Hi - My sister and I visited Amsterdam a few years ago, and want to return to visit the Netherlands again next summer. We would like to explore some other towns, and would love to have any suggestions (thinking old architechture, markets, canals, etc). We are considering Gouda - with a visit to the Thursday cheese market. Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks!

My favorite is Delft. Canals and bicycles and more bicycles. There is a market on Thursday with veggies, fish, baked goods, candy, clothing, and all kinds of things. On Saturday there is a flea market. I like going to both. The town is small and pretty. You can easily walk from the train station, just watch out for bicycles.

Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Arnhem and Utrecht are all worth a visit. Great museums, architecture, restaurants and people.

Madurodam (in Rotterdam) is touristy but you can see all of the Netherlands in an afternoon. Interesting post-war reconstruction and some interesting contemporary buildings and bridges. The harbor and canal system interesting.

Fun "Music Box" museum in Utrecht and try the restaurants on the canal edge.

Leiden is a university town with the supporting cosmopolitan attitude.

Nice open air museum ("village" style) bus and short walk from train station in Arnhem. Shows all kinds of Dutch farm homes and industries with costumed presenters.

My first choice would be Delft.

My second suggestion would be Den Haag.

Both of these towns have old architechture and canals.
Also, it is easy to take a tram #1 (not to be confused with the train) between these two towns, the route is scenic and takes about 20 mins.

Correction to lukehead: Madurodam is in Den Haag.

Utrecht
Maastricht
Thorn
No city but an area...to see burial ancient chambers in the area of Drenthe
http://www.hunebedden.com/

Middelburg, Dordrecht, Deventer, Kampen, Naarden are all also lovely.
Naarden is an old fortified town with it's walls still intact and a lovely old church, with a beautiful painted ceiling and cannon balls in the walls. It is easy to get to by train/bus from Amsterdam.
I would personally give Utrecht a miss for a year or two - they are busy with the centre at the moment and it is a mess. The canals and museums are still lovely but you have to get through a lot of mess to get to them. It is only going to get worse next year when they start building on the main square there too.
Breda is another lovely city, and not so visited by tourists. It was voted nicest city centre in the Netherlands recently.

Delft and Den Haag were our favorites. It is not a town but we really enjoyed the 19 windmills at Kinderdijk, the setting is more natural and very pleasing.

we loved Schagen, Sneek ,Langweer, Steenwijk, Elburg and Hardewijk..

Base yourselves at Den Haag and you will be able to take the tram over to Delft in a short time;visit the city of the Hague with lots of great museums,shopping and restaurants and then also have the chance to ride the tram(about 5-10 minutes depending) out to Scheweigenan(sp?) which is the beach area on the channel with great fun restaurants,etc.My airlines lays over in Den Haag and we love it because there is so much to do.

Really liked Maastricht the last time I visited Holland. I used this blog to get some ideas: http://www.nederfun.com

Have fun!

Gouda and Maastricht. But Maastricht should be an overnight. If you are staying in Amsterdam, we enjoyed a long day trip on the train to Gouda, then Den Haag and back to Amsterdam. Richard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gouda and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/maastricht http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hague

dulciholly it has been some time since you posted, Have you reached any conclusion as to which places you wish to visit?