6 days in Netherlands
 

Hello all,

I am flying into Amsterdam at 9:00am on June 6th and will be flying out at 9:00pm on June 11th. I have essentially 6 days (4 full, and 2 with travel at start and end), and 5 nights. I am looking to see Amsterdam obviously, but would like to explore the Netherlands as a country as much as I can given the short time line. I was originally thinking that I would spend my first day (that I arrive) and my last day (that I leave) as well as 1.5 or 2 other full days in the city and surrounds. The other two I was looking at doing either day trips from Amsterdam or a two day excursion where I would go to visit somewhere, stay overnight and then visit something else on my way back. This would cut down on travel time at least.

Does any one have any recommendations as to what to do to fill this vague timeline and/or does anyone suggest different options?

I would like to see Delft, Kinderdjik, The Hogue Veluwe National Park (is this worth my time?), Haarlem (possibly mixed in with an Amsterdam city day), possibly Leiden and/or The Hague, Rotterdam?

Obviously I will not be able to see all of these places, but Delft and Kinderdjik are definitely going to happen.

What do you all suggest I do in terms of making the most efficient use of my time and what places can I pair up to see in a single day?

I am a hard traveller, meaning I get up early and go to bed late, and don't mind cramming as much in as I can, of course within reason as I want to enjoy what I am experiencing.

Any accommodation recommendations would be awesome too, for Amsterdam or any other place which may get suggested as an overnight stopover.

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.

None of the cities you mention are more than the equivalent of a long NYC subway ride. If that is acceptable to you, I would stay in Amsterdam and do day trips. For change of pace, you might be interested in a town like Enkhuizen which has a skansen and a museum of the history of shipping. You might want to take a look at my trip report from lst year; click on my name to find it.

The Hogue Veluwe National Park is so worthwhile, great art gallery, fine walking

Some ideas for your Amsterdam sojourn:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ite-things.cfm

Delft and Kinderdijk can easily be combined though a bit tricky by public transortation - take a train to Delft - do that and then go onto Rotterdam - you can take some kind of boats to the Kinderdijk area or go by tram/bus/ferry to Krimpen (name?) - return to Rotterdam for trains back to Amsterdam.

Would be a rather long day though.

Bookmarking. Thanks again to all of you

Another very enjoyable thing to do near Arnhem in addition to visiting Hoge Veluwe is to go the Openlucht Museum, which has fascinating examples of historic buildings (and if you like old transport, some wonderful examples of that too). I stayed two days out in that area to do both that and the Kroller-Muller Museum & the park.

Rotterdam - Kinderdijk can be easily done by taking the Waterbus from Erasmusbrug (Willemskade) stop to Ridderkerk and by changing to the Kinderdijk ferry there. An idea to continue your journey up river would be to go to Dordrecht after that (Kinderdijk - Ridderkerk then change to Dordrecht). Dordrecht is the city where the Dutch Republic began, one might say. It's quite a beautiful, provincial Dutch city, in many ways resembling Delft or Leiden.

Our bike tours went thru Dordrecht so I know that town well and yes it though may not look as ancient as say towns with canals in their centrums - has a unique look and feel - on the Rhine or whatever they call it here is a plus - great idea to bike Kinderdijk to Dordrecht then take train back with bike from there.

Dordrecht is beautifully situated on the Merwede and has a number of harbours that are beautiful.

http://boat-hotel.com/wp-content/upl.../dordrecht.jpg

It's in Dordrecht that the Dutch uprising really began: Delft, Leiden or Amsterdam weren't even in the picture then, and of course Dordt was the gateway to the southern provinces "below the rivers" and so a real Calvinist frontier town at the edge of a historic conflict. And the Dutch language was born in Dordrecht, because it was there that the first "uniform" translation of the bible was written and authorized by the then newly minted protestant Dutch republic: the Statenbijbel.

http://www.fowlerbiblecollection.com/staten-bible.html

Thank you for all the feedback so far. It sounds like, although nice, the Hoge Veluwe would be lower on the list of interesting things to see based on my time line. I am also from BC, Canada so we have lots of wildlife and forests here which may make it less exciting.

This is what I am roughly thinking based on your feedback and that of another forum on Lonely Planet:

Day 1) Arrive in Amsterdam at 9am, check in by 11am. Visit Haarlem and then on to Leiden for the day, train back to Amsterdam after dinner. Gives me 4 or so hours in each place.

Day 2) Train from Amsterdam to The Hague for a brief visit (2 hours or so), then train to Delft to spend most of the day, and finally to Rotterdam for the nights accommodation.

Day 3) Poke around Rotterdam in the morning for a couple of hours, take the ferry to Kinderdjik, rent a bike to ride the area (spend a few hours), and go onward to Dordrecht in the afternoon (spend a few hours). Take a train that evening from Dordrecht back to Amsterdam (says it is just over an hour).

Day 4) Day in Amsterdam

Day 5) Day in Amsterdam

Day 6) Day in Amsterdam, fly out at 9pm

Does this seem reasonable? Anything I should cut out? Or anything I should replace? (I don't think I will have time to go out East to Hoge Veluwe and Arnhem and going North will take time too. It appears that most of the main attractions are in the area I have outlined).

I am meeting a friend in Amsterdam on the evening of the 8th so this would get all of my exploring done before that and give me 3 nights and 3 days with him in Amsterdam to explore and party.

Thoughts?

Also, does anyone have any feedback on The Flying Pig Uptown hostel in Amsterdam? It reads pretty well and is right next door to my buddies hotel...

One of your Amsterdam days, day 5 for instance, could also be have an afternoon in Utrecht. It's 30 minutes by train from Amsterdam Centraal, and a nice city for an afternoon's stroll and look around.

Flying Pigs hostels have been around in Amsterdam a long time - the flagship one abutting Vondel Park and the 'uptown' one in the centrum. For a hostel gets good reviews - kind of Bohemian - lots of pot smoking - nice bar, etc from reviews I've read. See what Let's Go Europe says about it.

Oops - got mixed up on Uptown and Downtown - Flying Pig Uptown does about Vondel Park so in a much calmer area and I think the hostel is a bit more calm than the one a friend stayed at Downtown - kind of grubby and yes real Bohemian.