First time to Europe

Take a night from Brugges and give back to Paris.. there is WAY too many sights in paris for such a short visit.. one needs at least 3-4 FULL days just to do a thumbnail scratch.

Personally I think four cities is far too many for 12 days full days.. you cant count your arriving day or leaving day. You also realize you will arrive in Paris the day after your flight leaves states..

I would eliminate one city myself.. you arent really counting on all the time that the actual travel takes.. each time you move you are using most of a day.. checking out of hotel.. getting to train station, actual travel time, then getting to new hotel, and checking in..

Eurail is a travel agency and not a train company. And yes, using the local train is probably you best option. Train passes provide some convenience and reduced the need (sometimes) for advance planning but rarely save money. This is now the era of internet booking, deep discounts on advance ticket sales -- although those ticket are nearly always no change and no refund. But the saving can be substantial or the walk up price.

I think the trip is a little busy with a lot of one night stands. Lot of train travel, check in and out of hotels, getting to and from trains, etc. If you have not booked your tickets you might consider open jaw tickets - for example into Paris and home from Amsterdam. Cheaper and more efficient use of time.

What time of year?

I would not call Eurail a travel agency (but they are not a rail line, either). They are a consortium formed by the national rail companies and some shipping companies in Europe with the express objective of packaging and marketing rail passes. They don't "resell" passes, the are the producers.

Are those days, or nights? If they are days, where are your travel days? If they are nights, you have one full day in Paris (and two partial days when you arrive and leave for Brussels), two full days in Brussels, one full day in Amersterdam, etc.

You need to work out how long you are going to be in transit for so many different locations and decide if you are happy with how little time this will give you in each destination. For example, Amsterdam to Cologne is going to take 5 - 6 hours door to door and the same for Cologne to Colmar, which won’t give you long in each place.

It looks as though you have 13 days excluding arrival and departure days, including Paris, which with only full 3 days there is short changing it. I would opt for Paris (5 full days there) plus two other destinations, allowing half a day in transit for each.

Flying open jaw would make more sense.

Can you fly open-jaw? If not, don't split your time in Paris, it's inefficient. Either take a train to Bruges on arrival or at the end, take an evening train to Paris at the end just for the night.

Overall I think you have too many stops. Your arrival day is pretty much lost, by the time you get through the airport and into your hotel, after a red-eye flight and jetlagged. You may still be in a haze on your second day. Every time you change locations you use about 1/2 day, packing, checking out, getting to the train station with enough time to find your platform and board, then time to get to your new hotel and drop your stuff. Rule of thumb, for every x nights in a place, you have (x-1) days to see it, so 2nights gives you only one day, 3 nights = 2 days . . .

In addition to the above about all the time wasted in checking out of a hotel, getting to a train station, waiting for the train, getting to the new hotel, and checking in, don't forget there's also likely dead time where you don't really have time to do anything because you've got a train to catch in 90 minutes, so you don't really have time to sightsee during that time period.

Wow....
First of all, thanks for all the replies....
I guess I need to re-strategize.....

A couple static things:

I have to fly into Paris (ticket booked and I have an agenda there).
My wife and I want to enjoy the art, museums, food, and architecture, but we also want to enjoy quaint romantic landscapes.

Based on everyone's feedback, I have one country too many - I originally wanted to visit 5.....

So, knowing that I am coming into Paris and departing from Paris - what other 2 countries would you recommend?

Is the Netherlands pretty? Should I focus on the western coast of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands?

My first thought would be to skip Cologne. The next thought is that it will take you a whole day to go from A'dam to Colmar. Without a car, I'm not sure you'll be able to see much of the Black Forest. Could you clarify if you plan to rent a car? I haven't been to the Black Forest so I don't know if it's worth the time to get there. I enjoyed visiting the villages and other sights in Alsace, including time in Strasbourg.

As this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion would be to read Europe Through The Back Door prior to departure. That provides a lot of good information on how to travel well in Europe. For planning your sightseeing, also have a look at the country or city-specific guidebooks. The Rick Steves books are excellent (IMO).

When is this trip taking place?

Open jaw flights would have been a good idea for such a short Itinerary, but as you've already got tickets you'll have to work with what you have. Of the places you've mentioned, Amsterdam and Bruges seem to be the "outliers". Is there a specific reason you want to visit Cologne? It would be easier (IMO) to arrange a route from Paris > Germany > Colmar > Paris. You could also venture into Switzerland for a couple of days, but that would have to be at the expensive of other locations. Which locations are most important to you?

Cologne is there for no other reason than, I wanted to see Germany (some German culture), so I picked a city that was close to the French border and had some churches, museums, etc. that I thought we would like.

