Planning a Tour

I really only have two, two and a half pages worth of interesting and useful stuff for a blog, and in case you haven’t noticed, a lot of the rest is just filler. Not that filler isn't a noble tradition in arts and letters: even Homer knew how to turn a catalog of ships into a whole chapter. I think my tips for finding good flights, and/or business class tickets through Delta miles are useful. I also think this is: how to plan your trip properly. With photos!

I’m going to assume you’ve picked a general destination – usually one of the more common hubs: Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, etc. Now you’ve got to work out the actual tour details. For this, you will need:

A large travel map of your destination
Colored push pins
A cork board
Reference materials (travel books, magazines, web sites)

You probably have a cork board; a good travel map is $15, maybe, but it will come in handy. $2 for the push pins. For reference materials, go to your library and use sites like Trip Advisor. Prepare your map – attach it to the board, I use large gem clips. Focus on the broader areas you think you may want to hit.

Now, do your detailed research. Read all the guides, and every time you find a site (or restaurant, etc) that you want to go to, pin it. Color code them: for me – dark means “must see”, lighter means “see, time permitting”. Etc. Take your time on this. In the end, you’ll have a pretty good Heat Map of where your vacation will take place.

Hurray! You can start to make decisions: is it worth driving all the way to Site A, then back-tracking to Site B? How many things are there to see at Site C? The map will give you a good sense of how far apart sites are, and how much driving will be involved. Obviously a computer will be more precise, but you have to keep entering the info. This gives you a pretty good view at a glance.

Here’s the key point: The Heat Map you’ve generated in the push pin process will help you decide where you want to stay, and this is something most apps have yet to figure out, which is, where to stay so to minimize transit time while seeing the most of what you can (it’s a fairly complicated mathematical problem, but the human brain does a good job approximating the solution quickly). When you see a heavy cluster of spots, there you go – pick a central location, and it won’t always be in a big city. You may want one spot in between two clusters, for example, rather than having to stay in two different spots. One thing about travel books and web sites is that they are particularly geared towards city locations. That’s often convenient, but getting out and back into city hotels can be a hassle, if you’re taking day trips. Country lodging is often less expensive, and gives you more flexibility. Often you can use public transportation -- trains -- to get you right into the center of a big city. Regardless, the visual on this should give you options you may not have considered through regular booking tools.

Astute readers will have noticed that, in all my previous posts, I haven’t discussed lodging, and this was the reason. I consider the location of the lodging to be of primary importance, and until I know the places I’m going, I can’t make any reservations. There are a couple of spots where I consider the quality and value of the lodging to be so high that I’m willing to build an itinerary around my stay there. But that’s the rare exception, and I haven’t actually acted on it yet. I prefer to see a new place rather than return to one I’ve been to, though eventually I’ll cycle back to here and here.

Anyway, you are, at last, ready to look for lodging in the specific areas you want. I first scout the best places in each likely location, and mark those with yet a different pin -- it's hard to see on the photo above, but my target hotels are pink. You should use some of the more common internet tools to check rates, availabilities, and user/expert reviews of properties. It’s up to you to weigh factors like cost vs. convenience.

I like to be able to travel in a loop that starts and ends at the arrival airport: you want to avoid retracing steps, if you can, that’s wasted driving. And if possible, I prefer to be able to set up camp for an extended stay in one spot. It’s less packing and unpacking, and often better rates, especially on weekly stays. You just have to make sure the location supports enough to do and see in the week, with minimal driving (again, London and Paris work for this, but I really wouldn’t want to spend an entire week in Munich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or Prague, as lovely as those cities are).

Anyway, when you’ve picked and booked your locations, you’ll make your final adjustments to the map, and that will be your trip. You can’t carry the pinned map with you on the trip, so you can mark up the map with highlighters, write the itinerary down in a planner, and/or transfer it to an itinerary app.

One final benefit of using the map method, and it’s not a small one: it’s really easy to use to discuss planning with your family, including kids. Unless you have a very large screen or projector system, the big map will best show you sights and distances, and let your spouse have more say in what to keep and what to discard. Sure, Rothenburg may be a great attraction, but look – it’s awfully far away from our other must-do sights. Do we really need to squeeze it in? When you see how far it is on the map, your choices get clearer.

Next post: navigating lodging.

Another Travel Apps Post

There are a dozen other places where you can get a list of travel apps – check them out, if you must. Me, I find travel apps to be of little use, and even a bit dangerous. Beware -- if you’re choosing to run your trip off of a mobile device, you should consider the following:

1. Your battery may run out at an inconvenient time
2. You may not have cell coverage when you most need it
3. Digital map information can be very misleading
4. Books are cooler

Example for #4: you’re on the back porch at Les Crayeres, sipping a 2001 Veuve Rose, and game planning for the next day.  Do you want to be swiping away at some tablet (assuming wifi reaches the veranda), reading a small phone screen (and piling up cellular data), or casually breezing through a trusty travel book? I’m going to choose the book most every time. And really -- crotchety old me talking now -- I'm traveling to Old Europe to get away from looking at my phone. I don't need to constantly pull it out so that I can update LiveTrekker.

Many Travel Apps are designed for single and business travelers. Need to fly NYC-DCA tomorrow? Yep, and app can be very helpful there. But for long range planning – and you are planning this in advance, right – a mobile app is indeed mostly useless: you’ll want to plan using desktop pages, plus pen & paper. You can’t replicate via an app the process you use for finding flights as I outlined before. Hopper tries to tell you when the best time to fly is, but Google is still closer.

Options Away has a different take: it let you hold a reservation for longer than the usual 24 hours, up to 3 weeks. You pay a fee for the length of the hold, $5 to $50. It's flight price insurance, and, as a rule, I insure catastrophic expenses, and leave smaller expenses uninsured. I.e., don't buy the three year protection plan on the toaster. In the Options Away scheme, you'll come out behind, on average, otherwise they wouldn't make money.

Now, we all know that there's a big difference between mostly useless and all useless. Mostly useless is slightly useful. I stick with apps for dining, and for maps. TripAdvisor serves me well on the former, though I have Yelp added, too; for the latter I use Google Maps. Works in Europe, though not quite everywhere, as we've probably all discovered. I relied on Google to get us to our B&B in Tuscany last time, which was a huge fail, since the town was so small Google had decided not to bother with it. We had to get the B&B owners to come fetch us. I won’t make that mistake again, nor should you. Get paper directions.

Apart from that, I did use Google Maps to navigate my way through the streets of Venice late at night – it worked, and was one of the more enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had. And we’ve used Trip Advisor (or Yelp) to find good restaurants close to us at any given moment, on more than one occasion. Apps, mobile apps especially, are good fall-backs for when a plan has to change or you want to add some spontaneity to the trip. And the TripAdvisor ratings on food are generally pretty good, once you filter for the quirks (coffee shops tend to get lumped in with dining, and have high ratings). Now, especially on food, I find a critic’s recommendation to be favored over mass reviews, but it’s mildly heartening to see how often the two overlap.

