Netherlands-Belgium - 10 Day Trip

Congratulations!
I’ve been to all the cities in your itinerary and they’re all great. . If you want to limit the number of one-night stays, you could stay in either Bruges or Ghent as they’re only 25 minutes by train from each other. That saves you checking in and out of just one hotel instead of two during two days. You also could spare yourselves another one-nighter by departing for Utrecht after your flight and saving Amsterdam for the end of the trip. That would give you all consecutive nights in Amsterdam and you could have 2 nights in Utrecht.
Have a great trip!

Thank you so much! That’s reassuring and I appreciate the great suggestions!

I have visited Zaanse Schans at the end of last August, there were a lot of visitors, but was not annoying. So in September it schould, depending the weather (a bit) better I guess.

There is nothing wrong with Maastricht, and I would particularly like to visit during their famous Contemporary Art fair. I see it as out of the way for your overall plans, because there are so many more famous (touristy?) locations along the rail line to Belgium. I mean, Delft, Leiden, Den Haag, as well as the cheese towns nearer to Amsterdam. Our host, Rick, is very big on Haarlem, but except for the art museum, I think either Utrecht or Leiden are more worth your time, and neither can be completely seen in a single day. If I were going to the east, I might go to Hoge Veeluue national park, or the Appeldorn palace. (check spelling) Note that both Delft and Den Haag can be visited on the same, very busy, day, if you are a fast visitor.

I certainly would not change hotels for any of your daytrips in either country. Unreserved, inexpensive local trains are almost like city-transit in these two countries. However, some Bruges lover may post that they consider it essential to wake up in Bruges before the ... daytrippers .... (who, me?) arrive.

If you have not bought your air tickets, you should fly home from Brussels/BRU.