Beautiful calm night view of Amsterdam city.
This trip will show you the best parts of the Netherlands and Belgium, including historical places, museums, galleries and also fun places like The Belgian Comic Strip Center.
TOUR INCLUDES:
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- Accommodation in central hotels we indicate below or similar (7 nights)
- Half board (buffet breakfast & dinner)
- 1 breakfast on arrival
- 7 lunch in local restaurants
- Modern motor coach for all transportation as itinerary
- Entrance fees Belgium: Notre Catedral (free of charge), Gran Place (panoramic), Horta Museum, EU & Belgian Comic Strip Center, Flanders Battlefield Tours, Renee Margerite Museum, Breendonk Concentration Camp,
- Entrance fees Netherland: Kinderdijk Windmill, Canalcruise, Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House
- English speaking local guides for the city tour and visits
- English speaking Tour manager during the whole tour
Program
Day: 1 Home – Amsterdam – Brussels Arrival, breakfast, transfer to Brussels, lunch & city tour
– Arrival at the International Airport in Amsterdam. Your guide will be waiting for you and will assist you boarding the coach.
– Breakfast in a local restaurant near the airport on the way to Brussels (205 km / 2,5 h).
– Arrival in Brussels and check in to the hotel.
– Lunch in local restaurant next to the hotel
– Meet your guide and coach for a city tour of Brussels.
– We start our visit with a stroll to Brussels’ beautiful Grand’ Place. Our guide tells us the history of the unique city hall and the splendid guild houses. Then you board our luxury coach and drive along the magnificent St. Michaels’ cathedral towards the National Basilica of Koekelberg, one of the most imposing churches in Europe.
– Next, we take you to the world-famous Atomium, the Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese tower. Via the Royal residence of Laeken and the Royal St Mary’s church, we drive back to the city center and visit the Sablon district with its elegant stores selling beautiful antiques. Next you see the impressive Court of Justice. We drive to the stately Place Royale and the Royal Palace.
– Dinner at the hotel
Day: 2 Full day Horta Museum, EU & Belgian Comic Strip Center
– Breakfast
– Meet your guide and coach to do the following visits: the European district with the European Parliamant, the European Commission and Council of Ministers. In the Park of the Jubilee you will marvel at the the monumental Triumphal Arch and some excellent examples of Art Nouveau houses. Passing the Royal Parc and the Belgian Parliament we drive back to the city center where our tour ends.
– Horta Museum
Art nouveau House built and decorated by the architect Victor Horta for his own use from 1901 to 1919. The original inside decoration can still be observed today: mosaics, stained glass windows, furniture, and wall paintings. The museum also contains a collection of furniture drawn by Victor Horta and typical of Art Nouveau at its best. It also shows old photographs, scale models, casts and plans explaining the work of the architect
– Lunch at a local restaurant
– Comic Stripe Center
The Belgian Comic Strip Center, a true temple dedicated to comic strip art, is also an undisputed masterpiece of the Art Nouveau. Located in the heart of Brussels, in a majestic Art Nouveau building, created by Victor Horta in 1906, the Belgian Comic Strip Center opened its doors to the public on October 6th 1989. In no time this impressive museum became one of the main attractions of Brussels.
– Dinner at the hotel
Day: 3 Brussels Full Day Flanders Battlefield Tours
– Breakfast
– Meet your guide and coach for a full day excursion to the Flanders Battle Fields
– A trip of historical discovery on this full-day tour that takes you through West Flanders to the Belgian town of Ypres (125 km / 1,5 h). The city, which was given the nickname Wipers, was rebuilt according to a medieval blueprint after being completely razed to the ground in the early 1900s.
– It was also here that the Germans invaded Belgium during World War I; a strategic move to attack France from the north. You will see the remaining artifacts and places of the city as you discover restored trenches, stroll among war graves in Passchendale and Polygon Wood, clamber over craters and bunkers on the preserved battlefield. and visit key war memorials. Behold the impressive sight of the imposing Menin Gate Memorial to the missing soldiers, complete with 55,000 names, erected on the spot where the soldiers left the city for the battlefront.