Other apps & categories you can consider, but I generally reject:

·        Hotel & airline booking. See above – hopefully you’ve arranged all of this well in advance.

Public Transport apps. Could be very useful – these apps, like Moovit, help you use public transport in big cities efficiently. It’s likely that the big city you’re going to has its own app, but as far as I can tell, Moovit works well nearly everywhere. Though I’ll probably end up with Uber. Or a good old cab.
Walking guide apps. There are several that let you download a walking tour of a city, and you press play and follow along. A virtual guided tour! I’ll tell you what I prefer: do your own research first, and then give your family the guided tour yourself. You’ll have fun finding all the points of interest you’ve only read about, and your kids will enjoy listening to you more than some guide, live or recorded.
Organization apps: TripIt is the granddaddy here, an itinerary and reservations organizer. There’s an app called Tripomatic that lets you plan your trips – explore sights and set itineraries. Sounds good, but it's all a little clumsy in execution, and really, I don't want my phone pinging to tell me it's time to move on to the next sight. Next post, I’ll show you my detailed method for planning the trip. Yes, it’s a non-digital approach, you’ll have to purchase some physical goods, but I like it – read, and you can decide from there.

·        Packing apps: PackPoint lets you enter your destination, dates, and preferred activities, and builds a packing list for you. “Pack five pairs of socks” – fine, if you must. This is Europe, it’s not exotic. The temperature is the main thing you really need to be worried about. I’ll have a section on packing later, though. I think these packing apps miss a few key points.

Lastly: if you’re going to get apps, also make sure you adjust your phone data plan. Most apps aren’t data heavy, but if you have your phone out, you’ll be using it, and you’ll rack up the GB’s.

We use AT&T, and they have different level travel plans – I’ll assume all carriers have figured this out by now. The plans set limits on usage, with overage costs, and have added perks (like city-wide wifi in some places). They terminate after one month automatically, to make it easy. Four years ago, I went for a cheap plan and nearly got scorched with an $800 bill when I returned – the moment I landed back in ATL my phone altered me of overages, although I had it set to do so in Europe. That is, you can’t trust the notices, and so I’ll generally opt to get the gold plan and not worry too much about it (note – I got out of the bill because I called right then and there and told them about the notification issue. Perhaps it works better now – that was six years ago).

Of course, if possible, pre-load any devices (especially kids devices, our boys have Kindles) with the entertainment they’ll want on the trip. Your in-flight entertainment isn’t guaranteed anymore (airlines tend to charge extra for that now) and there will be times when you’ll want a little piece and quiet yourself: electronic babysitter to the rescue. Download a few favorite movies before the flight. We have a portable DVD player, too, we’ll be bringing that. You’ll probably have wifi access somewhere on the trip to update, but again, don’t count on it – and if it’s there, it’ll cost. 

...but I kinda like the music: Travel to the Iberian Peninsula

If you missed them, here are my previous posts discussing France, England, and Italy. I'll be continuing this series today with Spain (and Portugal). Fear not, I'm working on more practical tips on how to build a great trip.

I had some colleagues from Spain come to visit us the other day, and over lunch I asked them about travel. I wondered aloud if Madrid was as kid-friendly a destination as Barcelona was; their reply was that they’d heard this same thought several times before. Their take was that Barcelona must have better marketing in the US, because they thought Madrid was an excellent choice for a family destination.

Perhaps. Marketing certainly comes into play. For those of my generation, our first exposure to Barcelona probably came with the 1992 Olympics, far and away the best games ever held. Communism was defeated, and we didn’t have to worry about nuclear war or boycotts. All teams were at full strength, but everyone was friendly. Barcelona was colorful, sunny and warm, in contrast to Seoul’s concrete and neon. And the young, fit, and trim athletes basically spent two hedonistic weeks on the beach, occasionally pausing their carnal activities to run a race or something. It was the Olympics that featured The Dream Team and, specifically, Charles Barkley, quote machine, absolutely owning Las Ramblas .

Barcelona still retains its title as the best destination for college kids looking to spend an exotic yet familiar semester abroad, or a boozy summer busking for Euros on the corner and partying well into the morning. But I can say first-hand that Barcelona is also a terrific destination for a family. As mentioned in my quick-hitter on cathedrals, Sagrada Familia is a phenomenal sight, and who knows, it could even be finished sometime this century. Park Gruell is a charming spot for kids to play. The Joan Miro museum, overlooking the city, is bound to spark interest in any child, with its funky and colorful images and sculptures. The Gothic Quarter is mysterious and medieval, and don’t skip the Food Market (Mercado Central) on Las Ramblas, with all kinds of unusual meats – organs, mostly -- and seafood.  

The Barcelona food is fairly touristy (you can't avoid the "Barcelona Bomba"), but that can be fun for kids. Meal timing represents a problem, assuming you don’t want to keep your kids up past 9:00, but then again, you can make a virtue of it, especially if you have jet-lag. Shift bed-time to 11:00pm, 4:00 CST, and you’ll have less of an adjustment going to and coming back.

And, if all else fails, spend time on the beach. Seems like a waste to me, frankly, I find US beaches to be as good as they come.

Barcelona generally has good connections to the US – there’s a direct from ATL – and if you’re lucky, you may get a cheap fare. I call it an easy A.

Where does that leave Madrid? For all of Barcelona’s obvious charms, it has a tourist quality that it can’t easily shake. It’s also more cosmopolitan, naturally, as a sea port. Madrid is more authentically Spanish (whatever that may be: perhaps I should say “more authentically Castillan,” which is what we associate with Spain). The Prado is one of the top five museums in Europe, and Madrid has plenty of green space to play in.

It also strikes me as more mature. Barcelona is whimsical, while Madrid is serious. Barcelona can be enjoyed in a weekend; Madrid takes a month to unfold. If you’re going to Madrid, you’d best know someone there: you’ll need a key to open this city up. Once done, I’d say it’s delightful, but subtle. Save it for later. With kids, it’s: B.

Madrid’s kid v. adult issues extend to the rest of the Iberian peninsula – I include Portugal in on this, which is highly unfair, but what are they gonna do? They stopped being a naval power 400 year ago.

The major remaining Spanish sites lie in the South, and consist of the remains of the Moorish rule – Al Hambra and Cordoba, in particular, along with Seville. The architecture here is colorful and exotic, and represents the high point of an advanced civilization. You’ll do well here with your kids; they’ll appreciate just how different this is. I would not take them to a bullfight, but you could. A bit further south and you reach Gibraltar. Read the tales of Ulysses, Scylla and Charybdis, before getting there: each was supposed to be perils on either side of the rock. A-.

I shouldn’t skip Valencia, and you shouldn’t either: in some ways I’d say it’s better than Barcelona, certainly less touristy. It has beaches, gardens, medieval buildings and roman ruins and all that, and also the way cool City of Arts and Sciences. As a jaded taxpayer, you may view these buildings as government spending run amok, and the architecture will probably look as dated in 15 years as Brasilia looks now, but your kids will see it as Tomorrowland. A.

