Amsterdam vs. Bruges, Strasburg vs. Colmar

WOW. Should be a great trip. Amsterdam is definitely a great place to stroll through once and a ride in the canal is worth it for sure.

Brugges is adorable and charming, loaded with chocolate! It is small and medieval and has canals. Brugges and Amsterdam cannot be in the same sentence however...Amsterdam is a big city and Brugges is a charming little town (worth up to a weekend's time).

Strassbourg and Colmar are also both great places to visit. Again there is the size thing...Colmar is smaller (though not as small as Brugges) and has charming areas with lots of half-timbered houses, some canals (limited) etc. Strassbourg is big with a big cathedral you can ascend, a pedestrian area, a very old part (Petit Francais)with canals that offer boat rides.

p.s. I have lived in southwestern Germany for 2 years and travel A LOT...let me know if you have more questions! I have a cute small hotel in Brugges, for example......

If you have time to visit both Strasbourg and Colmar, that would be great. If you have time for only one of them, you have a pleasant dilemma because they're both enjoyable destinations. Both are easily accessible by train. If you're driving, I think navigating and parking in Strasbourg, as in most big European cities, is probably a challenge. As another writer mentioned, it's really comparing big city vs. smaller town. If you can visit only one, I'd recommend Strasbourg. First, it's closer to the other cities you mentioned. Second, its Petit France area looks much like Colmar. Finally, besides the cathedral,there are also a number a good museums in Strasbourg, including the art and archaeology museums in the Palais Rohan, and my personal favorite, the Musee Alsacien. Feel free to write if you have any specific questions.

I visited Alsace earlier this year and would recommend staying in Strasbourg for a few days and making a day trip to Colmar. Don't miss the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar.

We loved both Amsterdam & Bruges -- for very different reasons. AMS has a very high energy level...Bruges is very small, lovely, peaceful -- very relaxing.
Colmar is a wonderful small town and beautiful. We talked to serveral Colmar residents who said if you loved Colmar, Strasbourg wouldn't really give you anything any better. But if I had the time, I'd still like to see Strasbourg also.
We're going back to AMS in the spring to go to the Keukenhof Gardens, but don't have time on this trip to go to Bruges :(

Amsterdam and Brugge are very diff biut both very worthwhile with a canal tour a must in Amsterdam.
I would choose Colmar way better than Strasbourg!They have a wonderful museum and nice stroolling along the canals. But once you see Brugge frankly there is little to compare. It is tops!

I have not been to Strasburg or Colmar, but have been to both Amsterdam and Bruges. To me, Amsterdam is a little seedy (kind of like going to some sort of govt office in US). No reflection on the people, who are extremely nice, etc. but just my take. Very walkable, loved the boat tour there, loved the bridges and bikes. I would not say that about any other large EU city (Lisbon, London, Paris, Prague,Barcelona, Vienna). Brugge was a huge surprise it was so nice, and Belgium in general is really beautiful. I actually ran into Rick in the lobby of the Brugge hotel!

I did like Haarlem (where we stayed -5 nights, I think). The area around the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam was extremly nice, which is sort of contrast to some of the main drags in Amsterdam. I actually liked the town of Gouda in Netherlands because it was a real town - not hugely dependent on tourism but very "Dutch". Last minute decision to travel there for the day from Haarlem.

I don't need it "Disney" when I vacation, but appreciated the atmosphere/surroundings more in other places than Amsterdam.

Responding to your privately because I don't want to offend anyone.

I agree with Denise. We found Amsterdam to be very seedy.
Garbage and piles of cigarette butts everywhere, including in the canals. Saw more graffiti there, even on nice buildings, than anywhere else. But the people were so incredibly nice!! We enjoyed many sights and museums and, especially, the wonderful people but we have no desire to ever return. We absolutely loved Brugge. We spent 3 nights there and wished we could have stayed longer.

I was just in Amsterdam and Bruges last week. Bruges is absolutely fantastic, but like other people have mentioned, very different from Amsterdam because of the size and other factors. We stayed in Amsterdam just one day, and basically walked around the whole city and stopped where we wanted to. We were able to see everything we wanted to in Bruges in one day, but could have easily stayed another day or two because of how pleasant it is. Yes the chocolate and beer is great.

I would agree with the basic tenor of Dave's post. Bruges is a beautiful town. However, it is quite small and one day is plenty to see everything. Amsterdam, on the other hand, is a fascinating city. We stayed 5 days, which was not nearly enough. We use the City Walks series published by the S F Chronicle and available on amazon. There were a number of walks, including an Anne Frank one, a bit out of downtown, that we did not have time for. To us, Amsterdam is one of the cities to which we wish to return, along with London, Paris, and Venice.