Brussels, Amsterdam,etc
 

We have come up with a tentative itinerary for the Benelux countries. We would be most grateful for opinions

6 nights- Amsterdam
2 nights - Ghent
6 nights- Brussels
Days trips from Amsterdam ( which are best ? ) and Brussels including a day trip to Bruge.
Is a day trip to Bruge sufficient or do we need to stay a night or two and cut a day from Amsterdam and a day from Brussels. Should we take a day trip to Antwerp?
We want to visit the Floriade- we thought a day drip- should it be from Amsterdam or Brussels?
Any other helpful hints will be appreciated. Thanks

I would take the days from Amsterdam and Brussels and add them to Brugge, especially since you have 6 days slotted for each of them.

Brugge is quite a bit different from Ghent, smaller, and calmer and would make a nice counterpoint to your big cities bases.

As for day trips from Amsterdam Delft, Leiden, and Zaanse Schans (preserved windmills and historic Dutch town setting) are terrific choices.

I would also recommend visiting Antwerp. Quite a lot of people prefer it to Brussels. Even 5 days is a lot for Brussels, proper, so a day trip to Antwerp, at least, is probably a good idea.

Since you are sure you want to see Brugge I would spend one or two nights there and do Ghent as a day trip from Brussels. I definitely recommend going to Antwerp for at least one day. two would be better.

When are you planning on visiting? This affects day trip suggestions from Amsterdam. Will you be travelling by train or are you prepared to hire a car for a day or two?
A pity you didn't tag this the Netherlands as well as Belgium.

We are panning to go in May. We will probably be traveling by train as
we have heard that the rail system is wonderful.

Since you want to visit Floriade you'll probably want to see Keukenhof, http://tinyurl.com/y8hltjl. It is very convenient from Amsterdam, Leiden, and Haarlem. If you can go a little early the Queen's Day celebration on April 30 http://tinyurl.com/yln3hrp will give you a new definition of the word *party*. Since you apparently have not yet traveled the rails of Europe the illustrated introduction to European trains at http://tinyurl.com/eym5b can get you started.

I am one of those who would rather be in Antwerp than Brussels. Just as an aside the Antwerp train station was the venue for the famous flash dance http://tinyurl.com/cr935m.

spaarne--I love that dance segment in the Antwerp station--the expressions of the bystanders are as much fun as the actual performance. My husband and I kept hoping someone would pull a similar stunt when we were there. It is a beautiful station

From Amsterdam, I think the best day trip would be to The Hague, which has many art museums, one of which rivals the Rijksmuseum in terms of quality. They sell a 30 day pass at the state museums that covers all of them and is the best buy I have found. Haarlem was also interesting.