Originally Posted by
Aviatrix
How much of this are you actually committed to (i.e., how many non-refundable hotel reservations have you made?)
Non-refundable are London, Paris and Cologne (Priceline). Brussels and Leuven are kinda-refundable in a sense that I made the reservations using Priority Point Breaks and I'd only get 10,000 back which is useless, really.
- It's a very hectic schedule, you're trying to pack in an awful lot and not really staying anywhere long enough
I know. I don't have a problem with that, though. I knew going in it was going to be like that, so that's not a problem.
- Unless you are particularly fond of unpacking and repacking why up sticks so many times? Several of the places on your itinerary are very close together, much easier to stay in one and go to the other one for the day.
True. I kinda wish I'd have gone for two nights in Brussels or Leuven, but I kinda wanted to experience two different towns. I hear Leuven has a college-town reputation, so spending the night there would be cool.
- You generally pay a LOT more for car hire if you hire in Country A and drop off in Country B. You may want to look into prices for dropping off in the same country.
True. Sixt, for example, charges an extra 120 euros. EuroCar's website is being finicky, so I couldn't tell you how much the premium is.
- While you probably need a car for some parts of your trip there are others for which you are much better off going by train.
That's why I'm taking the train from London to Paris and from Paris to Luxembour. From there on, though, if I want to stop by and see the little towns in Belgium and Netherlands, I'm free to do so on my schedule, hectic though it may be. So let's leave the rental car in and of itself in place, if you know of better deals than $50/day or have any suggestions re insurance - sweet, if not, let's just call it my own whim.
I wouldn't use a car in Brussels if I were you - traffic is pretty terrible. It's much easier and quicker to go to Leuven by train. And I would pick either Brussels OR Leuven as a place to overnight as they are very close to each other.
I might e-mail Holiday Inn to see if I can switch my Leuven reservation to Brussels or vice versa. That might be a good idea.
Brussels (or Leuven) to Aachen is a very easy train journey - much easier than going by car. Why not take the train and hire a car in Aachen?
Sounds like a good enough idea on the surface, but what I neglected to mention was that a friend of mine might be joining me in Brussels, so I'd rather be my own boss if I'm going to be picking her up, etc. Luggage ain't light...
Sounds a bit much for one day...
I thought so too, but then I looked at the map and Kerpen is very close to Spa. The race is not even two hours long, so I'll have to find things to do in the evening anyways.
Again, two towns that are very close together. Unless you want to give your friends a break for a night why not just stay in Aachen throughout?
First of all, you're absolutely right on about me wanting to give my friends a break - I feel bad making it into a three-night stand at their place as it stands. Plus, I do plan on sampling Cologne's finest hops and don't want to drive to Aachen while inebriated
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Another journey that's much easier and more pleasant by train.
Now this one is true, but that would necessitate two different car reservations (Brussels to Aachen and then Aachen to Brugge) and I just don't want to do that.
Why not just stay in Delft for three nights, rather than move again? Or pick somewhere that's somewhere between the two such as Leiden? Train travel is SO easy in the Netherlands...
Ideally I wanted to stay in Noordwijk for three nights - the hotel was booked on the 11th, though
. Amsterdam area hotels were kind of ridiculous around this time - very tough to balance price and comfort level. And it was substantially cheaper (and closer to Amsterdam) to stay in Noordwijk than Delft. And since I want to explore the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands,
- do everything by train except the bit between Aachen, Spa, Cologne and Nürburgring (for which you could get a car in Aachen)
doesn't work.
- cut down on the number of towns that you stay in overnight, and take day trips instead (e.g., between Leuven and Brussels, between Aachen and Cologne and between Delft and Amsterdam)
Yeah, I'll look into ditching Brussels (thinking about it, the parking cost there is higher than in Leuven).
My route in and of itself wasn't much of a concern, I had planned it more or less to shake out like that (sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful for your advice because you clearly put quite a bit of effort into it), but I am looking more for ideas of things to do in the places I am planning to visit, not how to avoid them
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