Thinking about going to Amsterdam over 4th of July week and looking for 2 or 3 star hotel suggestions and day trips suggestions Thanks.

I returned from Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago. I stayed at the Swisshotel right on Dam Square. The location was perfect! As you may or may not know, Dam Square is the center of Amsterdam. I was able to walk easily to everything in Amsterdam. It also gives easy access to walk down the street to the places where you can take canal tours or day trips. The staff was helpful and the rooms were not bad at all. They were large for european hotel rooms with a full bath. The rate was about $125.00 a night; a good deal for what you get. The restaurant on the first floor (The Swiss Bistro?) was also great.
Regarding day trips, I would highly recommend the gardens in Lisse. I also took a half day trip with one of the tour companies found along Dam Street. I think it was called Lundburg Tours or something like that. The tour included a visit to a cheese farm, a lake crossing, a small village visit, a wooden shoe factory demonstration and some windmills. The cost was about $35.00-40.00. Amsterdam itself is very easy to discover with a good map and guide. I had the Fodor's guide to Amsterdam and found the walking tours to be a good guide. Enjoy your trip!
Enjoy your trip.

we went to the netherlands last summer and had a blast!! we stayed with my wife's sister's family in the hague (vassenar, actually) and rode the trains all around the netherlands. the day we went to amsterdam we came in at the train station (and that is a sight to behold in itself) and started walking everywhere. they had good walking tour maps available at stands and we had a fodor's guide and a rick steve's guide....they were both helpful.

definitely go see anne frank's house and then the wester kerk (the western church) down the street. the anne frank house is a moving experience, but some IMPORTANT advice: GET THERE EARLY !! we went on the anne frank tour first thing in the morning (around 8:00) and luckily we only had to wait a few minutes.....when we were done and came out the line was all the way down the street. it was a beautiful day, too, so that may have had something to do with the turnout. she writes about listening to the chimes of the westerkerk, and we got to see them when we toured the church. also see the ryk's museum, which is HUGE. it has all kinds of history, art, technology, and other stuff. it also houses the famous "night watch" painting and some other famous paintings (the pitcher pouring lady in the window...etc). the van gogh museum was good. there are TONS of neat restaurants all around, we ate at a nice outside cafe on a square and had a great time watching all the people.

we also went on a boat tour, and that was fun also, snaking through the all the canals in the city. we just had a bunch of fun walking all around on foot. be wary of the red-light district, though, if you don't want to be thoroughly shocked.

i would also highly suggest going to harlem and delft...especially delft to see the marketplaces and the "new" and "old" churches (the new one was finished in the late 1300's, i think). the new church was EXTREMELY interesting to explore and go all the way up to the top in (the view once up there is SPECTACULAR). Allsmeer was also incredible, namely, the largest flower auction market in the world, which covers over 100 FOOTBALL FIELDS............HUGE !!!!!!

you can't go wrong visiting all around the netherlands, we had a great time everywhere (not to mention luxembourg, belgium, and north france). if you want to see one incredible castle, see the castle at vianden, in luxembourg, which started as a roman encampment in the 4-500s, i think.

For something different join the Yellow Bike tour as I did. You spend three hours biking around the city ,guided by one of their staff. The tour will take you
along many smaller streets and over bridges through areas you may not find on your own.
The Guide make numerous stops to tell more, and explain why the houses are leaning out, why they
are so narrow and many other interesting facts.
The tours are run several times daily.
I suggest you sign up in advance as the tours are very poular during the warmer months.

For a truly unique experience, consider a visit early in the morning to the village of Aalsmeer just outside of Amsterdam. There you will find an amazing complex. Each morning, in a building that is over 40 acres in size, millions of cut flowers are trucked in, bid upon in auctions that you can watch, then loaded up and trucked off to Schipfol airport to be sold that day in flower markets all over Europe. The tour is on an elevated walkway that passes over auction rooms and huge open spaces laden with cut flowers of every conceivable variety and color. The aroma is unbelievable! Over three billion flowers pass through the building every year. It's a most unusual and novel experience to relish and enjoy.

Try the Smit Hotel. It's near the Rijksmuseum, canal tours, good restaurants... In addition, it's quite affordable.