Berlin, Brussels, bruge, Amsterdam: Itinerary questions
 

We are planning a trip, arriving in Berlin 9/29 (so shorter day) and returning from Amsterdam to NY on 10/13. Currently we have 6 nights in Berlin, 3 nights in Brussels, 1 night in Bruge, and that leaves 3 1/2 days in Holland. Please advise on our itinerary and advise on the time spent in each place. Should we have more time in Holland and go to Delft and Hague? Ghent? Berlin has Unity Day the week we are there so interesting day but nothing open, and we want to go to Potsdam one day. We have not been any of these places before (in last 40 years). We like walking tours of cities. We could use advise also on how to travel from Bruge or Ghent to Holland. Thank you.

Firstly, Unity Day in Berlin will hardly affect you. Shops are closed (except souvenir shops), but museums and attractions are open. At the Brandenburg Gate will be a stage with live music etc. Along Straße des 17. Juni will be stands with culinary specialties from all German regions ("Ländermeile").

Potsdam will be a rewarding trip with several castles, a huge park and a cozy old town ("holländisches Viertel").

In the Netherlands, my favourite towns are Maastricht and Utrecht - both historical cities. Gent has a medieval castle and Brugge is very beautiful, though touristy.

From Gent to Maastricht, the train takes 2:19, to Utrecht 3:19. Driving by car would be considerably faster - you may think about renting a car for a day or two.

BTW, how do you travel from Berlin to Brussel? By plane?

I would take a day away from Brussels (which I find kind of tedious) and add to Brugge and Ghent - which IMHO are much more charming and deserve more than a few hours each.

Gent is a very short/easy day trip from Brussels and I would not relocate to spend a night there. Unlike the last poster, I find Brussels interesting, not tedious. I agree you should spend more than a few hours in Brugge but if I understand your itinerary you would do that, including an overnight stay.

There are plenty of day trips you can take from Brussels if you do not find enough to interest you right in the city. I posted a trip report from our trip last fall which includes descriptions of Leuven and Mechelen as well as Tournai and Antwerp.

I don't mind Brussels -
several interesting museums , good food and beer.
Visited Brugge twice..beautiful,. hordes of tourists each time.

I am in the "take time away from Brussels" crowd.

Given those 4 nights you have scheduled for Belgium, I would spend 3 of them in Brugge, you can day trip to Ghent, and add the extra day to the Netherlands - all 4 in Amsterdam with day trips to Delft, Den Haag, etc.. You can always stop in Brussels and see the Grand Place as you connect through to Amsterdam from Brugge.

You can do all of Belgium and the Netherlands by train.

Suggest you check out the guide books for each city to decide which will fit your needs better - we don;t know what you like best. I will say that staying in Brugges overnight is very different than being there in the center of the day with all of the tour bus crowd. Also, the canal houses are charming places to stay - and many of them have wonderful restaurants as well. (IMHO Belgium has the best food in europe - we have never yet come up with anything less than very good and some has been surprisingly excellent - even in some very simple places.)

I like Brussels and can easily find things to keep me going for at least 2 days, if not 3 - and if you get bored there, take day trips out to nearby Ghent, Leuven or Dinant. Don't bother relocating, it just costs you time and effort. Bruges is beautiful but the tourists take the shine off it a bit. Agree you can do it all by train - the network in Belgium is very dense and takes you everywhere.

Lavandula

I am flying from Berlin to Brussels in July.
Easy Jet has a very good fare...something like 65 dollars.

Thank you for your suggestions. WE will take the EAsy Jet from Berlin to Brussels, and then a train to Bruge. Is there a direct way to get form Bruge to Amsterdam, without renting a car, or would you suggest that we take a day trip to Bruge? We will take a day trip to Ghent from Brussels. Also, since we can visit museums on Unity Day, would you suggest cutting a day off of Berlin? Thank you.

Stay in Bruges - the city is most magical at night when all the canals and humpbacked bridges are sublimely illuminated and the hoardes of day tripping in tour bus groups are gone - really magical at night - no direct train to Amsterdam but simply enough - take a train to Antwerp and change to hourly IC trains to Amsterdam there (avoid Thalys trains on same route as often you'd pay a lot lot more and only gain an hour or so) -Amsterdam to Berlin now about 4-5 hours I believe by train (also an overnight train connection via Duisburg, Germany) - Take S-Bahn train from Berlin to Potsdam and Sans Soucci Park - well worth the trek out there to see the Prussian Versailled and glorious park.

fly out of Berlin or return or take train to Frankfurt or Brussels, etc.

I like to day trip from Amsterdam to Dutch gem regional cities like Delft and Haarlem (20 min from Amsterdam by train) and if staying in Bruges a few days use it as a base to hop to nearby Gent, yes a another sweet old historic city.

Anyway if going by rail consider the Germany-Benelux Railpass, valid on trains in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany - on most you can just hop on any train anytime (except Thalys trains and ICE Sprinters- neither of which you need take) - fully flexible travel and IMO of traveling on trains in these countries for decades I suggest going first class - muc more leisurely and always will find ample empty seats - not always so in 2nd class - the pass difference between first and second class is not all that great - look at a first-class Germany-Benelux Saverpass (two names on one pass - cheaper than two solo passes - great for folks always traveling together.

B-r-u-g-g-e

You will have to connect through either Brussels - Midi station , or Antwerp. It is faster through Brussels - slightly more than 3 hours total. If you connect through Antwerp, it is almost 4 hours total.

Brugge is worth more than a day trip - the canals are terrific at night, all light up and there are some really nice restaurants.

it is what appeals to one
I prefer to stay in big cities and visit small ( popular ) towns rather than spend several days there
During the day they are packed , the "magic" of the night time wears off after an hour.

Thousands and thousands of us thank you for staying in Brussels and enjoying that "magic".

EasyJet: What can you tell me about this airlines? Danon, you mentioned using them. They are so inexpensive that they don't seem "real": under $50 to go from Berlin to Brussels. Have they been reliable? We'd really appreciate any comments about flying them: service, type of planes, issues with luggage or whatever, etc. Thank you.

@CarolSkov: Easy-Jet is cheap because it really is a low-budget airline where all "extra" costs are cut.

You don't get pre-arranged seats, you have to pay extra for each piece of checked luggage, one piece of carry-on luggage is allowed (no weightlimit but going over the size limit is extremely expensive), use cheap gates and, if possible, cheap airports, fly on cheap hours, cramped seats and so on.

Make sure you're on time. Gates close 40 mins before the scheduled departure time and if you're one minute late they won't accept you on the flight (but no refunds). Those prices, BTW, may not include all airport taxes, fuel surcharges and booking fees.

In short: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM

consider also overnight trains for journeys like Berlin to Brussels (not sure it still runs but did recently) - save the cost of a night in a hotel and if you have a railpass just pay the sleeping supplement or if not try to snag a discounted online ticket at www.bahn.de - could be a money saver and you end up in the city center and not some remote airport like Charleroi - perhaps Easy Jet serves Brussels Zavantem but sometimes they fly into airports that charge less landing fees.