visited so many years ago! I had taken a year of German in high school and a year of German in college. My exchange family helped me learn some of the language during the summer I visited there as well, and my married and maiden names are German, for goodness sakes!

Luckily, the route from Paris to Prague is straight through Germany. Instead of major cities, I really wanted to take the kids to some wonderful sights in Germany. Rothenburg ob der Tauber was at the top of the list, but I was also drawn to Eltz Castle near Koblenz on the Mosel River. I had never been there. This would mean that we would cut out Southern Bavaria with its fairytale castles such as Neuschwanstein. However, Eltz Castle was much older and not simply built to be the king’s luxury house in the 1800s. Don’t get me wrong, I love Neuschwanstein, but choices had to be made. A more direct route would be through Heidelberg, but I really liked the idea of going to Koblenz and Eltz Castle.

Ultimately, we decided on 4 days in London, 3 days in Paris, 2 days in Germany (if you count the 1/2 day after arriving in Germany and the 1/2 day leaving), 2 days in Moravia, the eastern part of the Czech Republic, and 2 days in Prague. It was a very tight schedule, but it would work as long as, heaven forbid, we didn’t miss a train! Both my husband and I felt that we could not take off work for more than two weeks. Believe it or not, our trip worked out beautifully. I do think there is tremendous value to slow travel, if you can do it, but this wasn’t the season or the trip for that.

Our Travel Calendar

The first thing we did was book our tickets as early as we could to maximize our frequent flier miles, although we were disappointed about the amount of taxes and fees we still had to pay on the flights even when we used our miles. We booked the flight from Texas to London, and then home from Prague to Texas. The next thing I had to simultaneously decide was where we were staying, and how to travel from place to place. I had to make the travel itinerary so that I knew how many nights to book at each overnight location. Then, the next task was choosing transportation. In the big cities and between cities we could use trains and public transportation. For Germany, a rental car was the better option since otherwise, we would have to take both the high speed trains and the smaller commuter trains to get to Eltz Castle and Rothenberg ob der Tauber. In addition, being at the mercy of the train schedule would slow us down despite the fact that the trains themselves are punctual. Thankfully, and almost surprisingly,