Mike84

Hi there. My wife and I (both 40 years old) fly to London in the second week of August, reaching in the morning around 8am. We will fly home from Amsterdam around two weeks later in the afternoon, effectively giving us 15 nights in total. We decided on 5 nights in each place, but wondering if that needs to be tweaked to have more nights in certain places than others. It's my first time to these cities; wife has been to Amsterdam and London before but has only done a day trip to Bruges.

For Belgium, which city or cities do you recommend staying in/having as a base to do day trips from? We were thinking of Brussels and Bruges. As for Amsterdam, we will probably be staying there and doing day trips, and the same for London.

I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions you have for the above itinerary, and open to any other advice as well. Thank you!

jeffhullinger3220

My wife and I chose to headquarter in Ghent and Utrecht rather than in the larger cities. We can train to places like Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges (from Ghent) and Amsterdam, Leiden and Haarlem (from Utrecht). It's candidly a money-saving tactic for us as we're in Europe for 4 months, but I'm not sure it's a bad plan regardless.

julies

I have a current trip report that covers Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges and numerous smaller cities in the Netherlands and Belgium. It might give you some ideas or impressions about different locales. Just click on my name.

menachem

You might do Rotterdam instead of Amsterdam. Rotterdam is well placed on the Randstad mainline Dordrecht - Rotterdam - Delft - The Hague. And Rotterdam - Amsterdam by ICD train is 40 minutes.
The Rotterdam vibe is special and metropolitan in its own right and completely different from any other city in The Netherlands

janisj

Welcome to Fodors. All places are not equal -- though everywhere you are visiting is interesting.

But not only is London the largest city in Western Europe by a looooong shot with just tons of things to see and do, it is also your arrival city so you are bound to be jet lagged and not running on all cylinders for probably a couple of days. You really can't count on seeing or doing much of anything on your arrival day -- so I would add a 2 nights to your time in London (I'd add more if you could but that would cut other places a bit short).

lavandula

Brussels and Bruges are both OK to stay in. I mentioned on another current thread that there is work being done to tram lines in Ghent and that some roads are partially blocked off, so please do your due diligence around this (the transport company De Lijn is the relevant information source). It's still possible to visit, you just have to make plans.

Lavandula

RoxAnn24

I agree Ghent would be my choice for a base. Very central and a lovely city with lots to do. We stayed at the NH Ghent Belfort. Beautiful square. Cathedrals, restaurants, bars right around the corner. Best Belgium stews and fries. One of our best dinners oddly enough was at Amadeus. All you can eat ribs and the biggest baked potato I’ve ever seen. The canal area is just a short walk. Lots of restaurants and shopping area. If you’re looking for a personal tour Viator is great in any city, but we used Tours By Locals in Ghent (ask for Natalie). She was phenomenal. We took a day trip to Bruges via train. Wish we’d had time for Antwerp too. Four days in Ghent was just not enough. Then we moved on to Brussels for another three days.

lavandula

Jeffhullinger3220, are you in the Schengen Zone for 4 months? If so, do you have a visa? Most travellers (99% of whom do not get or need a visa) observe the 90 days in 180 rule (i.e. 3 months). You can get around this by spending time in the UK or Croatia (at least, Croatia used to be outside Schengen, not sure about now), Just checking to save you a potential headache later on...

Lavandula

KTtravel

I see you've gotten all kinds of advice but I think your initial plan of London, Belgium and Amsterdam is good. I agree with longer time in London, You could spend 6 nights in London, 3 in Brussels, 2 in Bruges, and 4 in Amsterdam and have a great trip.

janisj

That would be a great itinerary

Mike84

Thank you everyone for all your useful replies! Definitely a lot of information and advice to consider. I appreciate all of your inputs but I do have some specific questions.

We shall consider adding 1 more night to London in that case, following KTravel's suggestion. Could you kindly also advise on which area would be good to stay in London, with a convenient location to sightseeing, good food and shopping, but not right in the midst of the hustle and bustle? We don't mind a commute of around 20 to 30 minutes max to the central area of attractions. We also plan to watch one play. Our budget for hotels is 120 to 140 pounds a night, granted I realize it is very close to our trip and we might not be able to get preferred accommodations at our desired price.

