Anyone living or has visited Netherlands and/or Belgium?

Just booked my flight to Amsterdam and from Brussels. Looking for any tips between those 2 places!

Thanks :D

Amsterdam is pretty expensive, some places are much more expensive than others.

If you see a bar with bravia (one of their beers) all over it it's twice as expensive as the bar next door.

If you want weed, the coffee shops are decent and surprisingly welcoming and helpful.

Watch out for cyclists, there every were and it's easy to get in their way if your not careful.

I got a very nice train journey from Amsterdam to Brussels. I second what @thehig1 says about cyclists, they get priority over pedestrians and drivers and they can be quite aggressive if you get in their way.

In brussels, avoid the tourist trap resturants (i.e if there are greeters or pictures of the meals on the outside then avoid!) There are nice resturants and sandwich bars outside the touristy areas if you look hard enough. I thought the bus tour of Brussels was quite enjoyable.

Of course, do not leave amsterdam without visiting the red light district (although you can't really miss it... ;)

@bfa1509: @thehig1:

Thanks for the advice. Not going with a huge budget so I'll try to avoid the usual tourist traps

And RDL was part of the plan,obviously

I would skip Brussels and do Antwerp and/or Bruges instead.

If you are a beer drinker, Belgium is heaven. In Brussels specifically, you will need to check out Cantillon.

Just....be prepared; Belgium beers are pretty different from what most of the world are used to. Their "regular" ones are often made with a yeast that imparts various phenolic compounds of spice and bubblegum and bread and various flavors; and they are famous for their wild and sour ales (lambics, guezes, krieks, etc).

It's amazing!

I was told this as well when asking about visiting.

I'm from belgium, If i was you I would visit other places in belgium instead of brussels, belgium is not that big, you can easily go to most cities I will mention in less than an hour by train.

It depends what you like, even in such a small country there are vast differences in culture. For starters brussels is mostly french spreaking, your english won't go that far over there, the dutch part of belgium (flanders/vlaanderen) is different, pretty much everyone, even a lot of children can speak and understand english, a lot of grownups can do a bit of french though but don't expect any complex conversations.

But given your name the french part of belgium can be quite interesting, overall culture is more laid back over there, especially in cities like liege and dinant , which also have a lot of nature. I haven't been to brussels much though, you can visit the atomium, manneken pis, or mini-europe (which is like europe in miniature) but apart from that brussels is mostly a lot of shopping, pubs, restaurants, companies and eurocrats.

The dutch part of belgium is more interesting imo than the french part, and I'm also from over there. There are pretty much three major cities, bruges, ghent and antwerp and they're all quite different. Bruges is the most tourist friendly of the three, and also has the most tourist attractions like a lot of medieval structures. It's also the city of romance.

Ghent is in some way pretty similar to bruges, especially in terms of medieval structures but it's a lot bigger and it's completely different in terms of nightlife, ghent has pretty much the most colleges and universities and because of it there are also a lot of activities for young adults, you can go out pretty much 24 /7 and it has a hippie mentality.

Antwerp is a bigger city than ghent and also has a lot of nightlife but it doesn't have the tourist attractions like ghent and bruges have in terms of medieval structures, it does have one of the biggest ports in the world though. It doesn't have the hippie mentality of ghent either, and the nightlife will look like it's higher class, don't be mistaken though, ghent is not a poor city.

@commander: Thanks for the insightful information! Read that 2 days is fine for Brussels and my aunt has friend there so I'll most likely be able to crash on the couch before flying back.

Looking at something like 3days in Brussels(I have an overnight flight,so the first day will be relax) + 1 going around in the west with a rented car probably or train.

2 days in The Hague

2 days in Rotterdam

2-3days in Antwerp

2-3days in Ghent

2days in Brussels

I read that you would go to the red light district, belgium has those too though, you'll find them in antwerp and ghent, bruges doesn't have it, I think brussels has it too.

as for beer in ghent you should really visit the hopduvel, they have over a thousand beers, and they are all belgian. Well at least that was the case when I was living there, (I just checked the list on the site and I think they don't have that many anymore , maybe they stopped selling some because of low demand or they still have em but not listed on the site, but they still have hundreds of them at least, either way, if you're interested in beer , that's a place you should visit, they have some good food too)

A good place to go out in ghent is the vlasmarkt. I don't know what date you will be going, in july ghent turns into a festival for 10 days.

I would avoid public transport in Amsterdam if you can. It's quite expensive. Amsterdam is not that big so you can safe some money by walking. It can get very crowded depending on the day. Definitely DONT take a taxi from the airport to the centre. You will get robbed. In this case, do take the train even though it would seem expensive. In general, be prepared to spend some money.

