July 1st-8th Cruise/ Travel plan questions

mblbmd

We are doing a round trip flight from US to Amsterdam. We will need to travel back to Basel to Amsterdam.
Has anyone done this before? Do you recommend by train or auto? Looking to make these travel arrangements. Thanks.

Fred_PA

To: mblbmd;
We took this trip maybe three years ago. Didn't do what you're trying to, but the trains in Germany are easy / efficient / other good adjectives. My guess is the trains are a superior alternative unless -- while driving -- you plan to stray off the direct path to do some exploring.
We, instead, took the train from Basel to Zurich (relatively quick & easy) and effectively added that town to our tour. Spent the night at the Zurich Airport's hotel and conveniently caught an early flight back to the U.S. the next morning. (Zurich has superb air service.) If you're not locked into your plane tickets already, you might consider this.

An additional comment:
I don't know how seasoned a traveler you are, but if you're new to this . . .
Watch out for the Jet Lag. The first day we were in Amsterdam was a complete wipe-out -- just too jet lagged to comprehend anything except a long nap! Thankfully, we had taken advantage of Tauck's Gift-of-Time and booked an extra day there (in Amsterdam).
For some reason, the return flight to the U.S. wasn't nearly as punishing -- maybe because we were traveling with the sun.

British

What is your reasoning for doing a round trip to Amsterdam? Is it the plane schedules going to where you live or is it cost. Many people think that returning from a different city is going to be more expensive, but that is not always the case.
Jet lag. Is always most noticeable going towards Europe but rarely on return. We have tried staying up, taking a nap etc but always find the best thing to do is to arrive at least a couple of days early, not pls n much the first day and then do some additional siteseeing on the second of things not covered by the tour. If you can only manage coach class, it’s also more econonmical paying for an additional hotel night than paying for business class seats when you will still have jet lag anyway. This way, you are much less likely to run out of steam mid tour as we have noticed many people do.