Well CP, I need some advice. Without getting into the details, I find myself trying to debate what makes the most sense with that combination. Essentially after being in Paris I want to go somewhere else and then back to England for a flight home. Clearly no situation is perfect here; my thinking is to end up in Brussels and then take the train to London.
So, is Belgium worth the four days or should I cut it down, whisk through Amsterdam and jam both in? I've never been to Europe at all, so its kind of all overwhelming and hard to plan.
When given the option between Amsterdam or no Amsterdam, the only acceptable choice is Amsterdam.
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Brussels is just a big generic European city IMHO. As a center of bureaucracy, its fairly meh, though the Grand Place had it's charms. It was a lot grimier than I expected too. Not much reason to go there frankly.....except....
Belgium has to have the best beer on the planet, steeped in centuries of the craft. You might weep when you have your first tripel.
Amsterdam as a city is far more interesting to visit. But the beer is Heineken.
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Amsterdam for sure. If you can get to Ghent in Belgium, I recommend that. A bunch of people from there told us to go there instead of Bruge or Brussels.
But yeah, definitely Amsterdam.
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Amsterdam for sure. If you can get to Ghent in Belgium, I recommend that. A bunch of people from there told us to go there instead of Bruge or Brussels.
But yeah, definitely Amsterdam.
I was thinking of Brussels and Bruges if it was Belgium, but perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone seems to think its Amsterdam hands down. Makes sense because it looks amazing.
There's not going to be a debate here: Amsterdam is a must.
Truthfully, there's not much to either country (they're tiny) so you can get the best of both Belgium (beer) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam) in 4 days.
I was thinking of Brussels and Bruges if it was Belgium, but perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone seems to think its Amsterdam hands down. Makes sense because it looks amazing.
I'd do Paris, Bruge and Amsterdam - and did in fact do that on my honeymoon many years ago.
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I had this exact dilemma this summer. Amsterdam or Brussels. I was in Brussels 2 weeks ago. When given the choice between the 2 biggest cities in Belgium, I really wish I heeded others advice and went to Antwerp instead. As IHH said, it's kind of grimy and not what I expected the EU capital to be. We stayed in a really nice apartment right by Gare du Midi station, but it was pretty ghetto. Not the kind of place you want to walk around at night. Heard screaming and fighting all night. The Atominium and Mini-europe were the highlights and they are both pretty cool though.
Having said that, if given the choice again I would slap the person who shot down our idea of going to Amsterdam and made us stay in Brussels. We were in Brussels for the Tomorrowland festival and stayed an extra 2 days to explore. I really wish we went elsewhere instead. I'd suggest spend a day at the most. If you really want to see Belgium, head to Antwerp or Bruges instead.
Last edited by Huntingwhale; 08-13-2015 at 11:16 PM.
+1 Bruges, +2 Amsterdam and agree to skip Brussels
If you enjoy a relaxing car ride with lots of friendly locals in an area with little non Dutch tourism, Friesland is awesome. It's a train ride away or a couple hours on a neat car ride on the Overijssel dam that divided the North Sea and the man made land in Holland. Every tiny town has little festivals and the awesomest sport to watch live: fierljeppen. Seriously, Google a video of it. A thousand fans screaming as a guy runs, jumps and grabs onto a pole and climbs it as it inches forward then jumps off it. It's basically pole vault, but over water and the pole is twenty feet longer and they climb it as it lurches forward. Lots of good food too: Fryske Suikerbrood is a sweet bread with little clumps of sugar
Yeah so after some further consideration and such I decided this morning that I'm not going that direction at all and am heading to Prague instead. Thanks for the input and advice as always CP!
Definitely not. Common misconception if you haven't been there.
Slava, Prague is awesome too. But you really should see Amsterdam as well if you can!
Well there is just no time for everything. I just had a conversation with my wife who started talking about a cheap flight to Italy or wherever else...just clouding the issue and I basically said "If we are doing that kind of thing then we are going to Prague before anywhere else." Voila. Prague it is!
Next time maybe we'll head up to that part of Europe. I mean there are so many places to go and so little time at this point, that you kind of take what you get I suppose.
4 days in Belgium or 2 in Amsterdam/Belgium?
