Trip Introduction: Cheese and Chocolate in Western Europe

Our latest adventure takes us back to Europe, this time to both Amsterdam and Brussels. Both cities have a lot of activities for kids, and plenty of delicious food.

*Earning our stroopwafel cooking certificates*

This trip occurred in November 2025.

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Reason for the trip

We enjoyed our last trip to Europe during the holidays. Europe is big on Christmas markets, and we wanted to relive a bit of that action. Our habit has been to spend the Thanksgiving holiday away from home, both because it’s a little more pleasant without all the pageantry while abroad and to avoid the excessive commercialization of Black Friday.

That brings us to this trip. We had visions of revisiting Amsterdam, which we hadn’t been to since Alex was 1. And, boy, did we love the revisit. Amsterdam might be known for its rich history and its recreational drug use or red light district. However, the kids were enthralled by it, especially when it came to the sheer volume of cheese. Cheese addicts would feel quite at home here and all throughout the Netherlands.

On top of that, we wanted to go somewhere new. We settled on Brussels, home to chocolate, waffles, and fries. Don’t call them french fries — they should be Belgium fries as they were invented here. If the kids weren’t full from all the cheese they ate in Amsterdam, they were completely stuffed by the end of our time in Brussels. Practically everything we did in Brussels was kid-focused (sorry, I needed to go to the beer museum but the kids are welcome there too).

However, the Christmas markets in these cities don’t start until the very end of November. We completely missed the market in Amsterdam. In Brussels, our last full night in the city was the first night of the market. At least we caught a little bit of it! It can be a little tough to align travel with Christmas markets when booking flights 11 months in advance, but it’s all good. We had a great night here. And to assist others with their planning, we’ll actually start with our time at the Christmas market before touching the rest of the trip.

Flights

Based in LAX, it’s always tough finding nonstop flights between the US and Europe. That sometimes forces us to reposition, and in this case, we connected in Chicago on our way to Europe.

United economy LAX-ORD

I’m not going to spend any meaningful time discussing our domestic economy flight from LAX to Chicago ORD on United. It’s pretty standard, booked at a price of 20,000 United miles per person. It’s really not that great of a rate. However, it was a must that we got to Chicago on this particular flight (I really don’t want a redeye). So, out of necessity, I went with this flight and had to pay more for it.

There were a few noteworthy things about the flight:

The kids had fun visiting the cockpit, and the first officer admitted that United’s trading cards are not as nice as Delta’s.
Jenn had some mystery liquid waiting for her in her seat, the start of bad seat luck for this trip.
I ordered the cheeseburger, which hits the spot but isn’t anywhere near Delta’s Shake Shack collaboration.

KLM Business Class ORD-AMS

To book this flight, I tried maximizing my Delta Diamond status, which gave me four Global Upgrade Certificates (GUCs). On top of using those for Delta flights, you can also use them on partner flights. For the most part, this involves paying for premium economy or full fare options. In the case of KLM, you can still use them to upgrade from the cheapest economy fares. Awesome!

I paid $768/passenger for the economy tickets, and then upgraded to business class using my Delta GUCs. For the purposes of earning credit, I received mileage and MQM as though I booked business class from the start. Not bad!

The flight itself was enjoyable. It would have been nicer if the flight were a bit longer since it’s a little challenging getting sleep on flights to Europe. These flights, especially from the east coast, never feel long enough to get a lot of sleep. On top of that, service was a bit slow on KLM, so that adds to the fatigue. Still, we overall enjoyed it and wouldn’t mind giving it another try in the future.

Brussels Airlines Business Class BRU-ZRH

When leaving Europe, we flew on Brussels Airlines on a connecting flight back to the United States. European business class cabins are always a bit strange. The seats are the same as regular economy seats, but the middle seat is blocked. On top of that, you get lounge access, checked bags, and a meal. It’d be nice if US-based airlines figured out how to give a meal on short, hour-long flights.

Combined with the SWISS flight below, I paid 56,000 Miles & More miles per adult and 42,000 miles per child (a 25% discount) for the routing back to the US. Originally, I actually booked Lufthansa to take us all the way home. However, Lufthansa had a schedule change, and that allowed me to switch to SWISS for free. Yes, you still have a sizeable fuel surcharge fee (YQ) to pay with Miles & More miles. But I always view this as the price of buying an economy flight and upgrading to business.

