u/librapenseur

Hello! I realize that this is a mishmash of somewhat frequent questions, but I couldn't stop the little voice saying "well what if /my/ circumstances are different enough to warrant it being asked?" I have a stopover in Iceland at the end of July, just one day. Of course, I would have liked longer, but I tacked it onto the end of a separate vacation! Anyways, I wanted to book a golden circle tour, with an excursion company to make things simple, but I've seen people suggest that it can be really hard to fit into a 1-day layover, so I wanted opinions on that.

I land in Keflavik at around 6:30pm, Jul 26, and my flight out is 7:45pm Jul 27. My understanding is that tours generally depart 8-10am and last between 6-8 hours, and I heard it offhandedly said that a lot of the tours finish up at 4pm. Especially if the tour ends at the same bus station that one would catch the flybus back to the airport, is it crazy to think that I could go on a tour and still make my flight? Is it crazy to even think this is a "tight" schedule?

obligatory proposed itinerary:

Sunday 6:30pm: Arrive in Keflavik

7:30pm: arrive in Reykjavik, check into Hotel, eat

Evening: go to either Sky Lagoon or a community pool. I feel that I could be influenced in either direction TBH

Monday 8-9am: golden circle tour. For example, this one run by Gray Line seems to start at 8am and last 7 hours, which seems like it would fit into the window

4:30pm: Take flybus back to airport

I welcome any feedback. Thanks in advance.

Hello, I am going on a hybrid work-pleasure trip in the next two weeks and I was seeking advice on how to travel between the cities on my itinerary in the best fashion. It is relevant that I am 25 and American.

• July 12: Flight to Amsterdam, heading directly to Leuven for business
• July 13-17: Leuven (everything after this is personal travel)
• July 18: Leuven to Brussels
• July 19: Brussels to Amsterdam
• July 19-22: Amsterdam
• July 22: Amsterdam to Antwerp
• July 23: Day trip to Bruges, return to Antwerp
• July 24: Antwerp to Delft
• July 25: day trip to the Hague
• July 26: Delft/Hague to Amsterdam, where I am flying

Yes, I get that its not the most effective to visit Amsterdam in the middle of the trip but it's just sort of how it had to happen because I coordinated that part with a friend. Anyways, because there is a lot of travelling in between the netherlands and belgium, as well as some sections where I am travelling just inside of both countries, I wanted to ask: are there passes or things I should know about that would make my travels cheaper, assuming I am taking trains between all destinations?

I've looked into Eurail Benelux, which is $119 for 3 days of travel-- it turns out that for the 3 international bits (Bruss-> Ams, Ams->Antw, Ant->Delft, I think I can get Ams->Leuv reimbursed from my work) it comes out to about the same price. In that case, for max flexibility, I should probably get an Eurail pass since it theoretically gives me more flexibility than if I bought the tickets for those legs directly, right? If anyone has any experiences with Eurail, I'd love to hear it, especially before shelling out >100 dollars haha

But I'm left wondering if there are better options, that I'm missing. I've looked into NS seasonal passes, but you have to be a Dutch resident in order to benefit from them. I think this is also the case with any sort of loyalty or discount scheme with Belgium domestic trains, but I could be wrong.

For the domestic travel within Belgium and NL, I'm under the impression that city-to-city tickets (off-peak) are usually <10 euro each, maybe even cheaper given I am a "youth" but I also wonder if there are day-passes etc. Especially if they offer reciprocity with regional travel. Also if anyone knows anything about regional travel (like if there are things that I can buy into that give me access to multiple forms of regional travel, or if I have to. sigh download a new app for each city I visit). Thanks in advance for any insight, and I welcome any opinions about my itinerary, even though my accomodations are already booked.

my freezer is always full AF which makes it hard to vacate the room to fit an ice cube tray that has to lie flat in the fridge. Even the ones with “no spill lids” im under the impression you have to put flat on the rack of your freezer in order to make the ice cubes, meaning you have to take stuff out of the freezer, put the ice cube tray in, then put everything back (maybe this would be easier with a lidded tray, but it sucks with an open-air tray)

I wish I could just put water in some sort of bag and toss it in the fridge. I know they make disposable ice cube bags that work exactly as I described, but I’m irked by the waste (and honestly, all the products I can find have poor reviews regarding their quality). It’s 2026, surely there has to be a better way. Does anybody know of any better solutions that would make like, normal sized ice cubes that I can just cram into my freezer at a random angle?

