Amsterdam and where else?
 

We are in the initial planning stages for a trip to Europe in April 2009. All we know is that we have about 11-12 days and have our heart set on Amsterdam for part of that.

I'm looking for itinerary ideas that make sense from there.

We've been to Paris (but could EASILY go back if it makes sense), lots of Italy and London.

Some destinations that intrigue us are Prague, Budapest, Munich, Vienna, other parts of France.

For 11/12 days we think about 3 destinations would be perfect - what are your thoughts?

With only 11-12 days, I'de try to find someplace where it's easy & quick to get to.

After Amsterdam, how about 2 nights in Brugge. Then take the train to Brussels, spend about 3 hrs admiring the fantastic main square there, then take the 4-5 hr (several departures/day) no-train-change TGV to Avignon & spend some time exploring Provence - the weather should be pretty good in April in Provence.

The day before you return home, take the TGV from Avignon (or Aix) to Dijon, spend the night in my second favorite city in France, and then take the early TGV directly to CDG airport for your flight home. You could also depart for home from Marseille or Nice.

Stu Dudley

April 2009! You are early birdies.

Look up Keukenhof and Queen's Day on Fodor's.

You could easily spend that time exploring Hollland, Belgium (which has a huge amount to do/see, as well as IMHO the best food in Europe) and Luxembourg and fly back from Brussels.

In addition to Bruges and Ghent there's a lot to see in eastern Belgium (Liege, Spa and even into Germany to Aachen) and fantastic small towns and WWII sites in Luxembourg - as well as Luxembourg city.

Thanks for the ideas! The other consideration that I forgot to mention is that we would like to do this trip using our Starwood points as we feel that this is a great value in Europe and we have more points than cash!

Would it be logical to do 5 nights in Amsterdam and 5 nights in Brussels? By staying many days in one place, we would love to get some nice day trips to explore other parts of Belgium and Holland.

And since we are madly in love with the city, we would just add on another 2 nights in Paris and fly out of there.

Sound like a good trip?

(after more research yesterday, I think we should save the French countryside for it's own trip and Prague/Vienna/Munich/Budapest as another trip...2011 and 2013 here we come!)

We just went to Bruges for 3 nights and fell in love with it. Its 1 hour from Burssels on a local train. I thnk its definitely worth 2 nights..but you could do it as a day trip. I'll post our pics...

our pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/radio-f...7603583901471/

I've been to Brussels twice and it's nice enough. I wouldn't spend five nights there, however. You might consider Cologne, Germany and time along the Rhine and Mosel rivers.

I like Stu Dudley's itinerary but a second choice would be 4 nights Amsterdam, 2 nights Brugge then on to Paris if you like. We stayed 4 nights in Amsterdam and it was about enough and 2 nights in Brugge was just right. Brussels for 5 nights would be very long for this city.

Thanks for the info on Brussels. Looks like we might only be staying for 8 nights (maybe 9) so I think we'll stick with the 5 nights in Amsterdam and do the last 3 in Brussels.

Starwood has a "5th night free" promo, so that's why we would do either 3 or 5 nights in any one destination.

If I can squeeze another night into the trip we'll stay in Brugge, but even if we don't spend the night there, we'll surely go there and stay late for dinner, after the day trippers have gone.

The Starwood Hotel in Brussels (Le Meridien) is right next to the train station I understand so it will be good for exploring the area while we're there.

I'd skip Brussels.

How 'bout Antwerp and Ghent instead?

And, definitely Brugge, of course.

I thought Brugge was at its most beautiful best in the early morning and night time.
The early morning is wonderful for photo's as it is peaceful with very few people around and of course at night time it is all floodlit, I would suggest you try and stay at least one night, I don't think you will regret it.

Cologne has a nice, convenient Four Points which is bookable for only 4000, and sometimes 3000, points per night. I liked it, but I'm not the most fussy person. There's also a Le Meridien for 10,000.

I wouldn't get too hung up on whether you get an extra night free, and wouldn't base my itinerary around that.

In terms of skipping Brussels, I thought it would be a good place to be for visiting Antwerp and/or Ghent. I was envisioning seeing Brussels one day but touring around it the other 2 days and just returning to Brussels to eat dinner (maybe) and sleep.

Wouldn't Brussels be a decent base camp for exploring these Belgium towns? We tend to not want to do 1 or 2 night stays anywhere - we'd rather just hop on trains for day trips.

I suppose we could forgo the Starwood thing for these 3 nights, but then we'd want to pick just one town to stay in for these 3 nights. Brugge? Ghent? Antwerp? Cologne?