– Lunch at a local restaurant
– Dinner at the hotel
Day 4 Brussels Rene Magritte Museum & Half Day Breendonk-Waterloo
– Breakfast
– Meet your guide and coach to do the following
– Rene Magritte Museum
The Museum exhibits notably a series original aquarelles, gouaches and drawings, as well as graphic works by Magritte. The René Magritte Museum occupies the house in which the Belgian surrealist painter worked nearly 24 years of his life. On the ground floor the museum presents the apartment where the painter lived and worked from 1930 to 1954, A biographical exhibition is spread on the two other floors.
– Lunch at the local reastaurant
– Meet your guide and coach for a half day excursion to the Breendonk-Waterloo.
– Breendonk
The fortress of Breendonk (25 km / 0,45 h) is a moving and striking example. It is one of the best conserved concentration camps in Europe. Between September 1940 and September 1944, around 3500 prisoners passed through Breendonk. The majesty of the site and its Dantesque appearance make it a symbol that perpetuates the memory of the suffering, the torture and the death of so many victims. Breendonk, although small in comparison with others, was nevertheless a camp that saw Nazi barbarity sink to its vilest depths.
On the way back there might be a chance to pass through Waterloo, the town made famous by Napoleon’s great defeat, where he lost against the allied troops commanded by the duke of welligton and the prussian Marshal Blutcher in June 1815
– Dinner at the hotel
Day: 5 Brussels-Amsterdam City tour Amsterdam & Van Gogh Musem
– Breakfast & Check out hotel.
– Meet your guide and coach for transport to Amsterdam (200 km / 2,5 h)
– Arrival in Amsterdam and city tour of Amsterdam.
With more than 6,800 monumental houses and buildings, Amsterdam has the largest historical city center in Europe. The city is best-known for its three rings of canals lined by elaborately decorated merchants’ residences and warehouses built in the 17th century, the Dutch ‘Golden Age’. Ninety islands were created when the canals were built, connected by hundreds of charming bridges. Your knowledgeable guide will show you the old and new parts of this beautiful city with its many interesting sights. Highlights include the Royal Palace, National Monument, the Skinny Bridge, canals and Albert Cuyp Market.
You also have the option to enjoy a boat trip along a typical Dutch canal (please select the appropriate tour option at time of booking). The one-hour cruise takes you along canals lined with 17th-century merchant houses, churches with bell towers and warehouses from the 16th and 17th centuries. You will also pass through Amsterdam’s Old Harbor.
– Lunch at a local restaurant
– Meet your guide and coach to visit.
– Van Gogh Museum
– Check in hotel
– Dinner at the hotel
Day: 6 Amsterdam Social project & Rijksmuseum
– Breakfast
– Meet your guide and coach for a social work project at the Fortress of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterline between Amsterdan and Utrecht.
– The Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie is of exceptional significance through its extensiveness, the fact that it uses a specialised system of waterworks, and the pristine character of the fortifications. The Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie has World Heritage status.
– You will be helping in maintenance of the trees, taking off branches and clearing branches and leaves and will be supervised by the people of “Staatsbosbeheer) state forrestry.
– Lunch at a local restaurant
– Rijksmuseum
– Dinner at the hotel
Day: 7 Amsterdam Volendam Marken with bycicle trip Edam to Volendam & Zaanse Schans
– Breakfast
– Meet your guide and coach to visit the Anne Frank House
– Lunch at a local restaurant
– Meet your guide and coach for half day excursion including the Zaanse Scheans windmills, Volendam and Marken
– Leave Amsterdam behind for a few hours and discover the surrounding Dutch countryside and its wonderful windmills! Drive through idyllic landscapes criss-crossed with canals, see authentic wooden houses and old-fashioned cheese-making in Volendam. Watch a shoemaker make clogs in Marken, and capture photos of the windmills that the Netherlands are famed for in the picturesque village of Zaanse Schans. Listen to commentary about the history, culture and sights of the Netherlands.
– Dinner at the hotel
Day 8 : Amsterdam Home Transfer airport
– Breakfast
– Transfer from the hotel to the International airport to take your flight