In Belgium (flanders), i found other major cities to have more charm than Brussels. Cities like Antwerp, Ghent and Brugge are very nice.

@killerfist: 7.50 euros for an unlimited day transport doesn't look that much expensive

@MonsieurX: I stand corrected sir. Didn't know about that one. Thats actually not bad.

Actually I'm visiting Amsterdam at the end of August so I'll heed everyone's advice as well. I have a friend who lives there atm so I'll have a first hand guide, as well as a place to stay.

I've been to 'dam 4 times and everytime was fantastic. It is expensive though, the food was very good and there are plenty of places to go but they cost. I don't drink alcohol so can't comment on that.

There is plenty to do there both day and night, we spent a night laughing our ass off in a stand up club featuring some real funny euro comics and we both agreed it was one of the best nights we ever had. If real theater is your thing your covered there to, every night.

Some of the bars can be very rowdy though, maybe there was some special convention or something but there seemed to be a lot of drunk British guys acting wild but you can always find a decent coffee shop to spend the night in instead.

There was one spot called Easy Times ran by a couple Jamaican guys that was jumping every night, the music was cool and the vibe was real good to, everyone just wanted to have fun, we spent a lot of time there.

Speaking of coffee shops, if it's your thing the bud is off the chain!! There's so much variety at first I was overwhelmed by it, you can also buy cakes, cookies, candy and more depending on your mood so you'll have a REAL good time.

There's something about just sitting on the river bank smoking and just watching the world go by that makes 'Dam special.

The famous Redlight District is pretty wild at night, plenty of bars, coffee shops and music but the star of the show is the girls in the windows. I won't go into too much detail here but needless to say it's a riot although things don't really get going proper until around midnight.

When you land there I would avoid the cabs from the airport and use the train instead, the station is downstairs from the terminal and takes less than 30 minutes to the heart of the city and is a nice way to see some of the dutch countryside, for some reason me and my wife both found the town Sloterdijk really funny?

Good shout on Rotterdam, MUCH nicer than central Amsterdam which is touristy and expensive (worth a visit though if you have never been before). Try to stay out of the centre of the 'dam (the surrounding canals are nicer). Also check out Maastricht as another day trip.

You can do most of the major Belgian cities in a day, Ghent is my preference over Bruges but both are worth a visit (day trip). Antwerp, Namur and Leuven (home of Stella Artois) are other good days out from Brussels as well. Chips, waffles and chocolates (many shops give free samples away) are good shouts and the beer is always a good choice in Belgium (better than NL anyway); avoid Delirium as it may have over 2000 beers but its a bit of a trap. Brussels is very easy to walk around you can get a map and just walk between the major spots. Metro is around 2 euros per single ticket (ask your aunt's friend to get you a 'Mobib card' for cheaper public transport, the bus from the airport to Place Luxembourg is a good, cheap way into town).

Depending on what you are into (partying/ museums/ countryside) will determine what a good itinerary would look like, for example there are some good forest walks not too far from the centre of Brussels but the nightlife in Amsterdam is better. As mentioned, if you are in to Festivals and can get tickets, there are several major ones in the summer in Belgium and NL. You will not have problems in most places if you only speak English .

London is less than 2 hrs away on Euro Star as well if it helps and a single ticket is around 49 euros. Paris is also easy to get to by train- hope you have a great trip!

@drspoon: Thank you!

Not much into the nightlight\party life but interested in craft beers. Much more interested in history and\or museums and countryside. Already visited London and Paris 2 years,so no point of going back for now!

Hi there, I live in The Netherlands. If you like a museum and experience the way people lived here a couple centuries ago, you should visit Zuiderzee Museum. It's an old village near Amsterdam at the sea side and it's really pretty.

There are so many old cities and villages here: Utrecht, Deventer, Volendam, Urk, Maastricht, 's-Hertogenbosch, Alkmaar, Oud Heusden. If you like the countryside and forests you should try the Biesbosch or the Veluwe.

Plan got a little bit updated.

Overnight flight and arriving in the morning on the 13th so I'll keep it relax for the first day. Will usually leave early morning by train or coach( I guess?) for the next destination. This usually leaves me with a complete day and ¾ for each place. Taking my flight back in the afternoon in Brussels

I retraced the Battle of Arnhem (A Bridge Too Far). But, that was a long while back.

I had to spend some time In Bruges for work. I was doing contract work and one of the contracts didn't work out so I got sent there with my co-worker/buddy Ken. He was all about the sights but I was having none of it. We partied with a guy named Jimmy who was pretty cool, and I met a girl named Chloë who was pretty cool. Eventually our boss Harry joined us, and not being satisfied with out work things kind of went downhill from there, but I don't want to bore anyone with the details.

-Byshop

Stroopwafels.