Go north to Bilbao if you want better food. It has the landmark Guggenheim Museum – not quite my bag, architecturally, but a sight to see none the less, and I certainly understand its importance. I rank this with Madrid: grown-up pleasures. B.

Portugal. We tend to forget them, hanging out at the boot end of Europe, but they lay claim to having shaped world history in a way few others have. For better or for worse (I call in the “better” camp, but that’s easy for me to say).

Like every “little brother”, Portugal has had to be tough and scrappy to assert its independence. In this case, big brother is Spain – Castillan, mostly – who managed to assert peninsular control over the Basques and Catalans, but not the Portuguese. You’ll see that in the architecture – plenty of castles like Pombal, Tomar, Belver and Almourol. Many of those are inland, though, and you’ll really want to be by the sea. Portugal has stunning scenery – steep cliffs falling to sandy beaches, colorful fishing towns, luxurious manors. A week in Portugal will cover the main cities of Lisbon and Porto, both worth seeing, along with side trips to places like Sintra and Evora. You can drag your kids to a vineyard or two, if you’d like. And since the water faces west, you’ll get spectacular sunsets just about anywhere. In some ways, Portugal is too romantic to be wasted on a family trip; save it for your 25 anniversary. But don’t let that stop you no, you can always go back. A-.

Flying Business

So you read my last post and you want to fly business? There’s a real question as to whether a business class ticket is even worth it for you. The 2.8% return on Delta miles that I calculate in my previous post is predicated on the assumption that a business class ticket’s cost is equal to its value. That’s a personal question.

I actually don’t think a business class ticket is worth it: You pay a $3,000 for 8 hours of additional comfort. $400/hour! I reserve that kind of fee for serious legal advice; the extra room and free booze just doesn’t cut it for me. One reason is that I can’t sleep on a plane, regardless of the comfort. It makes no difference to me if I’m awake in a lie-flat vs. an upright seat.

A business class ticket is wasted on a kid, in my opinion. They have plenty of room in a coach seat. Free booze helps them not at all. Unless you’re trying to give them something to shoot for later in life, or just build a memory, then they don’t need this. When I was a boy, we’d set up pillows and blankets and sleep on the floor.

My wife, however, can sleep on a plane, but not in a coach seat. For her, the difference is substantial. If it cuts down a day of jet-lag, you can start to justify it. If you hate coach flying so much that you’d prefer not to go at all, then it’s definitely a value. Plus, I’ll admit, it’s a pretty fun experience. Now, when I fly as a family, I fly as a family: we sit together. So I aim for one business class flight in every four trips, rather than, say, have my wife fly in business while us boys stick it out in coach. Seems pretty democratic.

Since a straight purchase of four business class tickets is beyond my annual budget, I use my miles. Let’s do the math on that, then: 4 business class tickets on Delta = 500,000 miles. If I travel to Europe every 2 years, as I try to do, that means I expect a business class trip every 8 years. So, I have to book 62,500 miles/year, $5,000+ a month. That’s basically spending every penny through the card. It can be done, but it’s tough – you got to maximize boosters whenever possible.

Your other options, of course, include just getting close, and buying the extra ticket(s) at rate. You can hope for a sale, or try services like http://www.skyluxtravel.com/ -- I’ve never tried them myself, seems shady, so don’t take this as a recommendation, and you can’t coordinate easily with your award redemption.  If you have to buy two tickets, and get awards on the other two, your out-of-pocket will be somewhere in the $5-6k range. Still a bite, but doable.

A further option that’s appealing is to just to business class on one of the legs – my wife, for example, likes to start the trip in business. It sets the tone for the trip and helps with the initial jet lag. Coming back? Not so critical, since it’s a daytime flight. You’ll be awake anyway, so lie-flat seating is largely irrelevant. Plus, you have the experience of the trip to get you through the 8-9 hours.

Surprisingly, Delta has no problem with you booking just a one way with miles. Same cost per leg either way. The trick was always getting the one way return ticket: airlines used to absolutely soak you on a one way ticket. For example – current Delta rate for ATL-ZRH in June, R/T, is $1,400 (outrageous, btw, I bought in for nearly half that). The one-way fare for June is $2,400. You’re better buying a R/T ticket and simply not flying the second half, which is a waste, and not always easy to do.

These days it’s getting a little easier to get a one way. The bargain carriers don’t seem to mind much at all: go to Norwegian Air, and you’ll see that they let you do it without a problem. Domestically, Southwest Airlines seems to be OK with one-way tickets, too. So, a sample itinerary I could build for myself:

Outbound: ATL-LON, Business Class, 4 seats, 250,000 miles +$600 in fees.

Inbound: Norwegian Air, LON-NYC, LowFare+  $473.30/ticket, $1893.20 total

                 Southwest Airlines, NYC-BHM, $175/ticket, $700 total.

Grand total: $3193.20 out of pocket, about $800/person.

It more or less works out to be a regular fare purchase, with using the miles to upgrade the outbound leg to business class. Not ideal – the one-way fare I’ve constructed is about $650/ticket, which is not much lower than my R/T target of $750. This is just an OK compromise between waiting forever for miles to build – 10-12 years, in my case -- or using them every 6 years on half of the trip.

There is another option, if you’re dying to travel business class. A relatively new airline, La Compagnie, flies an all-business class 757 from Newark to London & Paris. The seats aren’t lie-flat – by the looks of it, I’d say their outfit is a dated version of business class, but still a big improvement over coach. Their fares can be phenomenal, though: $1,700 RT Newark-Paris is standard for them, though I’ve seen offers NYC-LON for $1,100 RT. That was off-season, mind you, but still – if you snag seats at, say, $1,400, it’s close enough to a coach fare with a legacy carrier that I think it’s worth the try. For us Southerners, we still have to get to NYC, which is a $350 R/T ticket from BHM ($250 from ATL). You’ll probably have to overnight in NYC on the way back, too. You end up near $1,800/ticket, $7,200 total. A hair too much for my tastes, but I’d bet a reasonable option for several of my readers. All I ask is, if you do try La Compagnie, tell me how it went.

Managing Your Points

I’ll fess up: I don’t use my credit card rewards programs correctly, and it’s costing me money. Not too much, but if you’re going to travel in style and/or inexpensively, then you need to incorporate a good card rewards strategy. In this post I’ll discuss point/miles/cards, and how to get the most out of it. I’m going to assume throughout that you’re not a super-frequent flyer, because then your strategies will be different. Super-frequent fliers will think nothing of booking a flight from LA to Sydney and back just to accumulate the miles. The rest of us don’t have this option. If you do,  though, you should be following The Points Guy.

First, the basics – y’all probably know all this, but to recap: It used to be that credit cards and airline points/miles went hand-in-hand: you used the card that got you miles for the airline that serviced your needs best – for us in Birmingham, that amounted to either Delta or SWA. If you were lucky, or good at finding deals for point multipliers, you could fly for free. 

