kelvin_sse

I will be travelling to Amsterdam towards the end of January 2017, and I have around 12 nights to plan for my trip covering Benelux and probably a couple of smaller German city such as Trier or Aachen.

Flight ticket was cheapest flying in and out via Amsterdam, therefore I need to make a loop starting from and ending on Amsterdam.

Below are my initial itinerary:

Day 1: Reach Amsterdam around noon, overnight in Amsterdam
Day 2: Amsterdam - day trip to Leiden and/or Delft
Day 3: Amsterdam
Day 4: Antwerp
Day 5: Antwerp - day trip to Ghent
Day 6: Antwerp
Day 7: Bruges
Day 8: Leaving Bruges early morning, quick stop-over in Brussels before continuing to Luxembourg
Day 9: Luxembourg - day trip to Trier
Day 10: Aachen
Day 11: Maastricht
Day 12: Overnight in Amsterdam
Day 13: Departing Amsterdam in the afternoon


I'm not sure if this itinerary is doable or it will be too rush, I'm not keen to move to different hotel on every night, hence I will try to based myself in one of city and make day trips whenever possible.

I'm not sure if it is worthwhile to stay 2 night in Luxembourg or should I just stay overnight in Cochem after visiting Trier in the morning on Day 9 (understand winter might not be a good time to visit the Mosel Vally).

Is there any city/cities that I should consider dropping from the plan? I was pondering if it is a good idea to drop Trier, Aachen and Maastricht and spend 3 nights in Alsace regions, maybe Strasbourg and Colmar before flying to Amsterdam via Basel.

My interest is mostly on the architecture (medieval architecture in particular, loved Edinburgh and Prague in particular) and Roman ruins such as the one in Ephesus and the amphitheatre in Pula. I also like quaint smaller city by understand it might be a good idea to stick to the bigger city especially travelling during the winter.

Additionally I also like museum that depict the history of the city, not into art museums though.

annhig

norma fodorite wisdom is to try to put all your time in your departure point at the end of your trip, so you can save a night or two but grouping all your nights in A/dam at the end of your trip and as you arrive at noon, you should have time to get to Antwerp on your day of arrival. [the train takes under 2 hours]

That would give you this:

Day 1: Reach Amsterdam around noon, train to Antwerp
Day 2:Antwerp
Day 3: Antwerp - day trip to Ghent
Day 4:Antwerp
Day 5: Bruges [is this traveling to Bruges this day?]
Day 6: Leaving Bruges early morning, quick stop-over in Brussels before continuing to Luxembourg
Day 7uxembourg - day trip to Trier
Day 8: Aachen
Day 9:Maastricht
Day 10:Amsterdam
Day 11:Amsterdam - day trip to Leiden and/or Delft
Day 12: Overnight in Amsterdam
Day 13: Departing Amsterdam in the afternoon

I have to say though that the middle of your trip is a bit of a problem. IMO it would make more sense to go to Aachen via Brussels, then onto Trier, Maastricht, Bruges and back to Amsterdam.

that gives you this:

Day 1: Reach Amsterdam around noon, train to Antwerp
Day 2:Antwerp
Day 3: Antwerp - day trip to Ghent
Day 4:Antwerp
Day 5: Aachen via Brussels.
Day 6: Trier
Day 7:Trier
Day 8:Maastricht
Day 9ruges
Day 10:Amsterdam
Day 11:Amsterdam - day trip to Leiden and/or Delft
Day 12: Overnight in Amsterdam
Day 13: Departing Amsterdam in the afternoon

the outlier of these is Aachen and I might lose it for an extra night in Maastricht which is a very nice city, or for an extra night in Bruges [ditto, though it's very touristy]. I have also lost Luxembourg; i may be doing it a disservice as I've never been there but there may be a reason why I'm not alone in that and as you have limited time, IMO it makes sense to rationalise your trip where you can.

hetismij2

why are you doing a day trip to Gent from Antwerp, and visiting Brugge? You could stay in Antwerp and visit both, or move to Brugge and do Gent from there or vice versa.

I agree you should move straight on the Antwerp on your arrival day, and should drop Luxembourg city.
You don't have much time in Amsterdam, so maybe add a day to that.

annhig

good ideas Hets - the benefits of local knowledge.

kelvin_sse

The main reason I needed to stay in Amsterdam first is mainly due to the reason that my brother can only make it for the first 5-6 days of the trip and he really wanted to visit Amsterdam in this trip.

I didn't choose to do Aachen from Brussels mainly due to the reason I wanted visit Luxembourg and Trier, and then maybe travel quickly over Cochem and then Aachen.

I wanted to choose a city as a base to prevent hotel changes everyday and wanted to stay overnight in Bruges, therefore its either Antwerp for 3 nights or Antwerp 2 nights and Ghent 1 night.