So many tours to choose from. If anyone has a particular tour to recommend in the following towns, please let me know. Any kind of tour--history, beer, food...
Brussels, Bruges, Cologne, Amsterdam

hi Leonora, really not a lot of people on Fodors who take guided tours. But given the places you want to visit, we have lots of people who can advise how to plan a trip for yourself.

How many people, when and what interests do you have?

We are usually independent travelers too, but when we go somewhere for the first time, we like to take a walking tour for an overview of the city.
2 people. Fairly fit 60 somethings. We like history --esp. WW2, food, drink and popular culture, art.

I 'think' bilboburgler thought you meant multi-day group tours but your posts did sound to me like you are looking for culinary/brewing/walking/local tours -- which lots of Fodorites do take.

I can only help (a little) re Bruges and Amsterdam.

In Bruges be sure to take one of the boat tours. The Visitors Bureau is right inn the train station and they will have walking and other group tour lists and lots of information.

In Amsterdam - My cousin took this tour https://www.eatingeurope.com/amsterd...-walking-tour/ and at first though it was too pricey. But she said it was great with lots of interaction with various shops/chefs/etc.

There are paid walking tours from the visitor information centre in the Grand' Place in Brussels, and also maps available so that you can do your own self-guided walk. In particular one of these is a tour of the comic strip murals around the city (literally everywhere, comic strip art is a thing in Belgium). There are sometimes also Art Nouveau tours of the residential areas in Brussels, run by an outfit called ARAU. I highly recommend this, but they don't run all the time, you would have to investigate this and see if they are on when you will be there, and which language they are running in. I am quite a fan of Art Nouveau and if you want to see more, the Victor Horta Museum in St-Gilles and the Musical Instrument Museum in the Upper Town are two really super examples.

There are also chocolate tours and beer tours but I have never done them so can't really comment.

Lavandula

Thank you! Do you know how the paid walking tours compare to the free tours. I am happy to pay if the difference is worth it but reviews seem neck and neck.

We have used Context Travel a few times. https://www.contexttravel.com/guides
In Rome, we had a tour of the Colosseum and in Prague of Jewish sites. In each case, it was a private tour and we found the guide very knowledgeable and also flexible - they communicated ahead of time re our interests and planned a tour (a few hours) based upon that.

From what I have heard, the free tours are often 'tip what you feel' and not really free at all. The paid 'theme' tours like beer or chocolate get samples and demonstrations. I don't think there is a big budget in the free tours for that sort of thing.

If Fodorite Percy comes along, I know he has done a paid tour in Brussels. You might try searching through the Forum with his name. I have too, but it was a long time ago, although I do endorse the walking tours, they bring places to life when you don't know which buildings are 'sights'.

Lavandula