Thanks Lavandula I read about the tram line works in your other comments. Unfortunately, they are putting me off considering Ghent as a place to stay, and would probably do it as a day trip. RoxAnn, Ghent does seem like a beautiful place, which leads me to my next question. I have been reading some comments saying that Ghent seems more like a real town whereas Bruges seems like a town that exists just for tourism. I know that the crowds of tourists disappear by 4, and then Bruges is transformed into a quiet little town, but also that there is nothing much else to do in the evenings? What are both of your thoughts on this? Also, do you feel around 3 days each in Bruges and Brussels is too much, or should I even consider just staying in 1 and doing a day trip to the other?

jeffhullinger3220

I'm aware of the Schengen limit, lavandula. Our first 5 weeks are in the UK, which of course is not in Schengen. We'll be 88 days within Schengen. But thanks for the reminder! (Croatia is now in Schengen, so it's no longer safe haven to avoid exceeding 90 days.)

janisj

"Could you kindly also advise on which area would be good to stay in London, with a convenient location to sightseeing, good food and shopping, but not right in the midst of the hustle and bustle?"


As I mentioned - London is ENORMOUS. There are thousands of restaurants and countless sites. No one single location is walking distance to more than a handful of major sites. From say the Tower of London in the east to the V&A in the west (both are in 'central' London and are on most visitor's must see list) is about five miles, so you will have to take some buses/the Tube/taxis no matter where you end up staying -- public transport goes just about everywhere. There are many very central neighborhoods that fit your criteria - and most of them have some to a lot of 'hustle and bustle'. But there are some quieter streets in just about every neighborhood. What is most important is -- what is your budget?

Mike84

I did mention our budget in my earlier reply, and also the planned commute time using public transport. We are not averse to taking public transport. I should clarify that I meant the Soho/Westminster area when I referred to the "central area" of attractions, and the shopping district of Oxford Street. I would just prefer to stay somewhere that is not too filled with tourists and a nice neighborhood, but commute to all these places. If these expectations are not feasible, I'm more than happy to be told otherwise, but I hope you can understand that I'm just trying to ask for suggestions. I do appreciate that London is enormous, and I don't expect to walk everywhere without taking public transport.

SusanP

He said his budget is 120-140 Pounds per night.

janisj

Oh - thanks -- I missed that.

Mike84: £120 - £140 a night is quite low for London. And for a double I assume. (Could you find a decent room in Manhattan or San Francisco for the equivalent $155-$180?? )

Just not realistic unless you stay in a hostel or student digs -but they book up pretty far in advance. Or possibly a B&B quite far out in the suburbs. But then you'll be spending a lot of time and money just commuting in to town. Maybe a TraveLodge in the centre might fit in that budget -- some of their locations are cheaper than others. But their rates are very date specific so you'd have to plug your dates into their website and see what comes up.

Using Booking.com to see what's available most anywhere - you can set the rate range. But you'd have to knw London pretty well to know which are decent locations and which are inconvenient or just plain awful

janisj

?? I could swear your post #14 wasn't there when I just posted . . . maybe it was stuck in Moderation???

But now seeing it --- Soho and Westminster are as central as central can be -- and are very expensive areas. You might have to double or maybe even triple your budget to stay there. And they are tourist central - very very crowded.

There are some inexpensive hotels around Paddington -- but that isn't an area I would normally reccommend. It is good for transport though.

KTtravel

I have seen many recommendations on this site for the Premier Inns in London. They have quite a few locations and should fit within your budget. I would try to stay fairly central rather than commute in as you will spend quite a bit of time and money if you are outside of the city. If you find places you like on booking.com or the Premier Inn site, you can always come back and ask for opinions about the neighborhoods. I try to look for places close to an Underground station, if possible.

lavandula

I think 3 days in each is about right, Mike. If you get bored in Brugge (unlikely) you can take day trips (Ghent, Ypres (Ieper), Damme, Sluis, the coast with Knokke, De Haan, the coast tram, etc). In Brussels the museums and other sights will keep you busy, but again you can do day trips (Antwerp, Mechelen, Leuven, Dinant, Namur, Cologne). There is a lot to do in Brussels - give me some ideas of your interests and I can make some suggestions. Again I'm not so good with Bruges, someone else should make some comments here.

Lavandula

janisj

Maybe -- - they vary widely from budget to more expensive. For the same neighborhoods a PI will cost more than a TL