Hi folks,
Back to Europe for the 5th summer in a row, this time a part of the trip dedicated to bicycling from hotel to hotel in the Netherlands. On this part of the trip it will be just me and my 10 year old daughter.
We are renting a Hase Pino, a short-length tandem, so our difference in endurance levels is not much of a concern. We've used this bike and many other bike touring in Europe for over 50 nights in the past 4 trips, so are perfectly confident with navigational logistics, rules and polite customs of taking the bike on trains, etc.
Our Netherlands tour is still open at this time, but we have some ideas. We don't want to go to Amsterdam - I've been literally probably 15 times in my life and would like to see other things. We do have to go to Efteling amusement park. Our preference tends to be charming smaller cities and big towns. For instance on our Belgium bike tour two years ago we loved Mechelen, Aalst, Tournai, also bigger villages with a historic town core.
On our departure day there is a high-speed train leaving for Cologne Airport (then off to the Alps, tough life!) in the mid-morning from Utrecht (starts in Amsterdam, not many stops), so as it stand we think our last night will be in Utrecht.
6 nights, arriving at Schiphol at noon on Tuesday June 25th, departing Utrecht at either 8:40am or 11am.
The below schedule covers a lot of what we'd like to do/see in the Netherlands. One problem is that we are interested in some things that are fairly far apart, and so have built in a good number of days where we'd use local trains to shorten the bike riding segments by 20-40km. Ideally we prefer to use trains less, but can't seem to get an itinerary together that combines Efteling, Kroller-Muller and a place like Woerden starting in Leiden and dropping bike in Leiden and staying last night in Utrecht.
We really value all suggestions, have put together many great itineraries with help from these forums! Thanks for your feedback.
Proposed schedule:
Tuesday June 25th: Land at Schiphol, customs, train to Leiden, pick up bike. First day cycle (we love to ride a little on the first day, great for jet lag) to Delft. Overnight Delft. (or city center of Den Haag? I've heard it's nice).
Wednesday 26th: Cycle or cycle/train combined to Efteling amusement park. Visit Efteling in evening. Overnight at Efteling hotel.
Thursday 27th: Visit Efteling in the morning. Combine cycling and train to Arnhem. Overnight Arnhem.
Friday 28th: Cycle to Kroller Muller Museum. Cycle to Apeldoorn. Overnight in Apeldoorn.
Saturday 29th: Cycle/train to Woerden. Overnight in Woerden.
Sunday 30th: Cycle to Leiden from Woerden. Return bike in Leiden. Train to Utrecht. Overnight in Utrecht
Monday July 1st. Depart Netherlands by train from Utrecht.
Hi
We are having a short stay at (for 5 days) Brussels on our way to India and have a couple of questions
1) I understand Brussels airport has luggage lockers @ 10Euro per day. Does anyone know the size of the lockers and for how many days we can keep our luggage ?
2) We need to travel to Duisburg, Germany to meet a friend for 2 days. What can we see in Brussels in 1.5 days ? Is it worth to plan for a trip to Luxembourg ?
3) As as alternative, I am thinking if we can make a plan like this --
Day 1 - Reach Brussels morning (9 AM)
Day 1 -- from 2 PM for rest of the day - Brussels tour (what can we see ??)
Day 2 -- Morning - take a train/bus to Amsterdam -- tour the day
Day 2 -- Evening -- take train / bus from Amsterdam to Duisburg
Day 3 Duisburg
Day 4 -- evening return to Brussels
Day 5 -- Tour Brussels Or Tour Luxumbourg
Day 6 morning depart
Does this sound reasonable ? Or are there alternate suggestions ?
" I think maybe flying home from Zurich will provide more options"
Not necessarily.
If you board a Seattle bound plane at a European airport (Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Manchester, London, Paris), you can easily reach the latter from Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Milan Malpensa.
If you plan to change planes in the USA or in Canada, you may focus on Zurich or Geneva.
As to the places to visit in Switzerland, all depends on your interests. Bernese Oberland would mean more mountains.
