Have a day/night/day window of time between Maastricht and Amsterdam. Is it possible/worthwhile to get to all these places? Do I rent a car to reduce travel time and maximize my time in each location? What would you leave out? What would you keep?
Thanks for any help and advice.
In short: No.
Have you mapped mileage and travel time? Have you considered how much time you wish to spend in each place? Have you looked at train schedules and how much time these routes would take (because trains are efficient and parking is not)? Once you start to do this, you will see how visiting all of these in only 2 days is crazy (sorry).
What interests you about each? Can you narrow your selection down based on interest (and with calculating travel and visit times)? I would excise Belgium altogether, or just do Belgium (i.e. Maatricht, 1 day Bruges, 1 day Ghent, Amsterdam) and by train ...
That’s ridiculous.
Brugges and Ghent Or
The Hague and Delft Or
Rotterdam and Kinderdijk
I agree: leave Belgium for another trip.
Get yourself a hotel in Delft or Rotterdam. Do first day Rotterdam and Kinderdijk. Or, possibly more interesting, Kinderdijk and Dordrecht. Have second day for The Hague and Delft. Pick up luggage from the hotel at the end of the day and move to Amsterdam.
Use the public transport planner 9292 for the connections.
We did Bruges and Ghent in one day using a bus tour from Brussels. (Sorry can’t remember name of company.) Can’t speak to your other locations as have not been there, but the one day for Bruges/Ghent was very fun and doable. Between the two we liked Bruges a lot better than Ghent so if you’d have to cut one of those two I’d cut Ghent.
Well, technically it's possible either by train or by car but I doubt if anyone on this forum would try it. It would basically be 2 days of traveling with a few 1-3 hr stops that would not be at all either relaxing, enjoyable, or satisfying - other than to say you've been there. Train would be dealing with changes and scheduling; car would be a pain in any of the cities and add the hassle of finding and paying for parking, etc. I certainly wouldn't do it, but to each their own.
Stick to the Netherlands and save Belgium for another trip. If Bruges and Ghent were somewhat en route, then you could possibly see them all, but they are not.
Well, I can see the temptation to try.... its 'only' about 150-160 miles total.
Car has the problems already mentioned plus the extra cost of a one way drop fee
Taking trains, the issues are obvious.
Once again, 'less is more'.
It’s a tight schedule but doable. If you don’t mind catching an early train in Maastricht you can arrive in Bruges at 11:00 AM or even 10:00 AM. You have to change trains at Liège-Guillemins, a nice piece of modern architecture worth to hang around and having breakfast for the 40 min. the change needs there.
You can have diner in Ghent, train from Bruges takes an half hour. Latest train to Dordrecht for staying the nicht leaves in Ghent at 08:27 PM with a change in Antwerp. Dordrecht is a good base and a nice place too for visiting Kinderdijk and travelling further to Delft the next day. The Hague is on the same line to Amsterdam but you can skip it if necessary and visit it later as it is an easy daytrip from the latter.
For travelling between the station and the centre, trams and buses in Bruges and Ghent are serviced bij De Lijn, a day pass costs (presale, ticket booth at the bus stop in Bruges) €6, is cheaper and more easy as seperate tickets.
A whole lot of travelling but up to you to decide if it is worth or not trying.