trains vs. rental car

Four adults in a Euro rental car is a tight fit, and won't leave much room for luggage. Also picking up a car in one country and dropping off in another incurs a hefty fee. All the cities you list are easily done via train. Amsterdam to Bruges is about 40 euros. Bruges to Brussels is 10 euros. Brussels to Paris via the Thalys high speed train can be as little as 20 euros if you purchase in advance via the Thalys website....the other connections don't require advance tickets. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is in southern Germany and is a bit out of the way for this trip. You can check schedules and fares here: www.nshispeed.nl

Question: "Should we attempt to drive in Paris?"I can't remember anyone on this forum in the last several years recommending that someone drive in Paris. It's completely unnecessary.

For the itinerary you have proposed, a car rental will be more of a hastle than a benefit. All the cities are easily connected by rail, and Paris and Brussels have an excellent metro system. Bruges and Rothenburg are small enough to explore on foot or bicycle. I'm not sure about Rothenburg, but the bus system in Bruges is also quite extensive.

"Is parking available at hotels or do you pay" At most of the smaller hotels in the big cities, no. At the large international chains, if it's available, you usually pay.

"is it hard to find parking" In Brussels and Paris, yes. In Bruges, there is a large parking lot by the train station on the outskirts of town, but very little parking within the old city.

"Should we attempt to drive in Paris?" If you like aggressive bumper-to-bumper traffic, navigating a confusing labyrinth of winding streets, and paying out the nose for scarce parking, by all means, drive in Paris. Otherwise, use the metro to painlessly zip across the city.

For your itinerary, rail seems the best option. I’ve driven in Paris but would never recommend it. It may not be quite as hazardous as it is in Mumbai, but it’s a close second.

Train Absolutely. You are right in the city centers except for Brugge, just grab a cab for 7 euros.
Car Rental= Liability Insurances, Gas costs, GPS Costs if you don't know where you are going, parking fees, in Amsterdam bikes, bikes and more bikes not to mention canals. Tolls in France, overall hassle factors, city names listed not what USA calls them, do I need to say more. I have rented a car if I was staying in Utrecht Netherlands in a hotel away from the center where there is limited train and bus access. Last time stayed next to bus and train location and loved it. Relatives will train into Amsterdam in 30 minutes versus a 2 hour rush hour trip. Go on line and check a few hotels for parking options and costs. FYI; To book on Thalys from Brussels you need to go pick Belgium as your country and english as your language. You will have to enter info for an user ID and password but once you have booked and paid for the tickets you can print them out at home. I used my hotel address in Belgium and had no problems. I made lots of copies of the printed tickets, one for each suitcase and one for my travel packet and the copies scanned just fine. You do not need to travel on Thalys to Amsterdam, it is not really any faster. If booking from Amsterdam to Paris on Thalys you need to choose Netherlands as the country but do not need a user ID or password. When returning from Paris to Brussels choose France as your country and book/print tickets at home. Prices are usually good from Brussels-Paris and back because of the volume. You may need to be flexible with your times to find cheaper trains. Remember trains leave at the time listed so be at least 15 minutes early for each train. RS has the best travel books and hotel suggestions.

If you are traveling for 17 days or more, do as we did. We leased a car from Auto France www.autofrance.net (is cheaper than renting a car, and all the insurances are included). Make sure to ask for a diesel manual car.

In Paris we stayed at Versailles, where the parking at hotels is cheaper and the train will take you to Paris in less than 30 minutes. In Brugge, Amsterdam, Rothenburg, Fussen, etc we stayed at B&B, where we parked the car for free. Feel free to write me if you would like all the details.
Dora

Brussels is even more of a nightmare than Paris. I was there with my mother once and she's lived in Europe before, is used to Boston driving, and still nearly had a mental breakdown getting out of Brussels with the unmarked rotaries, streetcar tracks, and complete lack of lane markers.

In Paris getting to our hotel's parking involved 3 trips around a busy block at rush hour that took almost an hour and then finally noticing that you had to drive up onto the sidewalk, parallel to the buildings, and down into a parking garage entrance that looked like a subway stop staircase. Unless you're staying in the outer suburbs of Paris, expect to pay from $10-$35/night to park.

We also got lucky that she miscalculated a tight turn in the rental car garage and had to back up and try again- only to realize she had NO idea how to put the car into reverse. We tried everything we knew, including looking for it to the sides of 1st and 5th and pushing the gearshift lever in Volkswagen-style but we ended up going back and trying to explain to the agent what it was we needed. He got into the car and with the gentlest touch of his fingers lifted a ring hidden right under the knob of the gearshift lever. It was embarrassing, but not nearly as much so as if we hadn't known while we were trying to negotiate that up-on-the-sidewalk garage entrance.

We had a car for the two smaller cities you name. But, in Brugges we had to park in the lot by the train station that has already been mentioned and took a bus into the center. In Rothenburg it was almost the same. I wouldn't take a car into Brussels or Paris.
My conclusion: use the train for the entire trip or, possibly, a car for the getting to smaller cities if you are interested in stopping along the way where the train wouldn't.
Have a great trip.

We just got back from Amsterdam & Paris and used the train for travel. In Paris, we walked lots and used the metro, as I watched everyone driving when we were walking, I thought I'm glad we don't have to do that. I've driven a lot in SF and have no problems driving there as we lived there, but was still glad we didn't have to navigate where we were going by car. Parking by our hotel did not appear to be an option. If you were further outside Paris, I imagine parking is not a problem where you stay, but I do not know for sure. We had 5 so that can add to the expense of train travel, but the lack of worries was well worth it. We found public transportation great to gets us anywhere we needed. PS, Paris is a beautiful city to walk around a lot. That is one of the highlights of what we did b/c you can really enjoy where you are.