Seven to ten days. One country. Two bases. Rome and Florence. Paris and the Loire. Lisbon and the Algarve. You will actually remember it.

Two weeks. Two countries, maybe three if they touch. Switzerland and Italy. Germany and Austria. Denmark and Sweden. Neighbors, short hops, one border crossing that is basically a road sign.

Three weeks or more. Three to four countries. Now a rail pass or a camper starts to pay for itself, and you can afford to lose a day to weather without it wrecking the plan.

Minimum three nights anywhere. Two nights is one real day. You arrive tired, you leave early, and the middle is laundry. Three nights is where a place stops being a photo stop.

Build in one empty day per week. No museum, no train, no plan. Kids need it and so do you. Every trip I have ever booked that skipped this came home frayed.

Schengen is a shared border area, not the EU. Twenty nine countries have agreed to drop passport checks between them. Once you are inside, you can drive from Portugal to Norway without showing a passport again.

Ninety days in any one hundred and eighty. On a US, Canadian, Australian or UK passport you get ninety days inside the whole Schengen area, counted across a rolling one hundred and eighty day window. Not ninety per country. Ninety total.

Rolling means it moves with you. On any given day, look back one hundred and eighty days and count the days you were inside. That number has to stay under ninety one. Leave for a while and days drop off the back end.

Ireland and the UK are outside it. They run their own rules, usually ninety days for Ireland and up to six months for the UK, and time spent there does not count against your Schengen ninety. Handy if you need to reset.

Some non EU countries are inside it. Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are all in Schengen without being in the EU. Croatia joined Schengen in 2023, so your Adriatic trip counts against the same ninety days as France does.

Overstaying is not a shrug. It can mean a fine, an entry ban, or a very bad hour at an airport. If you want longer than ninety days, that is a visa conversation, and it is worth having early.

ETIAS is coming and the date keeps moving. It is a cheap online authorisation for visa free visitors, not a visa. Check the official EU site before you book rather than a blog post, because that includes this one.

The euro covers most of it. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Croatia and more. One currency, no exchanging, and prices you can compare across borders.

Norway and Denmark both use a krone and they are different kroner. Sweden has a krona. None of them are interchangeable, and none of them are cheap. Norway in particular will shock you on groceries and alcohol.

Switzerland uses the franc and it is the most expensive country on this page by a wide margin. Shops near the border will take euros and give you a terrible rate back in francs. Pay in francs.

Cards work almost everywhere. Tap works even more. The Nordics are close to cashless. Germany and rural Italy still surprise people with cash only bakeries, market stalls and small restaurants, so keep some notes.

Always decline the offer to pay in dollars. That prompt on the card machine is dynamic currency conversion and it is a hidden markup of several percent. Choose the local currency every single time.

Tipping is not American tipping. Service is included. Round up, or leave five to ten percent for something good. Twenty percent is not generous here, it is confusing.

Nordic. Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland. Expensive, safe, spotless, and set up for children better than anywhere else on earth. Summer days that never end and winters that barely get light. Go for nature and for how easy daily life is, not for nightlife or food scenes.

Western. France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK. The version of Europe most first timers picture. Big famous cities, excellent trains, high prices in the capitals and much lower ones an hour outside them.

Central and Alpine. Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary. Mountains, castles, punctual trains and the widest price range on the continent. Switzerland will empty your account and Poland will refill it.

Mediterranean. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Greece. Late dinners, warm sea, loud streets and the friendliest countries in Europe for traveling with small children. Slower, hotter and less punctual, and that is the point.

Eastern. Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltics, the rest of the Balkans. The best value left in Europe and the least crowded. Fewer direct flights, more driving, a bigger jump in language and alphabet. Not a first trip. Exactly the right fourth one.

Apartments beat hotels once you are more than four. European hotel rooms are built for two, sometimes three. A family of five usually means two rooms, which is two of everything. An apartment gives you a kitchen, a washing machine and a door you can close after bedtime, and it is normally cheaper.

Car seat rules vary and rental seats are grim. Most countries require a seat or booster to around twelve years old or a set height. Rental company seats are expensive, filthy and sometimes not there when you arrive. Bring a lightweight travel booster if your child is at that stage. Taxis are often exempt, which does not make it safe.

Plan laundry, do not react to it. Book one apartment a week with a machine, or find a laundromat and treat it as an afternoon off. Dryers are rare, so everything hangs. Pack for eight days and wash, not for three weeks.

Dinner is late and that is fine. Spain does not really start eating until nine. Italy from around eight. Order early elsewhere and you will be the only table in the room. Feed the kids a real afternoon snack and shift the whole day back a couple of hours.

School age travel is more doable than it sounds. We did a year of worldschooling in Arendal, Norway. Most US districts will work with you if you ask properly and early. Museums, cathedrals and border crossings do more for a nine year old than a worksheet, and the kids come back different.

The dog is possible and it is paperwork. Poppy came with us. Europe is far more dog friendly than the US once you are there. Getting there is vet visits, microchips, rabies timing and an airline that will take her. Start that four months out, not four weeks.

Public toilets cost money. Half a euro to a euro, often a turnstile, sometimes an attendant. Keep coins. Train stations and department stores are your friends.

Air conditioning is not standard and neither is ice. You will get three cubes if you ask nicely. There are no free refills. Water is served bottled and you pay for it, though the tap water is fine nearly everywhere.

Rooms are small and beds are two singles. A European double is often two mattresses pushed together with separate duvets. Elevators fit one person and a bag. Ground floor is zero, so the first floor is up a flight.

Wine costs less than water in Italy. A perfectly good bottle at a supermarket is three euros. Nobody is precious about it and nobody gets drunk in front of their kids either.

Everything is closer and slower than the map says. Two hundred miles is not two hours if half of it is a mountain pass, a ferry line, or a town center you are not allowed to drive into.

The language barrier is smaller than you fear. In the Nordics and the Netherlands English is close to universal. In rural France, Spain and Italy it is not, and learning ten words changes how people treat you completely.