We will be in Amsterdam in the beginning of October. Which would be nicer for a half-day to full-day trip? Delft or Haarlem. Or any other? We like walking a city to see sights. Not much museum people, more architecture, cafés.

I would be hard pressed to pick one over the other, having visited them both several times - but for a half-day Haarlem, being only about 15 mins by train from Amsterdamned would be my choice - for a whole day it would be a toss up - if you are interested in touring the famous Porceleyne Fles Delftware factory in Delft then that would tip to that. If interested in old Flemish masters then the Frans Hal Museum, in a lovely old monastery in Haarlem would be my choice.

Delftware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Delftware became popular and was widely exported in Europe and even reached China and Japan. Chinese and Japanese potters made porcelain versions of ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delftware -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Koni...orceleyne_Fles

the latter the official site of the Porceleyne Fles - i have toured the factory several times - can see crafts folk making the venerable porcelain (not always on weekends) - about a mile out of Delft, on a canal.)

Have not been to Haarlem, but thoroughly enjoyed our day trip to Delft. The train trip took about an hour and the center of the town is about a 10 minute walk from the train station.

Zaanse Schans and its collection of behemoth working windmills is another close by to Amsterdamned day trip - the windmills are not in an open-air museum showcasing life in the 1700s and 1800s in the former Zuider Zee area - lots of traditional structures have been brought here from a wide region. Very very popular with Dutch

http://www.zaanseschans.nl/

and since it is close to Haarlem as well you could take a train to Zaanse Schans (Koog Zaandijk station) and then go over to Haarlem by train the same day (via a change of trains at Sloterdijk) for a full day with two vastly different components.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaanse_Schans

We did Haarlem one day and Leiden and Delft another day, all easy to reach by train.

For proximity, I'd probably recommend Haarlem, but we did take a day trip to Delft and Den Hague.

The Teylors museum is worth a look while in Haarlem. Very diverse exhibits. If memory serves, there is a town gate and a cute bridge near the museum. I like the town square (there is a neat geometric pattern in the bricks). St. Bavos is impressive inside and out.

I have some pictures of Delft and Harleem that might help. I liked Delft, Madouran, Zaanse Schans and Leiden.

Madouran is a miniature town that I suprisingly loved
http://www.tropix.co.uk/Themes/miniature_town.htm
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/264...43572607wpCeuh

Zaanse Schans is an outdoor musueam and have pictires of new born goats. I remember it being a lovely day trip.

Leiden is a quaint iniversity town with a nice square. Had a wonderful hot chocoalte int he square.

HArleem has a market several days during teh week and is very close to Amsterdam.

I am topping on of my Dads old trip reports search on the area so you dont need to read the whole thing.

http://community.webshots.com/user/actorz

I would give the edge ever so slightly to Delft. It has a bit more country charm. I like Haarlem, but it seems more like Amsterdam than does Delft.