Credit cards eventually moved away from the airline strategy to a straight forward point strategy: cash back, not miles (though some still call them “miles”, and the traditional miles programs still exist). $1 purchase = 1 point. 100 points = $1. So, you’d get a straight up 1% on your purchases. Easy. And since cards want you to spend, they’ll give you multipliers on certain spend, or during certain periods. 2X is pretty common, and still works out for the card issuer: they get a little over 2% of the transaction fee, so 2X points is break-even in that regard. Once you get to 3X, the card issuer is coming out behind on the transaction, unless they have a deal with the specific vendor. Usually, though, they’re hoping usage will result in interest balance, and they’re mostly right. 

Chances are your current card gives you 2%, on average. That’s pretty good. You can definitely boost that by finding out when certain cards have certain multiplier periods, and load up then. For example, the bank where I work, BBVA Compass, has an NBA Amex card that gives you a 10X point multiplier for all purchases made during NBA All-Star weekend and the NBA Finals. That’s 10% cash back, no matter where you use it: I know, I'm a homer on this -- but that's super rich. I don’t know of another card that does that for you. I’m going to try to make any necessary big-ticket purchases then – school tuition, for example. My school will let me charge tuition on a card, though they pass on the transaction fee (3%) – this is pretty common. I still come out 7% ahead, provided I can pay it back quickly. 

Maximizing these offers is a good idea, in general. The problem is that it’s now pretty much decoupled from travel. I get cash back, but rarely do I let it accumulate. Often I’ll apply it to a balance right then and there. That’s great, but it only helps me with my airline bills in a big picture kind of way. If I were disciplined, I’d set up a travel savings account at my bank and automatically put cash in monthly – and somehow resist the temptation to raid it when an unexpected expense pops up. That’s the best practice. 

Miles programs force me to save for travel, since the miles aren’t really good for anything else. That’s nearly the only reason I still participate. I expect that the next time I use my miles, and get down to a zero balance, I’ll switch to regular balance rewards, and try very hard to leave them alone.

Because I’m in Birmingham, Delta and SWA are the most common carriers, and so Delta miles are the most use for me. (I don’t fly often enough to qualify for SWA flights). Delta has made it difficult to redeem miles – confusing, at least. You can use your Delta Amex card to get spend levels to qualify for their million miler club, etc, which gives you access to discounts, mileage boosts, and their club lounge. I have no way to reasonably reach their requirements, and really, no need for the perks. I don’t fly often enough. The way I figure it, either you fly a bunch and reach their targets easily, or not at all. 

Anyway, Delta still uses an award chart with variable redemption rates. I’m not going to go into them all, I’ll just focus on US-Europe. You have two options there: 

1.)        Use miles for a coach ticket

2.)        Use miles for a business class ticket

You use to be able to use miles to upgrade an existing ticket, but that option is only available on domestic flights. It was a pointless hassle before that restriction anyway.

Now, let’s start with point 1. Delta’s current redemption rate is 60,000 miles for a R/T coach ticket – that is, at least 60k. They release a few tickets every flight at 60,000, and then as those are used, the cost ratchets up to 90,000, 120,000, etc. They do have a handy tool on their website that lets you shop for affordable mileage flights pretty easily, but generally, if you want the good and cheap flights, you have to book early – 330 days in advance. But the good news is that you can book and then change pretty easily, usually without a fee.

Now, the problem with using miles for straight coach is that it’s a terrible value. 60,000 on a ticket that costs $800 = $0.013/mile, or a 1.3% return on credit card dollar spent. That’s poor, so I don’t even bother with it.

That gets us to Option 2: Business Class Award. This is generally what I shoot for, and if the chat boards can be believed, so do most others. First, the math: A Business Class ticket to Europe, from ATL, Goes for $3,500 or so, and rarely goes on sale. The lowest redemption amount for a business ticket is 125,000 miles. The math says…$0.028/mile, or 2.8% return on every dollar spent. Now that’s better – better than, say, Capital One’s straight 2%. 

It’s a little less than 2.8%, since you have fees to pay even on an award ticket, but they’re not much, $150 or so. If you’re lucky, you can even find a flight from Birmingham for 125,000 miles. The key is to a.) look early – 300+ days in advance -- and b.) look to different European cities. ATL-PAR books pretty quickly, but some routes, like ATL-BCN aren’t as popular. Spend two days in Barcelona, then take a cheap Euro flight to Paris. It’s my favorite way to use Skymiles. And the Delta tool on this is surprisingly useful. 

So, if you’re doing the miles thing, this is the best bang for your buck. Spend whatever you can pay off on the card, look for multipliers (most are worthless) and special offers. Delta used to run sales to purchase miles at a discount: I haven’t seen a sale in a few years, but when they happen, it’s usually in December, so check around then. And get a card for your spouse, each new card will get you 50,000 miles as a bonus. Amex charges a fee, but the perks – free bags on domestic flights, plus a companion ticket – can offset that.

Otherwise, I recommend going straight cash back and being disciplined. Take a look at the BBVA Compass Amex card and the 10X points during the NBA finals. Chase Visa has quarterly categories that give 5%, but I think you end up closer to 2% over the course of the yea. Capital One is 2X all the time. That’s your baseline. You can be crafty and use 4-5 different cards at different times, and maybe you can get 5% over the year. That’s better than my 2.8% on my Delta card. But it takes work.

Belgium

I have – had – another blog where I made the occasional political comment. My travel blog (and upcoming cocktail blog) I shall try keep politics-free; but I can’t write a travel blog about going to Europe without acknowledging what’s happening in the world. Today, Belgium was attacked by ISIS suicide bombers. It’s not an isolated incident. We can be pretty sure there will be another attack in the foreseeable future. And so it’s not unreasonable to ask the question, “how safe is it to travel to Europe?”

Let me answer that with a confession: I’m terrified of flying. Hate it. I have a hard time getting through an average flight without several drinks (which means I especially hate flying in the morning). If I try to sleep, even the slightest bump jolts me awake. Moderate turbulence makes me grab the armrest and brace myself against the bulkhead. I prefer to have a window seat so I can check that the wing is still attached.

I know my fear is irrational; I know the statistics, which are that, when that I travel, the flight will be the safest thing I do that day. And so I never have allowed my fear of flying to dictate or alter my travel plans. If flying is the best way to get somewhere that I want to go, I’ll buy the ticket, and tough it out.

It’s a shame, because flying should be an enjoyment. Where else can you get 4-8 hours of uninterrupted peace, to read a book, watch a movie, catch some sleep? Once you’re in the air, your time is yours. But I just can’t enjoy it. It's an irrational fear, and the facts of air travel help me not at all when I'm bouncing around at 35,000 feet.

Getting back to the original question on safety in Europe. The textbook answer is, Europe is very safe. From a statistical perspective, terrorist acts remain extraordinarily rare; the most dangerous part, by far, of my upcoming trip to Europe will be the drive from BHM to ATL (actually, the return ATL-BHM will be more dangerous, since I’ll likely be fatigued). So when my wife asks whether or not we should ditch the upcoming trip and head to the beach instead, well, the odds are that the beach trip is much more dangerous (long drive + risk of drowning).

