OK -- If you mean just Edinburgh, then 7 days will be quite long. (And this is from someone who adores Edinburgh). But if you mean 3 or 4 days in Edinburgh and 3 or 4 days visiting other places (Stirling, St Andrews, the Trossachs, or wherever) - then I like your plan.

But if it was me I might think about 4 days Edinburgh (to account for the jetlag), 3 days in the Scottish countryside, 2 days in York, 9 days in London (w/ 1 or 2 day trips), 9 days in Paris (w/ 1 or 2 day trips), 3 days in Brussels (w/ a day in Bruges or 2days Brussels and 2 days Bruges), and 5 or 6 days in Amsterdam.

But otherwise - your plan would be fine.

what jj said.

i think that with 4 days in Brussels, you'd go mad.

Well I am thinking with all that time I would want to mix it up a bit, you may have had enough cool grey rainy weather with all that time in Scotland and London, then Amsterdam and Brussels et.. I would skip Brussels myself, and if not, 4 days is too long, and I would do something like 5 days in Edinburgh, 8-9 days in London( I would do less but free accomadation is great) 4 days in Amsterdam, then fly to Rome, or Nice, spend a week in the warmer weather , then fly back to Paris for a week or so.. Easyjet flights are cheap and from Amsterdam you can fly to lots of warmer places for under 100 euros if you book in advance.. just a thought.. I am not sure how long flight is from Ams to Rome, but from Paris to Rome its 1 1/2 hours, not bad . Anyways there is no wrong way to do trip, I just think Brussels is worth max 2 days and Amsterdam maybe 4 ,, but that is personal tastes.. find some sun for goodness sake,,

I would agree with the above and also agree with dropping brussels (boring to me other than the main square) and hit Amsterdam instead...it's a beautiful small city with lovely canards and 4 nights there would be great for me!

I'd drop Brussels and do Bruges and Ghent instead. Or maybe stop by Antwerp on your way to Amsterdam for the day.

I know others are but I'm not a big fan of Brussels.

It doesn't matter how I'd split my time, tell me what you like. I adored Brussels but I loved the art and architecture.

Bruges was nice but a day trip was fine for me.

5 days in Amsterdam was plenty for me.

When you say you have "free accommodation in London," what does that mean exactly? A relative or a good friend? How big is the flat?

I'd spend 10 days in Paris. In fact I have spent 10 days in Paris and it wasn't enough.

I would slice London up into 2 visits if you're staying with people. "fish and houseguests..."

Well at that time of year I would have done the trip from south to north to get the best weather. But Scotland can have winter any month (we were there in July and it was low 40's, windy and pouring rain - after having left London 5 days before in the 80s).

Now, I am a city person and love museums, churches, galleries, etc - but I would add in something of the countryside or smaller towns as day trips from some of these cities.

And I must admit I was bored in Brussels - although we loved Brugge, Ghent and several other towns/countryside in Belgium.

I love your list of cities - it's the same places we (DH, 13yo DD and 17yo DS) visited last spring at the same time period. Only due to work obligations, we only had 17 nights (yes, too many destinations in a short time period). And except for the Scotland portion (where I visited as a kid), most of the group had already been to each location, and we knew why we wanted to return.

Your allocation of places depends on your interests. Of our 5 nights in Scotland, we spent 2 nights in Edinburgh and 3 nights in the Highlands. We rented a car upon leaving Edinburgh and spent a lot of time visiting castles, both old and ruinous and newer, with furniture and still inhabited. Your time in Edinburgh, as already noted, makes sense only if you plan on time outside of the city.

We began our trip on May 26, and by the time we reached Paris, we were ready for sunnier, warmer weather!

Our entire family loves Brussels, though not everyone does. We like that it's a little less touristy. Someday we will have enough time in Belgium to visit Ghent.

And with more time in Amsterdam, depending on your interests, you could make day trips to the Hague, Harlem, Delft, etc.

We began our trip in London rather than Scotland, mostly to plan around the Queen's Jubilee. We took the train from London to Edinburgh. From Edinburgh, we flew EasyJet to Paris. From there, we took the highspeed train to Brussels, then the train on to Amsterdam. Transport between the cities was very easy.

