Europe

Europe is the trip families save for, and the one where our visa desk and our holidays desk work as one team. A Schengen visa needs an itinerary, hotel confirmations, flights and insurance before the appointment, and the appointment itself is booked weeks ahead — so the holiday is designed first and the visa file is built from it. That is the order, and it is why we ask you to start six months before you want to travel.

The classic circuit is Paris, Switzerland and Italy over ten to twelve nights: Eiffel and the Seine, Interlaken and Jungfraujoch, then Venice, Florence and Rome. Couples cut it to Switzerland and Paris; groups often go as a fixed-departure coach tour with an Indian tour manager and Gujarati meals, which we run each summer.

Trains between the cities are booked in advance at the cheaper fares. Summer is the season, and Switzerland in June has snow on the tops and green below, which is the photograph.