Family Tour to Italy, France & Switzerland

Olive groves stretch down a sunny hillside. Vineyards stand above them, grapes glistening in the golden afternoon light. In the distance, you can see a small village, perched on top of a hill in rural Southern Tuscany. Beside your villa, there is a swimming pool, hidden away from the rest of the world. You’re staying at an agriturismo, a working farm that produces cheese, olive oil, and other Tuscan delicacies. There’s space here, space for kids to run around and space for your family to be together. Check-in, meet the family, discuss what you are going to do over the next few days, and spend the evening dining on a private terrace, discovering how fresh Italian cooking can be.

The mornings are usually still here. There’s a real serenity to looking out over the farm slopes, especially when groves and vineyards are flourishing in summer months. Take breakfast on your terrace and spend some time easing into the day. Then plan out the Tuscan adventure. For these days, you have a family-sized rental vehicle and Southern Tuscany at your doorstep. The agriturismo is a 5-minute drive outside a small, traditional village, so it’s easy to pop down the road for a coffee. Within one hour, you have Siena and Florence, old cities that are great for a half or full-day excursion. Even Pisa is within reach if it’s a place on the children’s bucket-list.

Your villa is private, tucked away on a quiet part of the farm. Much of the appeal here is slowing down and savoring the landscape, and that’s something you do from the property. As you explore, there are many quiet places to stop. Gaze across the hay bales, photograph the kids against a sunflower backdrop, savor the angles in the World Heritage Val d’Orcia landscape. With three days, you can travel in three different directions, always returning to the tranquility of the farm.

Jump into the kitchen on a family cooking class, including the art of making pasta. Follow the process of making cheese, from the fields to the pungent aging room, then tasting on a terrace. There are other edibles on site as well as all the wine you can try. Late-afternoon is a beautiful time to go on a treasure hunt, a journey around the farm searching for figs, lavender, certain grapes and roaming barnyard animals. Evenings are for relaxing outside, besides the pool, and watching the sunset over Tuscany.

A rental vehicle is picked up from the farm and you’re privately transferred south to Rome, a wonderful city for traveling with children. Not many families expect the Italian capital to be a suitable destination. Yes, it’s busy at first glance, but most of Rome was built before vehicles and the old heart of the city is almost completely pedestrianized. While Rome is big, most of the major sights are found in the center, within walking distance to each other. Meet your Roman guide and check into a hotel that’s on the same street as the Spanish Steps. When you are ready, grab a coffee on a piazza with a glimpse at the Colosseum, joining other families on their late-afternoon walk. Monuments are all around and the first day in Rome is quick to wow, regardless of your age.

City aromas greet you this morning. They entice your family outside, onto streets of gushing fountains and baroque architecture. Church bells chime and the patter of footsteps echoes all around. Enter the Colosseum and put on a virtual reality headset to see how the space has changed over the centuries. Spend an afternoon at gladiator school, children dressed up in period costumes while trying out the bizarre training methods from two millennia ago. Take a look at the Roman Forum with your guide, learning the stories and myths that accompany each avenue. Step inside the Pantheon and gaze up at the ceiling, then go searching for famous names that are buried in the crypt.

The Roman Empire can be a focus of one day, with the Vatican City dominating the other. St Peter’s Square is truly magnificent, a place that makes everybody stop and stares. St Peter’s Basilica is just as mesmerizing, and for all the famous sights on this vacation, first impressions of the Vatican usually linger the longest. The guide takes you into the Vatican Museums before the crowds, usually running a fast-paced hop through the galleries, so you see the best of them before the children get too bored. Like in Paris and Zurich, you have a private guide and the itinerary can be adjusted on a daily basis, so you can add and remove experiences dependent on the energy levels. The guide can also stay with you into the evenings, ensuring you can easily go anywhere in the city.

Fly to Paris, and first impressions are always magical, especially for children. This is a city of so many icons, and it’s usually easy to get children excited about long days of exploring. Meet the guide at the airport and set off into the city, with a River Seine cruise a recommended way to start the Parisian adventure. Drift alongside the Eiffel Tower, cruise past Notre Dame, travel beneath the famous bridges and feast your eyes on the French capital. With a boat cruise, you can see a lot in just two hours, without having to go anywhere.

