Hello Travellers,

Many of you were going through my earlier posts. Traveling with family (self+spouse+3 yr boy + 1 yr girl) from Sep 21 - Oct first week
I somehow decided on following tentative schedule:
Day 1 - arrive in Amsterdem
Day 2 - Amsterdem
Day 3 - Amsterdem to Antwerp by train
Day 4 - 8 - Antwerp (Attend to business and family can relax)
Day 9 -11 - Base in Antwerp and travel to Brussels, Ghent and Brugges for day trips by train
Day 12 - Travel to Cologne (Desire to cover at least one german city and this is nearest)
Day 14 - Fly out of Cologne

Another option could be fly into Brussels and then at end of trip, travel around Netherlands instead of Belgium (just a reverse way)

Not really sure which one is better to cover (Brussels, Brugges, Ghent) OR (Amsterdem, Hague, Harlem). Please help. I understand that beaches may be bit cold around that time.

Any suggestions for day wise schedule, accomodations recommendations, train tickets tips, places, etc are welcome. If any of you have link to travel reports, please do share.

Thanks
Abhi

Beaches will not bee a bit cold??? Hard to predict weather but I cannot remember October begin sun bathing weather in The Netherlands.

What research have you done on this forum? what have you found (ie trip reports) that are of interest to you?

Re accomodations: this has been discussed in depth in your previous post. It is now up to you to check the booking sites and/or hotels!

A few thoughts:

Beaches will be definitely too cold for swimming by end of September. However, you might catch a few warm and sunny days so the children can play in the sand you may walk along the beach with your feet in the water. But with the same likelihood it can be cool and rainy. Do not plan a visit of the beach, but from Brugge, you are within a few minutes at the beach of Blankenberge if the weather is fine.

Destinations: Antwerpen is quite attractive, Brugge is a gem and Gent is charming. Gent and Brugge can easily be combined. Think about spending half a day in Brussel - the central market is spectacular.

In the Netherlands, Amsterdam is a must, of course. I would also visit Utrecht - a beautiful historical city - and maybe Maastricht.

In Germany, Aachen will be a worthy destination, too. The Cathedral (from 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned there) is spectacular. Close to Aachen, there is Monschau, an incredibly beautiful historic town. Köln is not a beautiful city, but has outstanding attractions - the gothic Cathedral, a dozen romanesque churches, the Roman-Germanic museum, several art museums, Roman ruins...

Travelwise, the train connections from Antwerpen into Germany are not really good. Therefore, it may make sense to fly into Brussel, see Belgium first, then travel to the Netherlands and fly out of Cologne or Düsseldorf.

Consider letting the family daytrip to Brussels while you are working, then all of you visiting Ghent and Bruges in the same day. That would buy you two more days to visit Germany.

For me, the food in Belgium is so much better than what I've had in the Netherlands that it would tip the balance for me in favor of Belgium. Also, if you were thinking of basing in Amsterdam the whole time and doing day trips, I would get tired of dodging bicycles with two small kids.

But otherwise I think your itinerary makes a lot of sense, although you might want to see Aachen or some other German city instead of Cologne. Check into the train connections, but unless they are horrible, I would stick with your present ordering.

Have you spoken to your spouse and taking a 1 and 3 year old to so many places in such a short of time? And what do expect to see towing them around?

We discussed and I guess after Amsterdem, we will be at one place for 5-6 days and then see Belgium. Kids are too small to appreciate everything but I won't hurry up to see everything. Just a stroll around city and nice time is my priority.
I am just checking train connections. Aachen can be option but then I need to find nearby airport to fly out.