365RoadWarrior

If you end up train-ing around, I had a nice stay at the Hilton Koln/Cologne. It's a waypoint on the Brussels/Frankfurt "fast" train. Koln itself was amusing for about fifteen minutes. (That's my full tourist attention span. Brussels didn't even get fifteen.)

3Cforme

Ouch. By that metric even Bruges wouldn't have held you for an hour.

The OP can find plenty of things to do in Paris, Vienna and Prague to fill twelve days or a lifetime.

jamesteroh

Welcome to Flyer Talk.

London is a city in Europe you should definitely go to. I love the Trafalgar, great location and as a diamond I was told I could order anything on the menu at breakfast and had a nice fruit plate and biscuits in my room and got bottled water every night with the turndown service.

Winecaptain

Had a great stay at the Trianon Palace in Versailles (W=A Collection) and Hilton Molino Stuckey Venice. Both are awesome hotels. My wife loves the Bentley in London as well...

365RoadWarrior

My comment was more about me than about Brussels or Koln. I don't eat in restaurants (strict vegetarian) or shop (365 days on the road; I buy it=I carry it forever) and I don't "do" museums and such.

Flying Lawyer

No museums and such, no real food and no shopping. Just for personal interest: What is left?

Thunderroad

Can't really comment the way others can re Hilton hotels in Europe, which I realize is mainly what you're asking about. But FWIW, my wife and I consider Paris the most romantic city we've ever been to. A fantastic place to walk, see sights, drink and dine, hang our in cafes and simply soak in the local culture and ambiance. I took here there for her birthday several years ago, thinking she'd love it and I'd simply tolerate it. But I loved the place as much as she did. People won't expect you to speak French, but as with anywhere it helps to learn a few basic words just to make a bit of an effort.

The only downside is that it seems like Hilton no longer has a hotel right in the center of town.

Other great European cities are London and Amsterdam (which have the advantage of being so close to Paris, just relatively quick train rides away), Venice and Prague. Barcelona is also supposed to be great, but I haven't been there for a very long time.

While I like Budapest and Vienna, I wouldn't put them on the top of my list in that they are not quite as lovely or fun as Prague and the people and food aren't as nice as most other parts of the continent. Obviously that's a very subjective opinion regarding the people, but I feel on firmer ground regarding the food.

365RoadWarrior

Work. If I've got an hour (extraordinarily rare), live music, or talking to a human being. Real food, IMO, comes from produce vendors.

nikelg

London and Budapest have excellent Hilton locations to choice from and you will find a lot of information posted in this forum on options in both cities. My experience is that it will be much easier to book the hotels than the flights with Delta; go look in the Delta forum for more insight. Paris is special but the Hilton options are limited.

kmmarx

Just talked to Delta and it looks like best flight options are CVG to AMS and return CDG to CVG. Flights to other cities started filling up before we could book our tickets.

Now the fun starts . . . what to do in between?

flaii

I'm sure there will be as many opinions here as people posting, but these are my two cents! I would say if you're flying into AMS and out of CDG and are planning a 10-12 day trip, I would spend the first 3 days in the Netherlands, then 3-4 days in London, then 3-4 days in Paris, and that would be plenty to do already! Keep in mind that though the distances among these cities is not too far, and it's easy to get from one place to the next, you still need to allocate some time to get between places (so 3 days might turn out to be 2.5 days in the end). And I find it always takes me a couple days at least to begin to experience a place.

You should definitely see Paris if this is a first trip abroad for your husband and you're already flying from there. Amsterdam is a nice place to visit for a couple days, and there are many towns within an hour's train ride for a day trip if you want to see something else. If you do end up going in May, Keukenhof is open through mid/late May. It's a big park full of (famous Dutch) tulips, and I went as a short day trip my first visit to Amsterdam ever and I thought it was well worth it.

London is great for redeeming HHonors points, because room+tax is so high there! I did an AXON there a while ago (at the Hilton Paddington) and it really felt like a great value. I also think London is a good place to go for a first visit abroad - Buckingham Palace, Big Ben,... I ended up at the Paddington because when I was looking for availability for 4(?) nights on the days I wanted to go, there were only X number of Hiltons available, and then from there I made the selection based on location, reviews, etc. I quite liked it, but I'm sure you'll find extensive threads here giving more expert advice about London.

I personally haven't stayed at the Hilton/Doubletrees in Amsterdam or the Hiltons in Paris, so can't give advice there, although I will venture to say that the Doubletree in Amsterdam looks nice at least on paper - I stayed at the Movenpick a while ago which is nearby and I liked the location. It's not in the thick of things, but everything you might want to see in a couple days in Amsterdam is walkable/tram-able, it's convenient to the Centraal station where the train from the airport comes and where you can take trains to anywhere else in the country, and at least at the Movenpick, you can get nice views since you're a taller building than the ones in the center of town!

Hope you have a great trip!

Musta Pekka

Wondering what is the best Hilton in EE ?

Have only been to three Hilton's in EE : Prague, Sofia and Bucharest. The latter scored better than the two others.

Next month I will stay in Budapest Westend.

What is your advice ?

ramseagle

I'm going to Europe sometime next year to visit friends in London but want to spend a couple night somewhere else in Europe. So was wondering which Hilton's everyone likes through out Europe.

Agent73

I enjoyed the Hilton Berlin - nice hotel, nice Exec Lounge, nice city!

harryhv

Vienna Stadtpark - historical city wonderful museums
Hilton Mainz (not Mainz City) - river cruises, Gutenberg museum, beer
Evian les Bains - spectacular scenery