SWISS Business Class ZRH-LAX

Our flight home to Los Angeles was lengthy. This flight would have been long enough to work as a flight to Europe, but it’s tough to find reasonably-priced award space to Europe from the west coast. But, we’ll take the convenience in any direction.

Overall, SWISS was enjoyable. We’ll eventually share our thoughts on which carrier has the best business class offering across the pond, but I’d say it was above average. Although, you can also argue that what contributed to it was us snagging two “throne seats”. Normally, these cost money to reserve them prior to your flight. However, I parlayed my Delta Diamond elite status to British Airways Gold status to ITA Executive status, which matched to Lufthansa Senator status. And Senators can reserve these seats for free in advance.

Sometimes being on the status match train helps in ways you don’t fully expect.

With Jenn and I taking throne seats, that meant the kids got to sit next to each other, which they greatly enjoyed.

Train

To get between Amsterdam and Brussels, we took the Eurostar train. Yes, there are plenty of flights between the cities, but I’d frankly rather not fly if we can avoid it. That holds especially true when the alternative is a train and that’s not as expensive.

I booked our tickets in first class for 556€, or 139€ per person. Sure, I could have booked regular economy for cheaper, but I was saving money anyways compared to a flight, so I justified it in my head. The trip was fairly uneventful, but we at least got a set of four seats that faced each other. I think that helps with the kids.

We got a little tripped up from the strikes in Brussels. If there’s one thing you should know about Europe, it’s that people there are not opposed to striking. Our train was delayed by a bit over an hour, but the good news is that travel protections also apply to trains, so we got a 25% refund on our tickets. I wish we had that back in The States!

Hotels

Thompson Chicago

Given our connection in Chicago, we needed a quick overnight stay in the city. I debated staying by the airport, but with a mid-afternoon departure, it felt like a waste of a day to not be closer to Chicago. Thus, when I found a good non-refundable rate for the Thompson Chicago, I jumped on it.

This hotel isn’t quite as close to the action as you’d like it to be. But if you’re fine with a 10 minute walk to the metro, you can make it work. The hotel felt happening, even around midnight, but up in the room it’s not too bad. You’ll hear sirens at night, but it’s kind of hard not to hear them anywhere.

And if you have Globalist status, you’ll find absolutely huge breakfasts in the hotel restaurant. Hope you’re hungry.

Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht

In Amsterdam, we decided to stick with Hyatt. We’ve been to the Hyatt Regency before, and so wanted to check out the Andaz this time. Unfortunately, the Andaz didn’t have rooms big enough to fit a family of four. One of the better lesser-known options is the family rate option, whereby you can tack on a second room for up to a 50% discount. Hyatt Globalists get a personal concierge, and she was able to ensure us in connecting rooms.

Yes, Europe in November can be a little cold. We were actually in town the same day as their first snow of the season. So that meant the kids needed plenty of cold-weather gear. Though they complained a little about how much they had to bundle up, I think they kind of enjoyed it.

Hilton Brussels Grand Place

Our last hotel of the journey was the Hilton Brussels Grand Place, whose best feature is being in an excellent location in town. It’s extremely convenient if you’re looking to go to the airport or anywhere else in the city, since it’s right next to the train/metro station.

This hotel has family rooms with a nice set of bunk beds. The kids enjoyed all the space we had, and it was nice not having to fund two rooms. The hotel itself is a bit dated, but we still had a pleasant time. And I’m not quite sure why, but I still have Hilton Gold status. I once had the Hilton Aspire card, which gave Diamond status, but no other card that confers Hilton elite status. After I dropped the Hilton Aspire card, I thought I would drop all the way down to no status. However, the hotel recognized I had Gold status and gave us free breakfast. I’ll take it!

Thanks for reading along

We’ll get more into everything we did on our trip. But before we get to all the individual posts, we just wanted to extend our thanks to you, the reader. We’re appreciative that you want to read along on our adventures. Hope it helps you when planning your own adventures!

As always, we will give you the good along with the bad to help you make an informed decision for yourselves.

food.wada.travel

experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children