Europe Itineray and help with 2 days in Belgium
 

Hello

I am planning my first Europe trip (total 53 days with my husband 29 year olds) and would like advice on the first section of my Trip!

Friday April 22 - Land in London (4.5 days)
Tuesday April 26 - leave at 7pm on Eurostar to Paris (4 days -including a day in Versilles)
Saturday April 30th - Depart for Belgium (2 days) at night
Monday 2 May - depart for Amsterdam at night - (3 days, including a day trip)

How does this itineray look?

I need some advice for Belgium - Do I take the train from Paris to Brugge or to Brussels?
How would you organise these 2 days in Belgium? I want to see Brugge (not too fussed with Brussels - maybe a few hours will be enough?). What is more economical? I then need to take the train to Amsterdam.

Please let me know if you need further info, your advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

I would take the train from Paris to Bruessels, and stay there. Brugge is an easy day trip from Bussels, and chances are pretty good that - to get to Bruegge from Paris -0 you will have to change in Brussels anyhow.

Bruessels (the old part) is well worth a day.

You then can take the fast train to Amsterdam.

Although I have lived almost three years in Brussels, I usually check the German RR Internet site for schedules for trips all over Continenytal. It's the easiest to cope with: www.bahn.de

If do the day trip to Brugge (Bruges), check what special day tickets are available.

We recently visited Belgium for the first time, on a trip similar to yours. We started in Amsterdam, though, then on to Brussels for one night. Then took the train from there to Brugge for two nights. Then took the train back to Brussels and on to Paris.

There are trains directly from Brugge to Paris - you don't HAVE to go through Brussels. But the schedule when we were there left us sitting in Lille, France for an hour, so it was actually faster, and there were more trains available, to take the longer trip through Brussels.

I'm not sure whether Brugge or Brussels is more economical to stay in. We enjoyed Brussels more than we thought we would; our favorites were the Grand Place and the art museum (we're big into art, though). We ended up spending about 1 full day in Brussels and one full day, plus an evening, in Brugge. Many of the activities that people seem to do in Brugge, such as a canal boat ride, going to the top of the Belfort, and the Groeninge museum, weren't options for us - too cold and rainy; too tall, and temporarily closed. Doing all that would have used up more of our time there. Evenings in Brugge are nice, so maybe just spend a few hours in Brussels, then head on to Brugge.

Or, to give a different perspective, including your travel time between London, Paris, etc., you don't have a lot of time in any of the locations you've listed, especially if you're planning on day trips in Paris and Amsterdam. Maybe (nice as they are) skip your time in Belgium this trip, to give you a little more time in the other destinations.

the best way to get from Paris to Brussels is on Thalys. If you book in advance, you can get 26 euro fare. I understand that Thalys travels from Paris to Brugge as well.

None of it may matter to you at all, so you can just discount it, but it may be something you want to think about.

Don't know where you plan to go for the rest of your trip, but if you are going to Italy or Spain, you (might) start the trip in the more Southern country and end in London to take advantage of cooler weather in the South and warmer weather in England. You (might) consider starting in Amsterdam to see Spring flowers at their peak. On the other hand, if you want some beach time in Spain, you (might) want to end there. Anyway, with such a long period of time, along with making a logical travel plan, I would think about what activities I wanted to do in each place and how the weather might affect that. If you want to sit out late at night on a balcony on the Amalfi Coast, you might want warmer weather. If want to hike, you might want cooler weather, etc.

Already looks as if you are doing a great job with your planning!

Thanks for your responses.

It looks like Paris to Brugge on Thalys only occurs in the morning on a Saturday. So I will travel to Brussels and do a day trip to Brugge and then spend the next day in Brussels and head to Amsterdam that night!

We enjoyed Brussels and Bruges quite a bit - actually enjoyed Brussels more than we thought we would. It is a fun city. We found that hotel rates in Brussels are lower on weekends than weekdays - a function of business travel being so prominent in Brussels. And then in Bruges, it was the opposite. So you might consider that when making your decisions.