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Amsterdam · Kinderdijk · Antwerp · Ghent · Bruges
Friday, July 31 – Saturday, August 8, 2026
The route
Five days based in Amsterdam, then south by train to Ghent for the last three. Day trips branch off each base.
Day by day
Times are local. Weather and daylight update every time this page opens; days beyond the two-week forecast fill in as we get closer. Anything marked "open" is still ours to decide.
Delta 9168 · Boston (BOS) → Amsterdam (AMS)
Terminal E. Lands 9:15 AM Amsterdam time tomorrow — the clocks here run 6 hours ahead of Boston. About 6 h 50 m in the air, so sleep if you can.
Land at Schiphol, bus ride into the city
Three ways to reach the hotel, in the order they're worth taking on a morning when we've just come off a night flight.
1 Bus 397, direct no changes
Board at Schiphol Plaza, on the ground floor of the terminal — no platforms, no stairs, no dragging cases down an escalator. Get off at Leidseplein and the hotel is a two-minute walk. Buses leave every fifteen minutes and take about half an hour. Roughly €6.50 each.
2 Train to Amsterdam Zuid, then tram 5
The fastest rail option. Trains leave Schiphol Airport station under the terminal and reach Zuid in seven minutes, up to twelve an hour, and it's the cheaper fare. Tram 5 then runs to Leidseplein. The catch is that the tram stop sits outside the station rather than in it, so there's a short walk with the bags.
3 Train to Amsterdam Centraal, then a tram
The grand arrival, and the most work. The train takes about seventeen minutes, but airport services come in on the far northern platforms, so you cross the whole station to reach the trams on the south side. Trams 1 and 2 both run to Leidseplein from there.
Check in · NH Amsterdam Leidseplein
Four nights, Aug 1 – 5.
Nothing booked yet
Good day for canals, the Jordaan, or a museum. Tell me what you pick and I'll add it.
Set off for the museum
It's under a kilometre from the hotel, so nothing here takes long. The tour starts at 12:15, but the group has to report at the entrance by 12:05, so leaving at a quarter to gives us a comfortable margin.
1 Walk it ~12 min
The best of the three, and not close. Head down Spiegelgracht, one of the prettiest short stretches of canal in the city, and it opens straight onto the green of Museumplein with the Rijksmuseum on your left. Any tram saves maybe four minutes and costs you that walk. See the walking route
2 Tram 2 or 5 to Museumplein
Board at the Leidseplein tram stop, ride two stops, and the museum entrance is 120 metres from where you step off. Worth it if it's pouring or if legs have had enough. Tram 24 works too.
3 Tram 5 or 12 to Concertgebouw
The other side of the square, about three minutes' walk to the entrance. Useful only if a 5 or 12 happens to be sitting there when you arrive at the stop.
Van Gogh Museum · private tour
50 minutes, in English. Go to the group entrance at Paulus Potterstraat 7 — not the main entrance on Museumplein, which is a different door on the other side of the building. The ticket asks the group to report ten minutes ahead, so be there by 12:05 with the booking confirmation open on a phone.
Tram 5 · Leidseplein → Amsterdam Zuid
Board at the Leidseplein tram stop, three minutes on foot east across the square from the hotel door. Tram 5 runs from there to Station Zuid without a change, past Museumplein and the Concertgebouw. Around 18 minutes.
Train · Amsterdam Zuid → Rotterdam Centraal
This is why we start at Zuid rather than Centraal. The fast trains to Rotterdam now run from here, and they do the journey in a little over half an hour instead of the seventy minutes the slow route takes out of Centraal.
Go to the platform for Schiphol Airport — southbound. Every train we want passes through Schiphol on its way to Rotterdam, so that's the one word to check on the board.
Look for Intercity direct with the destination Breda or Rotterdam Centraal. Both call at Schiphol and then Rotterdam Centraal, four an hour between them. Get off at Rotterdam Centraal, the second stop.
One to leave alone: Eurocity Direct to Antwerp and Brussels runs the same tracks, but it's an international service on its own tickets.
For four people the simple answer is the yellow NS machine in the station hall, or the NS app — one purchase, everyone covered.
Contactless works too, but each traveller needs their own card or phone; one card cannot tap four people through. American Express is not accepted anywhere on Dutch transport, and whoever taps in must tap out with the same card or it's a €4 penalty.
The Intercity direct supplement is separate: €2.90, bought at the little pole on the platform or added when you buy the ticket. Off-peak it drops to €1.74.