I haven't been to Brugge, Antwerp, or Ghent, but the usual reason people recommend overnight stays is that you get a better sense of the city when it's not crowded by tourists. I think in April, you won't be overcrowded by tourists anyway, so it won't matter too much.

Hi KMS...

I'd definitely recommend staying overnight in Brugge. It's really pretty special.

I noticed all the other destinations you mentioned in your first post. Amsterdam - Prague - Vienna would work too, particularly if you had an open-jaw flight.

Thanks again everyone - we've tentatively decided on the following:

Fly into Amsterdam

5 nights Hotel Pulitzer Amsterdam with a couple of day trips perhaps (we really want a lot of time here, plus the 5th night free makes this a good choice for us).

2 nights Brugge, lodging TBD. Probably a nice B&B since there is no Starwood property here.

1 night Le Meridien Brussels - this gives us a chance to see Brussels briefly, have a nice dinner and wake up in the city that we are flying out of.

Fly out of Brussels.

Short but sweet!

kms,

That looks fine. I did notice you are (tentatively?) shortening your trip from 11-12 days to 8 days. Any reason?

We stayed at Martin's Brugge and found it to be a perfect location!
http://www.martinsbrugge.com/html/en/index.htm

I stayed in the Four Points Sheraton in Brussels usind points and thought it was a great place. The rooms were huge and stylish (even by European standards.) It is located next to a tram stop, so getting around is pretty easy.

I'm not sure I would use up my Starwood points at the Le Meridian.

bird - We have a lot of Starpoints to use (we have vacation ownership with them too so lots of points gathered in purchases and trades) so it's probably worth it to us.

bardo - We looked at the calendar and decided that 8 nights would be our max, and it's what we did last year in Paris/London and it worked out well. Reason being a combo of vacation time plus the fact that we have 2 small children that I don't want to be away from for <b>too</b> long. The youngest won't even be two at that point - many people wouldn't even consider vacationing away from a child that young, we just want to limit the time away to what seems more reasonable for us! But we like to go back every other year so I can be patient and wait to see the rest of Europe a little at a time :)

Your itinerary looks great. Amsterdam and Brugge are wonderful places for the amount of time you have.

I meant to add that in May 2006 we stayed in the Adorns Hotel in Brugge and really enjoyed it. It is in a great location and the service is excellent. See pictures and number one rating on tripadvisor.

We just returned from Amsterdam and Brugge yesterday.
Stayed at the Pulitzer. Am not sure you need 5 days for Amsterdam. Three full days in Amsterdam would do it for me and two days in Brugge. Do not have much of a positive opinion on Brussels. I would consider Paris for the rest of your trip for a simple trip vis train.

mjs- We are planning on a couple of day trips from Amsterdam puls the first day post-travel is always a wash so I think 5 nights will be just great. But thanks for the feedback!

KMS --

Looks good now!

You will love it all, I'm sure. And, I don't think 5 days is too much for Amsterdam. No way! Have a great trip.

kms:

While in Amsterdam, consider a day trip that will take in Keukenhof Gardens, the windmills at Kinderdijk, porcelain factory in Delft...and perhaps another day trip going north and east to Edam&lt; Volendam, Urk and the uniique canal town of Giethorn...back to Amsterdam on the motorway.

In Brugge, you may want to consider our favorite, in the tranquil/beautiful Minnewater/Beguinage area..The Hotel Egmond.

Stu T.

Check the times that Keukenhof is open. We visited there last April (it's open only from end of March through mid May since it's a seasonal display garden only.) Also visit first thing in the AM and on a weekday. We visited on Saturday morning and by the time we left about noon, there were cars lined up for miles around waiting to get in.

We spent a couple or 3 days in Amsterdam and that was enough. Great city but we did see all the highlights in that time without any rushing around.

Some of the more beautiful and unique towns in the Netherlands and Belgium, all worth visiting, were Antwerp (have lunch or dinner at a restaurant called &quot;In the Shadow of the Cathedral&quot; which is just splendid!) Ghent (medieval university town with a charming center,) Brugges (not to be missed,) Arnhem has an interesting WWII museum (and we are not part of the &quot;greatest generation.&quot; Brussels has an interesting town center, but it was probably one of the least interesting cities since it was quite large, busy and lacked the charm of the others.
I felt that the Netherlands and Belgium would be a perfect introduction to continental Europe since most people speak excellent English, the food is wonderful, and the sights are within short travelling distance of each other, less war damage to the old town centers than in Germany. It is a delightful area!