Itinerary Critique Wanted! 12 Days in Belgium/Netherlands

Hi Brooke. You have 9 destinations planned for a 12-day trip, which is a lot, and you're only staying in most of them for one full day. You say that the locations are set - did you buy train tickets and book hotel rooms already? If not, then I would advise you to scale this back a little. Moving every other day is tiring and you will lose time in the next location because you have to pack, go to the train station, arrive in the next city, find the hotel, etc. I'm also wondering why you picked these cities, since you're asking for advice on what to do in each place. If it's at all possible to cut out a couple of cities, I think you should - your trip will be more relaxing and you can get to know each city a little better, with more time there. Your itinerary in terms of geography looks good - you aren't backtracking and you booked open-jaw flights. You could start in Bruges and end in Amsterdam or do it the other way around. One option might be cheaper than the other.

I agree with Sarah, you're doing a lot of traveling, even tho the distances aren't all that great all the time. One thing I would do is spend the Haarlem night in Amsterdam and then train to Haarlem. Haarlem is a cute little city, and it's nice to be there after all the day tourists are gone, but you might be able to take a late train back to A-dam.

Thanks for the posts yes, it is a bit ambitious! :) It's so hard to fit everything in! We have not yet bought train tickets or booked accommodations (though I want to do so very soon); I just meant that we are not open to adding/switching out any additional locations at this point (wanted to be sure posters wouldn't recommend other places/regions/countries instead). If we were to cut from the itinerary, I might eliminate Leiden b/c like Gent in Belgium, it is mostly a university town, right? Are the two very similar beyond that? On the other hand, I might consider cutting Haarlem if it is really similar to Amsterdam but just smaller. If we decided to add it back in, we could just day-trip there from Amsterdam. How similar are the cities in terms of sights, atmosphere & feel (I know Amsterdam is much larger, but other than that...) And finally: if we were to do only Brussels or Haarlem, which would you choose? These seem similar in size & beauty, but seems that Brussels has more "to do." We really mostly enjoy walking around/people-watching/enjoying cafes and don't want to pack all our time at museums if that makes a difference... So which would you cut: Leiden, Haarlem or Brussels?

I've only driven by Leiden, so I can't comment on it. I love Brussels, though. Its not the most immediately pretty city in the world, but it has a fascinating collection of unique museums, architecture, and urban parks. My personal preference would be to stay in Ghent and visit Brugge as a long daytrip. The two cities are very close to each other.

Brussels, Ghent and Bruges are close enough together that you can stay in any one and do the other two as day trips. No need to go through the hassle of moving all your luggage from one hotel to another. Also when planning your itinerary for Belgium, it's worth noting that all rail journeys there are half price on Sat and Sun. Ghent is worth one day I'd say. In a lot of ways it's a bigger version of Bruges that is still a real city and not a tourism attraction. The highlight is the cathedral and the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altar piece. The city art gallery is nice for a couple of hours, the Design Museum is recommended only if you are a big fan of art nouveau and art deco, as there aren't many pre-20th century exhibits.

I forgot to mention this... For rail transit in Belgium, get the Belgian ail pass, or if both of you are under 26, the Go10 pass. The Belgian rail pass allows 10 trips anywhere in the country for €74, the Go10 pass costs €50. More than one person can use the pass at a time, so a round trip between, lets say, Brussels and Brugge for two people would count for 4 of the 10 trips. You can buy the pass at any train station in Belgium. I still haven't figured out the OV-chipkaart thing in the Netherlands and how it relates to the train system...

I haven't figured out the OV-chipkaart either... From Leiden to Amsterdam is about half an hour by train (station-to-station). I don't know why someone would like to see Den Haag, but that'up to you, off course. Haarlem is also close to the beach (Zandvoort), and not comparable to Amsterdam. June may be a bit early for the beach, though, unless it's very hot.

I think it looks great! I have been to each place (except Dem Hague). I like to move quickly so that is not a concern. My favorite places are Ghent and Amsterdam. If you can be in Leiden on the day of the market (Sunday?) that is great. If anything - I would skip Haarlem.

Brooke, To begin with, congratulations! Unfortunately, I have to agree with the others in that this Itinerary seems FAR too ambitious! I was exhausted just reading it! To ensure a more pleasant travel experience (considering the occasion), it might be an idea to scale it back? As Rick often says "Assume you will return". You might have a look at the Itinerary for the RS Holland & Belgium tour, as you may get some ideas from that. Happy travels!

