mbagal

My daughter and I are in the first stage of planning a 12 - 14 day trip to Europe in the April timeframe. My daughter loves art; I love castles, theater, wine, trying different ethic foods, and just seeing the different sights that I have only seen in travel magazines. So far we plan to visit Paris for 4 days, Amsterdam for 3 days, and we would like to add yet another city that we would stay for yet another 4 days. Does anyone have any suggestions? Recommendations as what to see would be appreciated as well.

danon

as other will tell you, it takes half a day every time you travel to another city. I would stay longer in Paris with a few day trips.
From Paris it is easy to go to Brussels and Brugge (for a few days),and then to Amsterdam for the rest of the trip.

basingstoke2

If you really want to see a third country try Belgium. Brugge comes to mind and Ghent is also a winner with Gravenstein [sp?] castle right in the middle of the old part of town. Another Belgian city to consider is Antwerp. We will be going to Antwerp for the first time in early May so have been studying up on it and it seems to be a great place that we are very much looking forward to seeing .

These Belgian cities are not unreasonable detours on the way from Paris to Amsterdam. Another possibility is to extend your time in Netherlands and go to a place nearby Amsterdam such as Haarlem for a few days as a good base to see the tulip fields and other flower gardens that should be in bloom at that time.

Grassshopper

I would add either Brugge or London (although London is expensive). Why does it take a day and a half to travel to another city?

danon

it is half a day NOT a day and a half!

pack, check out of your hotel, go to the train or bus station (or an airport) travel (?), get to a new city, , transfer to a new hotel, check in, unpack ....

Grassshopper

Oh, sorry. I misread.

Oscar_James

You can forget the first day... most times it will take you time to get orientated. I would stay longer in Paris... hard to see Paris in 3 days. Of course you need to see the Louvre, Musee de Orsay, Orangerie and Moreau small house and studio. Take side trips to Malmaison and Versailles they have nice art collections. Amsterdam is really nice, too. Visit my web site to see the art, emilyandjim.info

hopscotch

For your short trip Paris and Amsterdam are enough, with a stopover in Brugge which is conveniently between them. Antwerp is not so touristy but is also a nice choice between Amsterdam and Brugge.

amyb

If your daughter loves art, you're going to want longer than 3 days in Amsterdam. There're the museums in Amsterdam itself, then definitely go off the The Hague and Delft on the Vermeer pilgrimage! Also the Kroller Mueller museum might be worth your while. In April, it's tulip time, so spend the better part of a day at the Keukenhof. Add in the Anne Frank house and other non-art activities and day trips in Amsterdam and you've got to be there way over a few days! I promise you, I doubted I could easily spend a week in Amsterdam alone, but we did and still had things we left undone! (My trip report from this past April is posted here, just click on my name)

And having been to Paris several times, I suggest that you need much longer than 4 days there, particularly if you want to indulge in all it has to offer and you've never been there before.

MaureenB

It sounds like we are all giving you the same advice: keep to Paris and Amsterdam, with day-trips from those two if you want. They are both wonderful cities, with everything you'd want. Art, for instance, doesn't get much better than in Paris and Amsterdam. And maybe take a day, or even an overnight, into the wine country of France. Sounds like a great trip. Stay the 14 days, if you can.
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suze

I also would suggest sticking with Paris and Amsterdam. A week in each city would give you time to really appreciate them. You'd hardly run out of things to do on your list of interests in either place in 5-6 days!! (minus the first and last from your 12-14 day timeframe for arrival and departure logistics).

mbagal

Thanks for all the advice. This sure helps. As far as where to stay... any suggestions? I don't want to spend too much money on accomodations but then again I don't want to spend an arm and a leg for a place to lay my head at night. I would be looking for a clean, (not the "seedy section of town&quot centrally located place to stay. Which district should I stay in Paris? Where in Amsterdam? We may go to Brugge in Belguim... where do you suggest we stay in Brugge? Thanks again.

suze

Hotel Kap in Amsterdam
Hotel Monge in Paris

In Amstserdam I like the area out around Leidseplein and Vondelpark.