In terms of actual activities, we would like to see/do the following:

France
Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Siene river Dinner cruise
Notre-Dame Cathedral
Sacré-Cœur
Arc de Triomphe
Musée d’Orsay

I picked Belgium (Bruges) because it looked charming and romantic.

Netherlands was there, and I always wanted to see Amsterdam, so it was an easy choice after Belgium. I do not have to go to either, but have a preference for Belgium.

I chose Colmar, because I read some opinions that it was close enough to the Black Forest to be base camp for excursions and was lovely in its own right.

So, in summary, the only thing I really have set is Paris and the activities I list in Paris. Outside of museums, famous sites, I would like some country landscape and trees.

In terms of travel, I am open to renting cars, buses, trains, etc.

How about going by train from A'dam to Frankfurt. Frankfurt's historic center is pretty much what I imagined a typical German town to be. There are enough sights to fill a couple days plus easy day trips to smaller towns like Mainz and Weisbaden, or a village like Budingen with a castle. Then take the train to Paris. The bahn.com website shows fast trains from A'dam to Frankfurt with 1 train change or take the 8.30 train directly to Frankfurt - about 5 hours either way. From there you can get a direct train to Paris (less than 4 hour trip).

Countryside in Europe is pleasant but not breath-taking. You'll find many more beautiful landscapes in North America.

Try this itinerary.

1. Arrive Paris. Train immediately to Amsterdam. 3hr23min.

2. Amsterdam.

3. Amsterdam.

4. Train Amsterdam-Bruges. 3H08m.

5. Bruges.

6. Bruges. Early evening bus/train to Paris. 3H08m

7. Paris.

8. Paris.

9. Paris.

10. Paris. Train to Colmar. 2H18m.

11. Colmar. Late afternoon train to Paris.

12. Travel.

While not ideal, it will give you a taste of these areas. Remember you will return.

Hey folks, thanks for all the great replies. You made me realize there was no way 4 or 5 countries makes sense. With that said, the new plan is to lodge in the following cities for the listed days - and make them our home-bases for our excursions:

Paris, France x 7 days
Bruges, Belgium 4 days
Amsterdam, Netherlands 3 days

We fly into Paris and fly out of Paris.

Is the Netherlands really worth 3 days?

Based on this revised itinerary and the total days you had listed, you will be traveling back to Paris the day of departure, If so, I strongly recommend you arrive in Paris the evening prior to departure. Although Europeans trains are highly reliable, hiccups can happen -currently in Paris trains are being affected by strikes! As to whether or not the Netherlands are worth 4 days that depends entirely upon what you want to see/do, I'd pick up or borrow some guidebooks to see what would interest you in those areas and then allocate your days accordingly,

Yes, the Netherlands is certainly worth 3 days (more, actually, but your trip is too short).

First...reality check: have you been honest with yourself about how many full days you have in Europe, not including the day you arrive or depart? You can not/should not count your arrival or departure days as you will be wiped out upon arrival and your departure day will be consumed with critical tasks. How many full days do you really have?

Second: Just because you have already booked your flights does not necessarily mean you can't change them. Yes, maybe there's a fee for that (maybe not, or maybe it's not a huge fee) - although maybe better flights might actually be less expensive even if you have to pay a fee to change them. You can't know this unless you check, and you do the math.

Consider this option: fly in to Paris but don't fly out of Paris (flights departing from Paris tend to be more expensive than flights from, say Amsterdam, in part due to higher taxes in Paris). So fly in to Paris, do your itinerary (maybe Paris and nearby day-trips, then Bruges, then Amsterdam, fly home from Amsterdam. That's a much more efficient routing.

This would certainly save you TIME (you wouldn't have to circle back to Paris). Remember: for most of us, time (usable days in Europe) is the commodity that is most constrained. Saving a whole day is huge. You might ultimately end up saving money, too: you skip the cost of getting back to Paris, a hotel for the last night in Paris, etc. All the things you spend money on are going to be a bit more expensive in Paris than they would be in Amsterdam. Personally, I wouldn't let a minor cost difference (either way) force me, I'd go with the itinerary/plan that allows me to maximize my usable time in Europe...and doubling back to Paris for a night at the end of your trip works against that.

Bottom line: do not ignore the option of changing to a more efficient open-jaw itinerary even now after you have flights booked. Run the numbers, take an honest look at what the cost/benefits would be, and you may be surprised.

Hope that helps.

Given that your flights are set, and you are still working on the 'in between' details, my suggestion would be to put the Paris time all at the end of the trip.

