Need help with intinery out of London x 14 days

Bethany: You need to relax. Millions of people have gone before you and virtually all of them have survived a trip to Europe. OK, I'm kidding, but really, there is nothing to sweat about. Go to your local Borders/B& Noble, etc and buy a copy of Rick Steves' Europe through the Back Door and a copy of his Best of Europe 2011. Now do some reading on train travel in Europe, sample itineraries, and so forth. Then come back to this board with specific questions about proposed itineraries and trains etc. The people here are happy to help.

You did say that you have the tickets already. Are they straight round trip (US to London/London to US) or open jaw (US to London/some other European city to US). In general, linking London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam in a trip...I assume a trip of two weeks or so...is simple. You can, for example, fly into London. Do 4 days in London. Take the Eurostar 2 hours to paris. 4 days in Paris. Take the Thalys to Brussels 90 minutes), check your bags at the station, see Brussels, continue to Amsterdam at dinner time (2 hours). Amsterdam 3 days. Fly home. Easy. Figuring it out on your own will be fun, especially given the wonderful guidebooks out there, online boards like this one, and the fact that almost all hotels now have web sites you can check out.

Bethany. The usual (very valid) first answer to your question is: read all you can and figure out what you think you will like about each of the 4 cities. what sights particularly interest you. Once you tell us that, there are some real knowledgeable people on this site who can really give you good suggestions- but its got to start with you. Broadly though, its easiier to acclimatize yourself by starting in London (where the language is English); Eurostar to Europe (Amsterdam or Paris) and then go on by trian to the other (Paris or Amsterdam). You probably dont have time to do justice to 4 cities, so probably drop one (usually Brussels). 14 days really gives you only 4 days in each of three Cities (bare minimum for these places) plus two travel days

Bethany, I would suggest going to your local library and checking out some Rick Steves and Lonely Planet travel books.

With only 14 days you may want to limit yourself to London and Paris, Travel between London and Paris is a little over 2 hrs and cost £39.00 via Eurostar(if you book early enough).

Here's my thoughts on the number of nights in the cities you've mentioned:

Brussels - it depends upon your interests. The old part of the city including Grand Place is charming, the rest not so much. Unless you'll be using Brussels as a base for excursions such as to Brugge, Waterloo or Bastogne, two nights there is enough.

Amsterdam - anything less than three nights is short-changing the city

Paris - is such a beautiful and interesting place, give it as many nights as you can, at least four.

London - a handsome city and every bit as interesting as Paris; it deserves at least four nights.

That's 13 nights. If you're talking about 14 days not including London, then tack on time where you wish. You could take day trips out of Paris, for example, to Chartres or Reims.

Thank you for the encouragement and tips!! Does anyone have a good idea on the best way to travel between these cities?? I'm on to the eurostar between london and paris, but not sure about the other ones...
Thanks!

Take the train. Easy Peasy.

Train

Bethany,
Relax, read ahead and bring the Rick Steves' Best of Europe along with you. Great to read about your next location while on the "easy peasy" train rides between destinations. We just returned from 28 days of traveling and I wouldn't change one thing that we did, it worked out perfectly. We used trains between all the locations, they were fun, clean, timely, and relaxing in every case. Our route was as follows; flew into Amsterdam took the train to Bruges right from the airport, after 3 days in Bruges took a train to Bonn, Germany. One pub-crawl night in Bonn then we took a one-way K-D cruise down the Rhine to Linz, then train to Bacharach Two full days in Bacharach then a train to Salzburg, Austria. Two days there then a train to Budapest. Four nights in Budapest then an Orangeways bus to Prague. Four nights in Prague then an overnight train back to Amsterdam. We spent the next 8 nights between the beach at Zandvoort and Harlem, both very close to Amsterdam. Look at it as planning a wonderful adventure, not a daunting task, and you'll have the right frame of mind for this wonderful opportunity.

I agree with those who recommend limiting the trip to London and Paris (if this is your first time in both cities). You want to spend as much time as you can there, otherwise you will just scratch the surface. There will be too much to see even if you spent 5-6 days each, but this is a more reasonable amount of time, considering you will be walking a lot, will need to rest too and may not be able to pack as much sight seeing into a day as you think. I also recommend taking the Eurostar from London to Paris. If you are flying home from London, fly back there and connect in Heathrow. Get Rick's Paris and London city guides too and a lot of your stress will be relieved!

Planning an expedition into unknown territory can be challenging. Bethany, you might want to consider finding a good travel agent and working with them. Let them do the leg work while you tell them what you like and don't like.