My husband and I are contemplating a trip to The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg next Spring (probably mid-May) 2023. We have traveled to Europe annually for the last 8 or so years in various forms - usually self-planned trips, but also a couple of cruises. Cities and countryside locations. My husband will be nearly 72 and I will be 68 when we travel; we're fairly seasoned and resilient, but hubby gets tired from too many hours standing/walking and is harder of hearing than he used to be and I have to hold back from trying to schedule too many things. Also he is 6'6" and does not fit in tiny beds, showers, or cheap airplane seats. We love art museums, boat rides, good food and drink at neighborhood bars/restaurants and are not into nightlife. I am into churches and religious art. We always do some shopping, usually for Christmas things, small art, sometimes clothes or jewelry. We are comfortable taking trains if they do not entail a lot of changing and lugging of stuff; we are also happy to rent a car for part of a journey so that a lovely day trip is not marred by a hassle getting home on public transit.
We do not have a definite time table for the trip but I'd say we're planning on 14-18 days. However, we do need to fly in and out of Amsterdam to minimize plane changes (flying out of Richmond VA) and flying on multiple smaller planes.
Here are the things we would like to see/do and a general idea of the time to spend: 4 days/5 nights in Amsterdam, mostly to visit art museums (Van Gogh, Rikjsmuseum, Stedelijk), stroll and ride canal boats, and then come home to a fairly quiet but centrally located hotel or B&B/apartment for rest before dinner at a neighborhood place. My thought is that Amsterdam would come at the end of the trip. Accommodations in Amsterdam are expensive, and using it for a base to visit other towns for another week (see 3 paragraphs below) seems less than ideal.
We would like to visit Bruges and Ghent and Antwerp in Belgium mostly to sightsee - churches, canals, etc. I figured we could land at AMS, then take a train to either Antwerp or Brussels, and explore those areas - either by train or car. If it's a hassle to get to the city center of Bruges or Ghent from train stations, for instance, then perhaps car?
We would like to drive into Luxembourg to visit the WWII museum in Diekirch and the castle in Vianden. My husband's father was part of the Battle of the Bulge which is why we wish to visit the museum in Diekirch. I'm thinking 5 days for the Belgium/Luxembourg part.
Then in the middle, we'd like to visit Delft, Utrecht, perhaps Gouda and The Hague, and definitely Dordrecht and take the water bus from there to see Kinderdjik. Possibly the Kroller-Muller Museum in Gelderland. I wonder if basing in Dordrecht with a car would be a good idea for this? (I know it's easy to get to most of these from Amsterdam, but we think Amsterdam may be too busy/noisy/expensive to stay in when we're day tripping this many places, and also the hassle factor, and we think it would be nice to base in a quieter, lovely town in another part of the country.) Maybe 6 days?
So. I hope that's enough info to give you an idea of who we are/what we're looking for.
Specifically here is my request of those of you who've traveled these areas: recommendations on when to use train and when to have a car (pretty obviously the Luxembourg part, but also middle-Netherlands? and is it going to be a hassle to pick up a car in Belgium and return it in The Netherlands?) and also in what order should we travel (Belgium/Lux 1st, middle Netherlands 2nd, Amsterdam 3rd?). Suggestions for bases in Belgium, Luxembourg, and in the middle? Are my time suggestions for each area reasonable? And finally, suggested hotels/B&Bs etc in those locations (including Amsterdam) based on your experiences.
Oh, and we're not super luxury people but we do like to be in a place where my husband fits! Thanks!