Nice, Brussels, Amsterdam & Paris

You're not all over the place, but merely in 3-4 places in 3 weeks - hardly the "if it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" itinerary that some others post about. As long as you're flying open jaws (multi city, into Nice and out of Amsterdam), your plan looks good. Do book your trains and planes in advance, to get the best prices (and to assure that you won't be sold out of the particular ones you want). Use Skyscanner for flights, and the Bahn website for researching trains. You'll buy your Brussels to Amsterdam tickets from http://www.thalys.com/be/en/ Have your looked at Rick's books? For Nice, be sure to get the Provence And The French Riviera book rather than the France book, as the former has MUCH more detail about this area. And his Amsterdam, Brussels and Bruges book now includes Ghent and Antwerp as well, so that will be a good start for your Benelux portion. I'd supplement these with another guidebook, to get more perspectives. While Haarlem and Delft seem to be Rick's favorites outside of Amsterdam, I MUCH preferred Leiden and Utrecht, and I found my day in Rotterdam fascinating. But do your own research, and see what interests you - there's a TON of places to see in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Thanks for the great info - will check it all out.

You might want to consider Bruges.

Harold's suggestion to fly open jaw is good, but if your final week is in Paris you should fly home from there. There's no reason to go back to Amsterdam. Have a great trip!

Andrea's right - I misread your initial post. The point is, you want to fly into your first city and out of your last city, rather than round trip (so, if I've got it correctly, into Nice and out of Paris).

"We LOVE train rides". If you have a love of trains in general, here's two rail-related attractions in the Netherlands. Harold mentioned both Rotterdam and Utrecht. Rotterdam is almost as far removed from the stereotype of a Dutch city as possible, but there's a great model train display very close to the railroad station, Trainz Miniworld. Not as impressive as Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland, but still pretty cool. Utrecht hosts the very kid-friendly Dutch Railroad Museum.

"Rotterdam is almost as far removed from the stereotype of a Dutch city as possible" Exactly why I found it so interesting, as I saw it at the end of 10 days in the Netherlands. The contrast was invigorating, and for me, the Cube Houses alone were worth the trip. Thanks for the info about Trainz Miniworld - I didn't see it on my last trip, but will put it on my list for next time. And yes, the train museum in Utrecht is great.