Prelim General Itinerary for Amsterdam & Belgium

You should be able to fly directly in to Amsterdam?? At least I can from Seattle so I'd assume you have more choices.

I'd go in/out of Amsterdam. I'd spend 4 or 5 nights in Amsterdam, then head south to Delft for a few nights, then down to Ghent and Bruges if those cities look interesting to you. Several people on the forum have overnighted in Leiden for the last few nights as it's just about a 15 minute train ride back to Schiphol Airport.

I recently returned from a trip to both countries—Netherlands and Belgium—and preferred staying in the smaller cities. If you prefer the hustle and bustle of a bigger city, that might work well for you.

Public transportation is very easy in both countries. I included some tips in my trip report that you might find helpful:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-the-netherlands-and-belgium-my-trip-report

Also, I would always choose to spend more for a nonstop flight. You have some flexibility since Brussels and Amsterdam are relatively close. You could fly in one and out the other or fly in and out of the same one. I flew in and out of Amsterdam and that worked well for me. To give you an idea of cost, my flight was $1117 on KLM, not including my upgraded seats to economy comfort I think it was called.

I anticipate taking a comprehensive trip to those two countries in the next few years and am not in a position to give you advice about an itinerary, except for this:

Amsterdam hotel rates are very high. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of extra nights there in order to take day-trips to cities with much-cheaper hotels. I don't know whether the same applies to Brussels, which is a major business destination but not particularly popular with tourists.

I'd explore Google Flights for fare comparisons. On a short trip I don't like the idea of flying into a third country not on the itinerary. Time is a valuable commodity, and you'd need to plan a significant gap between scheduled flight-arrival time and train departure time to allow for possible flight delays. Check rail fares from Paris/Frankfurt to your planned first stop; I believe the Thalys from Paris qualifies as "not cheap". I am doubtful flying into a different country would save enough money to be worth the bother. The Olympics/Paralympics in France seem to be affecting costs even outside the period of the Games themselves, so you may not find good airfares into Paris.

You should not set foot in the U.K., even if the flights are cheaper. Despite as-the-crow-files distances, London and Amsterdam/Brussels are not "close together." Buy a multi-city (open-jaw) ticket with Amsterdam and Brussles, even if one requires a change of planes to get there. Flying from NY/NJ, you will be arriving at 8AM with one flight, and at 11AM with two. Who cares?

Most important in pricing is flexibility in date, and far-advance purchase.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation

Whether you need more than one base depends on how far you want to range. Do you plan to go as far as, say, Appeldorn in NL or beyond Flanders in Belgium? I ask because it's possible to make five or six FULL DAY train trips (in the same country) from both Amsterdam and from any city in Flanders, without more than about an hour on the train. No reservations needed. Many people here sell themselves short on time to see very rich destinations like Amsterdam, Antwerp, or (less attractive a place) Brussels.

I'm not telling you which tack to take, and both countries are small enough to see more of. But it's hard to see more than one city in a day-out by train. There are exceptions, like Lier and Turnhout. But it's not "necessary" to visit those cities on a first visit to Belgium. I did once combine Den Haag and Delft, but they each deserve a full day.

Flying from NY/NJ, you will be arriving at 8AM with one flight, and at
11AM with two. Who cares?

Well, if you miss your connecting flight, you won’t be arriving at all that day. Not a risk I like to take unless I have to.

TY All, I love the banter of ideas and really adds to the process. Appreciate you all. Everything is a trade-off of either time, $, convenience, etc. We are all just trying to make the best choices for our own experiences. Again, ty for your feedback.

I'll be looking at the links you included...ty again.

Carrie, wonderful pictures. What time of year were you there?

What time of year were you there?

I was there a few weeks ago—last week of Sept and first week of Oct.

May should be a great time of year to visit. You should see some tulips.

“ May should be a great time of year to visit. You should see some tulips.”

This totally depends on when in May the OP is planning to visit. The tulips in the fields will be cut off during the first week of May. The Keukenhof closes for the season on May 12. After May 12 the chances of seeing tulips are zero.

There are quite a few holidays in May. These holidays impact crowd levels and hotel prices. We can give better advice if the OP would be willing to share his exact dates.

End of April would be better for enjoying the flowers in the Netherlands. And, I would try to be in Amsterdam for Kings Day (April 27th). This is a great time to see the city as it rarely is, closed down to most traffic and full of partying orange people.
I would lean towards flying to Paris, renting a car and then driving to Southern Belgium by way of Rheims. A night in Dinant (are you a musician?) before heading North, there are many interesting places along the way to explore on the way to Brugge. I would eventually end up in Amsterdam (or Harlem) where I would then get rid of the car...
I would return home from Schiphol.
Or, given that Kings Day is on the 27th, I might reverse this.

When you pick up a car in France and return it in the Netherlands, you will have to pay a one-way-return fee that can easily amount to several hundred Euros. This is because a car with French license plates can’t be rented out in the Netherlands. The car must therefore be returned back to France and you will be the one paying for that.
If you want to visit the Netherlands and Belgium, the most convenient thing to do is to fly into one of these countries.

Carrie, people in Chicago are used to weather cancellations. But I've been to Europe 50 times. I've encountered plenty of strikes and volcano eruptions, but I happen never to have missed a connecting flight. And Euro airlines have much stronger carriage obligations than U.S. airlines. Lufthansa once even paged me because I didn't know I had to check-in again for the second flight. Considering how many posters here fly to London and immediately go to St. Pancras for a Eurostar, I thought it was worth the observation! It sounds like the OP hasn't been to Europe a lot.