But the sentiment behind the terrorist/safety question is not unreasonable. Yes, were safe, but it’s not so easy to just say “your fears are irrational, get over them.” If you’re afraid of terrorism, having your head on a swivel while strolling Paris is going to significantly diminish your experience. And the facts of statistical safety won't fix that. In this case, why bother? Take a staycation, or drive to the Rockies instead. Visit Maine. The US has places all over the place.

Me, I’m not worried about the terrorism threat, so I easily choose to go. But to mitigate fears, there are some strategies I'll employ to ease some nervous co-travelers. I’m not a terrorist expert, so don’t take these points as being anything that actually does reduce your risk, which is vanishingly small. Consider them options that reduce your perceived risk. If someone could do that for me for air travel, for example, I’d be thrilled.

1.) Fly into Zurich. Seriously, who bothers the Swiss? Neutral, landlocked, and not a part of the EU, you may be able to convince yourself and other travelers that you’re heading to the least likely terror spot on Earth.
2.) Hit the countryside. You know what makes me nervous? Other people. Europe has lovely countryside, lots of it, with plenty of things to see, and a general lack of crowds. Terrorists don’t seem to attack cows.
3.) Buy the attraction passes in advance. Standing in line at the Louvre is a waste of your time, and offers little cover if things go wrong. Instead, get the access pass, skip the line, and head right in. Once you’re inside you’re past the metal detectors.
4.) Avoid public transportation. Europe’s public transportation is efficient and affordable, and seems like it would be a shame not to use. However, if you don't like trapped in a tube under ground, skip it and take taxis.
5.) Picnic. Cafés have become targets, so get bread and cheese, and a bottle of wine, and eat al fresco – find a lawn and enjoy. Your pocketbook will thank you, too.

That’s more or less what we’ll be doing for our upcoming trip, and we’ll have a wonderful time. It is, in fact, what we planned before the recent terror attack.

To the people in Belgium – I have nothing to offer, except a song I heard one time when I was skiing in Switzerland. A group of teens at the ski lift were singing:

Everywhere we go

People want to know

Where we’re from

So we tell them
We’re from Belgium
Pretty, pretty Belgium

The kids were so infectious in their joie de vivre that the dopey little tune has stuck with me for 30 years. Good Luck, Belgium. We're with you.

Google Flights, Part 2

So you have to go to Tuscany, eh? Excellent choice, and you'll need strategies to get there that are not covered in Part 1 of my Google Flights tips. You probably need to fly to Milan (MXP). A sale ATL-PAR really doesn’t help you.

Well, maybe it does, we’ll see. If you have a must have destination, it pays to expand your search parameters, and get ready to change planes, multiple times.

First thing is to go ahead and take off the “direct only” filter in your Google Flights searches. If it’s that important, one stop shouldn’t bother you. You may get lucky and snag another ATL-PAR flight for $600.

You may want to consider searching alternate departure points. Yes, you can try Huntsville or Montgomery, sometimes something quirky can happen. I’d include Nashville, too. They don’t have direct flights to Europe, but they do have plenty of competition and even a few bargain carriers that keep prices. I checked, and I would not choose any of the cheap flights (three planes, 30+ hours),and I’m not keen on flying bargain airlines across the pond, but Nashville is a drivable distance, so it’s worth a look.

Your better options include checking prices on major hubs, and see if you can get a *really* low fare. I generally scan Chicago, NY, Boston, Philly, DC, and Charlotte. The trick here is that if you find your low fare from one of these hubs, you can then see if there happens to be a low fare getting there from Birmingham. Chicago is a good option on this, in particular. It’s possible to get to Chicago for $200-$250 direct – check SWA, too, they don’t show up on Google Flights. From there, you may be able to score a direct to Milan for $650. It’s not likely, but not impossible. In fact, the best option here is probably NYC, there are cheap flights to Europe leaving Newark all the time. The trick is to get there: BHM-NYC has gotten outrageously expensive, nearly $400. That’ll negate any savings from NYC-MXP.

You can try to get really crafty, though, and see if you’re willing to drive to ATL and fly to NYC from there. ATL-NYC can sometimes be had for under $200. Nashville-NYC can be competitive, too. It takes a good deal of hunting here – you have to keep going back and forth between the Europe leg and the US leg, checking dates, but it can work. Case in point: two years ago I bought tickets NYC-MXP because they were at $599 R/T. That’s a pretty good deal, and I knew we wanted to go there. Now, getting to NYC isn’t easy, but I had a Delta companion ticket from my credit card (side note, Delta companion tickets are rarely worth it – you have to pay an increased fare to use them, which eats into the savings, sometimes completely. But it’s always worth a look). I also had a $300 credit from being bumped on a previous flight. I found $250 tickets, used my companion on one, the credit on the other, and all told, made it to Milan from Birmingham for $712/person. Pretty darn good. Without the companion & credit, it still would have clocked in at a respectable $850. This was when oil was at $100/barrel, mind you.

The added benefit of this kind of arrangement is that you can break up the trip and enjoy a secondary destination. For the above trip, we stopped for a night in NYC and got to do a little touring around with the kids. Chicago, Boston, Philly, DC would all offer similar opportunities. The break in the travel gives you a chance to ease your way into your vacation.

You can flip it around, too – remember, you may have found a great direct flight ATL-BCN (Barcelona). Now, go see if there’s a cheap ticket from BCN-MXP. Europe has a lot of bargain carriers, I find that flying within Europe is cheaper than flying within the US. In my example, BCN-MXP is $114 round trip. $114! And that’s on a British Airways codeshare, so you get one bag free. You have to be careful about that, btw. For example: You can fly RyanAir from Shannon, Ireland (SNN) to Paris for as little as $46 RT. Let that sink in. Then build an itinerary: ATL-NYC ($176), NYC-SNN ($571), SNN-PAR ($46). That’s $800 to get to Paris, RT, from ATL – pretty good. Plus you get to spend a day in NYC and another couple in Ireland. I think that’s a solid trip. Note your total flight time is minimal – 2 hours ATL-NYC, 6 hours NYC-SNN, 1 hour SNN-PAR. 9 hours total. That’s a whole lot better than going BHM-DFW-Istanbul-MXP.  

Now RyanAir is, I’m told, a less than pleasant experience. They charge you for everything, bags, snacks, beverages, etc. You’ll probably end up with an extra $200 in fees, maybe more. Plus, it’s extremely cramped. So, beware when booking domestically, on either side. Check the T&C’s and make sure you’re not going to get severely dinged.

A last note: The idea of bargain domestic flights has been around for many years. It’s starting to show up for international carriers, too. I was very excited to read about a new airline called Norwegian Air; they fly out of Boston, NYC, and Orlando, and offer RT fares in the $500’s to destinations like London and Copenhagen. Plus, they fly new 787’s, which I’m dying to try.

