When I started to craft our itinerary for our huge European trip, our itinerary in the Swiss Alps, for our family it was a fair amount of work – and balance. We knew we wanted to be in the Alps but that was about it. Mr. Family Trip suggested we focus on Switzerland (having such fond memories of the area from his college days).
I wanted there to be culture and outdoor opportunities. I wanted my kids to see old European cities with a legacy longer than the USA has been an idea and majestic mountains that made us feel closer to God.
I wanted good food and city lights, but I also knew we would need time to sit still. We were building a structure and an agenda to make sure we didn’t miss any major opportunities we knew we’d regret while we also knew we couldn’t do it all and would need some time to follow whims.
It was a massive undertaking to plan this, to be honest.
But it was a labor of love. When we decided a decade ago that we wouldn’t be “roadschooling” or “worldschooling” our kids (for a slew of reasons), we had tagged this particular summer as the time we’d make a huge European tour with our kids. Our first iteration of this trip had us gone three months, but budget and our kids’ desires to be close to the relationships and activities they had at home changed our mind. We slimmed it down to two weeks.
When we went, the kids were 12 and 15, headed into 7th grade and 10th grade. They were old enough to explore some on their own, to be flexible with food and bedtimes. We knew they could do the activities we wanted to do.Â
Also, while I have always said that I don’t need my kids to remember travel to consider it worth it, we did know that at this age, they’d remember it.
Truthfully, I knew I needed this. After Covid kept us all inside together all the time, I missed them as they grew independent from me and left home. They are off on their own a lot. They have their own worlds and relationships as they grow up. It is normal, but I miss them. I considered this two-week trip as much for me as it was for them.
I am not going to pretend like this opportunity and itinerary are accessible to everyone, or even to many. While we are fairly savvy budget travelers (I always hunt out a good deal, we make our own food way more than we eat out, we compromise on luxury for location and price), this was still an expensive trip.
Switzerland charges for everything, and the exchange rate wasn’t our friend when we went.
We made some changes in our plans along the way to accommodate this fact, and the biggest change we made was to buy roundtrip airline tickets. Originally, we had wanted to fly in to northern Italy and out of Germany. But airfare was prohibitively expensive to do that as a family of four. So we made this into a roundtrip in and out of Milan (which had some of the cheapest roundtrip tickets we could find).
Our Adventure in the Alps
Important note:
We rented a car. Our intention was to get a car only in the Interlaken area for ease and flexibility but it was actually cheaper to do a roundtrip car rental from Milan – by a lot! Â
We used Discover Cars and got a fabulous deal. But much of this trip can be done using the trains and rail service in Europe.Â
When it came to driving, navigation was a breeze. There were tolls but it was far easier than Costa Rica. No crazy insurance rules like in Ireland, either. The only challenge with having a car was parking it in some of the cities, but that was easily overcome. The hardest parking was in Lucerne, but once we found a garage, we left it parked the entire time we were in the city and walked.
Things I would change:
Honestly, not much! We did not like our hotel room in Lucerne (I won’t share which one out of kindness) so that was frustrating. We were all fairly cranky there because of the exceedingly hot attic room and zero amenities.
As always with travel, I find I always just want more time (and money!). We could have lived in the chalet in Saxeten, Switzerland hiking every day for a solid year, if not longer.
Our Two Week Family-Friendly Itinerary in the Alps (northern Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, and Austria)
Washington, DC to Milan
We live a couple of hours south of Washington, D.C., in Virginia. This gives us many options to drive to a few international airports and fly out. This means airfare competition and decent prices (considering).
Day 1: Milan
This was an overnight flight for us. We landed in Milan late afternoon Milanese time. This chewed up the whole day, but we still had ample time to get from the airport (which is quite some distance from the city), get basic groceries, walk around, and become acclimated to the area we stayed in.
Day 2: Milan
Activities in Milan included a free walking tour, Il Duomo, great food, and aperitivos
I shared in our article on Milan that we stayed in an AirBnB in the Navigli district, which felt like a great choice for us. Also, we had intended to spend one full day in Milan and then spend day two heading out to Lake Como. But crowds, travel exhaustion, and the fact that we felt we had more to see in Milan made us change our minds (and driving by the over-crowded Lake Como on our drive to Lugano made us regret nothing about that choice).
Day 3:
Travel to Lugano, Switzerland
As I mentioned in our articles on Lugano, we stayed at a hotel that was very European. While the room itself was small, we were comfortable. And we loved the grounds and the pool!
Day 4: (Swiss National Day)
We had the extreme good luck to be in Switzerland on Swiss National Day. Our time in Lugano was surely different and unique.
Visit the Castles of Bellinzona
Arrive Interlaken Area
Day 5:
Grindelwald (downtown) & Lauterbrunnen Valley
Day 6:
Day 7:
Our entire time in this area was the bedrock of the trip and it did not disappoint. The chalet we reserved from AirBnB was simply perfect for us. I would go back and repeat this entire adventure in a heartbeat.
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Day 8:
Arrive Lucerne
Day 9:
As I mentioned in my article, we took an alternative adventure and went low instead of high. We were so hot and fairly tired of very expensive gondola rides to mountaintops to hike at that point!
Day 11:
Explore Hohenschwangau and Fussen, Germany
While Neuschwanstein Castle is the thing that tourists flock to (this is the castle that inspired Disney’s version of Cinderella’s castle currently in the Magic Kingdom), we were smitten with Fussen and Hohenschwangau as well.
As I mentioned in the article on Neuschwanstein, we ended up staying in a hostel/dormitory-like lodge that made our visit memorable (I am so glad we chose it even though, again, it wasn’t luxury accommodations).
Day 12:
Day 13:
Visit Stubai Valley
Hike
Paraglide
We wished we had spent our nights in Austria in the Stubai Valley, although the location of our AirBnB loft in Innsbruck was fantastic (fair warning on the loft: LOTS of steps). This was a surprisingly glorious day all around – including a fairly last-minute paragliding adventure – that we wanted more of.
Day 14:
Travel back to Milan
It was a rough road back. We were sad to be ending our trip and traffic on the route was truly terrible! We ended up staying at a budget hotel very close to the airport as we had an early flight back the next day.Â
Day 15:
Depart Milan back to Washington, DC
I still have more content to add on this website about our trip, so be sure to sign up for my Substack, where I share not only new articles but other unique essays on modern-day parenting.
And remember: life is one great big trip and the best trips are the ones done with family, whoever that is for you. Go out and go explore!
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