Anonymous wrote:Agree you should skip Brussels. It is boring and we did not find it to be a fun or charming place to walk around. Bruges was beautiful but we went in the offseason (hear it gets crowded in summer). My daughter loved the chocolate museum there because they gave out a lot of free chocolate samples.
Also do not recommend Versailles. it is miserably jam packed and it is basically a forced march through the palace on a set route while being pushed into by other tourists. Literally jammed up against other people like you’re on the subway at rush hour. Or, just spend time in the gardens which were great. Paris has so many amazing sights that are a much better experience.

Anonymous wrote:Agree you should skip Brussels. It is boring and we did not find it to be a fun or charming place to walk around. Bruges was beautiful but we went in the offseason (hear it gets crowded in summer). My daughter loved the chocolate museum there because they gave out a lot of free chocolate samples.
Also do not recommend Versailles. it is miserably jam packed and it is basically a forced march through the palace on a set route while being pushed into by other tourists. Literally jammed up against other people like you’re on the subway at rush hour. Or, just spend time in the gardens which were great. Paris has so many amazing sights that are a much better experience.

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Anonymous wrote:PP. That castle is not the main reason people visit Ghent. I haven't been to it so can't comment. I'm understanding better now that your focus is on the built environment.

Provins is a small walled medieval town. There's a stone tower you can climb. It doesn't have individual buildings that are photogenic like a cathedral.

Some castles are very empty inside and that isn't very fun.

You could do a day trip from Paris to another French city with cathedral to replace the Belgian cities. For example: Chartres or Reims. You might also do a day trip to Loire Valley chateaux for a different kind of architecture.

Maybe you'd like Versailles. There are multiple small palaces there in addition to the main palace.

You might really like Rome-Florence-Venice at some future point.

This really sounds like my kind of thing.

Thank you for the suggestions. I will look into those.

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Anonymous wrote:Why are you seeing so many museums from the outside? That doesn’t make any sense to me.

Your day 2 really doesn't make any sense to me. If you want to day trip from Amsterdam instead consider Leiden or Den Haag (maybe 45 min on the train).

Museums - only to explore the area, view the architecture from outside - might skip the ones in Amsterdam entirely but Louvre is more of a photo op because it looks beautiful on the outside and we could walk around.

Day 2 - there is a day trip available to see those 4 places near Amsterdam but it is more like a 5 to 6 hour thing so I want to see the market when we get back. It seems doable on our own by taking trains so I wanted feedback from anyone who had done that on their own. We couldthen explore at our leisure instead of a time constraint. Zaanse Schans is on my must do because it is a quaint windmill village. The others are nearby so just clubbing them in.

Yeah I mean the courtyard around the Rijksmuseum is just a crowded kind of dirty courtyard. The building looks fine I guess. The Van Gogh museum is a modern concrete and glass building, definitely what you want is inside, not outside. I don't understand at all why you'd want to deal with the crowds and then not go inside. Same with the Louvre.

Your itinerary on the whole just feels really off to me, like it's more about taking pictures than actually doing things and I wonder if it's because you planned this using social media.

Louvre like I said before is definitely to see the building and the area around it. The museum buildings in Amsterdam - thank you for the info that it is a dirty courtyard. That helps and I will probably just cut it out of my list. None of us in my family like art museums so other than a photo op in the most famous ones, we will not be wasting our time there. Even if I went in I doubt I will have a good time. I haven't even been to the DC Art museum (even if it is free).

I planned the trip with youtube videos and what was interesting to me (architecture, nature). I don't see how a day trip to see windmills or canals or castles is about taking pictures. It is to experience the country side in those countries. My itinerary includes visiting local markets and wandering around.

I mean but this seems really off to me. Photo ops outside crowded museums? Why not just spend your time doing literally anything else?

You're beating a dead horse here. Because I like architecture and the Louvre is world famous and I want to see it and take a picture there. It would be the same reason I would go to Pisa and take a picture with the leaning tower - even if it is a trashy place, it is one of the wonders of the world.

Anonymous wrote:PP. That castle is not the main reason people visit Ghent. I haven't been to it so can't comment. I'm understanding better now that your focus is on the built environment.

Provins is a small walled medieval town. There's a stone tower you can climb. It doesn't have individual buildings that are photogenic like a cathedral.

Some castles are very empty inside and that isn't very fun.

You could do a day trip from Paris to another French city with cathedral to replace the Belgian cities. For example: Chartres or Reims. You might also do a day trip to Loire Valley chateaux for a different kind of architecture.

Maybe you'd like Versailles. There are multiple small palaces there in addition to the main palace.

You might really like Rome-Florence-Venice at some future point.

Anonymous wrote:Or you can just save Paris for another time and spend a day in Luxembourg City instead for a complete Benelux vacation. Gentle hills, incredible valleys, the casemates, the old town - we love Luxembourg.

Anonymous wrote:I would personally pick two. Either Belgium and Paris, or Netherlands and Belgium.

In Belgium, I vastly preferred Ghent and Bruges to Brussels and would only spend one night in Brussels. Two if flying in and out there, but only one full day. I'd spend a day in Ghent on the way to Bruges and then spend a night or two in Bruges. When you are in Bruges, you can also bike the countryside and the canal so that can be a little day or halfway trip.

Whereas I think two days in Paris is criminal. I'd spent 4-5. One day of general sight seeing/walking, one museum day (Louvre or D'Orsay would be my choice), one day at Versaille, and then at least one more day for whatever you are most interested in -- shopping, the Moulin Rouge, I've always wanted to tour the Opera, there are so many things to do.

I think your Amsterdam itinerary is too packed but 4 days seems reasonable for Amsterdam. If you did Amsterdam and Belgium, I'd add in a day in The Hague.

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Anonymous wrote:I have been to Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels.

Brussels is definitely not a Tier 1 tourist city. But it is a capital.

Bruges is a cute city and you can do a canal tour there as well.

I would skip Ghent. But I would do at least one city in Belgium. Probably Brussels because it is a capital.

I enjoyed a day trip to a little medieval town outside of Paris called Provins. You can take the train from Paris and spend all day there. Although Bruges is a more major city, keeping it on your itinerary locks you into continued movement. If you just budget that day for Paris instead, you can adjust your time in Paris as needed.

If you like medieval history, go to the Hotel Cluny Medieval Art Museum in Paris. It contains objects that are similar to the ones you might see in Ghent and Bruges if you went into Gothic monuments.

Do not skip Ghent. It's so much better than Brussels. Also, Utrecht is another fun city in the Netherlands.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been to Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels.

Brussels is definitely not a Tier 1 tourist city. But it is a capital.

Bruges is a cute city and you can do a canal tour there as well.

I would skip Ghent. But I would do at least one city in Belgium. Probably Brussels because it is a capital.

I enjoyed a day trip to a little medieval town outside of Paris called Provins. You can take the train from Paris and spend all day there. Although Bruges is a more major city, keeping it on your itinerary locks you into continued movement. If you just budget that day for Paris instead, you can adjust your time in Paris as needed.

If you like medieval history, go to the Hotel Cluny Medieval Art Museum in Paris. It contains objects that are similar to the ones you might see in Ghent and Bruges if you went into Gothic monuments.

Do not skip Ghent. It's so much better than Brussels. Also, Utrecht is another fun city in the Netherlands.