But read the fine print: $500 RT does not include bags, or seat assignments(!) You can’t fly as a family without assigned seats, that’s right out. Once you add all the necessities in, you’re back up to $800+. Still decent, but not enough to move the needle. So beware of these – there’s another airline called WOW, same deal. But if nothing else, these bargain carriers keep prices low everywhere. I wish one would buy a slot in ATL. Or BHM – there was a rumor of a BHM-Stuttgart flight from a bargain German carrier (for Mercedes folks) that sadly never materialized. Sad Panda.

Using Google Flights

By now you may have played around on Google Flights, especially the Flexible Dates view, and hopefully seen its power. It’s still pretty wide open, though, and, as promised, here are a few tips to get the most out of it.

To Start: Traveling out of BHM airport is usually an expensive proposition. I’ve checked the same for Huntsville and Montgomery. As nice as it is to fly directly out of BHM, it comes at a premium of $300/ticket, I’d say, over other options. The closest to an affordable flight I’ve ever found was $1,050 RT to Paris, and that disappeared in a day. The root cause is lack of competition; flights from BHM are few, and of those, SWA takes up a large number. It would be perfectly lovely and quite possible for Delta to reasonably price in a BHM-ATL-PAR flight, but there’s no competitive pressure for it to do so.

I almost always, therefore, begin my searches in ATL. It’s drivable, obviously, and there are direct flights to most European destinations. You do have to factor the drive and park cost in – as low as $9/day if you use the remote shuttle site, though I often go with the $12/day Economy parking. $100 for a 10 day trip, from $25 gas – it’s a cheap way to go. There are busses that take you from BHM to downtown ATL, but you have to take MARTA to get to the airport from there. $14/person for that…both ways…you come out behind pretty quickly. Only, don’t underestimate how difficult the return drive can be. You’ll have been up for 16+ hours, probably, when you land back in ATL. Be careful.

When you start searching from ATL you’ll notice pretty quickly that ATL-Europe pairs are not particularly cheap, at least not compared to some of the other ads you’ll see. Reasons: again, lack of major competition (ATL is dominated by Delta); lack of a bargain carrier (e.g., Norwegian, more on them later); the extra two hours of flight time compared with, say, NYC departures. ATL-Europe generally starts at $1,000, whereas NYC-Europe can be had for $500 (though you don’t want that flight, more on it later). Oddly, that $1,000 fare usually involves a stopover in the US, usually NYC. So, you’re driving 150 miles and don’t even get a direct connection. Bummer. Direct flights are almost always $200 more.

The best you can hope for with ATL departures is to keep checking and catch one of those odd computer pricing glitches. Last year I found ATL-Paris for $600 in June – this is a good deal. Anything below $700 to continental Europe from ATL is a steal. I consider $800 to be a good purchase. The $600 flight wasn’t ideal, it has a stop in NYC, and the trip length was 8 days max: I like to go for at least 10. We ended up passing on it, but such deals can be had (the driver, btw was an offer from United that was coupled with an AARP discount. Delta matched it for a very short period).

Anyway, ATL remains the first best option, really, in terms of convenience. I set my Google search to “direct flights only” to filter out the Aeroflot routes – if I’m driving to ATL, I count that as one flight, and I don’t want another if I can help it. I usually start looking 4 months in advance; airlines rarely start their pricing games further out (unless you’re using miles, in which case you need to start 330 days out – more on that next week). I think that oil futures are the main reason why airlines won’t discount more than 4 months out, but I’m sure more goes into it. Expect the sales to kick in between 3-4 months out. Google will actually help here, they have a tool that predicts, based on past history, when the best time to buy a certain flight is. The airlines know this, too, and will try to inject some randomness into the process.

Buying when the sales are first announced is a risk-reward proposition. You’ll get the best pick of seats if you buy early, and with luck you’re locking in a decent price. Again, I go with $700 direct to continental Europe as being excellent, $800 as very good, $900 as fair. I don’t go above $900, you can always do better. So if I see $770 to Zurich, I jumps on it.

Wait, what? Zurich? Why am I going there? OK, here’s the point I was trying to make with my previous posts on France/Italy/England: Go into this process with an open mind for your destination, because they’re all good (I haven’t gotten to describing Germany/Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Scandinavia yet, but they’re excellent choices, too). I prefer to have top 3 choices for destinations and see if something develops. This year, ATL-ZRH was $300 less than ATL-PAR, so Zurich and southern Germany it is. Two years ago Milan was on sale – and there we go. If you have your heart set on one particular spot, then so be it, but flexibility increases savings.

Back to the purchase. If the initial sale at $800 is not in your budget, you can hold out for a lower price. You may get lucky and score something at $600; you may not. You can always decide that connecting through Istanbul on your way to London is worth-while. I try to minimize connections, and if they must be, at least have them going in the same direction. Amsterdam is, more or less, on the way from ATL to Paris, so you’re not losing a lot of time, I can do that. Other people are willing to route through Dubai to Rome. That’s not for me (unless it’s Emirates business class, in which case, go ahead and make the flight longer).

But you are stubborn, aren’t you? You have your heart and mind set on France. If so, be prepared to make the trip a little less convenient, but I’ll show some strategies that don’t involve stuffing your kids into the overhead bin. Next post.

If Man Was Meant To Fly...

I realize I’m in for a reader revolt if I don’t quickly get to the goods. Which is:

What good is it describing the places to go without describing how to get there, affordably?

The truth is that travel to Europe was, until fairly recently, cost-prohibitive under most sensible family budgets (not that that stopped me). Fuel prices and a weak Dollar piled Euro onto Euro. Luckily for us in 2016, we have an oil war going between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and an intractable economic and currency situation in Greece: Europe may never again be as affordable as it is now. I mean, this may all blow up in WWIII or Great Depression 2, for all I know, but let’s not worry about that.

Regardless, getting to Europe is still not "cheap". Airlines have only slowly lowered their fares, as they would prefer to keep capacity low relative to demand, and reap the profits. It’s not totally unfair: Airlines are notoriously boom & bust, they need to make hay while the sun shines. They can’t easily reduce capacity when a downturn hits – they’re still paying the lease on that 777 regardless of whether it’s flying.

So, for the moment, fares are still moderately high, and you’ll need strategies for getting over the pond without breaking the bank. I’m going to lay out a few assumptions in the process:

1.) You have kids, so you can’t fly off-season. Otherwise, it’s an easy game – easier, that is. Getting a cheap ATL-PAR flight in early December isn’t particularly hard. Too bad many of us just can’t pull us kids from school for a week or two without consequences.
2.) You don’t live in NYC or DC, which are major transportation hubs. NYC-LON has occasional fares so low that you can get away for a long weekend, and make it worth-while.
3.) Comfort and duration plays some role in your flight decision. This will rule out some services, especially Priceline: I used them once and snagged a cheap-ish flight. We were routed BHM-DFW-MXP (Milan) which added about 8 hours total to what I would have booked by myself. Not worth the $200 total savings, according to my wife.
4.) You don’t have a ton of Frequent Flyer miles to splash. That I’ll cover in a later post.

