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!