Ideas for Pre-cruise before Amsterdam Embarkation

On July 8, 2019, we have A 12-night British Isles cruise scheduled out of Amsterdam...goes to Bruges, Cherbourg, Guernsey, Dover, Cork, Waterford, Dublin and Belfast (not in that order)...and returns to Amsterdam. When we cruise in Europe, we generally like to add pre- and post cruise stays and make it a longer overall vacation. My wife works in the schools, so she has plenty of time both before and after these cruise dates to add on to the trip...and my schedule is wide open. We are fairly well-traveled in Europe having taken 12 prior European cruises, most with extensive pre- and post-cruise stays plus three land only trips around Europe...and we'll be doing a river cruise on the Danube through Eastern Europe this summer.

So...the question now is where to visit prior to embarking in Amsterdam in July of 2019? I've considered tacking on a river cruise from Zurich/Basel up to Amsterdam just before this one...but that gets a bit pricey on top of what is already a pretty expensive trip (adds about another $7,000 plus. Another thought is to fly in to some other city in Europe--Zurich? Frankfurt? Paris? ...and rent a car and take about a week making our way from there to Amsterdam visiting smaller, out-of-the-way places. Or, possibly, we could just pick some other city in Europe to fly into, spend a few days there, then catch a train to Amsterdam for the last day or two before the cruise (remember, we might also spend more time in Amsterdam post-cruise before flying home). Or should we just fly into Amsterdam and then find some other location near Amsterdam worth spending a few relaxing days before heading back to pick up the cruise?

Anyone have any ideas? We're sort of wide open right now...

Thanks...

Have you spent much time in the Low Countries? If not, and you like driving, I would consider flying to Amsterdam, renting a car there and then putting together an itinerary which travels through them and steers you towards smaller towns and villages. If you have not been to Brussels you could spend a day there as well but park the car for the urban visit. The beauty of that trip is that you could return the car to it starting point which is always less hassle than a one way rental.

Have you previously visited Amsterdam? Have you traveled elsewhere in the Netherlands or Belgium?

Amsterdam is a great base for easy day trips - we have done Haarlem, Delft, Alkmaar, The Hague, Gouda, and still have not gotten to Zaanse Schans, Volendam, Hoorn, and many other places. In the Flanders area of Belgium, Antwerp and Ghent are also interesting, and Brussels is a fast Thalys train ride from Amsterdam.

I've been to Amsterdam before a couple of times...and to a few other places in the Netherlands. And my family is Belgian--and I've spent time in Liege, Brussels, Namur, Bruges, Ostende, Ghent, Waterloo and Knokke-Heist (I have family in Liege, Brussels and Knokke-Heist). Also thinking, in addition to an extended pre-cruise, we may stick around for a few days post-cruise in Amsterdam and do some day trips from there.

For the pre-cruise, we are looking to vary things a bit and go somewhere a little different.

Why not take a train or car to places like Dusseldorf, Cologne or a small city along river Rhine in Germany? UIt is just about 3-4 hours depending traffic.

In case you want to stay in The Netherlands, have a look at Arnhem, Nijmegen or more south Maastricht?

Since you've done Amsterdam before, and it's relatively easy to get from almost any area of Europe to another, where have you been wanting to go? Personally, I've been wanting to see Croatia. I keep hearing wonderful things about it.

There's always Iceland. It is my favorite place on the planet.

I'd want to do a land trip, and not tack on another cruise, even a river cruise. I like to be based out of somewhere for several days at a time, so I can relax, sip coffee (or wine) in a cafe, and watch the locals.

Something active - hiking in Cinque Terre? Cultural - cooking in Tuscany?

Check out Road Scholar, not to join their trips, but to get ideas of places and itineraries. There are seemingly endless possibilities on their site. https://www.roadscholar.org

Circling back here, I figured I'd let you all know what we decided to do...

We kept trying to think up options on "what to do for a few days before and/or after this cruise to make it into a longer vacation.

One thing we considered was flying into Zurich a week ahead of embarkation, renting a car and doing a self-directed land tour from Switzerland to Amsterdam.