A few words on airline pricing. Airlines do their best to defy predictability. They have sophisticated models and algorithms designed to maximize their per-flight revenue. You’ll have a hard time outguessing these, even with today’s tools.
But their computers are not infallible. What you have working in your favor is competition: airlines are sensitive to competitor pricing, and one carrier publishing a sale on a particular route will often cause other carriers to match. This match often happens automatically through the system’s computers; carriers do monitor these and will manually correct anything that’s artificially low – or, sometimes not. If you’re lucky, and quick, you can find these deals. But they come with caveats, so you want to be careful.

In the old days, you would have to rely on a good travel agent to make recommendations for you – and often their expertise would help you find a good deal. Today, travel agents barely exist for the public (they’re still there for business travel, but their focus there is more on making sure the trip goes smoothly: cost is secondary). They’ve been replaced by the multitude of search engines and aggregators, which made some sense. Search and book, and cut out the middle-man. Unfortunately, most of the tools available are totally inadequate when it comes to dealing with the airline’s current pricing models. And that’s not likely to change: airlines will always do their best to stay a step ahead of the aggregators. In the worst case, airlines actively work with the aggregators to inflate pricing. Consider: how does Travelocity make money? Do you pay them? Somebody does, and if it’s the airlines, who do you think will come out ahead, you or them?

So I no longer bother with Travelocity & Expedia, much less Orbitz and CheapO. They all use the same search engine, and are decidedly lacking in tools. You pretty much have to search one departure-destination combo at a time, and one set of dates. Not helpful.

Kayak was, for a while, a better model. For all I know they also use the same search engine, but they came out with a fairly useful tool that’s still worth checking. The “Explore” tool lets you enter a departure location, a travel date range (either a specific month or a season) and then shows you, on a map, what kind of deals other users have booked along those lines. It is far from infallible: for one, it will list the lowest fare someone has found, but you have to drill down to find out that that fare included a 32 hour layover in Kiev (this is right out). And it only shows what Kayak users have booked: I booked directly with Delta for my upcoming flight, and got it for $500 less than the Kayak listed deal. Still, Kayak can serve as a pretty good visual for what kinds of fares can be had. Recall above: airlines tend to match deals. If you see ATL-MAD (Madrid) pop up on the cheap, then it’s worth exploring. It may be a competitive hot-spot.

The best site for researching flights is Google Flights. Google acts on its own: it has cash to burn, so it’s using the site to drive eco-system traffic in a larger war with Facebook – it doesn’t need a back-door deal with carriers. And it uses projects like Flight as test cases for engineering concepts. As such, their interests are more likely to align with yours, and not the airlines. Of course, it's capturing all your data, which it will use for its own nefarious purposes later on, but that's later. Live in the Now.

On a top level, Google Flights does the same as all the other sites – enter a route and date pair, and up come the flight options. Where Flights shines is that it gives you easy view into different travel options. You know you want to go to London this summer, but what are the best dates? Google can pull up a grid view to show a full week range of combinations: e.g., June 3rd to June 14th, or June 1th to June 15th, etc. And it’s easy to scroll through to cover the entire summer. This is key, because the price on a flight can vary dramatically based on the departure and arrival combination. You can save hundreds by shifting your travel days a day or two on both ends. Google will also clue you in on this when you make a basic search, but the calendar grid view is so powerful I go to it right away.
The other very useful tool is the destination map. It works a lot like the Kayak one – enter a departure point and flight dates, and then scroll the map to see prices for different destinations. The advantage over Kayak is that these are current airline prices, not what someone got recently. It’s much more accurate than Kayak in that regard. I almost always end up toggling back and forth between map and grid view, trying different combinations. Google has other tools, but these are the most powerful. Try them out for fun. In the next post, I’ll try to give you my method for using these tools most effectively.

The Sweet Life

If England and France are so wonderful, then why do I keep going back to Italy? La Dolce Vita, of course. Italy is lush and lovely and has 2500 years of culture to permeating the ground. It has my favorite style of food (I’m a pasta lover), and has Gelato all over the place. If some genie offered me the following deal: you get an annual trip to Italy, for free, every year, but it’s the only place in Europe you can go – well, I’d have a hard time passing that up.

Italy is a great destination during the Spring Break period. March in Northern Europe is a dreary affair – 45 and drizzly, with nothing in bloom. By contrast, Italy is shaking off the winter and, though the trees will still be bare in the north, you can at the least expect comfortable temperatures for walking. South of Rome the climate is nearly tropical by then. So for those of us constrained to travel by the school calendar, Italy makes an ideal Spring Break destination. A major advantage there is cost, which I’ll cover later: Spring flights and lodging are generally cheaper than summer.

Unlike England or France, though, I consider the capital, Rome, to be the lesser of Italy’s great family destinations. B+, in my book. It has the iconic locations – the Colosseum & St. Peters, to start. The Pantheon to a lesser degree (its size is impressive by itself, but more because of how intact it is, for its age). Rome has gelato, and lots of it. It has plenty of street pizza. And a Mascarpone Pie at Pizza Est Est Est that was delicious.

It also has ruins, and lots of them. I love ruins. Some ruins are tangibly evocative and compelling, I especially think of Jumièges Abbey in Normandy. Many of the Roman ruins, though, require a good deal of knowledge and even more imagination. I think of the Forum, mostly: outlines of buildings in the ground, and the patch of stone where Caesar may or may not have been stabbed. Many kids wouldn’t easily be able to conjure it all up, though you can show them Ben Hur and see what happens (I’m not screening Gladiator for my boys for a few more years).

And that’s the point – I take Rome as an adult destination. Just look at the iconic movies set there: La Dolce Vita, The Bicycle Thief, Roman Holiday. You have to know something about life to really enjoy Rome. My recommendation: wait until your kids are in college, and invite them for a cocktail at the Hassler. Then send them off on their own way – backpacks and hostels -- while you and yours contemplate the Spanish Steps.

For the rest of the tour, I’ll start South. I think Sicily, C+, is a tough sell; poorer tourist amenities and a lack of “wow” destinations keep it off my list. There are better places for beaches.

Naples, B-, fares only a little better. Yes, it’s the birthplace of pizza, and the harbor is supposed to be spectacular, but I’m not dragging my kids up a volcano. And I’m still freaked out, at 44, by the plaster cast people in Pompeii, I don’t think my kids need that.

Apuglia, B+. The heel of the boot. Less traveled, but from what I’ve read, folks rave about this area. It’ll have nice beaches, secluded coves, and pretty towns. A refined and relaxed trip, the road less traveled. I could be talked into an A- here.

Amalfi, A-. The glamorous shin of the boot. Colorful settlements clinging precariously to the side of a coastal cliff. You really can’t go wrong here, unless you have a tighter budget or are there in the high season (beach space gets crowded). There, towns and beaches are the sights: and Rome is close enough if you want to split the trip. If your kid is fidgety, they may need the diversion after a few days.

