mohun

Thanks for all this useful information. I expect that the principal places we'd like to see in Amsterdam will be the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, and perhaps three full days (excluding arrival and departure days) may be sufficient for these. We'll certainly entertain addition suggestions for "must sees" in Amsterdam. As for jenever, we'll certainly sample some (although for "hard liquor" our hearts are in the Highlands and we look forward to sampling at least one or two non-US-available Scotch whiskies in London and environs on the final leg of our trip).

We also look forward to sampling some Belgian beer wherever we end up in that country (we've never tried the imported Belgian brew here in this country (we've heard it's typically fairly sweet, and generally have preferred local ales of which many varieties are supplied by our often excellent microbreweries).

PeaceOut

We stayed in Amsterdam 5 nights several years ago, in early June. We LOVED it.

We were at the Hotel Residence le Coin, which does have an elevator. It is in a great central location, very clean and charming and reasonably priced. Note free use of washer and dryer in hotel basement.

Here are my notes:

"Final stop: Amsterdam. Five nights’ stay, first visit for all of us.

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Amsterdam! You always hear of the Red Light district and the coffee shops and the laissez-faire attitude, but you don’t hear how open and friendly the people are, how lovely the canals and side streets, how wonderfully trendy the restaurants and cafes, how people are out strolling at all hours of the night and you feel safe everywhere. I think I’d expected it to be quaint and charming (which it is), but in a dark wood-paneled cliché way, not in the young and contemporary way it is.

The standard reply we were given in Amsterdam, when we asked for anything, was always “Of course!” How refreshing.

We stayed in a fabulous location, at The Hotel Residence le Coin, which was directly across a small street from the Hotel de l’Europe, down the street from the Hotel Doelan, on Nieuwe Doelenstraat (sp?). A great neighborhood in the heart of old Amsterdam.

The hotel has a lift and A/C, also free use of the hotel’s washing machine and clothes dryer in the basement (which was welcome as we’d been traveling over a week when we arrived there). Each room has a little kitchenette, a nice-sized bath, large rooms with wooden floors and a sitting area. It’s fairly new, so everything sparkles. Very friendly front desk, too.

Two cafes on the same block as the hotel were wonderful: Café Katoen for a university atmosphere, and Café le Jarden, for great table seating on the canal.

Amazing dinners at two restaurants in particular:
“Stout!”, at Haarlemmerstraat 73 (www.restaurantstout.nl). Fabulous ‘foamy asparagus’ soup with shrimp, chateaubriande, fresh fish, dessert course, wine list. Very trendy lighting. Great service. We’d gone to the neighborhood in search of a restaurant called “Lof” which we’d seen written up. We didn’t like its atmosphere, but were lucky that Stout! was just across the street.

Also at “Restaurant Dining Eleven” we had a great dinner. It’s at Reestraat 11. Also trendy and contempory, well-presented and beautifully-served meal.

Another nice dinner at “frenzi”, at Swanenburgwal 232. Very simple and contemporary. We arrived shortly after 10:00p.m., when most restaurants close in Amsterdam, and persuaded the owner to sell us any left-overs they had in the kitchen! They put together a nice Caesar salad with cooked-in-the-shell shrimp and mango. Very nice.

Also a good brunch at a place across the street from frenzi—called “Puccini”. Creative salads and sandwiches. Very nice also.

We took a canal cruise one evening. Toured the Anne Frank Huis and the Van Gogh Museum. Visited the Nieuwe Kerk (sp?) Our teens went to a concert at the Paradiso and loved it.

One afternoon we did the 2:30 “Best of Holland” excursion to Volendam and Marken, with a stop to see wooden clogs made, Gouda cheese created, and to visit windmills. It was by bus, with a boat from Volendam to Marken. A lot of fun. Even our two teens liked it.

Our teens also liked shopping at one street in particular, between our hotel and the museum district. Also a Zara shop there, and many others like it. They thought the selection and prices were better in Amsterdam than what they’d seen in London and Paris even.

A detail about Amsterdam if you go there-- carry enough Euros in cash, because many places won't accept a credit card for a 'small' purchase (i.e. under 25 EU).

The only unpleasantness we encountered in Amsterdam related to cab rides and inconsistent pricing. Especially when our two teens were grossly overcharged cabbing to the hotel from the concert. They were well aware of the route, having walked it already twice, but we'd wanted them to cab home late at night. They knew the cabbie took a very round-about way back in order to over-charge. Also, when we arrived at the taxi sand at Central Station, I was literally swarmed by rather aggressive cabbies and felt uncomfortably jostled by them all.

A great trip all in all. Weather was spotty, with rain showers on and off, but not bad."

PeaceOut

Hotel Residence le Coin, if you are interested:

http://www.lecoin.nl/indexEN.html

Vttraveler

A thread with lots of suggestions on what beers to try where in Belgium
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...mendations.cfm

mohun

All this feedback from both Fodor's and the Rick Steve's forum have been extremely useful, so much so that we've slightly revised our itinerary to select Antwerp instead of Brussels as our Belgian base camp and make just a day trip and the rail journey to the Eurostar embarkation station in the latter city. We still haven't settled on the total and separate days we'll spend in Amsterdam and Antwerp, but we're close on the Amsterdam hotel at least (either four or five nights).

In addition to many (e.g., Rick Steve's says a day and a half is plenty) convincing suggestions that Brussels (given the alternate choices) needs fairly modest attention, a quick review of the maps and the Deutches Bahn website shows that Antwerp provides several opportunities for non-stop (i.e., non-train changing stops) travel from Amsterdam and seems to provide a rail transportation hub with the shortest trips to the other Belgian cities, and plenty of sight-seeing, relative to Brussels.

travelingnomad13

Brussels gets a bad reputation on this forum. It may not appeal to everyone, but I had a great time in Brussels. I have friends who live there so that may be the difference. I visited the Magritte museum, Museum of Musical instruments, and had a lot of great food. I was based in Brussels and did day trips to Antwerp, Bruges, and Leuven. I would have liked to spend more time in Antwerp.

Amsterdam is lovely. I spent a whole week there in August. It is easy to spent a week there and not run out of things to do. There are additional museums such as Troppen, Artis zoo, and Hermitage satellite in addition to the Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, and Anne Frank huis.

mohun

travelingnomad13,

Based principally on your suggestion and followed with a bit more web reading, we're going to settle on a full five days in Amsterdam (excludes arrival and departure).

luketraveller

Oh, before I forget, for those who travel to Antwerp. For eating out and enjoying good meals at fair prices: let you drive to " 't Zuid" (the South) where many typical resto's and bars are located. Often tourists don't find the large square since it is at the border of the city, 50 meters from the river Schelde, hidden behind the row of buildings along the river. It is very authentic there !! Have a coffee or beer in
"café Congo".