Fly or train between AMS and London

if you're considering flying them look at flights out of London City airport - much smaller than LHR or LGW and quicker to transit

Well, my two cents is that I'd usually take the train over a plane but then I hate flying. Five hours on a train (it looks like 2 two hour legs to the journey) beats a one hour flight for me, given all the flying security etc. Your big dilemma is the bag storage cost, I guess, which I'd probably just cough up to avoid a flight.

"I know you don't have to go thru security and crap like you do at an airport ."

But for Eurostar you do, although there is slightly less crap. You do get the advantage of doing your immigration in London though. Recommended time to get there is now 1 hour before.

At London City Airport you can complete check in as little as 20 minutes before the departure time although that seems a bit tight for me - although a bit of a way from Chiswick though.

the question spoke about London to Amsterdam, and then changed to Amsterdam to London, which I think is actually the way the trip is going.

Three other things to add into the mix:= Once you reach Amsterdam Centraal you can just get onto the Thalys to Brussels (train continues to Paris) whereas if going to AMS Schiphol you have a short train journey (or number 300 bus from Haarlem - depending on where your last night is) and then a bit of a walk through quite a large airport before your check-in can begin.

Second, while you change trains in Brussel Zuid (Bruxelles Midi) you can visit a fair number of chocolate shops, right in the station. That's Belgian chocolate. And after you have checked in for the Eurostar there are additional opportunities while waiting for your train to be called.

Third, you have security and Border Control before you leave Brussels. When you get to London you just walk down the ramps through Customs (invisible to most) and out the frosted doors. No immigration queues like you will have at the arrival airport, and no waiting for luggage.

I actually think it is closer to a tie, or advantage Train.

[Edited] The Eurostar train runs from London directly to Paris or Brussels in about 2.5 hours, which is faster than a flight plus airport connections. But Amsterdam is further and takes closer to 5 or 6 hours by train so I also lean toward flying this route. It looks like EasyJet doesn't have their April tickets for sale yet, but in March, they start at $42 USD from Amsterdam to Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, or Southend airports (unfortunately, not Heathrow). The 18-minute train ride between Amsterdam Centraal station and Schiphol is about the easiest airport connection one could dream of.

We will be going to Belgium at some point on this trip. No worries about waiting for bags at the airport since we won't be checking any.

I'm still trying to figure out direction of travel. We may fly into Paris (we don't want to fly home from cdg because...well, the horror of flying out of cdg), go to Belgium/NL then fly home from London (hubby wants to go to London because he likes it and is one of the few places with direct flights to Halifax). I tried saying...lets fly into Paris and home from Brussels, but he wants London in there.

Or we may fly into London, and fly home from Brussels (skipping Paris because we have already been there three times and I wanted to concentrate more on Netherlands ( NL ) and Bel on this trip). This is the most likely scenario. In this case, we'd prob do London, then fly or train to AMS then to Belgium. I know, I know...it messes up the travel flow.

Or we may fly round trip London. (Least likely, but at least we have direct flights and don't have to fly past ns to Montreal then back to ns to get home)

We use air miles, and need to utilize more air miles to fly to or from AMS than from Brussels. I'd have to scrape up another 600-700 miles to fly home from AMS, which is why I'd fly home from
BRU instead of Amsterdam, because I still have to get another 1200 miles by April, which is doable, but I don't think I can get 1900.

So we are looking at fly into Paris...Belgium....nl...fly home fr London.

Or...fly into London...nl..fly home fr Belgium.

Or...round trip London.

Oh yes I see the OP refers to London to Amsterdam ... and then refers to Amsterdam to London. I'll admit I read the original message several times earlier trying to understand it and going back again the actual needs still less than clear to me. The second one above has sorted this out.

If going in the opposite direction you still have the security and immigration stuff to go through, just in Brussels though. I see Nigel rated it a tie and I would more or less too. If it were somewhere off the fast rail lines then air would probably win out.

Basically, I just wondered if people would rather fly between the two or take the train.

I'm just very long winded.

Yeah - after thinking it thru (and forgetting that you do indeed have to show up early for the trains as well - I should have rem that from taking the Eurostar from London to Paris) I am leaning more towards the flying. We've had good luck and relatively cheap tix with Brit Air before.

I'm pondering next year's trip, Amsterdam is looking very definite and either Berlin or London as second cities and for either a short flight would be my choice. Just did that from Paris to Budapest--2 hours and out on the street in Budapest by 11 am, which is pretty close to my usual out of the hotel time anyway.

Something I'm considering for next May...the overnight ferry from the Hook of Holland to England. Relatively inexpensive and a stateroom in place of a night of hotel. We'll fly into Paris, work our way through Belgium to Amsterdam then ferry to England then home from Heathrow.