help with public transportations in Amsterdam suburb
 

I am planning two day trips to the small towns near Amsterdam. Here are the places in my wish
list:

Zaans Schans
Haarlem
Marken and Volendam
Muiderslot
(possibly)Aalsmeer


The ideal situation would be:

Zaans Schans + Marken + Volendam for one day
Muiderslot + Aalsmeer for another day

I can find directions from Amsterdam Centraal Station to each of the places, but don't know how to get from one place to another without going back to the Centraal Station.

Do all the Holland experts here know which bus routes to used? Any web site that I can go to find public transportation routes, perferably in English?

nemonemo1 -

The web site for public transportation in Amsterdam can be found at:

www.gvb.nl

I am assuming you want to go to Aalsmeer for the Flower Market - if so you should do this FIRST thing in the morning to get there in time for the Dutch auctions (bidding starts high and goes down). You can get there by taking Bus #172 from Leidesplein to Aalsmeer.

Muiderslot is located on the other side of Amsterdam. When we were there in 1998 we took the train from Centraal Station to Amsterdam Amstel then took bus #136 to Muiden.

You might want to double-check the bus lines with your hotel before you journey out on your day trip, just in case there have been changes/alternate routes made to the lines.

In all our visits to Amsterdam, we never made it up to Marken & Volendam, or to Zaans Schans, but I believe all of those are accessible by train.

Utrecht is an easy day trip from Amsterdam also (33 minutes). The Domtoren provides beautiful views if you care to climb the 465 steps to the top. And the National Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement (Clock & Calliope) is very interesting. The canals in Utrecht are at basement level (Amsterdam is street level) which gives a different feel to wandering around the canals. If you visit Utrecht, you can also easily visit Gouda (22 minutes from Utrecht) which is a lovely little town with a magnificent Stadhuis.

Hope this info sets you in the right direction. Other easy day trips from Amsterdam would include Rotterdam, Delft & den Hague, Haarlem & Leiden. So much to see, so little time. Have fun planning your trip. Peace.

Robyn

Marken and Volendam are not accessible by train.

My suggestion would be to take a Connexxion bus from Central Station to Marken (110 I believe) Then from Marken take a boat across to Volendam and take a bus back to Amsterdam from Volendam. All you'll need is a strippenkaart!

Try walking around Marken: there's a great footpath and you get to see parts of the island (the lighthouse, called "Marken's Horse) other people don't.

Just skip Volendam. Marken is way nicer. I found Volendam WAY TOO touristy... Marken still has the fisherman town charm.

If you wish, you can take a 1/2 day coach tour to Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken for about 25 E.

http://www.lindbergh.nl/orgsite/uk/e...en_molens.html

You can take the train between Centraal and Haarlem, then follow this fellow's walking tour: (with photos)
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/PvdKamp/haarlem.html