Day trip from Amsterdam?
 

Can anyone recommend a nice place to go for a day trip from Amsterdam? We are going to be on September Holland/Belgium/Luxemburg Trafalgar tour but we'll have an extra couple of days in Amsterdam and having spent time there twice before, thought we'd take a day trip somewhere else and go somewhere we hadn't been before. Our tour takes us through Delft, Rotterdam, Haarzuilens, Maastrict, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Mons, Brussels, Dinant, Orval and Bastogne. Thanks!

Sue

Go out to the restored Dutch village of Zaanse Schans - lovely place. Train station is Koog-Zaandijk, if I remember right. No admission, lots of windmills, farm animals, artisans, crepes.

Hague
an hour by train, nice town, good museum ( famous Vermeer paintings)
you take a tram tram Hague to the coast - about 20 minutes ( beaches and a zillion restaurants)

I am a fan of the Hague(Den Haag) as well. The city is large but divided into sections so it's comfortable to explore.

Utrecht is also a great student town with lots of atmosphere especially along the canal. It's a Dutch version of San Antonio. Very different than the Amsterdam canal.

easy to reacht by train, go to haarlem and visit Frans Hals Museum, have a drink at a terrace on market Square etc.
Also Alkmaar is very easy.

I agree with the open air museum Zaanse Shans.We had a wonderful time there and you can see pictures & details starting here:
http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/6...87F70E309.html

There is a working windmill and we enjoyed all the different wooden shoes and watching them make them and the cheese demonstration etc.

I also recommend Edam which we loved ( great place to rent bikes and explore the countryside) :
http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/1...52F9F39CC.html

I would definitely choose the Hague, so easy with the intercity train (perhaps 30 min) see the Mauritshuis, the museum is a gem not only for the Vermeers.
And do not miss a quite unknows but unique small museum with one of the last panaroma paintings in Europe: The panorama Mesdag! just great (an enormous round painting with unique perspective effects - in fact you are standing inside the painting.) Worth a visit!
ivee

I agree Panorama Mesdag is just incredible, yet so few people visit it. Whilst in Den Haag you can also go to Madurodam (minature town) or Scheveningen to see the sea.....
But Zaanse Schans is also a good place to visit.

Here's another vote for den Hague. As previous posters mentioned, the Mauritshuis with it's famous Vermeer paintings, and the Panorama Mesdag are definately worth the trip. Take the tram out to Scheveningen and stick your toe in the North Sea.

My favorite museum in den Hague is Escher in Het Palais, which features three floors of Escher's works, in somewhat chronological order. While I have always enjoyed him as an artist, I got to appreciate him as a mathmatician and a printmaker. On the third floor is a virtual reality tour where you step right into several of his more popular pieces. It was my only virtual reality experience, and it blew me away.

Haarlem or Utrecht (& Gouda) would be my other choices. Peace, Robyn :)>-

Hi S,

The Hague, Haarlem or Gouda.

((I))

I am happy with other posters 'backing up' the Panorama ...! Perhaps through the Forum we'll make it a bit more known! (I have no shares in it...!)

ivee

I don't know if it is still an option, but many years ago I took a day-long tour out of Amsterdam with stops in Zaanse Schans, Edam, Marken, and Volendam. I enjoyed seeing and learning about windmills and polders, the difference between traditional Catholic and Protestant villages, and the making of cheese and chocolate and wooden clogs. I booked it at an office in Amsterdam. Hope that helps!

Wow! Too many good choices. What if we were less interested in museums (we'll be seeing many on our tour) and more interested in picturesque (quaint and charming) places with interesting architecture, shopping and food? And seeing some nice countryside along the way. Thanks again.

Sue

Will you have a car?
If so consider driving up through Noord-Holland. You can visit Zaanse Schans, do the touristy villages of Volendam etc or carry on up and go over to Friesland. Lovely villages like Hindeloopen and towns like Harlingen and Franeker. Nice countryside (very flat of course!) and in palces like Harlingen you can eat well too. Plus you get to see one of the wonders of the Dutch fight against the sea - the Afsluitdijk which separates the North sea from The Ijsselmeer (former Zuyderzee).
Or closer to Amsterdam you could visit Naarden and Bunschoten-Spakenburg, then go on to Amersfoort or Utrecht. Or stick to Den Haag - lots of interesting buildings, shopping and good food.

hetismij

wow...: zuyderzee, Ijsselmeer, Panorama Mesdag??? all spelled right? I am now convinced you are a Dutch Fodorite....!
het is mij?
ik ben het ook!

ivee

ivee, a brit living for 25 years in provincie Utrecht...more Dutch than Brit now :)

Den Haag has a great charming shopping scene that my wife really enjoyed. You just need to walk like 10 blocks straight from the trin station. We're also not too much into museums, more into relaxing and enjoying the area.

Utrecht can be enjoyed in the evening by having dinner in one of the many restaurants along the sunken canal where the happy students float around on various boats singing or doing silly things. It's like watching a floating theatre stage. You can take the train back to A'dam afterward.

If you are not so interested in museums, I will put in another vote Zaanse-Schans. I lived in A'dam for a year and a half, and never made it up there. But this past fall, I went back to visit (with my mother) and we both loved this 'open air' museum.

Another non-museum museum option is the open air art museum to the south (I forgot the name, I anyone else remembers, please chime in!). It's a park with modern sculptures interspersed throughout. They also have free bikes to use throughout the park.

I haven't been, but my dutch friends always recommend Maastricht. Easily accesible by train for a day trip.

hetismij, You've suggested Friseland to me on another thread and it looks like an awesome place. I just want to say thanks.

<i>Another non-museum museum option is the open air art museum to the south (I forgot the name, I anyone else remembers, please chime in!). It's a park with modern sculptures interspersed throughout. They also have free bikes to use throughout the park. </i>

Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller in de Hoge Veluwe

Peace, Robyn :)&gt;-