3-4 day trip in Europe
 

Hello!

My husband and I are traveling to see his family in Scotland this July. We want to fly to Europe for a get away and are having trouble deciding!! Top two choices are a Brussels/Amsterdam trip or Venice at the moment. Curious to hear other input!

We want to be able to travel by train if it's a multi city trip but don't want to over extend ourselves and try to do too much!

Also if you have any recommendations for the trips above would love to hear it!

Choose just one place in such a short time, or you'll spend all of your time in transit.

Given cruise ship crowds and heat in Venice, I'd pick Amsterdam. And Amsterdam is less of a trek. Brussels isn't of interest to me so can't help you there.

Or maybe Paris? Ireland? What haven't you seen? Europe is pretty broad.

We want to be able to travel by train if it's a multi city trip but don't want to over extend ourselves and try to do too much!>

You have time for just one city- forget trains- fly to Amsterdam or Paris or anywhere and fly back home from there.

Yes, indeed, fly to 1 city.

My preference in order of favorite-ness:

1. Venice (by far)
2. Amsterdam (okay)
3. Brussels (least fav by far)

So should've clarified, we are flying into Europe from Scotland and then will travel by train when we get there

Venice. But be prepared for crowds and heat at that time of the year.

If you go to Amsterdam for a couple of days you could take a train to Paris for a couple of days and fly home from there. But with only 3-4 days we are saying you have little time to travel around Europe by train unless you want to be on trains most of the time -any chance of getting more days off to really travel around a bit?

Anyway for train info check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

But again with just 3-4 days pick one city really - will take most of a day to get there even by flying.

Not trying to see all of Europe! But if there are two smaller towns close, then we would use train to travel OR one big city for the few days

Venice is spectacular -- but you couldn't pay me to go there in July (or August).

There will be massive cruise ships in port plus thousands of day trippers - plus it will probably be hot and definitely humid.

Go to Venice some Spring or Fall.

Amsterdam or Amsterdam+Bruges or Ghent would be good at that time of year.

I would never dream of setting foot in Venice in July or August.

Amsterdam is a good choice, plus maybe one other place: Antwerp, Ghent, Rotterdam would be my choices.

I confess, StCirq, I wasn't taking the season into account. However, I'll only back off with regard to a visit to the world's most beautiful city as far as "it depends".

It depends on if the OP will return to see it another time of year. It deoends on if we can convince the OP to go just 1 place and to fly there. If so, and they'll have several days for the city and can resist seeing the most crowded parts of it midday, then I'd still go. "I" would go. Stay in an off-the-beaten-path neighborhood and enjoy the city more. Do their sightseeing early and late, before & after daytrippers and when it's cooler. Spend the middle of the day in their own neighborhood, have a leisurely lunch and a nap. Wander shady back lanes & canals. If they see no opportunity in the near future to go to Venice, do it smart, but do it.

Amsterdam or Amsterdam+Bruges or Ghent would be good at that time of year.>

Yes but Bruges is 3.5 hours from Amsterdam and Paris is perhaps a little less -I'd take 2 days in Paris over 2 days in Gent or Bruges as nice at they are. 2 days ain't much in Paris but you can at least see some famous sites like Louvre and Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame Cathedral and do a Seine boat cruise.

Better to spend the whole 3-4 days in Paris or Amsterdam but if you want to do two Paris is just as quick by train as Bruges or Gent.Of the latter two Bruges would appeal immensely more to the average traveler (I've taken over 1,000 folks to both and everyone loved Bruges- they liked Gent.)

If you go to one place and want to experience Europe's fab trains do a day trip from say Paris to a nearby city with some famous place - like Chartres for its famous cathedral or Reims for Champange house/cave tours and also famous cathedral and see two typical French regional towns much different than Paris.

Or from Amsterdam train to Haarlem or Leiden or Delft - all really neat old Dutch cities much different than Amsterdam.

Or ditto from any city you want to fly to from Scotland.

Fly to Amsterdam and base there (or in Haarlem, a separate town only 15 minutes away). You can visit several small towns (by train) less than an hour from Amsterdam - Delft, Gouda, Leiden, etc.) if you run out of things to do in Amsterdam or if you desire to see a smaller city.

We were in Venice in July 2015 with my granddaughter, who had never seen the city. She doesn't have the possibility of visiting in the spring or autumn. It was hot, for sure, but we were having a big heat wave that summer; it's not always that hot. There were also crowds on the vaporetti, but it was fairly easy to avoid the crowds otherwise. My granddaughter had a great time. My husband was a bit wilted by the heat, and I was less energetic than usual.

Hi
I am the only one here to be impressed by Bxl which is fine since I live close by.

I used to work 500 m from the grand place and would go twice a week - never had enough of it.

Stay either in Bxl - close to trainatation Bruxelles central and day trip from there or stay in gent and day trip from there.

Amsterdam is nice but full of Dutch and cheese.

No, you're not the only one. I love Bruxelles and think it has perhaps the best food in Europe, or at least some of the best.