I both agree and disagree with my esteemed colleagues. I have been to all the towns mentioned, several times each. I actually think that the list of stuff to see is pretty good. I actually like them all (well maybe not really Brussels) very much. There really is a lot of good stuff in each (except not really Brussels - really, others disagree but I never clicked). You must have found it or you and your soon honeymoon-mate wouldn't have added it. Where I think you can improve is basing yourself in three places and looking around from there ... much as above. Stay in Brugge or Gent and do Brussels, Brugge and Gent from there. Are Raleigh and Stanford the same because they are both university towns? Stay in Amsterdam or Haarlem (yes it really is nice and completely different) and visiting the other and Leiden (medical museum - the first garden to have a tulip (hortus botannicus) - windmill near the station, and nothing like Gent), Delft, Den Haag, Enkhuizen, Zannse Schans, Utrecht easily. See what you can do with only moving hotel once? If you want another base in Delft, Rotterdam, Den Haag, etc, you can do Zuid Holland and pop into the best big collection of windmills in the wild at Kinderdijk . Happy trails...

Thank you everyone for the advice thus far! It is great to hear that we could do one base per area and not have to move hotels as much as I originally thought. Taking that into consideration, we looked again at the itinerary and decided to base it off of what we definitely wanted to see in each location this seems to be a better way to decide how much time to spend where (I think I was going too much off geography, train connections, spending equal time in each place, etc.) So, Round Two: what do you all think?! Tues 21 Jun – Arrive Bruges in evening Wed 22 Jun – Bruges Thurs 23 Jun – daytrip to Ypres battlefields Fri 24 Jun – daytrip to Gent Sat 25 Jun – Leave Bruges; arrive Brussels in afternoon Sun 26 Jun – Brussels Mon 27 Jun – Travel to Haarlem (is there a way to make an easy train stopover at the De Koningshoeven Brewery on the way from Brussels to Haarlem?) Tues 28 Jun – Haarlem Wed 29 Jun – daytrip to Delft & Scheveningen (I want one beach stopover on the itinerary, and was between this and either Ostend or Zandvoort. Scheveningen seemed the most touristy but I like that it's described as Coney Island-like. After all, we're tourists! I'd like the beach with the best people-watching and most to do, not the one that's the quietest or prettiest) Thurs 30 Jun – Leave Haarlem; arrive Amsterdam in afternoon
Fri 1 July – Amsterdam Sat 2 July – Amsterdam

Koningshoeven is in (or actually just outside) Tilburg. If you take the Thalys, then it is not an easy stopover. If you take a regular intercity train, you can make a diversion. Go from Brussels to Roosendaal, change there for Tilburg. There, you can take a bus to Koningshoeve. To continue to Haarlem, go back to Tilburg, take a train to 's-Hertogenbosch and there change to Haarlem. It'll cost you some time, but it is not impossible. I would say Scheveningen is the best beach in the Netherlands, as it has a lot more to offer than just sand (i.e. pier, boulevard, the Kurhaus, theatre, casino, etc.).

Now you're cooking....

Excellent! Thank you all so much we are getting closer! I will look up the Koningshoeven brewery train/bus detour in more detail. Looking at our revised itinerary, I know that it's still a lot if anyone disagrees or suggests cutting any of the locations, feel free to say so and let me know why...it may still be too ambitious. But choosing less base locations and daytripping will hopefully help. I guess the next step is to start looking at train schedules this seems pretty confusing and time-consuming, so I will do more research on the helpline and other websites in order to find out the best ways to travel within this itinerary. Now that you all have seen it, any advice on train travel is appreciated, as well! For accommodations, I plan to just go through Rick's list one-by-one I'm pretty sure we will find something in each location this way, and that way I trust the recommendations. I know it's for June but I still think it's early on enough in the summer to be ok we will see! But we haven't booked anything yet, so if anyone has any B&B's or quaint boutique-style hotels in mind, let me know and I'll check them out! (low- to mid-range; we don't want a hostel or a 4 star but are hoping for something in between that will still be romantic and have some character/atmosphere). One more question (and maybe I should start a new post): does anyone recommend we talk to a travel agent? We had planned to book everything online ourselves (transportation, accommodations) but someone recently suggested I look into a travel agent in the States, just to see if it's easier/cheaper anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks again!