Amsterdam, Germany and Paris in 8 days is this too much

Stacey, you can do it BUT: From Amsterdam take train to Düsseldorf, pick up rental car, take scenic route to Cologne visiting www.schuerrle.com/dyck (a castle you don't want to miss, plan about 2 hours there. It's on the way from Düsseldorf to Cologne). Drop off the rental car in Germany before going to Paris. It's much cheaper. Since you want to do the Rhine river gorge, which is really great, drop off the car at Frankfurt's train station and take the bullet train (ICE) to Paris Gare de'l Est (East). Journey time is under 4 hours downtown to downtown. 2 full days in Amsterdam are sufficient! You can do the German part in 2 days but might want to take 3 days, depending on how many castles you'd want to see from the inside. In 2 full days you can see the most important sights of Paris... I mean these all are destinations that you could spend weeks for each. But your plan is feasible in 8 days provided you accept that you only get good chunks of appetizers of each.

Kent, if you can see my answer, how come yours is above of mine?? :-)

You don't break down your itinerary after Amsterdam, so it's hard to answer your question. it seems to me that something must get squeezed a little, probably Paris.

That could still be satisfying, depending on your expectations, but I would suggest (in that case) not thinking of it in terms of bagging all the biggies in Paris, which you won't really have time to do. Rather one or two and a taste of that great city.

An extra day would not be wasted, if you can manage it.

you will be running and in transit alot, and with some jet lag as well. pick the two ciites you most want to see. Amsterdam and Paris are a logical combination or extend you rstay an even better option.

Thanks! We plan to arrive in Amsterdam around 10 a.m. on a Friday, so I'm figuring half day/night, then Full day/night Sat. and leave for Germany on Sunday. Everything is pretty flexible, except that We need to leave on the following Saturday.