Let's Talk A Little Amsterdam!..

Basel is cool but but it's 24-36 hours cool, IMO.

Of course it's a little more than an hour from Lucerne and 90ish minutes from Strasbourg by train so you could certainly put together a good back end trip.

I'd probably do Amsterdam on the front end for a couple days and Basel + a day trip on the back end.

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Wife and I are thinking about doing a Rhine River cruise next April. Can fly into Amsterdam or Brussels. She wants to go to Bruges (I was there years ago and it's certainly beautiful). We're thinking maybe 4 days prior to the cruise for this.

Never been to Amsterdam other than flying through it. Thoughts on either city as a base? Side trips? Other alternatives? We end up in Basel Switzerland. Spend more time there on the back-end of the trip instead?

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I'm thinking more about pace/timing rather than destinations. Are you the type who will be worn out by a few days of independent travel & then be relaxed by the river cruise? Or will the river cruise be a bit staid & slow paced, so you'll be ready to explore more freely after a week stuck on a boat with a very mature crowd?

For a vacation, I'd take Amsterdam over Brussels if it's a city against city comparison.

As a base for a vacation, I'd take Brussels because of its proximity to other places in Europe and the the abundance of train options you have (EuroStar can get you to London, Paris or Amsterdam in a couple hours from Brussels).

As for side trips near Amsterdam, there are numerous, but this is an interesting one: Tulips

Don't laugh, it's actually pretty awesome and your wife would likely love it.

And it will be open in April.

Thank you all for some great advice. We are looking into some of the recommendations as we speak. We have kind of gravitated towards looking into spending some time on the backend at either Freiburg Germany or Colmar France.

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Let's Talk A Little Amsterdam!..

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Most bland and overrated city in Europe. There are a plethora of much, much better places imho.