Take a stroll down the Champs-Elysees, perhaps humming that song as you go. Use a Museum Pass to skip the queues and head straight to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Enter Notre Dame and go hunting for the crown of thorns. Re-enact the story of Marie Antoinette at Conciergerie, the vast royal palace and prison. The Louvre Museum is best in the afternoon although children may find it’s a little too heavy on antiquity. So perhaps you try Musee d’Orsay, which is likely to have more art that the kids recognize. Both these galleries are quieter in the afternoons. Musee de l’Orangerie is another gallery that’s worth trying, the sheer scale of the canvases allowing the kids to inspect all the intricacies of Monet’s masterpieces.

With two days the guide will try to limit the amount of time on foot. All these monuments can be engaging and enchanting, but visit too many and Paris does start to feel like a rush between postcards. Punctuating the sights are a couple of family experiences. Visit Saint-Germain and get your hands sticky in the neighborhood of chocolatiers, with great vats of sublime chocolate part of a brief chocolate making demonstration. Get your hands covered in flour with a croissant-making workshop; it’s always amusing to see the different shapes coming out of the oven.

Three days in Paris and then three in Rome, which means quite a lot of walking and so many sights it’s hard to keep track of them all. So fly to Zurich and relax. Snow-capped peaks gaze down from a distance. Church spires rise softly above the river. Love locks cover Muhlestag footbridge and more than a thousand city fountains trickle away. Climbing the twin tower of Grossmunster provides glorious views over both city and mountains, then Chagall’s windows could be the finest art you’ve seen throughout this trip.

Zurich is small and laid-back, a city that’s draped around a river and confounds the stereotypes associated with a financial capital. Wake up on day 12 and take a journey through the Swiss food, starting with a chocolate making workshop at the original Lindt factory. Buy a sausage at Sternen Grill and dine this evening on cheese fondue, at a restaurant that’s tucked away in the forest. Somewhere in between, you go cruising on Limmat River, surrounding yourself with the inimitable Alps. There’s a place where you can jump out and go swimming, or splashing around as it may be for the kids.

Like in Paris and Rome the exact itinerary is flexible. Ride the cable car to Felsenegg and gaze across the whole of Switzerland. If it’s wet outside then get wet inside, at Europe’s largest indoor water park. If you’re active then the mountains will provide endless adventure, but if you’re still on a cultural mission then the guide can take you to Lucerne, a lovely medieval town that’s very different from what you saw in Italy. Most of all, Switzerland is a place to relax. Even in the height of summer, you don’t see that many tourists. Even when you’re in the city, there’s an energizing sense of space.

End the vacation by going deep into the mountains. Mount Monch and Eiger glisten white in the afternoon sun, snow and ice stretching far down their steep slopes. The wind whispers as it cuts through the forest. Deep glacial valleys are quick to humble. Tiny villages are dotted around, little more than a few wooden A-frames. Cowbells tinkle when you’re out on the hills, a soundtrack to accompany you on leisurely hikes. Welcome to the most breathtaking mountain region in Europe and three days beneath Jungfrau. Like in Tuscany you have a rental vehicle and a private villa, so the adventure is all yours over these three days.

You may choose to take the funicular into the mountains for a day hike with the family. You can also try kayaking or stand-up paddle boarding on Lake Thun, which is lovely in summer but a little chilly during other months. Outside summer then the ice rinks of Hoheweg can fill an afternoon. Whatever the month, you can ride the Jungfrau Railway to the highest train station in Europe, where the vista includes Europe’s longest glacier.

Small villages welcome you over these three days. Like in car-free Murren, where cows sometimes wander past the wooden buildings. Or at Wengen, which is only accessible by train. To reach Gimmelwald you have to walk or go by cable car, an indication of how remote some of these villages are. Trummelbach Falls isn’t recommended for young children but are always fun for older ones, the water tumbling past with ferocious speed and sound. Rafting, paragliding, canyoning, scenic flights...there are many other outdoor adventures and there’s usually something for everyone. But like with Tuscany, perhaps the experience is simply resting up at the villa and enjoying some intimate time together.

Return the car to Zurich where you have day-room use at a city hotel. Freshen up and grab some lunch before an afternoon transfer to the airport.