Of course, when I tried to map that out, I had to figure we'd spend at least about $300 a day just on hotels and meals along that route...so, figure that's about $2100 right there. Then, looking at one-way car rental prices, pick up in Zurich and drop off in Amsterdam, the smallest, cheapest cars still came out to about $1200 for the week...Then figure, at European gas prices, we'd burn up about $300 in gas...So, the cost for the week for hotel, meals and car might end up at around $3600...

So, I got a brainstorm. What about booking another cruise for the week before. After looking through all of the available Northern Europe cruises that would end some time just before ours, I found a 7 night Royal Caribbean Baltic cruise that could be had for as low as about $1100 per person (plus fees and taxes) for an inside cabin. Only problem was that it started and ended in Stockholm...and ended the day before ours embarks. Train perhaps? Nope--a train from Stockholm to Amsterdam takes about 18 hours! So, only way to go would be to fly...Don't know what flights will run next year, but this year, as low as about $135 per person but most around $200 pp...Not bad...but very few nonstop except KLM...and those had mostly inconvenient times. Plus, we'd have to worry about unreasonable luggage weight limits on those short hop Europe flights--and overweight charges. So, the costs would mount to over $3,000...and that travel days between cruises could be a nightmare.

So, thinking further outside the box, I had an epiphany: How about just taking the cruise prior to ours on the Reflection? That one, obviously, puts us exactly where we need to be on July 8!

So, I booked it. In order to keep my wife happy and not let my spending go out of control, I booked an inside cabin--So, we'll suffer with "steerage" for 12 nights, then move up to our 1B balcony for this one...With my TA's onboard credit, the added cost nets out to only $3841 for the two of us...but we go 12 extra nights of cruising for that. We won't get the "Go Big" drink package perk...but, of course, being Elite Plus, we do get free pre-dinner drinks each night...So, now, our "Super Itinerary" looks like this:

Wednesday - Jun 26, 2019—Amsterdam Depart: 5:00 pm

Thursday - Jun 27, 2019--At Sea

Friday - Jun 28, 2019—Warnemunde 9:00 am to 11:00 pm

Saturday - Jun 29, 2019--At Sea

Sunday - Jun 30, 2019—Helsinki 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Monday - Jul 1, 2019--St Petersburg Arrive: 7:00 am

Tuesday - Jul 2, 2019--St Petersburg Depart: 6:00 pm

Wednesday - Jul 3, 2019—Tallinn (Muuga) 7:00 am to 4:00 pm

Thursday - Jul 4, 2019—Stockholm 8:00 am to 4:00 pm

Friday - Jul 5, 2019--At Sea

Saturday - Jul 6, 2019—Copenhagen 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Sunday - Jul 7, 2019--At Sea

Monday - Jul 8, 2019—Amsterdam 6:00 am to 5:00 pm

Tuesday - Jul 9, 2019--At Sea

Wednesday - Jul 10, 2019--Cork (Cobh) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Thursday - Jul 11, 2019—Waterford (Dunmore East) 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Friday - Jul 12, 2019—Dublin Arrive: 7:00 am

Saturday - Jul 13, 2019—Dublin Depart: 7:00 pm

Sunday - Jul 14, 2019—Belfast 8:00 am to 10:00 pm

Monday - Jul 15, 2019--At Sea

Tuesday - Jul 16, 2019—Guernsey 7:00 am to 5:00 pm

Wednesday - Jul 17, 2019—Cherbourg 7:00 am to 7:00 pm

Thursday - Jul 18, 2019—Dover 7:30 am to 5:00 pm

Friday - Jul 19, 2019-- Bruges (Zeebrugge) 7:00 am to 5:00 pm

Saturday - Jul 20, 2019--Amsterdam, Arrive: 6:00 am

24 nights...15 ports (2 of them overnight)...6 at sea days...Now I will have a LOT of port planning to do. It will be our fourth Baltic cruise...but I am sure we can find some new things to do in some of the ports...and in others, I guess we won't mind re-visiting some sites as we last cruised the Baltic in 2010.

When it comes time to book flights, we'll now just look to book in and out of Amsterdam, probably arriving a day or two before the June 26 leg.

Well, I'm sad you won't be going to Iceland. LOL

That looks like a great itinerary. I'd love to do the Baltic again.