Want to go to Europe this winter, advice mom and 2 teens?

Question

We want to vacation, I can get free Hyatt stays, but where do we begin? Just mom and 2 teens, haven't taken a vacation with them for years, (they have locally with their dad).Please , any advise on travel, can finally afford to do it and want it to be memorable. So not rich, just want to feel the lifestyle of Europe.

Answer 1

First question for you, what do you want out of the trip?
If you want to enjoy winter, a winter sport holiday trip is your best bet.
If you want sun, Southern Spain, Italy, Greece and the other places round the Mediterranean, and best select a town or resort where there will be more people their and your age.
If you want to see Europe, the bigger cities are your best bet, as there most things stay open round the year, in the smaller towns a lot of small museums and sights will only be open in the weekends.

Remember that traveling in the school holidays is more expensive, that is even more pronounced in winter.
Hotels and hostels will often double their prices in the school holidays and still be booked solid, while in the weeks around it they might be half empty. So if you can, travel during school term, if not, book ahead.
Even eating out is more expensive when there are many tourists, if just because you can not get into the cheaper places. Traveling is more expensive because the cheaper seats will be sold already and only the more expensive ones will be available.

Before you book a hotel or hostel, or package deal, check the amount of beds in the room, mostly it is single, double or twin, that is two single beds, but sometimes you get family, that is a double and a single or a double and two singles in a bunkbed.
As I do not know Hyatt, I can not guess what they offer.

For long distance travel, the cheap airlines are your best bet, book as soon as you are sure about the date, as prices go up when more people book. Train is good for a lot of travel, but it is not cheap, passes as the Eurail or Interail cost mostly more than you would spend on seperate tickets, unless you plan to be in the train more than out of it.
Bus travel is cheapest but there is mostly little choice in times of travel and a lot of the connections are overnight, not comfy.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/passes/eurail_index.htm
http://www.inter-rail.com/interrail-global-pass.asp
http://eurolines.com/

You can get good information in travelbooks, like the Lonely Planet series:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

If you want to tour round Europe, compare travel prices and travel times, including the time and money needed to go to the airports. Often a one hour flight will cost you most of the day. I had one recently where a 6 PM departure ment that I had to leave my hotel round 1PM and I did not arrive before 11 PM. In this case it was still faster than a ferry, because that would have been an overnight, but often, if you can take a train, that will be faster.