Sardinia, C+. No.

Tuscany, A. I speak from experience here. Our kids loved it, and us adults had plenty to do, too. Some of it touristy – note that the age limit for going up the Leaning Tower of Pisa is 8, but it’s worth it.  Kids will respond to the art of Florence, just don’t overload them. We plopped ours in front of the Birth of Venus and had then contemplate the details. They also remember well the Laocoon in the Uffizi – why not, it’s a guy being eaten by snakes. And, the David (be prepared, though, for sniggers about his butt). We managed hill-top towns and secondary cities like Lucca – rent bikes and circle the city walls. You can even make it as far as Umbria, too. Only the Duomo failed to impress, but we didn’t make it up to the top. And do yourself a favor, stay with Bill and John.

Northern Italy, B. Milan, Bologna, Verano, Modena…I’ve had fine times in all of those places. Design, food, opera, sports cars (in that order): if your kids are into those, give it a try. Milan is a very convenient airport for US flights, so feel free to give it a couple of days. And it has the Last Supper painting (by appointment only). Still, Tuscany is so, close by, why wouldn’t you go there instead?

Venice, A. When I was a kid, I’d sometimes look out my window and imagine that the blacktop street was really all water. I imagined diving out of my second story window; taking a boat to the park. And that’s Venice. It’s not for everyone, and after a couple of days it does actually become a bit of a hassle. And the food is sub-par. But the first two days are like nothing else, young and old alike. The best 110 Euros I ever spend was the water taxi ride down the Grand Canal. Stop here if you at all can.

Italian Alps, B. They shot the Stallone movie Cliffhanger in the Dolomites because those mountains are famously tall and steep. It’s a sight to see, no doubt, and the Germanic feel of Tyrolia is charming. It belongs more in the tour of Austria, the region is not very accessible from the south. The lakes Como and Maggiore  have more spectacular scenery, but its slower pace calls for an empty nest trip.

Piedmont/Ligura, A-. Go see the Cinque Terre before they start restricting visitors. Make sure your kids are in hiking shape, though. The rest of the Ligurian coast is indeed more adult than not, though seaside gelato soothes any whiney tot. Columbus has fallen out of fashion, but I still celebrate him, and Genoa is the place to do it.

Whenever I start thinking of a European trip, Italy is always on the table. Always.

What ho, what?

England! Because who needs good food?  

That’s unfair, a totally lame cheap shot. I love England. The food can be good, I’m told – and I'll eat the heck out of a fish and chip. And drink plenty of local ale.  

As a travel destination for kids, it has many charms. I’ll admit, I’m on shakier ground when I discuss it, having been there only once (whereas I’ve been to France several times). But ignorance of the finer details has never stopped me from making summary judgments in the past, and it won’t stop me here.  

England has some of the similar features of France, in so far that travel to its capital city (London, btw) is an excellent choice for children. I know this from specific experience, since I was taken there as a boy – 7 or 8 at the time – and I still remember a few bits of our stay (3 days). And that was before they added stuff like The Eye. There are enough iconic experiences to keep any kid entertained and interested; I vividly remember Buckingham Palace (though it’s a bit of a let-down for a kid, I think, it looks a lot like a fancy admin building). I remember that I fed the ducks in the park. I remember double decker busses. And I remember how odd it was that the English put milk in their tea.  

The point is, the trip will be memorable to your kids, and not just for the big stuff, like Big Ben and the Tower. They’re bound to pick up on the little differences between us and them, whereas the differences between us and, say, Italians could be a bit overwhelming. 

On top of that, London is an hour closer than most other Euro destination – hey, 7 hours in a plane is probably better than 8 (though not necessarily, I’ll have more on that in a later post, too). And being able to speak English with anyone and not get the Parisian stink-eye is often helpful.  If I’m grading London as a family destination, I go A. Books and movies are too many to list (Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes), though I’ll always have a soft spot for Paddington. Play some Beatles for your youngsters – Yellow Submarine, especially.  

Though surely you want to go further afield than London? England has a lot to explore (I’ll cover Scotland in a later post). That’s where I think you run into the same problem as with France. England is loaded with countryside and charm, which is wonderful for adults. I certainly would go to Highclere Castle, yet I think my kids would only have a mild interest. This I know from our family trip to the Biltmore; the petting zoo and ice cream were the main attractions for them.  

The added trouble, for me, is the driving. I’m pretty comfortable with twisty Italian roads or the roaring Autobahn, however the whole left-hand side driving thing...I’m not really sure how my reflexes and driving instinct would react in case of a sudden danger. Instead of swerving left, to the roadside, I could swerve right, into oncoming traffic. It’s enough to give some pause. But only some. You're ready to go, so: 

Kent/Sussex, A. Easily reachable as day trips from London, if you must, it's chock full of great places. Start in Canterbury (having read this with your kids) and work west: cliffs of Dover, and Hastings for a real history lesson. Peter Jackson set Hobbiton in New Zealand, but I suspect a better location for the Shire would have been South Downs. Make time for the quaint, half-timbered houses of Rye, and then to Brighton for ice cream and a carnival atmosphere. On to Portsmouth for and the great old ships. That’s as good a week as you can have. 

Cornwall, B-. I'm fascinated by the Celtic stone circles; in the end...they're stone circles. Tintagel, for all it's ghostly glory, is still just a ruin unless you have the Arthurian context. And my kids aren't quite old enough to watch Excalibur. 

Bath, B-. Do you think you can explain "Georgian architecture" to your kids? Me neither. Salisbury and Stonehenge are in the area; you can't even get up to Stonehenge anymore, so what's the point? I'd find the whole thing depressing.  

Oxford, the Cotwolds, Stratford, B. Punting on the river? I'm in! With some luck, your kids may fall in love with Oxford so much that they make it a mission to study there. If they fall short, they can still go to Chicago. The Cotswolds is a little too scenic and cute for kids, if you ask me, and Stratford...well, there's not a really good Shakespeare for Kids out there, so you're taking your chances. All this seems pretty grown-up to me. 

Midlands, C+. I'm talking about Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. I think it's probably like vacationing in Pittsburgh – nothing wrong with that, you may love it. But if you're going to England, there are better places. Blackpool boosts this destination by a whole letter grade, for kids. Probably not my first choice, either. 

Lake District, A. Prettiest spot in England. So pretty any kid will have to like it, in some fashion. Secret weapon? Start throwing Wordsworth at the little dears. Or Beatrix Potter. I long to see Hadrian's Wall, but it's not like it's an actual wall – it's a long grassy hill. Kids won't care, unless you really sell how fierce the Scots were.  

Yorkshire, B. You're getting some serious castles, abbeys, manors, and ruins here. And a dose of Viking history. Not as scenic as the Lake District, though, depending on taste. Maybe you'll love the Moors. I think it's too subtle for a lot of kids.  

I prefer France, indeed, but in a perfect world, I wouldn't have to make a choice. I'm saving England for when my boys turn 12.