Germany or Belgium in spring?
 

Flights are on a very good sale for next spring so I am tempted to buy tickets; we are interested in either Belgium or Germany. We would travel on a Thursday and return on a Sunday; probably April 12-22.

If we went to Belgium, we would for sure want to spend time in Bruges and Ghent and would need to do some more research on any other areas/places to see.

If we went to Germany, we would probably fly into Frankfurt and out of Munich, seeing some of the smaller towns in between. I'd like to catch the Spring Frühlingsfest in Munich if we went that route.

I obviously need to do more research - asking a broad question here - would you recommend one place over the other for the springtime?

Should you decide on Belgium, it would not be very far to detour to see the Dutch bulb fields; we have been to Keukenhof twice and it is definitely worth the trip.

This would be my main aim for a springtime visit in the area.

Why not fly into Brussels do Bruges and Gent and then taking trains to nearby Germany- Cologne and great cathedral - and the Rhine Gorge area south of Koblenz - take K-D boats thru the best part and stay in a cute Rhineside wine town?

Fly out of Frankfurt.

annhig's idea is great - just a few hours train Gent to Amsterdam - lovely city at all times of years and easy day trip to Keukenhof in heart of flower fields - Keukenhof Gardens very famous - Dutch hotricultural industry's finest on display both outdoors with tulips, etc and in hothouses for more exotic blooms:

https://www.google.com/search?q=keuk...w=1745&bih=863

https://keukenhof.nl/en/

Brussels
Bruges
Gent
Amsterdam (which has a bevy of awesome easy day trips by train from it)

For cities trains are best- for info on Benelux and German trains- www.bahn.de/en - schedules for all European trains; www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com (superb online European Planning & Rail Guide has lots on where to go by train); www.ricksteves.com.

Paris is also a short train ride from Brussels via Thalys train - and springtime in Paris....

in any case for Belgium, NL and Germany bring an umbrella and good rain gear.

I would be booking Brussels - Amsterdam in a heartbeat but Amsterdam is not included in the sale. Doing so would increase our ticket prices by about $1000 total, making it not such a great deal.

I would absolutely love to see the tulip fields. Seeing as it is so close, would you recommend flying into Brussels and immediately taking the train to Amsterdam for a few nights? Then on to Ghent and Bruges before departing back out of Brussels?

Yes trains Brussels-Amsterdam hourly take 2 hours - trains Amsterdam-Gent about 3 hours - buy Thalys tickets for deep discounts - www.thalys.com. Easy to book your own online. I booked one for 29 euros last summer.

ditto for Amsterdam-Gent

do Thalys ticket Amsterdam-Antwerp (great town itself to poke around in for a few hours -throw bags in station locker) then use Thalys ABS fare for a few euros to go on any train within 24 hours of your Thalys arrival in Antwerp to go to any Belgian station -buy the ABS fare when booking your Thalys ticket.

In Brussels in the springtime the palace opens the Royal Greenhouses at Laeken, which is just on the edge of the city. They are only open for a couple of weeks so check out when it's on and time your trip there accordingly.

There are a few different ways of getting there (quite a few metro stops are close, like Heysel, and you go past the Atomium), but I think there is a bus going there from Place Rogier to Koninklijke Serres.

Lavandula

Glad you like the bulb field/Keukenhof suggestion, candj. Pal has come up with a great suggestion of how to get there on the trains. You could stay in Amsterdam itself or somewhere like Haarlem for a smaller town feel, for a few days, and then move back to Belgium.

Keukenhof easy to get to by public transit - trains to Leiden from Amsterdam then shuttle bus to gardens - from Haarlem bus thru the heart of the tulip/flower fields to the Keukenhof entrance.

If we went to Belgium, we would for sure want to spend time in Bruges and Ghent and would need to do some more research on any other areas/places to see.>

Antwerp is a gem IMO though not having the dreamy canals and old Flemish architecture of say a Bruges - but lots of neat art-nouveau edifices and architecture extant from Antwerp's boom years in the lat 19th-century and early 20th-century. Plus world-class art museums.

If transiting Gent/Bruges to Amsterdam yes consider at least a few-hour stop - the Antwerp train station itself is awesome - the 'railway cathedral' as locals call it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=antw...w=1745&bih=863

From Bruges/Gent you have to change trains in Antwerp anyway if going to Holland so at least have a short look around.

I am diving into researching Belgium to start with since that is where we have tickets in and out of. If we decide to focus on just Belgium this trip and save the Netherlands for another trip, I would still like to see some pretty spring flowers the area is famous for. I have came across the Groot-Bijgaarden Castle Floralia show and the Hallerbos bluebell forest. Has anyone visited; can you recommend? I realize the Hallerbos is entirely dependent on mother nature's cycles and we may or may not be able to visit in the time we will be there. The Groot-Bijgaarden looks lovely.

I'm laughing over the idea of the Netherlands in April. We did that once, including Keukenhof. It rained steadily for 5 days straight. In every photo, we're holding umbrellas and wearing raincoats. It's sort of become a running joke with us.

It's not always like that, Vincenzo. You were unlucky. Last April we had temperatures of around 20 celsius some days.
On the other hand, it could snow. It's probably the most unpredictable month of the year.

As you say, Candj83, Hallerbos depends on the weather.
This is in Dutch but shows the forest at different times in spring.
https://www.hallerbos.be/wanneer-blo...e-2017/page/2/

It is starting to attract too many tourists, who trample the flowers to get a good picture. See the post on the site I gave you for date April 27.