May be the visit of medieval cities like Berne or Murten could be more interesting.
If you are into museums, Bern, Basel and Zurich are musts.
For Lake cruises, check Lake Geneva, 3 Lakes county (Neuchatel-Murten-Biel/Bienne-Solothurn), Lake Lucerne, Lake Constance (possible boat trips from Austria up to Schaffhausen/Rhine Falls).
May be you will have a look at https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/summervacations.html
Any specific areas/fields within these areas? I know the bloom is heading towards the end, so, not all fields will have flowers when I arrive.
I don't think anyone can give a sensible answer. The state of the flowers will depend a lot on the weather conditions till then and as you note yourself, it will be at the end of the flowering season. So it's questionable whether you will see something resembling the iconic pictures. You might ask the tourist office when you arrive in Amsterdam. Alternatively, cruise around a bit. The distances are not that big and may be worthwhile for the landscapes any way but requires more time and some wheels.
I'll be in the Amsterdam area next Monday, May 29. I am a travel photographer searching for the most picturesque tulip fields to photograph. I certainly respect the privacy of the farmers and their fields and will 1-ask for permission to enter and 2-will definitely not step on their flowers
The areas that I have gathered from online sources that have these fields are:
Lisse village
village of Zijpe ( between Schagen and Callantsoog)
Alkaamar and sorroundings (The fields are situated near Wimmenum, Egmond a.d. Hoef, Egmond Binnen, and Bakkum Noord, Ursem)
Schermerhorn, Netherlands
Zuidschermer, Netherlands
Castricum, Netherlands
Heiloo, Netherlands
the area in the Noord oostpolder (Around emmeloord)
Schagen or Julianadorp around Den Helder.
Noordwijk, Netherlands
Any specific areas/fields within these areas? I know the bloom is heading towards the end, so, not all fields will have flowers when I arrive.
If you'd like your walking tour of Amsterdam to be away from the pack, consider this walk through Amsterdam West. The starting point, Sloterdijk station, is easily reached from Haarlem.
The walk takes you along some very interesting details and curiosa. And away from the center that can be very crowded.
https://www.waterlily-unlimited.nl/travelguide/amsterdamwest.php#things
Yeah I plan on staying in hostels and dorms. Amsterdam and Paris seem very expensive
Yes, this is why it doesn't make a lot of sense to plan an "average" daily budget. Different destinations will cost different amounts. Looks like that proposed 50 euro/day budget won't work in some/most western capitals, but could be quite generous further east.
Besides, you've already done half the work or more. You know your transportation costs, and prices for at least some accommodation. Continue checking hostel prices for all of your stops, along with entrance fees to the attractions you most want to visit. That will only leave food and drink (and incidentals), and that's pretty much up to you--takeaway street food or a sit-down dinner?--but can also be researched online.
I tend to agree that starting with a number of days and hoping you've got the budget to cover them is putting the cart before the horse. It makes more sense to start with a budget, then determine how many days it allows you to spend in the places you most want to visit, doing the things you most want to do.
Hey guys. The reason why I chose Paris-Venice-Vienna is because these places seem more interesting to me then Berlin. Also the train journey from Venice to Vienna via Salzburg is suppose to be breathtaking. At the end of the day, it all fit's in my budget. I'm more interested in architectural and natural scenery, and going the London-Amsterdam-Berlin-warsaw-Moscow does not seem to be the route I would enjoy most. The purpose of this trip is to go from moscow to Beijing and onwards to other asian countries and explore them, so that is why I'm just going thru cities for the London-moscow phase of this trip. I just want to get a taste of europe. Obviously I will come back to europe later and explore these places, but it's not my priority right now. Infact europe is the last continent on my list that I want to explore. It's a place that I probably won't be travelling thru for a long long time, that is why I am picking the most interesting places to me and going thru the. I will come back later and explore. Also my goal is to visit all 192 countries, so weather I substitute budapest from warsaw, it does not really matter. I can do more in Budapest.