Does anyone have recommendations on charming small towns, hotels in the south-central holland area? we will be spending the day in the ardennes/dinant area and need to get to amsterdam fairly early the next day so we would like to find a nice stopover point in between. I think the area is called Noord/Brabant. Or... would Leuven be a much better choice.

Leuven is a very nice town but it's rather far away from the border and if you have to be in Amsterdam early, it might be too long a drive. Especially with morning trafic! Don't know if you will have a car or travel by train.<BR>If by train, the best would be to stay in a place with good train connections.<BR>Antwerp for instance - must be about halfway between Dinant and Amsterdam. <BR>On the Dutch side Breda and 's Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch) are nice and small cities. <BR>But if you prefer to eat well, then stay at our (=Belgian) side of the border!

I agree with Myriam's advice concerning the food.

We are traveling by car. What about small towns right on the Belgium border?<BR>Thanks for your help!

Right on the border it's just small villages. I don't even know if you will find a hotel. <BR>Turnhout is a small town (about 20 km from the border) - see http://www.turnhout.be/toerisme/pag.asp?idnr=0&amp;lang=en<BR>Antwerp is also just 20 km from the border!<BR><BR>My village is nice (5 km from the border) and there are a few B&amp;B's - see http://www.kalmthout.be/toeindex.htm (only in Dutch language).<BR>Essen is another village on the border with a few B&amp;B's.<BR>Both are small villages, so really not much to see!!

You might consider Middleburg, then drive on through the area with the Delta works. There's an interesting museum/boat tour/working demo project, and you drive across the dam.

Agree with KathrynDay on Middelburg and the whole province of Zeeland in fact. But ... if smardie has to be in Amsterdam early, this is a little out of the way!