Netherlands/Belgium Sample Itinerary

Day 1

Check in and make yourself comfortable in your Amsterdam historic center hotel before an introductory stroll along Amsterdam’s glittering canals and cobbled lanes.

An Indonesian Feast (included) will introduce us to the wide variety of delicious world cuisine in the city.

Day 2

Breakfast (included)

Lunch in a greenhouse (included) – we’ll feast on fresh local cuisine in a gleaming, soaring glass house at De Kas.

Amsterdam from the water – a Canal Boat Tour of the gabled mansion-lined Golden Century Canals

Time to explore Amsterdam’s wonderful shops – we’ll direct you to our favorite areas and best buys (chocolates, clothing, tulips, and more)Dinner and a sunset canal-side stroll.

Day 3

Breakfast (included)

A day trip to the windmill-filled villages of the Zaandijk, with lunch (included) at a quintessentially Dutch Pancake House

Free time and dinner on your own in Amsterdam

Concert – perhaps chamber music at Anne Frank House

Day 4

Breakfast (included) and a walk to the museum quarter  – a visit to the Van Gogh or Rijksmusuem.

Free time for shopping or more museums, then we’ll complete our appreciative exploration of Amsterdam’s cuisine by candlelight (included) at an intimate frescoed canal-side restaurant.

Day 5

Breakfast (included) and pack your luggage to leave at the hotel for our transfer to Brussels.

We’ll train to the capital of Belgium, multi-cultural Brussels, and check in to our elegant hotel in the historic center.

Dinner (included) at a cozy brasserie, then an evening stroll through the historic center.

Day 6

Breakfast (included) before a wander through the elegant Sablon neighborhood, where we can check out the weekend antique market at the Place du Grand Sablon, as well as the surrounding intriguing galleries and mouthwatering chocolate boutiques.

After lunch we’ll visit the Art Nouveau Musical Instrument Museum, a treasure house of amazing instruments from the centuries.

Dinner (included) featuring Belgium’s signature Moules-Frites and beer (choose from over 400 kinds produced in the country!)

Day 7

Breakfast (included), then all aboard the train for a day trip to canal-laced Bruges. We’ll step back in time to the heyday of this glorious medieval relic when thriving wool merchants built towering churches and elaborate homes. Exquisite lace and glowing tapestries fill the shops here – wonderful memories to take home!

In addition to lunch (included) and a walking tour, we’ll enjoy a leisurely float along the canals, viewing the gracious buildings from the water.

Take time to shop or visit museums on your own before we meet to return to Brussels, where before dinner (included) we’ll take a peek at the Grand Place, which Victor Hugo praised as the most beautiful in the world! Surrounding the square are guildhouses in all their Flemish Renaissance gilded glory, along with one fabulous chocolate boutique after another.

Day 8

Breakfast (included) and we’ll again board the train for a day-trip, this time to Ruben’s city, Antwerp, one of Europe’s oldest and richest ports.

Beside the gilded townhall, fronted by a distinctive fountain (we’ll tell you the story!)  is Antwerp’s main landmark, the soaring Gothic Cathedral of our Lady, home of Ruben’s triptychs Descent from the Cross and Assumption of the Virgin.

We’ll stop for lunch at an intimate brasserie tucked up against the cathedral before visiting Ruben’s home, where he painted more than 2,500 pictures and also designed the baroque portico.

After returning to Brussels, we’ll enjoy a farewell dinner (included) of innovative French-inspired Belgian cuisine and fresh-from-the-North-Sea seafood.

Day 9

Breakfast (included)  before departing Brussels for home.