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Red flags on this itinerary? TIA!

4/16 Spend night in Belgium
4/17 and 18 Spend night in Bruges
4/19 Night in Leiden
4/20 Night in Lisse (Bike tour and Keukenhof- both booked)
4/21 and 22 in Amsterdam (Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank-both booked)
4/23 Day trip to G Village
4/24 Back to London

Thanks!

Posted by
7360 posts

This isn’t a red flag by any means, but I’m wondering about your first night - just somewhere in Belgium? If you’re coming from London, how are you getting to Belgium, and where do you arrive, and at what time of day or night?

You could simply add a third night to Bruges/Brugge, or sleep that first night in Brussels/Bruxelles/Brussel, or Ghent/Gand/Gent, or even Ypres/Ieper. One more night (and possibly one more city) in Belgium, if getting there then doing a 1-night stand would fit your timing and interests.

Posted by
1306 posts

Not exactly red flags but this itinerary raises a lot of questions.
- How will you be getting around?
- You plan to spend 2 nights in both Bruges and Amsterdam. Amsterdam is considerably larger with much much more to see and do than Bruges. For Bruges 1 night is more than enough, for Amsterdam 2 nights isn’t nearly enough.
- Lisse and Leiden are only located 15 km’s away from each other? Why not spend 2 nights in either Lisse or Leiden, instead of going thru the hassle of packing/unpacking and checking in and out to move to another place just 15 km’s away?
- What or where is G Village????

Posted by
84 posts

Thanks. Yes, coming from London… actually from USA.
Arriving Brussels 4-5 pm.

Posted by
84 posts

Public transport.,
We considered driving and were excoriated on this site. ;)

We have an early morning bike tour and thought we should be fairly close to the start of that and
finish the day at the K Garden in the evening and thought we should be close to that.
Leiden and Lisse show to be an hour apart via public transport.

Geithoorn Village

Thanks so much !!

Posted by
7360 posts

So am I getting this right - flying 4/15 from the USA to a London airport, arriving on 4/16 then taking a connecting flight from London to Brussels? Unless you definitely want to stay in Brussels that first day/night, you could still get to Bruges by train.

On my first trip to Belgium, I landed in Brussels in the evening, and still caught the train to Bruges that night. Bruges is where I was headed, so I got there ASAP, and didn’t do a 1-night stand in Brussels.

Posted by
1306 posts

Thanks for clarifying what G village is. As a courtesy to those who are trying to help you here, can you please use the actual names of places you want to visit, instead of made up abbreviations? That way those who want to assist you here don’t have to guess what it is you’re asking about. So please use Giethoorn, not Geithoorn village and definitely not G village. And by K garden you probably mean the Keukenhof? Please use its proper name. Thanks!

That said, let’s get back to your trip.
It only takes 25 minutes by direct bus to get from Leiden to the Keukenhof, not 1 hour. Visiting the Keukenhof as a day trip from Leiden is so much easier and quicker than having to check out of your hotel, travel to Lisse with your luggage, find your hotel to drop your luggage and then go to the Keukenhof. But by this time it’s probably too late to cancel any hotels?

Where in Belgium will you spend your first night?
It seems that everything is locked in because you already booked hotels and activities, but it would have made more sense to go straight to Bruges, spend 2 nights there and go to the Netherlands. This would bring the Netherlands part of your itinerary forward by 1 night. The extra night at the end should be spend in Amsterdam, because 2 nights isn’t nearly enough.

Also, why have you booked both the Anne Frank House and the Corrie ten Boom house? They are somewhat similar places, but I found the Anne Frank House to be much more moving. At the Corrie ten Boom house I felt that they put too much emphasis on the religious work of Corrie after the war. I was warned about this beforehand, but it still surprised me how little we actually learned about the hiding place.
Since you only have 2 days in Amsterdam, I would skip going to Haarlem and just spend your entire 2 days in Amsterdam. You won’t even scratch the surface of all you can see and do there.

Posted by
5751 posts

I think for the OP to say s/he was excoriated for thinking about driving is rather strong. Having looked at that previous post it is more a case of given sage and reasonable advice as to the best modal choice. Such a strong word feels rather ungrateful to me.
And yes, we can't guess when non standard abbreviations are used- like G village.
If the OP is on the 1750 flight from Heathrow to Brussels as suggested on that previous post they will easily get to Bruges that night from the airport by train.
That flight would have to be very late to miss the last train at 2 minutes past midnight.