Wow, appreciate all the great replies.

The consensus seems to be that 9 days in London and 9 in Paris are just about right but I should maybe take a look at revising the other destinations.

I feel I should mention that for the most part we're very much city people, architecture and atmosphere usually take precedence over natural retreat.

With that said, we do want to relax on this vacation and as such, don't want to try and cram in too many things in too few days. We're very laid back people and I'd like to plan this to be as easy, simple, and stress-free as possible. We're not the type of people who always need to be going and seeing new sights all the time, I'd say we'd be perfectly happy wasting the day away people watching in a park or cafe.

As for Brussels, I've heard all the mixed reviews on it and I chose it as a destination for a couple reasons. One, I'm a beer guy, some might go as far as to call me a beer snob, Belgium being a kind of mecca for guys like me I figured I'd like to spend some time there and sample the local offerings. Two, it seems like it falls into that easy/stress-free category again. Easy to get to from Paris, easy to get to Amsterdam from it, makes for a simple day-trip to Bruges as well. I debated between it, Ghent, and Antwerp and it seemed to be the one that came out on top. Either way, does 4 nights still seem like too much time there (bearing in mind one of the days will be spent in Bruges)?

Free accommodation in London means we'll be staying in a family-friend's flat near Covent Garden for the duration. It's one of a few homes he has so we shouldn't be imposing on anyone as there won't be anyone staying there at the time.

Thanks for the help everyone.

I understand that others think Bruges can be a day trip from Brussels. But, I loved Bruges at night! And, one day there would not have been nearly enough for me. I spent 3 nights and didn't get to see everything I wanted... But did drink some excellent beer!

Tough decisions!

I was thinking of going the Bruges with a day-trip to Brussels route but that does add an extra set of trains into the mix.

...Unless of course I do my Brussels day-trip at the start or end of my time in Belgium... I suppose that could be an idea.

Tough decisions indeed!

Do Brussels as a day trip from either Paris or Amsterdam. Or do Antwerp as a hotel stop and daytrip from there to both Brussels or Brugge. But I'd choose Gent over Brussel and even over Brugge. Antwerp is nice in its own right too. Paris, Brussel, Antwerp and Amsterdam are all served by Thalys.

Or, Cologne from Paris by Thalys, then Cologne - Amsterdam by ICE. All high speed trains.

You can always get out of the cities of course, and explore the actual country - in which case you could explore the Netherlands in 7 days, not all of it, but some of it. The Netherlands is so much more than Amsterdam.
Happy to provide advice on that if you say what you like.

You could explore some more of Belgium - the Ardennes, Limburg (in which case you could also visit Dutch Limburg province), the coast, or other cities like Antwerp, Leuven, Liege.

You're a beer snob and you're not going to Germany?

Not meaning to start a war but I think German beer is far superior to Belgium beer.

we were in Delft earlier this year and came across a cafe [on the north-west corner of the main square] which had a menu of over 100 belgian beers - and in our 3 days we managed to try quite a few of them!

i would definitely go to Belgium but widen my horizons from Brussels as suggested above.

[and i do know that Delft is in holland!]

"Not meaning to start a war but I think German beer is far superior to Belgium beer."

For lager maybe but I don't think the Germans can match the sheer variety of beers that the Belgians do (Raspberry, white, Chimay etc).

A4A4A4,

I also think your original plan is just fine (especially 9 days each for London and Paris) with the important caveat that 3 days IN Edinburgh is quite sufficient.

Brussels, Bruges, Gent, and Antwerp are all easily and quickly reached from one another via train. You could add some or all of your leftover "Edinburgh days" days to Belgium and easily see them all. FWIW, my totally subjective estimate of the max. days you actually need to be IN any of them is: Brussels (5), Antwerp (4), Gent (2), Bruges (3).

Or use some or all of them for day trips from Edinburgh.

4 or 5 days IN Amsterdam is fine as well. Amsterdam has many, many day trip possibilities... but you don't need to decide until you get there. I would play it by ear and if you feel you've seen enough of Amsterdam start taking day trips.