In Paris I like the 4th thru 6th arrondisements.

WillTravel

My daughter and I visited Paris and Amsterdam (on separate trips) this year, and we liked these 3* hotels:

Mercure Monty Opera in Paris - good if you can get a good deal, but I wouldn't recommend it at full price. We liked the location, but many people prefer a wee bit more central (although this is quite central).

Best Western Eden in Amsterdam - superb location, read the reviews as rooms can vary a lot apparently, but we've been satisfied on our two stays here. Again, I would only recommend it if you get a good deal.

You could do something like 5 nights Paris, Thalys train to Cologne, 2 nights in Cologne, Thalys train to Amsterdam and 5 nights in Amsterdam. We quite liked Cologne (actually I liked the daytrip to Aachen even better).

If you have a hotel by the Cologne train station, it's extremely easy to get in and out of Cologne. And while I would not recommend staying by the train station in Amsterdam or Paris, in Cologne this is no problem.

MaureenB

In Amsterdam, I can recommend the Hotel Residence le Coin. It's in a great location, a rather newly opened hotel, made of about five row houses. Directly across the street from the Hotel de l'Europe and down the street from the Hotel Doelan, so a great neighborhood. Also two nice cafes on that block.

It's a very well-kept place, and the rooms have mini-kitchens with frig, stove top, sink. Bathrooms are new, as is the wood flooring. We had a twin room, and it was very large, with a nice sitting area, desk, armoire, etc. Also free use of the washing machine and dryer in the hotel's basement. A breakfast is offered in the nice breakfast room, but we didn't use that feature.

Highly recommend it. Nice front desk, too. You can search for my trip report from Amsterdam, for restaurants we liked there, too.
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travfirst

I would add one more day to your Paris and Amsterdam stays; visit Brugge-Gent (2 days) and Brussels (1 day). On the way from Brussels to Amsterdam you can stop for half a day in the Hague (train station is just short walk from the center, has lockers to leave your luggage); Mauritshuis museum has great audio tour and fabulous collection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritshuis; we also visited the Escher museum in a former Lange Voorhout Palace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher.
If you like flowers don’t miss Keukenhof http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/english.html. It’s open from end of Marth to mid May in 2008. I visited Keukenhof at the end of August with late summer flowers and hope one day to come back to see tulips in this beautiful park.

Michel_Paris

When asking about hotels and saying you don't have much to spend..."much" to me means a different "much" to a backpacker...so, please give a price range in euros.

amyb

I highly recommend the Hotel Zandbergen in Amsterdam. It's just at the Vondelpark and a tram is right in front of the hotel, so we could get anywhere in minutes. About a 10 minute walk to the museums and a wonderfully quiet location. The hotel is clean and secure. The staff are phenomenal (that is actually an understatement). This is one of the only hotels I'd ever return to, you won't be disappointed!

SharonG

I recently did the Amsterdam/Paris trip and agree that those two cities are plenty for that amount of time. We took the train from Amsterdam to Paris and that was about 4 hours. We stayed at the Bridge Hotel in Amsterdam and Hotel St. Jacques in Paris. Both reasonable and lovely. Check my trip report (TN Trio of Terror) for details. Enjoy.

tedandjane

I'd stay longer in both Amsterdam and Paris. You can travel out of Amsterdam by train - cheap and easy - to cities like Haarlem, Delft and Leiden, all great for art and atmosphere.
From Paris, you'll want to see Versailles (a very full day) and the city itself will fill 3 or 4 days. Brussels and Brugge, or Bruges as the English speaking always call it, are ideal and you can then travel between them all by train. Brugge is worth a couple of nights and you can travel from there in to Brussels by train. Check out http://www.travelsavvy-amsterdam.com/