Seeking itinerary feedback: The Netherlands/Belgium

Are you planning for 2023 or 2024?

We are traveling in 2023.

For a wonderful day of bike riding and art - I can recommend a day trip to Otterlo. The 21 square mile Hoge Veluwe National Park
https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en
is home to the Kröller-Müller museum
https://krollermuller.nl/en
with one of largest collections of Van Gogh paintings and a fantastic outdoor sculpture garden. The park provides free bicycles to explore on mostly flat, paved, car-free pathways. Otterlo is accessible from Utrecht by train and bus. Happy to provide more detail if this sounds interesting.

At the risk of not allowing enough time for Gent itself, another worthwhile daytrip would be Ieper (that’s with a capital I, not a lower-case L, and a/k/a Ypres), with a significant World War I museum, and Flanders Fields sights that recognize one of the fiercest locations of that war.

There are trains late enough at night that if you wanted to have dinner in, say, Bruges or Brussels, you could do so and still get back to your Gent lodging.

Happy 60th, in advance!

When exactly will you be traveling? And have you booked anything yet?
I like how you take your time, but I think it’s a shame you only plan to stay in the densely populated western part of our country. There is much more to our country than that and staying in or visiting the northern, eastern or southern part of our country will give you a much better view of our country. In the north, the cities of Leeuwarden and Groningen are well worth a visit. So are the cities that in medieval times belonged to the Hanseatic League; Zwolle, Kampen, Deventer, Zutphen etc. These cities are located in the northeastern part of our country.
In the far south beautiful Maastricht and the hilly area around it is well worth a visit.

Worth doing is biking along the Vecht river from Utrecht to Breukelen, Loenen a/d Vecht and Vreeland. Well-known for it's 17th and 18h century mansions. Or you can do the same from Utrecht through the countryside to Gouda and visiting lovely places like Lindschoten, Montfoort, Oudewater and Haastrecht. You can take your bike on the train back to Utrecht. De Haar castle is easy to reach by bike from Utrecht. Lovely countryside to explore between Amsterdam and Marken and Volendam, the latter a tourist trap.

Agree with Dutch_traveler to look at the eastern part of the Netherlands too. Enjoyed driving along the IJssel river a few years ago and visited some of the mentioned places like Deventer and Zutphen, very charming. Or Sloten, Hindeloopen, Franeker and so on more north in Friesland. Also loads of countryside to explore there, certainly worth checking out.

Despite the dedicated bike lanes the heavy bike traffic in the larger places can be indeed challenging. Best is to use the bike only for tours outside these places.

Your plan is fine, but I prefer to sleep in Antwerp, with much more to do.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/belgium/day-trips-from-brussels-768c7c85-75b9-4374-ad13-ae36967bc521

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/belgium/day-trips-from-brussels-besides-bruges-and-ghent

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/amsterdam-to-brussels-to-brugge-back-to-amsterdam-by-train

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

JenS--I sent you a private message. The Otterlo day trip sounds like something we would very much like and looks very doable from Utrecht.

Dutch_traveler: We are traveling August 1-30, 2023. Our hotels are booked and some Amsterdam tickets (e.g., Anne Frank, concert at Het Concertgebouw) are booked. You are right, we are missing a lot of the country. The two weeks of time available, combined with our more relaxed pace, limits what we are able to do on this trip and so I wanted to focus our time in one region. I believe we will likely return to explore the northern/eastern/southern regions.

Cyn--Thank you for the Ieper suggestion (and for the birthday wishes!). I relied primarily on the Rick Steves Belgium guidebook, and there isn't much info beyond Bruge/Ghent/Antwerp. Ieper hits our interest in history, so I will research and likely add it to our itinerary.

Wil--Thank you for the info on possible bike trips...exactly what I was hoping for when I posted the question.

Tim-- I debated between staying in Ghent and Antwerp. The primary reason I considered Antwerp was because of the strong recommendations you posted in the past. I landed on Ghent because we will be doing multiple day trips and Ghent seemed a little more centrally located. I look forward to seeing Antwerp and hope we like it as much as you seem to. :-)

Thank you all again. This is so very helpful.

You may want to look into Lille, France. It's near the Belgian border and was very quickly and easily reached from Brussels, but I'm not sure about Ghent. Lille was historically part of Flanders but was taken over by France in the 17th(?) century, so it has an interesting part Flemish, part French vibe. Great shopping, and I had the art museum virtually to myself when I visited in 2019.

Also, you might want to consider a second day in Bruges. I did two days in Bruges and didn't regret it. If anything, it will allow you to slow down your pace and enjoy things more. Regardless, you should definitely stay in Bruges late enough to wander the city around dusk and at night when most people have left, the streets are empty, and it all feels very magical.

I was there a few months back. I would add Edam as a day trip from Amsterdam. Makes a nice break from the city. You could also see Marken and Volendam but I liked Edam better.
From your list I went everywhere except Gouda, Kinderdijk and Leuven. I think all your home base choices are very good as are your day trips.
I stopped in Rotterdam for a few hours on my way down to Belgium. I got off the train, rented a bike, and followed Rick's walking tour on the bike. It was fun and not stressful. It would have taken much longer to walk.

So pleased to see that JenS mentioned Hoge Veluwe and Kröller-Müller. It is also easy to reach from Amsterdam. It was one of my most surprising adventures in the Netherlands (must do the bike ride through the park!) as was Den Helder. There is where I learned the true meaning of a dike to keep the ocean out. Fabulous-windy and a bit chilly but worth the trip up there.