...I also wanted to add a few beer thoughts:

A pilgrimage to the Westvletren monastery (or at least the cafe just outside). Year after year considered to be the "best beer in the world" by all the experts. It's close (1 hour) to Bruges and the day trip can be combined with the nearby WWI battlefields and the town of Yper. Renting a car for the day is by far the easiest way to go.

The Kulminator bar in Antwerp (ask about any special 10, 20, or 30 y/o specimens they may have in the cellar...). One of the top rated (THE top?) beer bars in the world.

The ‘t Brugs Beertje bar in Bruges (with more than 300 different Belgian beers available at any given time).

The Groote Witte Arend restaurant in Antwerp, housed in a former monastery. Excellent semi-casual traditional Belgian food and the staff will helpfully (and expertly) match beers to each of the dishes ordered. Moderate prices.

True enough Hooameye, they do have quite a variety. It's just tastes a little too sweet to me.

Appreciate all of the responses, I think I may be going into information overload here. Let me get a bit more specific.

Is 7 days in Edinburgh too long? After accounting for a day of jet-leg and a day trip to St. Andrews we'll effectively only have 5 days in Edinburgh, is that still too much?

If you were to pick one city in Belgium to spend 4 days, which would it be? From that city if you had one day-trip, where would you go?

Is 7 days in Amsterdam too much? Keep in mind that if we get bored we could easily pull a couple of last minute day-trips.

If the answer is that, yes, I'm spending too much time Edinburgh, BE, NL, or wherever, where should I then add this time onto? Should I add this time to Paris? Or should I maybe add a completely new city for a few days like Cologne?

I figure I can always plan last minute day-trips but I'd like to get my base cities set in stone.

I'll leave that German vs. Belgian beer comment for another time. I have a feeling this thread could become a few hundred posts long before we know it. (FWIW, Germany would be my #2 brewing nation)

You hadn't mentioned if art was high on your list. Art and architecture are our primary motivators. My husband will go out of the way to see a building, I'll go out of the way to see art. We both happily follow the other. While we like old a&a, we love modern.

That said, Brussels would be the city where I'd spend the 4 days with a day trip to Bruges leaving early.

7 days in Amsterdam is fine. You have time to see the museums, relax, explore, make some day trips to other cities, or even out into the countryside if that floats your boat.
In Belgium stay in Brussels. From there you can go to Brugge for a day, and maybe stop in Antwerp on your way to Amsterdam.

Oh and it looks like, should you wish to, you will still be able to visit a coffeeshop or two, since the new government seems to have had a change of heart. Not certain yet though.

Hi, there are some significant beer cafes in Brussels too; Delirium has over 2000 beers:

http://deliriumcafe.be/?___store=deliriumcafe_en&___from_store=deliriumcafe_fr

and Á la Mort Subite is an authentic old-style cafe with its own brand of beer:

http://alamortsubite.com/

There are enough things to keep you busy in Brussels for a few days _ I'd devote 2 days to Brussels and from there make day trips to Ghent, Leuven, Bruges or Antwerp. Antwerp in particular is big enough to merit a longer visit. Try to make your visit to Brussels partly over a weekend as the accommodation prices come down drastically as the Eurocrats all go home.

Lavandula

I meant to say - 4 days in Brussels including the day trips, but 2 days just for Brussels.

Lavandula

Thanks again for all the great replies.

Here's the more detailed plan as it stands now.

Tuesday April 30th - Arrive in Edinburgh
Sunday May 5th - Day-trip to St Andrews (Able to walk the Old Course on Sunday)
Tuesday May 7th - Leave Edinburgh for London
Tuesday May 14th - Day-trip to Oxford (I assume it shouldn't be too busy)
Thursday May 16th - Leave London for Paris
Tuesday May 21st - Day-trip to Versailles (Again, hoping to avoid the crowds)
Saturday May 25th - Leave Paris for Brussels (Weekend in Brussels as Lavandula suggests)
Monday May 27th - Leave Brussels for Bruges
Wednesday May 29th - Leave Bruges for Amsterdam
Wednesday June 5th - Depart Amsterdam

If we ever find ourselves bored I figure we could just take off on some quick unplanned day-trips. I could see us maybe adding something like Delft to Amsterdam, maybe another trip from Edinburgh as well, Stirling perhaps.

