Three weeks itinerary: Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-Florence

It looks like a good itinerary. The one thing that I might suggest is that you fly from Paris to Venice and perhaps spend 2 nights before going to Florence (or Florence first and then Venice depending on where you find better flights back to the U.S.). That would eliminate the R/T train from Florence. A challenge with many of the agriturismos is the fact that they often aren't convenient to local transit. I've never rented a car in Italy, but I'm sure others will have much advice about that.

The outlier location, of course, is Florence. If it were me, I'd focus on Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and environs (the Loire Valley, for example), and save Florence and rural Tuscany for a separate trip, during which you could also visit Venice and other places in Italy. IMHO, Amsterdam is worth more than two days - you could spend at least 3 nights there, or more if you want to take day trips. Brussels and/or the charming, fairytale Bruges. We LOVED Brussels, but lots of people don't find it so interesting. If you're spending time in Belgium, you may choose Bruges over Brussels. If you'd rather not rent a car in Italy, then you should stay in Florence and take day trips from there, including into rural Tuscany if you'd like. Venice deserves as much time as you can give it! I would agree that staying at an agriturismo without a car could be problematic. We've visited all of those locations with our daughter; she was 10yo when we visited Florence and 11yo when we visited the others. She loved all of them all, but probably Paris and Brussels the most, out of those places. (We all like history and culture, and spent lots of time in museums and eating lots of great food.)

Lisa,, look at Fat Tire Bike Tours,, I have done all of them ( over 5-6 years!) and especially recommend the one to Monets Gardens in Giverny for families with kids,, most of the riding in on an old decommisioned rail line that is now a pedestrian/bike trail along a river, as opposed to city road riding. They meet you at the train station in Paris, you ride the train to Giverny , where you collect the bikes, then they take you a market to buy your own picnic supplies, a short bike ride through town to a lovely spot along river for lunch , then ride to gardens. Lots of time in gardens( you are on your own at gardens, they give you ticket and you bypass long lines, then meet them later on ( can't remember how long later, but long enough that I had time to go through gardens and then go and have lunch somewhere else) , then a quick visit to the town graveyard for a brief tour, then back to Paris . Kids on the tour I took seemed very happy to be out of city and just riding around. The one to Versailles was good too, but you have to take your bike on the train there and its a bit more work for a child, plus , you don't get enough time there to enjoy some of the grounds, your daughter will love Marie Antionettes Hamlet, my 11 yr old dd did anyways. Versailles is a great do it yourself daytrip.

Thanks so much! Lexma, what sorts of things did you do in Brussels/Bruges? My daughter is focused on doing the Tintin walk and eating fries and chocolate. Sounds like we should also do an overnight in Brugescan you suggest things to do there? Pat, I was looking at the Fat Tire bike tours. Originally I was considering the Paris one to get an overview of the city but your description of the garden tour is intriguing. We definitely want to do Versailles as a separate day trip on our own. Any other suggestions for what your kids liked in/around Paris?

We only had a little more than one day in Brussels, due to a transportation strike. We wandered around the old city, the Grand Place area, and had drinks outside. We spent time visiting the various artisanal chocolate shops, primarily on the Grand Place, and gathered a small collection of different types. Then, at a cafe, we conducted our own taste test! We did that in Bruges as well (some of the same stores have locations there). In Brussels, we visited the Fine Arts museum; we're all very much into art, and they have a good collection. We did have fries, YUM, a number of times. And spent time at a great beer place, because husband's into that. We stayed at Hotel Welcome; we loved the rooms! In Bruges, we spent a lot of time wandering around the town and admiring how cute it is, and visiting some of the historical sights. We visited the Memling museum, which is located in an old church. We would have visited the Groeninge Museum, but it was closed when we were there. We walked out to the windmills. It was an unseasonably cold October when we were there, so we spent a bit of time in various cafes and restaurants, warming up. Best waffle place ever, in Bruges: Laurenzino, at Noordzandstraat 1. We enjoyed our trip to this area so much that we're repeating it this Spring. This time, we'll probably also visit the Magritte Museum and the Horta Museum and in Brussels, and the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, and the Art Deco portions of Brussels. Daughter chose for us to stay in Brussels, with a day trip to Bruges, because she prefers Belgian-French food to Belgian-Flemish food!

Anyone have a thought whether it's better/easier to go from Amsterdam to Bruges or Amsterdam to Brussels?

Above, I meant Amsterdam-Bruges-Brussels-Paris or Amsterdam-Brussels-Bruges-Paris...

We had a similar itinerary to work out on our last trip to the area - we started in Amsterdam, and wanted to end in Paris. You can go directly from Bruges to Paris, via Lille, but that's not the high-speed train. We found that it made more sense for us, timing-wise and because it allowed us to be in Paris for lunch, if we went from Amsterdam to Brussels, then to Bruges (trains run about every 1/2 hours). Spent time in Bruges. Then Bruges-Brussels, then on to Paris on the Thalys high-speed train. So the order in which you decide to visit the cities will probably depend on which trains you want to take, particularly the Belgium-Paris portion. In Paris, one fun thing we did was to taste-test macarons, the small size. We would get a couple in just about every patisserie that we saw, though our favorites have always been Laduree.

Any thoughts on whether to make flight/train reservations ahead of time or wait until we get there? Train Amsterdam to Brussels Brussels to Bruges Bruges to Paris Flight
Paris to Venice

It's essential to make advance reservation from Brussels (originating in Bruges) to Paris on the Thalys train. The sooner you book (90 days allowed) the cheaper it will be. If you wait until the last minute you pay the highest fares...the savings are significant. Book at http://www.thalys.com. For the other rail connections you can purchase tickets on the day of your journey using regular inter-city trains. In addition to the IC train, Thalys high-speed also operates Amsterdam to Brussels. Same pricing as the train to Paris. Always purchase airline ticket ASAP. Even with discount airlines, the later you book the more expensive it will be.