Europe 2015 summer 4 weeks... where??

[Bea]

DH has suggested we do a big family trip (dd1 13 / ds1 11 / dd2 8) next summer and thinks we should travel through europe by car! (although he's talking about getting a big van at the moment??? it would be a mixture of self catering / camping / hotel for the odd night or two.

At the moment he's quite keen on Croatia (ideas where to head for here?) and that's about it...

any suggestions/advice on where to visit... stay... see?

we love coastal and countryside, prefer little villages rather than the big cities.

I have no idea where to start (not much of traveler!!) although dh has done the student inter railing student thing and travel with work so he is a little more clued up than me!

Basically europe is my oyster... where and what should we do!!!

Thank you oh seasoned travelers in advance!

does it have to be Europe. we just came back from a brilliant road trip in Canada with our teens/preteens. they said it was fantastic. personally if I was doing this I would just meander a bit and go to spain, Portugal not drive a long way in the first place.

Oh I would love to do Canada... but cost would be an issue there! Although we have talked about the possibility of a USA/Canada road trip... but i think we'll test our sanity for a europe one first!!!

Thanks for the reply mummymeister

I would divide it into landscapes you like and essential cities.

In four weeks you can do a big round trip.

Week 1
Paris
Loire
Week 2
Cote dazur
Florence
Pisa
Week 3
Further Southern Italy
Ferry across to
Croatia
Week 4
Austrian Alps
Rhine valley
Holland
Amsterdam
Ferry back

Bea - the exchange rate in Canada at the moment is roughly $2 to the pound. we couldn't believe how little we spent tbh. accommodation even in Vancouver was nowhere near the European capital type prices. attractions were the same. day at the hot springs £3 each. pay more than that for our local swimming pool!! plus of course the countryside the walks, cycle trails etc are all free. weather is similar to ours too.

We are in Provence at the minute and it's wonderful, masses of tiny villages to explore.

We usually do 3/4 weeks around France...car/camping/self catering house for 1 week. You'll be surprised how little you see if you only stay 2 nights or so in a place. First year we did it I had great plans of Luxembourg/Italy/Switzerland getting taken into the route too. Now we do an initial single night stay outside Calais (we've had to drive from middle Scotland to start the journey) then 5 hours drive, stay about 5 nights then so on until coming home.
Check out areas you want to see then do a rough google distance check and go from there. We hang a giant map on the kitchen wall from about November and work out rough directions with wool around a drawing pin...a bit like travellers tail on the donkey!!

Wow! Thanks for replies so far... i discovered this!
roadtrippers.com/ and it does help with the visualisation and understanding of distance and everything!
so far i have found the most wonderful hotel via this website... it just looks stunning.... putting it on my "Places To Go" bookmark!
for-friends-hotel.at/en/