Italy Beyond the Obvious can create a personalized trip of a lifetime to Italy that you just can’t create on your own. Our travelers rave about our meticulously crafted custom Italy trips, and having now created more than 300 personalized Italy vacations, we are proud to say we have not had a single big complaint. Our business model is that of a consultant, not a travel agent, therefore we charge fees for our services rather than work from commissions (contact us to find out how this actually saves you money).
Tell us about your family
Often, parents tell us that if the kids are happy, everyone is happy! Kids of different ages have different needs, and while of course we’ll create whatever you want, we do have some advice.
Travel to Italy with an infant
If you’re bringing your infant to Italy, we know you’ll be bringing a lot of stuff. You’ll need a stroller, a diaper bag, a feeding bag (bring your own formula), extra clothing for the baby, maybe a car seat, and of course your own stuff! It’s virtually impossible to travel light, so we don’t recommend changing hotels frequently. Also, you cannot convince a baby to adjust to the time difference – you’ll need to expose him or her to natural light, try to get them on an Italian eating schedule, and let them adjust naturally. But this can be a great age to travel! Infants are portable so you can see and do a lot while baby sleeps in the stroller or in the baby bjorn.
Travel to Italy with toddlers
Italians love toddlers and toddlers love Italy! They’ll be bored in museums – even the Vatican museums or the amazing Uffizi gallery – but they’ll love chasing pigeons in Italy’s car-free squares and running along pedestrian streets. They’ll love the pasta and the pizza and the gelato, and they’ll have a ball riding the train. They’ll love that they can touch and feel fountains and marble and climb on (some) ruins, and see real castles. We usually don’t recommend taking them to Venice where they might try to escape into the crowds or stress you out as you picture them falling into a canal.
Travel to Italy with school aged children (ages 5 to 10 or so)
Italy is perfect for school-aged children. A good guide can bring history to life for them, and they’ll learn about the Romans, the Etruscans, the Medieval times, or the Renaissance by exploring, touching, tasting, seeing, and playing – not by being lectured at. They’ll love the castles (they can sleep in one if you’d like!) in Tuscany, the boats in Venice, the gladiators in Rome, and of course all the pasta, pizza, and gelato. They’re at a great age: they still listen to their parents and they have enough energy to be out and about with you all day, although sometimes they don’t make it to the Italian dinnertime of 8 pm (we book early dinners for families).
Travel to Italy with tweens and teens
Sometimes traveling with a teenager requires a special approach. We get requests from parents whose teenagers are too cool to go on a family vacation, but they’re too young to stay home alone for two weeks. We create trips that teenagers love! We book Ferrari test drives (they sit in the back), balloon flights over Tuscany, vespa tours (on the back with a driver), rafting excursions, and we find accommodations that might give them a little independence – maybe there’s a great gelateria up the street that they can walk to on their own. And, if you’re open to it, your 14+ year old can participate in wine tastings.
Travel to Italy with adult children
We get requests from parents who have a very narrow time frame for their Italy vacation, because it’s based on the window between when one child finishes school and when another child starts a new job. Coordinating the schedules of adults is not easy, and often, these trips are some of the last family vacations before the kids get married and start families of their own. These trips are essentially planning for a group of adults – the kids have come full circle and are no longer too cool to travel with Mom & Dad. Not only that, they very much appreciate being taken to Italy.
Multi-generational Family Tours of Italy
When multiple families come together on vacation, let Italy Beyond the Obvious do the planning so that everything runs smoothly. We’ll make sure that everyone has a fantastic trip and that there is enough to do without over scheduling the group. Rent a big villa, book separate apartments in a city or on a working farm, and enjoy spending time together. Read about the multi-generational trip I planned for my own family in the Dolomites.
Have a look at our three different tiers of planning services, and if you’re ready to start talking about your trip, contact us, we’d love to help!