hello, I am a student going to belgium for a conference, and I had some questions about potential places to stay, things to do. ill be there for two weeks, the first in leuven (for work), and the second is purely personal travel, i’m going to Brussels and Amsterdam with a friend. This has already been planned out. However, between my friend departing from Amsterdam (July 22) and my flight out of Amsterdam (July 26), my plans have become a bit more uncertain. this is what i was roughly thinking:

*July 22: early afternoon, head from Amsterdam to Antwerp, where I would stay
*July 23: Day trip from Antwerp to Bruges
*July 24: Day trip to Ghent
*July 25: early morning head to some NL city that I didnt get to visit: Delft? the Hague? Rotterdam? Leiden?
*July 26th: head to Amsterdam in early afternoon for early evening flight

My questions are:

1. ⁠ive seen a lot of discussion about staying in Ghent vs staying in Antwerp. I also know that there is a big festival while I would plan to visit Ghent and wonder, does that makes Ghent more or less appealing to stay in? I like a festival alright, though I think I find the idea of looking at architecture and museums more interesting. Although the festival is supposed to be a large cultural affair in its own right. I could see how staying in the city would make it easier to enjoy the festival without the trepidation of having to travel back to my base… unless the festival makes it hard to travel or would make it annoying to stay there.
2. ⁠where should i spend my final day before my flight? i thought a city near amsterdam would be a good mix of seeing another NL city but also being close enough to have easy travel for my flight. I’ve heard good things about all the cities I’ve named, but ideally I’d see things that I didnt get to see in Amsterdam/Brussels etc. (I realize that this may not be the correct sub for this part of the post but I figure that there could be some use in including it)
3. ⁠general thoughts on my itinerary or general suggestions that would influence me

hello, I am a student going to belgium for a conference, and I had some questions about potential places to stay, things to do. ill be there for two weeks, the first in leuven (for work), and the second is purely personal travel, i’m going to Brussels and Amsterdam with a friend. This has already been planned out. However, between my friend departing from Amsterdam (July 22) and my flight out of Amsterdam (July 26), my plans have become a bit more uncertain. this is what i was roughly thinking:

*July 22: early afternoon, head from Amsterdam to Antwerp, where I would stay
*July 23: Day trip from Antwerp to Bruges
*July 24: Day trip to Ghent
*July 25: early morning head to some NL city that I didnt get to visit: Delft? the Hague? Rotterdam? Leiden?
*July 26th: head to Amsterdam in early afternoon for early evening flight

My questions are:

1. ive seen a lot of discussion about staying in Ghent vs staying in Antwerp. I also know that there is a big festival while I would plan to visit Ghent and wonder, does that makes Ghent more or less appealing to stay in? I like a festival alright, though I think I find the idea of looking at architecture and museums more interesting. Although the festival is supposed to be a large cultural affair in its own right. I could see how staying in the city would make it easier to enjoy the festival without the trepidation of having to travel back to my base… unless the festival makes it hard to travel or would make it annoying to stay there.
2. where should i spend my final day before my flight? i thought a city near amsterdam would be a good mix of seeing another NL city but also being close enough to have easy travel for my flight. I’ve heard good things about all the cities I’ve named, but ideally I’d see things that I didnt get to see in Amsterdam/Brussels etc.
3. general thoughts on my itinerary or general suggestions that would influence me

my bf and I can't seem to agree on whether the grounds is broken up into multiple sub-locations and steps decrement upon the transition between those areas, or if it's roughly based on the distance you move, or some combination of the two. point in his favor: when you move in and out of the >!orchard!<, the steps decrement, but also there are some times when it seems like the steps decrement at random places.

what prompted this post: we ended a run with a few steps and figured we'd travel around the grounds to use out my remaining steps. Ended up going to the >!chess board puzzle room and randomly was able to solve it. Though walking around the room looking at the different options, our step count went to zero (we had shoes and it kept proc'ing so we thought we'd be fine)!! So it can't purely be a matter of invisible sublocations, because why would there be a location transition inside of the chessboard room!! And unfortunately, the puzzle resets upon calling it a day, so we'll have to get lucky with another run in order to capitalize on the chesspiece bonuses.!< ;_;

looking around, the wiki seems to suggest that it's a matter of location divisions, but maybe the divisions were drawn on the surface, and therefore cut through some of the underground things in unfortunate ways. or maybe its based partially on how many steps you take too?