Your arrival day is pretty much useless for 'touring' so use it to get to one of your other destinations. Check in at Paris just once and be where you need to be for your departure at the end.

Last summer we had 13 nights in Europe. We flew into Paris, spent 7 nights there. Then we took the train to Bruges and spent 2 nights, then train to Amsterdam and spent 4 nights and flew home from there. We felt it was the perfect amount of time in each place. We took 1 day trip from Paris, and 1 day trip from Amsterdam. 7 nights in Paris allowed us to see all the highlights but I didn't get to everything (including restaurants) on my list...I'm going back in a week with a friend for 5 nights and probably still won't get to everything!

If you have to fly in/out of Paris, I recommend you do the reverse of what I did and use day 1 (you'll be tired anyway) to get on a train and go to Amsterdam. Maybe take one night from Bruges and add it to Amsterdam since there's much more to do there. One full day and one half day (2 nights) was plenty in Bruges. That way you can end your trip in Paris where you're flying home from, it will be much less stressful.

I arrive in Paris on May 13th.
I depart Paris on May 27th.

So I am not counting those days for exploration.

My daughter is doing study abroad in Antwerp, so part of my game plan is to fly in with her on the 13th. Ride a train to Antwerp from Paris. Wife comes in on the 14th to Paris, and she already booked us a non-refundable hotel room that night - so that is the messy and poorly planned aspect of where we are at this point. I am trying to add some efficiency starting on the 15th. So it looks like:

May 13th: arrival/travel
May 14th: wife's arrival France/Paris Day
May 15th: France/Paris day
May 16th: France/Paris day
May 17th: France/Paris day
May 18th: France/Paris day
May 19th: France/Paris day
May 20th: France/Paris day
May 21st: Bruges/Belgium day
May 22nd: Bruges/Belgium day
May 23rd: Amsterdam/Netherlands day
May 24th: Amsterdam/Netherlands day
May 25th: Amsterdam/Netherlands day
May 26th: France/Paris day
May 27th: Travel Day (back to US)

I may try to see if I can change my ticket to depart from Amsterdam and eliminate the need to go back to France.

I wish I hit this site earlier.

Be aware of the train strike days. You can read about it here. https://www.thelocal.fr/20180426/french-strikes-what-can-i-do-if-my-train-or-plane-is-cancelled

You will have to plan your schedule based on the strike days. For example, in June I plan to arrive in Paris by train from Germany on a non strike day. I'm flying home from Paris and my departure day and the day before are strike days. I have a 9:15 a.m. flight, so I need to be at the airport no later than 6:15 a.m. I will spend my last night at an airport hotel.

I'm happy to see you have eliminated some of your desired destinations. You will have a much better trip this way. I was surprised to see Cologne on your list. I didn't get there until my my 7th trip to Europe, and it was my 4th time in Germany. I have cousins that live there. They always came to visit me in other areas of Germany.

Hi,

Cologne is well worth going to, I went there my first time in Germany, but in your case due to the time factor, I would suggest visiting Aachen instead if you desire is to see a German city.

Gee, your taking your daughter to Antwerp on your arrival day, then you'll be just a short train ride to Bruges. Then you have to turn around and go back the next day to meet your wife. And both days are scheduled strike days. I'd buy tickets now. Thalys says "Cancellation of some Thalys trains due to a national strike in France". I see you can buy Premium seats for 222 EUR for you and your daughter (assuming she is under 26), that is cheaper than most standard class tickets. You can get a train back to Paris the next morning for 81 EUR standard class.

I know...we kind of jumped in, I am working to see if she can get her arrival date changed to the 13th, along with my daughter and I. Then I would change it up and have us do Belgium, Netherlands, and finish in Paris. I had a hard time determining what 3 countries to narrow it down to, but with the relative size and proximity of Belgium and the Netherlands, it seemed like it would be the easiest 2 other countries to experience along with Paris. I wanted to see Germany, wanted to see Switzerland - but we will have to save that for another time.

What you will find, when you are there, that whereever you go, there you are. There is a lot in each of those countries. Hey, in France, there are 99 departments, which are the little states. Bretagne is composed of 4, and each are different. Each has a character which is different. Finisterre (on the Atlantic) has many small sea-side villages and the drink is cider (hard cider). Many French people do not vacation outside of France, because France has so much variety. So, don't be greedy. Go to a few places, and stay a little longer than you think you might. It will get you more into the specific area in an intense way. We stayed 4 nights in Chartres with the great cathedral. On Day 3, we had finished the tourist sights, and we to visit a small quirky sight - some guy had spent 30 years tiling his house, garden, and yard. Weird, fun.