Bluelark

Im looking for help planning a one week itinerary for Amsterdam, with maybe a day trip two. This is a couple in their late 20s traveling from New York City the first week of April. Will have six days and nights, not counting travel time. Would like to get the experience of the city, and the Netherlands, without being too rushed. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I've gotten such great help and guidance on this forum in the past.

Rastaguytoday

I've stayed in 4-5 different hotels in Amsterdam, but my favorite is the Owl Hotel. Moderately priced, great location and on a quiet street. http://www.owl-hotel.nl/gb/

The Keukenhof will still be going when you go, so I would suggest going there. Don't go on a weekend, as it gets crowded with German Tour buses. http://www.keukenhof.nl/

I've been all over the Netherlands, but mostly by car. However, their train system is excellent, so there are many towns you can go to.

To get a flavor of a small town in Holland, try Haarlem. It's an easy train ride and close to Amsterdam. Here's a Rick Steve's narrative on Haarlem.
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/desti...en/bd-haar.htm

A canal tour is a must in Amsterdam, as in visiting one or more of the museums. The Van Gogh is my favorite.

Have a Rijstafel dinner. My favorite restaurant is Sama Sebo.
http://www.samasebo.nl/en/ Not too expensive.

There's much much more, but that's a start from me.

fbtje

For planning your train/bus/tram/subway trips you can best use one of these websites:
http://9292.nl/en or
http://www.nshispeed.nl/enutm_source...ign=alg_ns_web.

At this moment i' m planning a trip to the USA. I often use www.tripadvisor.com to search for hotels and things to do at places we go. You can also compare different hotel booking sites.

Btw rastaguytoday: The buses in Holland will probably not be German, since Holland is that little country beside Germany ;-). Never mind, that's a common mistake ;-).

fbtje

Ah I see I was a little too quick with my answer, you really did mean German tour buses haha, I am so sorry.....

isabel

I have stayed in Amsterdam and in Haarlem - they are only fifteen minutes apart. Advantage to Haarlem is that it's less expensive, quieter, and a lovely town. Advantage to Amsterdam is that you are right in the center, can go back to the hotel mid day easily.

In addition to the usual things to see in Amsterdam really try to make time to visit some of the smaller cities: Haarlelm, Delft, Leiden, Gouda. They are all very easy, quick train rides. You can do more than one in a day, or do half day in one of them the other half in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a great place but I found the smaller towns even more interesting.

My trip report: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...etherlands.cfm

Photos: http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/netherlands

Rastaguytoday

fbtje,

It wasn't that long ago, I took a morning back way into the Keukenhof. Beautiful, as all the tulip beds were there and the road was almost empty.

It was on a Saturday.

Coming back, the road was clogged to a stop with German buses, unless they've moved cities like Frankfurt, Hamburg or Dusseldorf to Holland. I don't think so.

Seems the buses all had the cities they were from on the sides of each bus. As the buses were stopped, I got a good look at each one of them.

Due to extended business, I've spent months in Holland and months in Germany. I'm guessing I know which is which.

isabel,

I've also stayed in Haarlem. Lovely town and worth a stay. The other towns you mention are worth visiting also. I used to be in the Netherlands for 3 weeks at a time and would go exploring on the weekend. Lots to see.