betsymenear3217

My husband and I are taking a 7 day trip to Europe, arriving in Amsterdam on 10/11. Below is our tentative itinerary. We know we want our last 2-3 days to be in Amsterdam. We also discussed possibly flying into Paris and then taking the train to Bordeaux as an alternative plan. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated! Open to any other ideas.

10/10 - fly to Amsterdam (arrive on 10/11)

10/11 - fly to Lucerne

10/12 - Explore Lucerne

10/13 - Day trip to Mt Pilatus

10/14 - Day trip to Jungfraujoch (“Top of Europe”, highest railway station in Europe)

10/15 - Fly back to Amsterdam

10/16 - Explore Amsterdam

10/17 - Fly home

Moderator1

Welcome to the Fodors forums. We removed the Trip Report flag and added country tags.

Vicky

You can’t fly to luzern. No airport. Fly to Zurich. Lucerne is an hour by train.

Michael

I would stick to the Netherlands and possibly Belgium.

Jean

Have you researched the time and logistics of going to the top of the Jungfrau from Luzern as a "day trip"?? What if it's foggy at the top that day, and you can't see a thing?

Have you actually booked the flights to/from AMS? You mention Paris as an alternative...

At a minimum, it would have made more sense to fly into Amsterdam and out of Zurich (or the reverse).

HappyTrvlr

You don’t have two to three days in Amsterdam, only about one and a half days so something in your itinerary has to change. We spent a week in Amsterdam one trip, lots to see and do in the city and on day trips. Forget Paris and Bordeaux this time.
You need to add more days or cut some of the time in Switzerland to make this trip work. With only a week, I would do Switzerland or Amsterdam. Decisions need to be made.

Sassafrass

You have 8 days total. Four are spent traveling/flying. Two can’t be helped, getting to/from Europe. Two more eaten up getting from Amsterdam to Switzerland and return to Amsterdam. Four (with perhaps small bits of two others) left for sightseeing. That does not seem a good value, IMHO. It is difficult to make recommendations without knowing where you have already traveled, but it might be a better use of time to pick a couple of interesting places closer together that don’t require time in airports and on planes. At the very least, save a day and the cost of backtracking by doing multi-city (into one and home from another, not two one-way).

Travel_Nerd

I do agree with others. Is there a reason why you chose this particular combination of Lucerne and Amsterdam? What draws you and your spouse to both of these cities/areas?

Not trying to dissuade or even to pile on, it just does not seem to make a lot of sense, especially for such a very short trip...

janisj

What you've planned is:
10/10 - overnight flight
10/11 - Arrive AMS (likely jet lagged) and fly to somewhere in Switzerland (as mentioned - no airport in Lucerne) and travel on to Lucerne
10/12 - Explore Lucerne
10/13 - Day trip to Mt Pilatus
10/14 - Day trip to Jungfraujoch (“Top of Europe”, highest railway station in Europe) - risky planning such a day trip with no wiggle room re weather. Could be a totally lost day, especially in October.
10/15 - Fly back to Amsterdam (from somewhere - not Lucerne as noted) and stay nights of 15th/16th which nets you 1 day for Amsterdam.
10/17 - Fly home

Realistically, Netherlands or maybe some of Netherlands an Ghent or Bruges for a coupleof days -- that is really all you have time for.

janisj

. . . which equals 6 travel days of one sort or another out of an 8 day trip -- more time on planes, trains, buses than actually being anywhere.

janisj

. . . Just noticed you mentioned maybe flying into Paris -- which would imply you haven't booked flights yet - is that so?? If yes, then you could go almost anywhere -- but you simply don't have time for such an ambitious itinerary. With 8 days - simplify simplify, simplify

KayF

Have to agree with the others, you have too much on the list. A suggestion would be to combine Amsterdam and Belgium (Brussels and Brugge?). They are close together, train trip between and lots to see. Other idea is to have the while time in Switzerland but if you want a few days in Amsterdam, that won't work.

I would lay out your plan with the days/dates and where you will spend overnight. It's easier to see how much time you'll have for each day. Each time you move on, you lose most of the day. If you haven't travelled overseas that much, you may not know that Americans write the date differently. 10/11 is 10 November where I live and also in Europe. Best to be specific when booking accommodation.

bilboburgler

I admit to not understanding this trip. It seems like "Tuesday was Belgium" but using aeroplanes rather than buses.

KayF

WHOLE time in Switzerland...sorry

kleeblatt

Your trip is short and intensive but if that is the way you roll, it is certainly doable.

mbrevitas

As the others have said, I urge you to reconsider the itinerary. Think of what you want to see and why you want to combine hose places in that order.

But if you do still want to go from Amsterdam to Lucerne, maybe take the sleeper train to Basel or Zurich, which is more time-effective. And if you want to go up to Jungfraujoch, maybe spend a night in Interlaken or surroundings (where you could even get by first going up Pilatus from the north and down the south slope, via cable car first and rack railway then).