Walk or metro to Willemskade
Down by the Erasmus Bridge. Take the metro toward Leuvehaven, or walk it if the weather holds.
WaterShuttle · Willemskade → Kinderdijk
Direct, no changes, and the best way to arrive — you come in by water, which is rather the point of a place built to move it. Our combi ticket covers the round-trip boat and entry to the windmills together, so there's nothing to buy on the day.
Nineteen windmills, UNESCO World Heritage
Boats run roughly every hour or two. Check the day's timetable before you set out, and note the last departure back.
WaterShuttle back to Willemskade
The last boat leaves Kinderdijk around five, so keep an eye on the clock rather than the windmills. The return trip is covered by the same combi ticket.
Train · Rotterdam Centraal → Amsterdam Zuid, then tram 5
The same journey in reverse, then tram 5 to the hotel door. Trains run several times an hour until late, so there's no particular one to catch.
Northbound again, and the same test works: the route has to list Schiphol Airport. Anything heading that way carries on to Amsterdam Zuid.
Look for Intercity direct with the destination Amersfoort Schothorst, Lelystad Centrum or Almere Centrum. All three run Rotterdam → Schiphol → Amsterdam Zuid. Zuid is the second stop.
Do not take an Intercity direct signed Breda — that's the same service pointing the wrong way, south.
If you'd rather end up at Amsterdam Centraal, a plain Intercity from Rotterdam goes there in about seventy minutes with no supplement. Metro 52 also links Zuid and Centraal, and an NS ticket covers it.
Train · Amsterdam Centraal → Antwerpen-Centraal
Arrives 10:30. Check out of the hotel before you go.
Yesterday's trick doesn't apply here. Our seats are booked on a specific train out of Amsterdam Centraal, and the reservation is tied to it — no catching the next one if we miss it.
Take tram 1 or 2 from Leidseplein to Centraal and allow a good half hour on the platform. The seat numbers below are printed on the ticket, so the four of us are together.
Antwerp tour
Bags can go in the Antwerpen-Centraal lockers for the day.
Train · Antwerpen-Centraal → Gent-Dampoort
Nothing to book. Belgian domestic trains carry no seat reservations, so buy a ticket and take whichever departure suits you once the Antwerp tour winds down.
Dampoort is the handier station for the hotel, and it's the same one you leave from on the 8th — worth getting your bearings tonight.
Check in · 1898 The Post
Three nights, Aug 5 – 8.
Bruges tour
Ghent to Bruges is about 25 minutes by train, running several times an hour.
Last full day, nothing booked
Pack tonight. The train out is early.
Train · Gent-Dampoort → Antwerpen-Centraal
Arrives 09:54. Dampoort, not Sint-Pieters — check which station before you leave the hotel.
Train · Antwerpen-Centraal → Schiphol Airport station
Arrives 11:33. Thirty-six minutes to change trains in Antwerp.
Delta 257 · Amsterdam (AMS) → Boston (BOS)
Lands in Boston at 4:37 PM the same day. Schiphol asks you to be there three hours ahead — the train gets in at 11:33, which works, but don't linger.
Where we sleep
One on a busy Amsterdam square, one in a converted post office on the water in Ghent.
Minutes from Leidseplein and the edge of the Vondelpark, with the museums a short walk south.
images/amsterdam-1.jpg
images/amsterdam-2.jpg
images/amsterdam-3.jpgGhent's old post office on the Graslei, right on the canal, with the belfry clock tower above you.
images/ghent-1.jpg
images/ghent-2.jpg
images/ghent-3.jpgBefore we go
Ticks are saved on your own device, so everyone keeps their own list.
Good to know
Local time
Boston + 6 h
Currency
Euro (€)
Plugs
Type C / F · 230 V
Languages
Dutch · Flemish
Eight days is about one load each. All four are walkable from the hotels — check opening hours before you haul a bag over.
Amsterdam · 4 min walk
Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 79
Drop it off and they'll wash, dry and fold it while you're out. Roughly two hours. The easy option if nobody wants to sit and watch a machine.
Amsterdam · 5 min walk
Kerkstraat 56
Self-service or full service, and the only one open on Sunday. Machines take coins, so bring notes small enough to change on site.
Ghent · 2 min walk
Korenmarkt 37
Practically next door to the hotel, and it's a proper café as well — put a load on, order breakfast, collect clean clothes. The best version of a chore there is.
Ghent · 7 min walk
Oudburg 27–29
Plain self-service, longer hours, lower prices. Coin-operated, so arrive with change. Busy on weekend mornings.