Itenary Help on Netherland
 

Hi ,
I will be arriving at Schipol airport on 05th May at 01:30 pm ( local time ) on a business trip and will be staying at Den Bosch for 2 weeks
1. I have the 06th May entire day free and intend to visit the kekeunhoff ( tulip garden ). Would it consume my entire day on 06th May to visit the tulip garden ? Are there any other places near Tulip Garden which I can visit. Based on the pre-reads on this forum I figured out I have to reach the Garden early to avoid the rush.

2. During the weekend of 12th and 13th May ( both days fully available ) what other places should I visit ? I heard of rotterdam ( port city ) and Kinderdijk , madurodom ( near den hague ).

3. For point 2 I am also considering 2 day trip to paris, or 2 day trip to burge + brussels and i will post the same under Belgium and France forums.

I am a regular traveller and wouldlike to see important sights in the city, I do love some good country side visit too.

All my travels will start from Den Bosch and I will be able to spend about 80 euros per day on the weekends for transport , food and stay.

Regards
Sagar

Well, before you do another post, there are no separate Belgium and France forums. Those are just tags for the search engine. I'm going to post this in hopes I stop you mid-post and then I'll try to answer some of your questions.

Alessandra
I already posted for France, thanks for pointing out , I thought many people search by country and respond / read to query, so was attempting to post separate threads for France & Belgium. Will wait till I see your suggestions.

You are not the first to have been fooled by those tags, so don't worry about it.

I know someone is going to say that there will be nothing left in the Keukenhof gardens in May, but if Basingstoke2's pictures are any proof, you'll have enough to see...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/basings...7605213762529/

By the time you get to the gardens and walk (there is a lot of walking), you might be pooped. But I'm thinking it is highly likely you might have to get home via an Amsterdam connection, so perhaps you can plan some time in some Amsterdam area there before you return home. You did not mention how much time you would be spending within Amsterdam. Between the art (Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum etc), history (Anne Frank, etc), and fun to see (Red Light District!), there's more than enough to keep you occupied.

The rail trip to Paris is easy. Again, I am assuming without checking that you have to get to Amsterdam first, but when you get out of Centraal in Amsterdam, you will be in Paris Nord in around 3 hrs depending on the type of train. I have not checked prices, though, so I do worry that rail transport costs alone will eat up your budget.

To check your potential costs (including any discounts you can obtain by a pass), here are your important websites:
http://tinyurl.com/6rexxwn (Netherlands Hi-Speed Rail)
http://www.ns.nl/en/travellers/home (Netherlands Rail Site)

If your rail costs to Paris or Brussels wipe out your budget, there is MORE than enough to do in the Netherlands. You might want to consider getting a Holland Pass (
http://www.hollandpass.com/home/) to cover some of your admission costs and then checking on a Netherland rail pass of some sort for the duration.

If we go back, I want to spend time in Harlaam, which we have never visited, so that's one option for you. I would have liked to have visited Utrecht and Rotterdam, too. We loved visiting Delft/Den Hague, so that's another option. The Mauritshuis Museum, one of our favorite museums of all time, is closed for renovation, I believe, but much of its art is being held in temporary exhibit across the street:
http://www.mauritshuisbouwt.nl/en.

’s-Hertogenbosch is pretty far from the Keukenhof, so it takes some time to arrive there. I would spend half a day at the tulip garden and the rest in Amsterdam.

You will be staying close to Utrecht which is my favourite city in the Netherlands - beautiful medieval houses and romantic canals.

I would not go to Rotterdam - it is mainly an industrial city.

From ’s-Hertogenbosch to Paris the train takes 4.5 hours and the fare will probably exceed you budget. To Brussel, the train ride is 2:19.

I better explain, Sagar, why I was interested in Rotterdam, which is admittedly less "charming" than much of the Netherlands:

1) We are very much into architecture. Rotterdam is the home of the Erasmus Bridge, which many regard as a work of art, and the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI), a place that would bore you to tears I'm sure if you are NOT into architecture but very much please you if you are into architecture.
2) We are very much into art. We want to see the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen there. The museum has everything from medieval to contemporary art, and of course it has a good amount of really good Dutch art. Includes art work by Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Maurizio Cattelan, René Magritte and Salvador Dalí.


And by the way, there is another museum pass out there that I couldn't find for my above reply post: the Museumkaart (http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/museumkaart/). You should compare passes to see which one, if any, works for you.

we just got back from a trip to Holland including a visit to Keukenhof, and there should be plenty to see on 6th may - it's not a particularly warm year and there were still some daffs open when we were there, which is by no means a given at the end of April.

plus the park is officially open until 21st May, so 6th should be fine.

if you don't want to spend time in Amsterdam, another place to couple with the gardens is Haarlem, which is reasonably close by.

@ Alessandra : Back of my mind I had Amsterdam + Tulip garden on same day, In AMS I want the famous canal boat tour, Anne Frank House, RLD .Not so much into arts so I may skip Van Gogh and other art museums. Pls let me know what other ways I can spend time in AMS.
I understand you on Rotterdam that it is industrial, but it gives great pleasure when one sees the amount progress Europe has made comapred to Asia
@ traveller1959 : I will add Utrecht to my list, since its close, I may decide to visit it on 05th May itself.
@ annhig : thanks for the latest updates, I heard tulip garden is amazing so will take a chance visiting it 06th May.

Do make reservations for the Anne Frank house. We have been to Amsterdam twice. I went in the supposed "off hours" without a reservation and was stuck in a line around the nearby church.

So while I hate locking myself in with reservations, the next time I booked a time.

Website:http://www.annefrank.org/en/Museum/P...-ticket-sales/

If you had an entire day, just get a one-day tram pass and explore. Possibilities are endless. Lots of guidebooks have walking tours you could follow. For actual guided walking tours, here's one I would like to do should I go back:
http://www.historywalks.eu/

You can rent bikes a lot of places or take a bike tour, too. Again, if we go back, we think we'd cycle along the coast for a bit. Paths are ideal. Beware: No hills but a LOT of headwinds.

Again, I think this city is very underrated worldwide.

I heard tulip garden is amazing so will take a chance visiting it 06th May.>>

yes, i meant to say that the displays are wonderful, and well worth the effort of getting there.

Consider visiting Delft , Harlaam and Leiden , easy to get to by train.

we spent 3 nights in Delft [using it as a centre for touring] and liked it very much.

you have to watch out for the bikes, though!