Summer Travel including Belgium & Switzerland
 

Looking for some help in planning a trip with my two college aged daughters this summer.

My freshman in college (we will call her DD1 for these purposes) is going to be an au pair in Belgium for two months this summer, from May until early to mid July.

My older daughter, (DD2) who graduates college in May will be going to Switzerland as an au pair for a year starting mid-late July.

What I am hoping to do is to fly over with DD2 from South Florida in mid July, meet up with DD1, and spend some time (maybe a week or so?) traveling around with the two of them before DD2 has to start her job in Switzerland. I would then fly back home with DD1.

We thought maybe we should fly through London and take a flight over to Basel to drop off some of the luggage DD2 will have because she is going for a year. We don't want to be burdened with carrying that all around with us. DD1 can either take a flight over from Brussels and meet us in Switzerland and we can start our journey from there or we can fly over to Brussels to meet DD1 and the family she has been living with and start our journey from Belgium.

Please weigh in on where we should visit in this time frame that makes sense. We don't really need to go to Paris or even Italy, as we have been to both, but we would like to make the most of approximately a week or so to spend time together and see some great places. We don't mind making it a busy trip so that we can pack in as much as we can!

Thanks for any suggestions and tips on the travel to and from these places and how we can get the most fulfilling experience while over there together! I appreciate it!

Connie

Moved to Europe

You have just one week? If so I'd head to the Interlaken area and head to the hills and ensconce yourself in a mountain village like Wengen, which everyone who posts here loves - a car-less tranquil village only reached by train. Glacier-clad peaks can be viewed from many hotel balconies - thrilling mountain railways and aerial cable ways go off in all direction - hiking paths for easy to hard strolls:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...h=536&dpr=1.75

Stay there maybe 4 nights and take train to Belgium - try to hit Bruges - one of the loveliest old-world cities in Europe and take train to Brussels.

Anyway for lots on trains check www..seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Once you get to Switzerland, you have great options for luggage storage and forwarding. Consult the sbb website.

Enjoy!

Perhaps you can fly into Brussel, and ask if you can leave the luggage with DD's family where she has stayed, so you can visit a few places there? Spend a day in Brussel, a day in Brugge, then continue to Switzerland.

Brussels to say Interlaken area is a long train trip - look for cheap flights to Zurich.

Thank you for the suggestions. As DD1 will have been in Belgium for two months, she won't want to spend too much time exploring that area, although I do want to visit Bruges.

In addition that that, DD2 will be preparing to spend a year in Switzerland and traveling with that family, so she will also want to see more outside of that country. DD1 will want to see some of Switzerland, but they are both anxious to visit places outside of those two countries. They are adventurous girls who will want to see as much as possible in the time we have there.

Thank you!

London is only about 2 hours from Brussels by Channel Tunnel Eurostar trains -a week in London could be cool for all. Amsterdam and The Netherlands are also close at hand. Amsterdam could well occupy 5 days with easy day trips to some regional gems.

Thank you for that suggestion. I know the girls are of the mindset that they would like to sample as many different places as possible and then know where they would like to return to spend more time. I was thinking Amsterdam and The Netherlands would be good. Any specifics on "day trips to regional gems"? Sounds interesting. :)

There are loads of easy day trips from Amsterdam - Haarlem, Delft, The Hague, Rotterdam and many more - what are yous interested in?