Need Transportation Advice

I'm not sure it's a better option. The destinations that you have listed are all easily accessable by train. Since they're all decent sized cities, why deal with the car? Are you planning to visit the surrounding coutryside? If not, just hop on a train to each destination and you'll likely save money (unless you have a large number in your group, you don't say) and not have to deal with driving. In my opinion, euro train travel is more fun, anyway.

Kristin, since you are probably only going to Brugges, Brussels and Amsterdam the train will be your best option. First of all, not knowing your age but you saying you're going during spring break you may not even be old enough to rent a car, most European companies require the driver(s) to be at least 25 y/old, secondly all three cities are all more or less in the same direction you can get relatively inexpensive train tickets, third, rental car costs will add up quickly, fuel, parking and most of all since you'll be dropping the car off in a different country you'll have to pay a large drop off fee for that too. The one option a car does have is the ability of stop where ever you desire, but all things being equal the train is your better option. On a side note, driving in Europe is unique and if not really needed not worth the time, expense and potential problems that may occur, there is a thread on Transportation page of this site written by someone who rented a car in Ireland, got into an accident and are now having to deal with the situation of paying for it, somewhere between 1000-1800 dollars, money that could be spent somewhere else.

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry for not enough details. We are a family of 4 going because the girls will be out of school. This is our 4th trip to Europe as a family. We have trained it a couple of times and have also rented a car. We think we are hitting just the big cities but have never been to Belgium or the Netherlands before so was just wondering how it is driving in the part of Europe. The trains were looking expensive and since we are taking a big Italian trip the following summer, we were looking for a way to save a little money. On a side note, we got a $600 charge in Germany with a rental because they claimed, using a mirror, that we put a scratch on the underside of the car!! Lesson learned on the insurance!!!

Kristin Thanks for the up-date. I'll just give it from my point of view, YMMV and others may have other POVs. Parking in and around Bruges and Brussels can be interesting. Bruges is a medieval city with roads still in the original configurations. They are narrow, twisty, mostly cobblestones, and often one-way. There are three parking zones, available as a pdf from the tourist office website. Most hotels and many B&Bs are within the two inner areas both of which restrict street parking during the day, for a fee - if you can find a space. The Blue zone has much easier restrictions but tends to be further out. Parking at the Station and taking a bus is priced to be very attractive. Parking in Brussels, especially if the Europeans are around, can simply be diabolical. Find a hotel which has its own private car park, and expect the spaces to be >>small<<. Remember that until somewhat recently Belgians had no driving test to pass. This becomes evident when you note that, often, they have imaginative ideas of lane control and many appear to have never discovered a turn signal indicator (sometimes they will get up behind you - in your trunk - and then discover that they can put on the left blinker to show they want to pass), and some drive very fast, some very slow. In Brussels there are areas where cars are parked half in the road and half on the pavement (sidewalk). You've never lived until you have tried the R0 (yes R-zero) at rush hour. The Dutch, by and large, are much more disciplined, but tend to drive a bit slowly. Dutch roads are very well marked and lane control is strict. Dutch ... to be continued ...

"We think we are hitting just the big cities but have never been to Belgium or the Netherlands before so was just wondering how it is driving in the part of Europe." Between Brussels and Brugge... not bad once you leave the Brussels ring. Between Brussels and Amsterdam... some of the most consistently congested traffic in Europe. Without crunching the numbers to compare costs, I would favor the train mainly for convenience. A car would be more trouble than it's worth in Brussels and Brugge.

... continued Dutch villages and towns have something they call Drempels. These are like the British sleeping policemen - road humps to keep speed down. You don't want to be going any faster than 30 kph over them or you will nail the underside of the car. They have also recently discovered roundabouts and somebody must be secretly breeding them somewhere because they multiply like rabbits. The Dutch also invented, and use lots of, the Gatso speed camera. All that being said, I drive in both countries a lot, and enjoy it. Now rather than panicking when a car comes up behind me, swings around me then cuts across 4 lanes of traffic under full braking I no longer panic. I simply note the white number plate with the six red or blue characters on it and smile that Belgians haven't changed. Now. A vital point. You >>do not want<< a car in Amsterdam. There is nowhere for it, parking is nearly impossible, canals are everywhere, and other problems. This is the voice of experience. "more economical"? Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't take many extra charges to add up a lot, even with the 4 of you. Are the girls children. Maybe half price or free on the train?

we are taking a very similar trip with 2 kids; looked into all the options (rental, train, flights), and found the trains to be easiest and most cost-efficient

While we are not real train savvy yet, I think we are going to lean towards that route. We thought maybe it would be nice to have the car so we could wander a little bit. Our girls (13 and 10) are great travelers but since we have never been to Belgium and the Netherlands, and don't have a lot of "free" time, I guess it's the train for us!! Thank you for everyone's tips and advice. If you know of any great hotels that sleep 4 per room in those cities, also let us know!! That is another hurdle when traveling overseas!!

Nigel, when you mentioned the street configuration in Brugges and the parking it brought back memories of my attempt to park there. After checking into our hotel the owner told me where I could park, it was only about maybe 100 feet from the front door of the hotel and clearly visible, my problem, I was on a one way street and facing the opposite way that precluded me from taking the easy way, if I walked it that would have taken maybe a minute, parking took me about 30 at least, for the life of me I kept getting onto one way streets that wouldn't take me to the parking garage, I can't remember how I finally made it but I did, needless to say the car remained parked till we left for Koln about 3 days later. And I won't even go into my need to make a left turn in Frankfurt, going round in circles, finally seeing my only option was to make an illegal left turn (no traffic BTW), driving on streets that were designed hundreds of years ago in enlightening to say the least.

Now that you've gotten the train/car things figured out, I may benefit from all the advice. We visited Amsterdam - Brussels - Bruges - Paris last year, and very much enjoyed it (husband, me and our 11yo daughter). Hubby and I had been to Paris before, but not the other places. We took trains, and it worked just fine. Now, next year, we'll be taking a trip that also includes our son (end of May). We might decide to spend some time in the countryside, but other than that, we have very similar considerations as your family re transportation. I haven't done a lot of research for 4-person rooms yet, but in Brussels we'll try to stay at Hotel Welcome; they have one 4-person room, and we stayed there on the last trip. Great location, very fun decor, good prices. For Bruges, here are two B&Bs I've come up with, but don't really know anything about, except they look great! Bruges B&B: Yasmine B&B, http://www.gallery-yasmine.be/. Can't tell if there's a room for a family. B&B Verhuls, http://www.b-bverhulst.com/loft.htm. Has a neat-looking loft family area and a orgeous back garden.

B&B Verhuls, http://www.b-bverhulst.com/loft.htm. Has a neat-looking loft family area and a orgeous back garden. Lexma - that's a good 'un. You need to book up early though, its very popular.

Just came back from Brussels and stayed at http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-1030-novotel-brussels-off-grand-place/index.shtml. Great hotel and location. We booked a room that included breakfast and it was a great deal. Food was great. Free wi-fi in lobby, next door to train station and location to sites was excellent. You can catch the train and go to Bruges or Gent for the day - we loved Bruges.