A Child's-Eye View of the Continent

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Dec, 1998 by Lynn Woods

Tips from an expert on taking the kids to Europe in high season on a limited budget.

Toying with the idea of taking the family to Europe next summer? You wouldn't be rushing things if you bought the tickets as a holiday gift. High-season travel always requires planning way ahead, and going with kids makes you even less flexible. To keep costs--and stress--under control, work out as many details as you can now because you're bound to be in for some surprises after you arrive.

That was my experience last summer, when I took a long-talked-about three-week trip to Italy with my son, Alec, 11. I'd earned enough mileage through my Sprint Rewards long-distance account for two free tickets to Europe. When I discovered that Air France offered a free stopover to members of the Sprint program, I jumped at the chance to throw in a visit to Paris. From there, we would take a day trip to Normandy so that Alec, a World War II history buff, could visit the D-Day beaches.

Back in 1982, I spent three months ambling from Athens to Amsterdam on a shoestring budget of $1,800. With Alec in tow, I couldn't very well crash in youth hostels and hitchhike. But to splurge on cultural activities, I wanted to save on the basics--by staying in moderately priced hotels that were nonetheless clean and convenient, eating simply, and using public transportation.

CHARTING OUR COURSE

As I plotted our itinerary--three nights in Paris, nine nights in Rome, three nights in Sorrento, and three nights in Siena to catch the medieval-style Palio horse race--I settled on a total cost of $3,000. We didn't quite make it.

Here's what I learned from my summer vacation.

FREE AIRLINE TICKETS: AREN'T ALWAYS FREE. Because we wanted to travel in June, which is high season, I redeemed my air miles a year in advance. However, I ended up changing our departure date at the last minute and paying a $100-per-ticket change fee--plus $90 in airline taxes.

BARGAIN DIGS GO QUICKLY. For recommendations on reasonably priced hotels, which I defined as those charging a rate of $100 or less per night, I consulted the Paris and Rome Eyewitness Travel Guides (DK Publishing, $24.95 each), Rick Steves' Italy (John Muir Publications, $14.95) and Frommer's Italy (Macmillan, $19.95). Their descriptions were reliable and their prices up to date, but several of my first choices were full by the dine I got around to making reservations in April, two months before our departure.

Two of the family-run hotels in Italy where I booked rooms required advance deposits but didn't accept credit cards--a common practice among such establishments. I wasn't willing to send traveler's checks or cash, as the hotels preferred, so I ended up sending money orders via FedEx.

In Paris I found a $99-per-night rate at a Timhotel Europe (a European chain similar to Best Western) through Hotel Reservations Network (www.hoteldiscount.com; 800-964-6835). I reserved by phone and was required to prepay $360, the total cost for three nights, including tax.

SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO UPGRADE. I was satisfied with our Paris hotel, which was located near the Opera; it served free breakfast and had a tiny elevator that captivated Alec. (He also loved wandering around Notre Dame, which didn't cost a cent, but was unimpressed by the Louvre, also free for kids.)

Our accommodations in Rome weren't as pleasant. Our pensione, the Hotel Navona (011-39-06-686-4203), on the second floor of a Renaissance palazzo that had seen better days, had plenty of atmosphere, an attractive price ($74 a night) and a great location in the center of the city's historic district. But it was short on amenities. The first room we stayed in there had its own minuscule bathroom with a shower and faced a quiet courtyard. But when we returned later in our trip, we had to share a bathroom, which was often occupied and was accessible only by walking through the family dining room. The whine of speeding Vespas on a neighboring street made it difficult to sleep, and so did the stifling heat.

Meanwhile, for $145 a night, friends we met in Rome were far more comfortable in an air-conditioned hotel that had rooms with spotless private baths and an underground breakfast room in the ruins of an ancient Roman theater.

PLAN TO USE ATMs. I was unhappy about the $5 fee my bank charges for each transaction at an international ATM, so I decided to rely on a combination of bank and credit cards, traveler's checks and cash.

But when I did have to exchange money, the fees were shocking--ranging from 7.5% to 9.5%. In the end, it turned out to be less expensive to use the bank card, even though I racked up $30 in ATM fees (see "Q&A," Nov.).

DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR TAB, AND COUNT YOUR CHANGE. To save on meals in Paris and Rome, Alec and I either stayed in hotels that included breakfast or ate breakfast standing at a street-corner food bar. In Rome, despite the fact that we always ordered the same thing--a cappuccino, two pastries and a cold drink--from the same place, the price inexplicably varied, from 4,400 lire to 7,200 lire.