2-3 days/nights, family travel, Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels?

I think Amsterdam would be fun for kids. You can take them to run around on the Museumsplein, for instance. There are a bunch of nice little food stalls up at the northwest corner. Or you can spend a day in Vondelpark.

I haven't thought much about the smaller museums in the central city from a kid's point of view (I did not take my kids on that trip, and they're teens anyway), but they would probably like running along the canals and looking at the storybook-perfect houses. One really charming thing about Amsterdam is that most very old houses have an identifying plaque on their facade (there's a name for these but I'm coming up blank). So, in 1650 or whatever, instead of saying you lived at 15 Keizersgracht, you'd say, "Keizersgracht, mark of the cat," to indicate they should look for the house with the cat mark. This could be a really fun thing for your kids--make a game of spotting as many as you can, make sure to photograph them all, and then they can help you put them all in a picture album when you get home. Also, you can rent a boat, or go on a boat tour. And van Gogh's paintings are probably lively enough to entertain kids. I always took my kids to art museums from a young age, finding something interesting to point out about the piece or the artist, or having them pose to mimic sculptures. They can really have a good time and engage their imagination. Just keep that short and sweet!

"Toasties" seemed to be a thing there, too: grilled cheese sandwiches. Kid-friendly lunches, in cafes all over. And waffles! You can wear them out and stuff their tummies and they'll sleep all the way home...

Have fun, sounds like a great vacation!

I agree: Amsterdam is more fun for smaller children than Paris. If you can't find suitable accomodation in Amsterdam, try for Haarlem or Leiden. Both are nice historical cities and close to Amsterdam on very frequent trains.
Advance buying of tickets for the train to Brussels (Brussels Airport Zaventem) comes with a considerable discount. Have them with the Belgian railways.

Amsterdam is more the scale of a 2-3 day break. It's waterways are popular with children. Paris deserves longer and IMO, Brussels is the dullest capital in Europe!

Thalys train tickets make Paris an expensive day trip from Brussels. If you wanted to visit Paris, you should fly there and only take the train one way. Amsterdam-Brussels is not quite as expensive, but I'd still fly there first. Amsterdam Schiphol is about the closest-in and easiest-access airport around.

Nobody really likes the city of Brussels as well as the other options, so why pay more for the flight? If you do fly to Brussels, then I'd limit your sightseeing to Belgium (e.g. Bruges and Ghent).

Clearly, the consensus is Amsterdam! Thank you all for your thoughtful advice. Really appreciate it. I've always heard it is easy to rent bicycles for tooling around there. Do ya'll think it would be possible to rent kid sized bikes? My guys are both experienced riders and well past training wheels.

Lauren, a quick Google search says you can--you have time to check on a few different rental companies and verify this. The only catch for kids is that the streets are not very even--lots of cobbles, etc. Just make sure they're prepared for that.

Good to know. Thank you!

Just want to throw out there - it was suggested to me to visit Madurodam (in Den Haag) and OMG - what a blast. And we are middle aged adults - I think kids would have a blast there and was one of the most fun things we did when visiting Amsterdam (other than renting bikes and seeing the tulip fields - not really doable in July tho...). Easy day trip from Ams, and easy to get to from the Den Haag train station via tram.

And just a comment on the biking - not sure...even as an adult...I'd do that in Amsterdam proper...we did see school age kids on bikes (10-12 yr olds), but there are just SO MANY bikes...maybe in the parks or along the river, but I don't think I'd want to attempt it on smaller/main streets, where you have to constantly be watching for cyclists, cars, peds. I took a quick hop into Vondelpark one morning and it seriously took me two minutes to run across the road because of the sheer number of bicycles.

Nicole, thank you for the note on bicycling. I've decided to fly straight from Nice to Amsterdam and skip Paris altogether. It looks like there is a brand new Hyatt Regency in Amsterdam (we are fairly loyal Hyatt fans), located a bit outside of the central part of the city. Are you familiar with the location of the Hyatt? Looks like it is a couple of blocks east of Amstel River, close to the Singelgracht. Maybe this location would allow us a little more safety and freedom to try out biking. But this may just be a "play it by ear" situation that we can assess when we get there. Anyway, if you all have any comments on the area I mentioned, please share.

I think I know where that Hyatt is. You could be onto something with smoother roads a little outside the oldest part of the city. You could try posting on the Amsterdam subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Amsterdam/) and they'd be happy to give you some ideas on areas where you can ride.

That may be a good spot - the closest we came to that was walking along the river on that side for a bit, but didn't venture off the sidewalk along the river. We stayed in the De Pijp area at an airbnb (on Lutmastraat) which was nice because it was a 5 min tram ride to the Museumplein. The trams are pretty frequent. Looks like some nice parks nearby - but yeah, you can def play it by ear re - bike rentals...of course, mornings and supper would be the busiest times as people are coming and going to work, so even if you were out biking in the late morning/early afternoon, you would miss the 'rush hour traffic'