dreamer320

We've begun planning for two weeks, either in the spring or fall of 2019. For the Netherlands, I've looked at Gouda and Delft as possible bases for day trips. For Belgium, part of my dilemma is that the three places I'm considering - Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent - all seem so nice at night, perfect for short strolls and nice photos. We'll probably be going mainly to southern Netherlands and western Belgium, roughly.

Our extenuating circumstances are that I have a few back issues that mean when walking, that I need to take a break for a few minutes every few blocks. I've already jokingly labeled this trip "Belgium, two blocks at a time." I also limit stairs. So it won't be as active of a trip as we've done in the past,but we're okay with that.We may rent a car, or rely mainly on trains. We don't need much in the way of nightlife or fine dining - we eat casually, and may do something in the evenings, but are generally early to bed, early to rise people.

I'd appreciate thoughts on where may be good base locations. Thanks.

PalenQ

Bruges is a great old town but also very very overtouristed for a base - Gent is nice too but more an ordinary town. Trains are fab - check www.bahn.de/en for schedules - for where to go by train BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Gouda is a gorgeous town that would make a great base. Delft like Bruges is rather heavily touristed - nice to visit but not to base perhaps.

HappyTrvlr

We used Leiden as a base in the Netherlands and it was perfect. It isn’t far from Delft but larger, an historic university town( John Quincy Adams was a student there, Einstein too), many dining options. The Pilgrims fled England for Leiden and lived tnere 10 yrs before sailing to N. America. The excellent bus and train service took us all the places we wanted to visit.

thibaut

Gand is great as a base in Belgium and the center has recently been converted in pedestrian area only.
Bruges is as said overtoursity but nice in the evening, however Gand is more central. Bruxelles is fantastic too, but for some reasons some people don't like it.
If you want to visit Wallonie, you need another base in Namur or Dinant or ... but a car is more useful there, whereas in Flanders (esp in the cities) trains are working great when not on strike.

I ahve only been to Asmterdam once and very long ago, never was excited about Netherlands, cannot help. Have heard Utrecht is great. My daughter went to Rotterdam recently and found it very lively.

menachem

I would not use Gouda as a base, but Leiden, Utrecht, Rotterdam or The Hague might all serve nicely.

PalenQ

Yeah Gouda I thought would be a nice smaller city and gorgeous but yes not as neatly situated for doing day trips by train - are you going to day trip to Amsterdam?

dreamer320

Thanks for the replies. I realize Bruges is very touristy, but I'm more interested in being there in the evening, when the crowds go, which is why it's in the running. We'll be making a day trip to Amsterdam, but likely not more than a day.

I'll look into Leiden and Ultrecht, they sound like definite possibilities.

HappyTrvlr

And make sure you also visit The Hague. We went for a day but next teip we will stay there a few days.

PalenQ

If you've never been to Amsterdam I'd recommend a stay of a few days - nights are great and this is one of Europe's visual feasts - in spring and fall crowds are somewhat less and many parts of city are rather immune from tourists hoards. Haarlem is another town that is a great base - for Amsterdam and trains everywhere and for the north like Aalsmeer and its famous Friday morning old-type flower auctions - and Enkhuizen and the wonderful Zuider Zee open-air museum and of course famous Marken and Volendam and Edam, etc. Plus Haarlem has great rail links to Delft, The Hague - maybe split your Dutch bases. Anyway stayed in Haarlem many times and found it a really neat city.

menachem

"Trains everywhere" is not the case in Haarlem. Aalsmeer has no train station, auctions there are all week, Enkhuizen: go via Amsterdam. Marken, Volendam and Edam have no rail connections with Haarlem and can only by reached by bus, from Amsterdam.

Hordes are now a year-round occurrence in central Amsterdam, ie, the canals, and the museum quarter. No let-up in spring or in autumn.

PalenQ

Oops I meant Alkmaar Cheese auction! Alkmaar a neat old town - Hoorn another - should have said trains and buses - easy to reach all those places which I at least found to be some of the nicest places in The Netherlands - North Holland should not be neglected IMO. With that long I think two bases may be best - one around Rotterdam area and one up north. Haarlem a great base for those and even south of Holland.

Marken, Volendam and Edam have no rail connections with Haarlem and can only by reached by bus, from Amsterdam.>

No not just from Amsterdam - I easily went from Haarlem by train and bus to those places - easy to do by bus.

menachem

You can't go by train to Marken, Volendam or Edam, PalenQ: those towns do not have rail connections. And maybe there once was a bus service from Haarlem to Volendam or such, but not anymore. Maybe not rely on memories from 10 years ago. NL is not a time capsule.

But I do agree with you about North Holland. From Haarlem, the coast (Zandvoort, Bloemendaal) is never far away and there's lots of biking to be had to genteel coastal towns, along sheltered bikeways: Bloemendaal-dorp, Santpoort, Driehuis and north of the Noordzeekanaal as well.

dreamer320

Thanks again. We'll probably spend a little less than a week in Netherlands, as the focus of the trip is more on Belgium. We don't have much desire to spend time in Amsterdam, and would rather see smaller cities and towns in ND. Depending on how the itinerary works out, we may rent a car for few days while there. I'd love to do some biking, but I don't know if my health will make it possible; hopefully by the time the trip rolls around, it will be a possibility.

PalenQ

Cars are not much useful in Netherlands if going to cities as you indicate - stick to trains IMO.

Cowboy1968

We chose Gent as a base this May.
Since one in our group has severe mobility issues (wheelchair required) we had rented a car and an AirBnB in a "car-friendly" neighborhood, i.e. easy parking but some 15mins (walking) away from the nice historic city center.

But also if we had to rely on public transport, Gent would have been our preferred base as it was conveniently located for most of the places we wanted to see in Flanders (Brugge, Antwerpen, Gent itself obviously). Gent also has a good urban public transport system - so taking the tram to the railway station to start trips to elsewhere in Belgium would be no problem to minimize unnecessary walking.

The only exception would have been the "Fields of Flanders", i.e. the historic sights and memorials scattered around Ieper.
Since there are so many spots around Ieper there may be some or many which you could reach by bus but we never checked that out.
The site we visited required some walking from the parking lot (appr. 1/4 mile each way), and we could have taken much longer trails. So if this whole area is of interest to you, I'd check out in advance which sites may be within your comfort zone re. walking.
Ieper proper, with the (IMO) must-see museum right in the town center would have been accessible by public transport, though.

While trains would have been my personal preference (if we didn't had the issue of the wheelchair), it was no big deal to drive from Gent to Brugge, Antwerpen, Ieper and Lille. Getting in and out of Gent by car can take a bit if you have to drive in rush hour (appr. 7:30-9:00 and 17:00-19:00) but in general I would say we never needed more than one hour from our Gent apartment to the parking garages of those cities mentioned above.
There is a good chance of getting stuck in traffic in and around Antwerpen. In Antwerpen due to major construction works and road closures on one of the important sections of the ring road that encloses the historic city center. And around Antwerpen due to the heavy traffic on the motorway ring.
We had the traffic option enabled on Google maps so it guided us around those problematic routes. This feature sucks up quite some data volume which was no issue for us since you do not pay for roaming within the EU (with a mobile phone from another EU country), but it may be an issue for tourists from elsewhere.

We did not have Brussels on our list - and I would not have wanted to drive into Brussels. Not because it would have been especially challenging but mostly because there is terrible rush hour traffic on the inner-city ring road that goes around the historic city center. Parking is no major issue in Brussels (except for your wallet) - there are many parking garages. the closest to Grand Place literally those "2 blocks" away. The closes railway station (Bruxelles-Central) is "3 blocks away".

Brugge is easy by train or car. Not much car traffic in or around the relatively small city, but many parking garages close to the historic city center. The one we used required some 500 meters (appr. 1/4 mile) of walking until we hit the epicenter of quaintness.

When taking trains in Belgium, keep in mind that information on destinations etc. will be given on displays in stations/trains and announced in trains in the language(s) of the regions where you are. In Flanders, it will be Flemish-only (which non-Flemish speakers will probably identify as "Dutch"), in Wallonia, it will be French-only, and only in the capital region of Brussels it will be bi-lingual in Flemish/Dutch and French.
IME, it can only be a bit confusing at the big railway stations in the capital region with displays switching back and forth between the two languages and some very different names appear on the screen and you wonder
"Can't they make up their mind where this train is going to?"
Until you notice that Bergen/ Mons, Antwerpen/ Anvers or Liège/ Luik are in fact the same places.

mocha_dolce

Happy Trvlr: Regarding your choice of Leiden as a base and use of the train system. Is the train statiion close enough to to the historic area to book a hotel there for the days based in Leiden? I know the company Untours uses Leiden, and they seem to know what they are doing! (Our other choice might be Delft which is smaller and a little less optimal regarding the train connections, but doable.)

Do you have a hotel to recommend? We'd be looking for a smaller hotel, and our "wish" list includes A/C, elevator, in-room safe, and king-sized bed, we are are somewhat flexible on most of these if that's not feasible. We'd rather give on some of these than stay in a big chain hotel.

Also. some comments I've read seem to say the area around the train station is not so desirable. Sorry, no details were provided, so that could mean anything from not as "atmospheric" as the old town to crime-ridden. What was your experience?

PalenQ

Leiden's train station is not far from old town - maybe 10-minute walk or so. Have not been to Leiden in several years but went to train station many times and not IME a seedy area at all - large university buildings just to west. I'd chose Leiden over Delft for transport links.

menachem

Leiden's quite small, so even if you stay in the city centre, you'll never be more than 15 minutes from the train station. However, there's an Ibis opposite the station in the old university offices that also offers easy access to "old" Leiden: a short walk past Morspoort and Galgewater (where Rembrandt was born, there's a plaque!), brings you to the university complex (the old Arsenal, Rapenburg etc)

If I had to choose between Leiden and Delft as a base, I'd choose Leiden, also because of its proximity to Schiphol (10 minutes, nearer than Amsterdam) and because it has good access to the beach (Katwijk or Noordwijk, Noordwijk is the more moneyed resort town).

City Hotel Leiden - Nieuw Minerva Hotel in Leiden Centrum

or

https://dedoelen.com/homepage/

Both about 15 minutes from the station

PalenQ

If in spring in April and early May Leiden is very close to theworld-famous Keukenhof Gardens and NL's premier flower show - showcasing best of the Dutch floral industry and right in midst of miles of tulip fields (earlier the better) - special buses from Leiden to the gardens.

menachem

From Leiden you can easily bike there too.