yuki763n

My husband and I are planning a trip to Benelux countries. What are the suggested itineraries for the month of April preferably from April 20-May 1.

rv224

I travelled to Belgium and Netherlands a couple of years ago in Mid May (skipped over luxembourg). One city I recommend is Bruge in Belgium. It's like a small city lost in time! Great place to explore for a 2 or 3 days. When we were there in May there was actually a holiday regarding the blood of Christ - I believe it was called procession. That was interesting too!

yuki763n

Thank you rv224. We are planning to see both the flower parade 4/23/05 and Queen's Day (4/30/05) in Amsterdam and stay several days in either Bruges or Brussels or perhaps Paris. Should we take Thalys from Amsterdam to Brussels to Paris and then from Paris back to Amsterdam?

hopscotch

Does Amsterdam have a flower parade? There is a flower parade from Lisse to Haarlem but I thought that it stopped there.

For Queen's Day it is best to have a hotel in Amsterdam because public transportation on that day is very iffy. My favorite locale for Queen's Day is at the Spui - wild and crazy. If you need a toilet, and you most certainly will if you join in the beer drinking, try the Cafe Luxembourg. The ladies line is so long that some of the women are rerouted to the stalls in the john. Pray for warm sunny weather and it will be a day you will long remember.

I prefer the International Express from Amsterdam to Brussels rather than the Thalys. Both take the same time because the high speed tracks have not yet been installed between those s=cit. The Express stops in Central station but the Thalys stops only at Zuid/Midi, probably not where you want to be.

yuki763n

My mistake, yes, the flower parade ends in Haarlem. Thank you. Regarding internationl express, is there a website I can check out? Thanks for the suggestions. Now I can't wait to go...

hopscotch

For train info in Holland go to www.ns.nl. Use the International and English buttons. The site also shows diagrams of each station in NL and a list of facilities therein.

ilovetulips

Do you have to go all the way back to Amsterdam at the end? If you check on airfares it doesn't cost alot more to fly open jaws and you won't have to waste time backtracking.

yuki763n

Thanks hopscotch for the website. I'll definitely look at it. Ilovetulips, we would like to see Queen's Day on April 30 but we're unsure now about the Flower Parade. We might just change our itinerary from Haarlem to Paris-Belgium(Bruges/Brussels)-Amsterdam. So far all airfares are around $600 per person. I also booked B&B for both Bruges and Amsterdam. Any suggestions for Paris? It seems like accomodations in Paris is really expensive. In Amsterdam, we booked our room at Noah's Ark B&B. Its at Plataanstraat 4, 1115 AZ,Amsterdam-Duivendrecht. Is it really far from the square/center? I'm worried that we won't have a way of going back to B&B after going to the square for the Queen's Day event. We are mostly relying on public transportation on all these wonderful cities.

PalQ

And the Keukenhof Gardens are open (only open April and May), the Dutch horticulture industry's famous flower show, called the finest such floral display in the world. Plopped in the heart of the flower belt, which will have miles of undulating tulips and spring flowers then, the show is on the grounds of an estate, with formal gardens and several glasshouses with a mind-boggling variety of blooms. By train buses from Haarlem's station go right to the gate as do some from nearby Lisse. Very mobbed on weekends. www.keukenhof.nl

artstuff

We travelled through BeNeLux in April 2003, utilizing the BeNeLux pass. Our itinerary included -

Day 1, 2 & 3 - Overnight in Amsterdam

Day 4 - Visit Utrecht & Gouda then overnight in Maastricht

Day 5 - Sightsee Maastricht, then Clervaux, overnight in Vianden

Day 6 - Sightsee Vianden, then Luxembourg City, overnight in Luxembourg City

Day 7 - Sightsee Dinant, stop-over in Brussels, overnight in Brugge

Day 8 - Sightsee Brugge, overnight in Brugge.

Day 9 - Sightsee Ghent, sightsee Rotterdam, overnight in Delft

Day 10 - Sightsee Haarlem, visit Keukenhof and Leiden, overnight in Delft

Day 11 - Sightsee Delft, den Hague and Scheveningen, overnight in Delft

Day 12 - Flew Home

(We actually stayed two nights in London at the start of our trip before heading on to Amsterdam)

We visited the Keukenhof on April 17, and the tulips were at their peak - we did have 3 days of 60 degree weather beforehand which forced the budding. We found that time of year to be a wonderful time to travel. The weather was great and the crowds were small. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. Enjoy your planning. Peace. >-

Robyn

yuki763n

PlaQ, we are planning on visiting Keukenhof Gardens just in case we are not able to make it to the Flower Parade. I'll include this in our itinerary. Robyn, thanks for providing us your itinerary. I have to start planning our itinerary soon. Thanks for all your suggestions.