@LSky, Art is definitely high on our list, particularly my girlfriend's as she does a fair bit of high realism painting in her spare time. We both very much enjoy architecture as well.

@hetismij2, I didn't realize the Dutch were overturning that tourist law... might have to relive my highschool glory days!

@lavandula, That Delirium Cafe looks a bit like my imagined version of heaven! Thank you for the suggestion, we'll definitely be trying it out.

Thanks again everyone.

Your plan as it stands now (11/1/2012 @ 9:25 pm) is very good.

I think 5 days to see a small city like Edinburgh is more than you'll ever need but there are always other day trip options from there.

Alternately, you could also move some days to Belgium to make time for Gent and (especially) Antwerp.

At this point, it will be a wonderful trip which ever way you go. You're about at the point of splitting hairs...

If you're looking for a day trip from Amsterdam you might like to go to the Kroller Mueller. I posted this a while back and will copy/paste it here for you. Like I said there, if you decide to go, get an early start if you'd like to enjoy the park and the sculpture garden. The museum serves a nice lunch and decent beer Not German beer but it's okay

THE KROLLER-MULLER MUSEUM (sorry I don’t know how to make umlauts)

I didn’t even know I had a list of the top 5 modern art museums until we visited The Kroller-Mueller Museum. It isn’t an art museum as much as it‘s an art experience. An organic landscape of nature, art and architecture that rolled out to greet us and carried us through the 5,500 hectare Hoge Veluwe National Park. I’m always confused about hectares but like the idea of them, I did the math: it’s 13,950 acres which translates into approximately 21 miles of park. I knew it was different when the bus dropped us off to buy tickets and we had a choice of taking one of the hundred or so free white bicycles to the museum or stay on the bus.

Not only did Mrs. Muller provide a fine collection of over 90 Van Gogh’s, and good ones too not just sketches but great paintings, she also added; Seurat, Mondrian, Signac, Cezanne‘s Picassos the list goes on. She housed this art in a building that is architecture at it’s best. The low slung concrete and steel structure supports large walls of glass that reflect the art surrounding it and pulls you in. The architect, Wim Quist created a perfect continuum between structure, art and nature.

Don’t do what we did, get an early start. Take the train to Ede-Wageningen station a grab a bus to the town of Otterlo. The website gives clear instructions: www.kmm.nl
The bus goes right into the park. There are 2 places to get off. The first is near the white bicycle lot. There are hundreds of white bicycles free for use in the park. If you’ve planned your time well or someone in your group doesn’t appreciate art, get off the bus and grab a bike to explore the park before the museum. If you were like us and only have time for the museum keep on the bus. Also the website for taking the train. www.ns.nl

If you are art-minded, make some time to visit the Horta Museum (the house of the architect Victor Horta) in Brussels. It is a strikingly beautiful example of Art Nouveau. If you have time to go exploring, you will find the Art Nouveau style also represented heavily in the suburbs (see the tourist bureau there for information on Art Nouveau walks). Also cartoon murals - the tourist bureau will also be able to give you a self-guided walk through Brussels following murals on the sides of buildings. But the Horta is a must-see, along with the Grand' Place.

Lavandula

I love Flemish art so would also consider the Royal Museums of Fine Art a "must see."

My husband and I spent 10 days based in Brussels and taking side trips in 2011 and my TR has details of what we did.

For suggestions about beers to try:
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/looking-for-belgian-beer-recommendations.cfm

You haven't talked about how you're getting from one spot to another. The Eurostar train from London under the Channel goes to Paris OR Brussels. So you could use it for either destination or continue on from Brussels to Amsterdam. It's only 2.5 hours London to Paris so more convenient than flying when you consider it's city center to city center, no need to get out to the airport 2 hours early. (Buy the Eurostar tix as early as possible. It makes for a big savings.)

I assume you're using the train for the rest of your connections. Except maybe Edinburgh to London.

We'll be taking trains the entire way. The leg from Edinburgh to London we'll be the longest at 4.5 hours but I think I still prefer that to flying.

Then also buy the Edinburgh-London train tickets as early as possible. Once again a considerable savings.

I'm a fan of trains. I love to see the countryside flow by my big window, sitting in a comfortable seat. Whereas flying is an exercise in endurance.