On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 17:37:12 -0600, jst wrote:

Our family of three( 2 adults & 17 y/o )are considering a trip to Europe
this summer. We would want to spend at least 2-3 days in London then 5-7
days going from France ( Paris a must ) to Switzerland ( the alps ). We
have traveled the states extensively and have never been overseas.Is
this the type of trip that we should do exclusively with a travel agency
and do the group tour bit. We have never been the types to do a group
tour but would do one if we could find the right locations included.
We are just starting to look into this and any recommendations would be
appreciated. We are budgeting 10 - 15 thousand , is this reasonable ???

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in on your travel question. There
has already been a lot of very good recommendations made by others.
I'm in the midst of planning an extensive trip to Europe in the
Spring, so have done quite a bit of research. This will be my 5th
trip to Europe, but most of my trips were almost 30 years ago before I
was married. This time, I'm taking my wife to show her all of the
places that I have longed to show her.

The first time I went to Europe, I took a tour. I didn't have my
Europe travel confidence up yet. I enjoyed my tour very much, but
would never do it again. You are simply too insulated from the
cultures you're trying to get in contact with. If that's what you
want (to be surrounded by Americans, staying in American-type hotels,
eating American-type restaurants) then tours are great. I can tell you
that it is quite easy to travel around Europe. My subsequent trips to
the Continent have been using Eurail and making use of their
extraordinary train system (sometimes boats and buses are covered by
Eurail, too). My upcoming trip will be the same. When I was in
England in 1997, we rented a car and drove for the 10 days of our
trip. That worked great, too. This time, we're flying into Dublin,
Ireland, renting a car for a week for traveling around Ireland, then
flying to London, then catching the Eurostar ("Chunnel", but I guess
Europeans don't like that term) to Belgium and the Netherlands, then
down to Paris, next to the Normandy coast, then southern France (Nice
area), then into Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark,
Sweden, and Oslo (from which we hope to fly home). This is a 10-week
trip.

Your planned trip is not really long enough to get very deep into any
of the cultures you're going to see, but if that's all the time you
have, then you definitely can make the most of your time, by planning
in advance to take in the highpoints of each area. This time out for
us, I'm using Rick Steves' books extensively, since he tends to travel
like I do--sees a lot in a fairly short time. He also has great
recommendations for restaurants and more reasonably priced hotels, bed
& breakfasts, pensions, etc. His travel series can also be caught on
PBS a good deal of the time. His "Best of Europe" book is really what
you need for your limited time. If you belong to AAA, they sell it
for a discount.

If you do make it to Switzerland (and I hope you do), I definitely can
recommend that you spend your time in the Jungfrau region. If the
weather cooperates, it's an extraordinary experience. Stay in a city
like Wengen or Murren (more remote), but with mountain scenery that
will leave you awestruck and truly give you a feel for the Alps and
the Swiss people. If you don't fly to Switzerland, count on an all
day (or an overnight) train to get into the heart of Switzerland. You
might consider an open-jaw trip, flying to London and returning home
from Zurich or Bern, Switzerland. It will permit you not to have to
waste your time doubling back to your starting city.

When researching hotels, you might check out tripadvisor.com. It's
terrific in giving you an idea of prices and recommendations on the
best accommodations in most areas. Since you're traveling in "high"
season, you will have more of a concern about finding places to stay,
but generally, you can still go without reservations and use the train
stations or tourist offices to help you find a place. I would have a
listing of recommended hotels before going, however, so as not to get
"stuck" with some dump. I usually make reservations for our arrival
point and our departure point, then play it by ear from there.

I would describe my wife and I as "budget" travelers. We don't stay
in expensive or even moderately expensive hotels, so we tend to look
for the "quaint" small hotels, guesthouses, bed & breakfasts, etc. I
do have one "cheap" recommendation that a travel agent pass along to
me for Paris if you don't mind staying in a something less that quaint
place--more like a Motel 6 "cookie cutter" place--but with a lot of
positive comments, including clean and well kept. It's called the
Etap Hotel chain, specifically, we're considering Etap Hotel Paris La
Villette. A room for 2 is about $65/night, as compared to the vast
majority of "budget" accommodations for at least twice that amount and
usually more. Only problem is that they only permit reservations 100
days in advance of your arrival, so I'm still waiting to make my
reservation (1/18/06).

If I can help you in any way, please let me know. I have a lot of
information on a lot of areas within Europe if you need help. The
rec.travel.europe newsgroup is a very valuable aid in getting lots of
great input.

Best of luck to you in planning your adventure.

Take care and happy new year.

Stan in CA