One day, we barely made our CDG-Strasbourg TGV, because an abandoned piece of luggage closed the station for an hour. It's a matter of luck. I once had an eight hour delay on Eurostar between London and Brussels, because of a fatality on the French tracks. I've saved a lot of time and money going to places like Cologne or Leipzig with a second segment, to start an open-jaw vacation. It can be really difficult to fit full-sized luggage on a local train in NL or BE during school or rush hours, and there are no luggage racks. The double-decker train cars in Belgium are particularly dismal with large bags, and you may still have to stand.

(Pre-pandemic stories.)

I know the airfares are high for the mostly, esp. for direct flights. Would it make sense to fly in/out of Paris and take trains to/from Amsterdam & Brussels? or just fly in/out of those 2 capitals? Stay in the capitals with day trips and/or have more than 1 base per country to explore.

gritz, airfares may indeed be higher for direct flights, but what you lose in cost, you make up for in convenience. There is also the additional cost of the trains to get to the Netherlands and Belgium and the additional time you will lose. Given that you only have 2 weeks, it would definitely pay to fly to your final destination. Then just decide how you want to split your time. 1 week in the Netherlands and 1 in Belgium? Or something else?

I went to both countries in 2018 (before I retired) and only had about 2 1/2 weeks. So I spent most of the time in Amsterdam and 4 nights in Ghent, which I really liked (plus a day trip to Bruges). That was based on my desire to spend more time in the Netherlands, and for me that was the right choice. For you it may be different. I love large cities and Amsterdam was the perfect base for me. I stayed at an Airbnb in the de Pijp neighborhood (a room in someone's house), which was a wonderful place. I made day trips to Den Haag, Leiden, Hoorn and Haarlem while staying there, and spent the rest of my time exploring Amsterdam, including the Noord area.

Last April, our Brooklyn-based adult daughter joined us for the Amsterdam/Antwerp segment of a longer trip. She flew Delta nonstop both ways - JFK/AMS and back home BRU/JFK. Seamless and convenient transit from and to airports. Last December we paid $1100 for the round trip. (I know - last year’s prices mean nothing this year).

From previous experience, I’d be very hesitant to fly into and out of CDG to get to Amsterdam or from Brussels via train. Even if I could save on airfare. Planning to catch an expensive high-speed train to Amsterdam after arrival can be a nerve-wracking guessing game. Getting the best train fare requires an advance purchase and a guess of what train you could catch. Waiting and buying a day-of-ticket might wipe out any airfare savings. And then getting back to Paris for departure chews up a day of your valuable travel time.

With two weeks, I might split your bases based on your interests. Amsterdam and one other city in the Netherlands and one or two bases in Belgium. On our trip last year, we had three weeks and stayed in Amsterdam, den Haag and Otterlo. On our Belgium leg, we spent 5 nights in Antwerp and day tripped from there. That worked ok, but if I had had a week, I might have split my time between two cities that matched my particular priorities.

I saved a bunch of money by flying PLAY airlines to Amsterdam last month. Changing planes in Reykjavik was quick and easy both ways. I flew out of Dulles airport from DC. Unfortunately for NY, PLAY uses Stewart airport which might not be worth it for you, depending where in the NY/NJ area you live.

Agreed with others, just fly to AMS or Brussels & hopefully back from the other, easier and you will save yourself needless headache & hassle. About those cheap airlines - they won't put you on another airline's flight if they have a problem, which of course can happen. You may end up sitting in NY for 24 hours or longer waiting for the next 'cheap' flight that has now cost you a night or more at your destination.

I would carefully read this thread about discount airlines & the comments before booking. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/discount-airlines-f4423ffc-8987-42df-a369-be44678bdff6

I've visited all over the Netherlands more than most people on these forums, not just the most common American tourists towns. And all over Belgium not nearly as much but a respectable amount of nights too (probably 6 weeks).

The best city in the Netherlands that Americans overlook is in my experience Den Bosch / S'Hertogenbosch. It is regularly visited by the Dutch and other Europeans on holiday, and is a beautiful, interesting, unique, festive place. In a two week low country visit Den Bosch should get 2 or 3 of nights.

Also Middelburg. Pretty town and fascinating area with all the huge dikes holding back the North Sea.

Belgium is a country with great large towns. Mechelen and Leuven are nice stays. Oudenaarde, Kortrijk, Dinant, Gerardsbergen, Lier, Turnhout, Tournai worthy visits in a longer trip.

In the Southwest the Ypres area is both beautiful and super interesting if you bone up on WWI history.

Ghent is imo a better city base in Belgium than Brussels.

I didn't mention Bruges, but you'll go and will like it very much. You can day trip easily from Ghent or stay.

Lastly the coast. The sea coast area of Belgium and the Netherlands are largely pretty similar. It's fun to spend a night near the sea, go to one of the thousands of beachfront seafood restaurants, stroll boardwalk area, take pictures, etc. It can be fun to visit a faded old school resort town on the sea, Knokke Heist etc.

TY all for the replies still coming in. My trave time is open so April? May? anytime in there is doable. I like the idea of not staying in Brussels but still having the good connections for day trips, etc. ty