Amsterdam or any other city near London/Paris
 

Dear Lovely People,

Me and my husband are planning a family trip along with parents 60/65 years old to London & Paris next month.We have few more days with us , so we are thinking to visit another city which will be not so far from London or Paris. What we decided is Amsterdam . But we found that the major attraction for this city is different Museums . Is it true ?

We are not much interested in museum and our main interest now is to see some scenic beautiful places after London & Paris . Any suggestion to go to any other city which we can club with this trip ?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Stockholm.

For beautiful scenery a large city is not really the best option.

If it were me I would find a place in the mountains or at the beach or countryside to get more natural beauty.

How many days do you have for this?

And which airports are you in and out of (hope you don;t have to waste a day circling back to London to fly home).

I might spend a few days in the Swiss Alps, the gorgeous countryside/quaint towns of the Rhine or perhaps visit Strasbourg with the area's charming wine villages esp at the time of the harvest.

For the latter rips I would rent a car to maximize your choices.

Sorry, yes, Stockholm is n a beautiful setting, being on the water and surrounded b an archipelago of many hundreds of islands but in Sept not sure the hours everything is open - esp things like Drottingholm Palace (country home of the Royal Family on one of the islands). Be aware that this is one of the most expensive cities in europe.

Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities in the world -I love it and could care less about its museums- it main thing is its ancient canals, etc.

But look also at Bruges, closer to London and smaller:

https://www.google.com/search?q=brug...w=1745&bih=868

London to Bruges about 4 hours max via Eurostar train to Brussels then local train to Bruges - one of the most gorgeous smaller cities in Europe.

Why not just hop on the train to Edinburgh, the beautiful capital of Scotland? The city has a great deal to offer, but if you want to see superbly scenic countryside, you can drive or take tours (day trips or overnight) into the Highlands.

https://www.visitscotland.com/destin...urgh-lothians/
https://www.rabbies.com/en

<i> but in Sept not sure the hours everything is open - esp things like Drottingholm Palace</i>

Why wouldn't "everything" be open in September? The Palace is open all year except for Christmas and special events, such as the Royal Christening 5-12 September.

<i> Be aware that this is one of the most expensive cities in europe.</I>
Not as expensive as Switzerland though, is it?

Amsterdam is great. We love it too and didn't bother that much about museums. If you can cope with Dutch beer then it is ok. ;-)
Bruxelles is quite nice too and has good beer and good food.
Smaller very nice cities are Aachen Germany and Lille france in easy reach.

Amsterdam is certainly convenient but I personally would never rank it as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I guess it's attractive enough, though.

If you just want pretty, I would go to Bruges, and then you'd add Belgium into the mix for a new country.

I do agree that Edinburgh is beautiful, though. I think Prague is, also, but obviously not close to Paris.

Concur with NYtraveller that if you are looking for scenic beauty, don't go to a large city in another country. Try a smaller town or smallish city instead in France or England instead.

In France--Chartres is very beautiful or you could go to Normandy and Mont St Michel (or both as they are both west of Paris.)

In England, The Cotswolds, Oxford, Bath are all in SW England and could all be seen together easily from London. Or try the Channel coast and surrounding areas: Canterbury, Portsmouth, Dover.

Edinburgh and the surrounding Scottish countryside is also lovely.

One advantage of getting out of the cities is that the cities are so much more expensive than elsewhere, and IMO, the country is the real heart of Europe.

Amsterdam is very beautiful! You don't have to go to museums if you don't want to. There are plenty of other things to do. The canals are amazing to see. Take a boat ride. There are beautiful parks (Vondelpark is lovely and the weather should be good next month). Interesting food and restaurants. Street entertainment and performers.

From Paris you can easily go and spend a few nights in a lovely region like Chantllly - forests (with a bit of luck the leaves might have started to turn), horses, a beautiful castle with magnificent surroundings, historic churches..
http://www.france-voyage.com/cities-...tilly-7919.htm

Not that much further is the Burgundy region - Beaune as a pied-à-terre perhaps, with the historic former hospital, regional tours around rolling hills and vineyards everywhere (famous names you may know from labels), or Dijon, also with plenty of nice surroundings including a stint into nearby Swtzerland maybe.

Thanks you so much each one of you for your amazing suggestions.Edinburgh and places around definitely beautiful , but we have already done twice , so would like to explore a new city.Belgium - we can think, but as of now we haven't done any research for this city .

I especially liked the comments where you guys are saying Amsterdam is not all about Museum. We would love to do know what else we can do other than Museum. Amsterdam is our priority one city as its convenient for us along with London/Paris.

Also I am interested to know if any over night cruise is there from Amsterdam to London , so it will be little more exiting and a new experience for us , plus one more reason to cover the city .

There are some overnight ferrires from UK to AMsterdam, not sure about the reverse, here is into
http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/fe...to-holland.php

It won't be to London, though, nor from Amsterdam, so then you have logistics to get to/from where the ferry departs.

I mainly visited the museums in AMsterdam as well as attended a concert at the famous Concertgebouw but I'm a real classical music aficionado so already knew I wanted to do that. Otherwise, walked around a bit. If you don't attend classical music concerts regularly, the concert hall wouldn't be on your radar nor someting you'd want to do. Otherwise, what do you do in any city that isn't museums? I did go to a famous cheese market and that was fun, but that was in a nearby town, Alkmaar.
http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visitin...-cheese-market

I'd do Amsterdam. You can take the Eurostar from Paris to Amsterdam to London. Very convenient, and it's an unique city built around a system of canals.

What I did with 5 days in Amsterdam:

walked around the Central area near the Dam and train station, walked thru the RLD and went into one of the (humorous) "sex" museums, spent a sunny afternoon in Vondelpark, went to the Leidseplein district in the evening and saw street performers including fire dancers in one of the squares, walked across the city to the Tropenmuseum, walked around some more, had lots of great meals (all kinds of cuisine... greek, italian, etc.).

What I didn't do but I wish I had:

take a canal boat ride