Advice for London, Belgium, Netherlands itinerary

At least five days in London. It's a huge city with many hotels. To pick one at random, Park Plaza Westminster is well-priced, modern and has iconic views of Big Ben from the public areas. But there are a gazillion others to choose. Let us know the price range and what you like in a hotel.

Belgium & the Netherlands are entire countries not cities so I'm not sure which places you'd like to see. How about this:

You can get the Eurostar train direct to Brussels from the centre of London (book tickets early for best price). Maybe a day in Brussels and a day trip to Bruges, then get the Thalys train from Brussels to Amsterdam for at least three days.

Fly home from Amsterdam (book open-jaw flights into London, home from Amsterdam). Makes much more sense.

I agree with Jane's suggestions. Brussels is the dullest city in Europe IMO, so one day is enough there. Bruges and Ghent are more interesting.

If you just go to London and Amsterdam, which can easily fill your time, then fly. Fly open jaw home to avoid back tracking.

Bruges is worth 2 days to visit. It's so charming and easy to get around.

I would do 5 days in London, take the Eurostar to Brussels, spend 2 nights there, spend 2 nights in Bruges, then spend the remainder in Amsterdam. That will give you time to do a day trip or two from Amsterdam depending on your interests.

I have heard that you either love or hate Brussels so it's worth your time to decide which category you fall into! And some people on this forum propose sleeping in Haarlem and taking the short train into Amsterdam, but I personally love staying in Amsterdam.

I would thoroughly recommend a couple of days in Antwerp, maybe at the Lindner, which is a nice hotel just out the back of the station (which is an incredible building, btw). If you use the Eurostar look at the 'any other Belgian destination' ticket.

London (5N) - with day trip to Hampton Court
Eurostar to Brussels, then to Ghent (4N)
- with day trips to Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels
Amsterdam (4N) - with day trip to Den Haag

We have 3 nights planned in Belgium in April and I had been going to do 2 nights in Ghent and 1 in Brussels so we could be there part of the day before taking the train to Paris - just decided to spend the 3 nights in Ghent - we are going to spend a day visiting Bruges, a day visiting Ieper (Ypres) and just train to Brussels early, leave the bags at the train stn and pop out for 5-6 hrs to see the old town before catching our train. A lot of people seem to like Ghent - it's in a good central location and (hopefully) has more character than Brussels.

If you decide on 4 nights in Belgium, you may want to just spend them all in a central location to save the time and hassle of moving to a new accom - which can eat up a good 3-4 hours (or more) of your precious sightseeing time.

(For the record, we're doing 5 nights in AMS, 3 in Dordrecht, 3 in Ghent, then 2 in Paris and 3 in London - but this is our 4th visit to Paris and 6th to London).

We stayed in Ghent and did day trips to Bruges and Brussels. Bruges was definitely our favorite with Ghent next and Brussels last.

My advice, when touring Bruges and Ghent is to start your day with a canal boat tour. The tour takes you past the highlights of both cities and the guide fills you in on the history of the buildings that you are seeing. After the tour you can then focus on the areas that interest you (on foot).

Brussels main square is very attractive and a great place for people watching. I think many people are just looking for the Manneken Pis which is just around the corner - yes, I checked him out!

I realize that West Coast US is different from my travel needs, but you are making a mistake in not looking for "open jaw" flights. Have you looked at our host (Rick Steves) books about first-time trips to Europe?

I like Belgium and the Netherlands just fine, but I wonder if you chose them for proximity to England? Our first trip as a married couple to Europe was a two-week vacation, a week in London and a week in Paris. OTOH, I often recommend Amsterdam to people who are hesitant to go to a faraway place where they (mistakenly) fear they won't be able to communicate. Although they are different countries, Amsterdam and the excellent Antwerp have some overlaps. Unlike some other countries, the most interesting cities in Belgium are easy unreserved rail trips from each other. If you can find an affordable hotel that's walkable to the train station, you don't need to change hotels in Belgium. The big 4 are Brussels, Bruges, Anwerp, and Gent. You don't mention your personal interests (art, architecture, World War II, whatever ... )

London has quick, affordable (three months in advance, non-changeable, non-refundable) Eurostar trains to Brussels and Paris.

Since this is your first trip, you should get a copy of Rick Steves Europe Through The Back Door. It has all the nuts and bolts of travel, such as getting between places, food, accommodations, etc.

If you haven't already bought your flights, do look into flying into London and out of Amsterdam. To find these flights, go to Kayak or Google flights and choose the "multi-city" or "multiple destinations" option. It may or may not cost more than a simple round trip to London, but you will save time and money by not backtracking. If you are locked into a round trip to London, note that you will have to get back to London the night before your flight home, to avoid missing it.

For getting from London to Belgium, and from Belgium to Amsterdam, trains are by far the best way. For London to Belgium, you will take the Eurostar to Brussels South Station, then change to domestic Belgian trains if you want to go anywhere else in the country. When you buy your Eurostar ticket, you can get an Any Belgian Station (ABS) add on, and your travel to other Belgian destinations from Brussels is then included.

Note that the Eurostar starts out relatively cheap about 6 months before travel, and that the price goes WAY up closer to travel. Also, the cheapest tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable; if you need flexibility, you'll pay more.

For domestic travel within Belgium or within the Netherlands, almost all trains are unreserved and don't require any advance purchase, or even advance planning. On busy routes the trains run several times an hour; you can just show up at the station, buy a ticket, and go.

For getting between Brussels and Amsterdam, you can either take unreserved trains like the ones I described in the paragraph above, or you can take the faster Thalys trains. Like the Eurostar, these are inexpensive if booked ahead, and become very expensive at the last minute.

For MUCH more about these trains, look at the rail guru, The Man In Seat 61. Here's his Eurostar page: http://www.seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm