Netherlands redux - 1st stages of planning
 

Let me try this again, this time referencing The Netherlands as search topic ...

My wife and I are considering a 2-week Netherlands vacation running March 29th through April 13. My initial thought was to book a River Cruise but I'm afraid that might be too restrictive.

High on our list of things to do would be the Keukenhof flower gardens near Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis in the Haag. We enjoy natural beauty (had a great time in Kent and Switzerland), quaint cities (loved Brugge), art and theatre (very much enjoyed Paris and London). My wife loves tulips and windmills. I love boats and the sea. Given this ...

What is a reasonable 2-week itinerary?
Can it be done as day-trips out of Amsterdam?
Would you recommend renting a car our using the rail?
Is Keukenhof worth more than one visit?
What would be your top 8 sites/destinations?

Thank you ...

Amsterdam for the museums alone but I suspect you alreay know that, right?

a budget river cruise is Easy Cruise - by the EasyJet folks - it's a floating hotel but without the trappings of a cruise ship - basic - you get on and off anywhere you want and can then by train or bike rendez-vous with the boat down the way.

and i believe it stops at key cities anyway.

Depending on the weather in spring, your best time for a visit to Keukenhof is on one of the last days of your trip. (not earlier, just a few flowers in bloom then).
Yes, Keukenhof is absolutely worth a visit. You will see flowers you have never seen before.

Also visit Zaanse Schans to see working old windmills, cheese making, clogmaking etc. Just a short traintrip from Amsterdam.
Delft is also worth a visit, nice small old town. The dutch royals are buried there in the big church city-center and you can go and visit Porceleyne Fles to see how Delft Blue is made.
Maastricht, all in the south - borders to Gerrmany and Belgium is a great place to visit.

avoid the Keukenhof on weekends - i went on a Sunday and it was super crowded - super mobbed. It's not all that big an area and the hothouses, the prize attractions where growers showcase their best blooming plants are especially mobbed.


www.keukenhof.nl

Leiden is a lovely university town where the Pilgrims lived prior to leaving for North America; it was our favorite place outside of Amsterdam. Haarlem and Delft are charming too and all are on a main train line out of Amsterdam.

I second the idea of Maastricht. Our daughter spent a semester there and we visited her this past April. Lots of interesting churches, quaint streets, shopping is great.

It's reminds me of a smaller, friendlier Amsterdam.

I have been fortunate enough to visit the Netherlands quite a few times over the years. The last time I spent a week based in Haarlem, a delightful city with lots of nooks and crannies to discover on a wander.

I took the train or bus and did not have a car. I could have stayed another week and still not seen all that I wanted to see.

If you go to Delft, don't be put off by the station neighborhood. It is not dangerous, just seemed anonymous urban to me. It was a rainy Sunday when I arrived and I almost went back into the station to catch the next train back to Haarlem. But I noticed some old looking spires and followed them until I came to the old part of the city. The sun came out at this point, and I was so glad that I had come.

The tourist office by Central Station in Amsterdam has a list of one day bus tours. I took one of those which included a boat trip across the Zuider Zee and around a small part of Friesland. There were several stops with enough time to explore and stop for a bite to eat. On the way back, there was a stop on the dike which separates the Zuider Zee from the ocean.

My sister and I were there a few years ago from April 18-24 and went to Keukenhof. We followed one guide book's suggestion to go late in the afternoon. The busses had left or were just pulling out. The slanting light was perfect for photography. I was enchanted. My sister, less so, but she humored me and found a place to sit and read while I wandered to my heart's content. Well not quite content, as I went back the next day while she went shopping. That day, a Saturday, was mobbed--a zillion people, parking lot full of busses, etc. But I still loved it.

I think the idea already suggested to spend a week based in Haarlem or Amsterdam and a week somewhere else such as Maastricht would be a good one. This would give you the option of only unpacking and packing twice and still cover quite a bit of ground.

If you decide to rent a car, the driving is easy (I didn't do it in any city) but watch those speed limits, as they have hidden cameras which trip when you go over the speed limit. I got nailed by one and the car rental people sent me a copy of the ticket and notice that the fine had been billed to my credit card. It was about $100 by the time all was said and done. The fine, VAT on the fine (double dipping, if you ask me, but of course no one did, and then the cost of the paperwork to the car company.

I also think you are a bit early for prime time tulips - maybe push back your dates a week or two? And I would think you could easily visit Keuk. twice over - there is probably about three cycles of bulbs planted, early mid and late bloomers so if you visited at the beginning and end of your trip it would be different. The gardens are larger than I thought so you could hit different areas.

Another great tulip experience is to rent bikes and bike thru the commercial fields - land is quite flat! and there are many bike trails where you can safely ride (not in car traffic) You can buy a map and rent bikes at the the train stations - reasonable rates. It was a highlight of our trip.

Google St. Nicholas Boat Club for an interesting boating experience on the Amsterdam canals.

Sitting canalside in Amsterdam, watching all the locals buzzzing by on their bikes would be high on my list of top 8 sights! Enjoy!

April 13 is too early for tulips at Keukenhof so it will be high on your list of disappointments. Reschedule for 30 days later.

We were there April 2005. Great time to be there. Not too early for tulips. Spent a week in Leiden, a classic old town, where Pilgrims and Einstein lived. Forget the car, use the trains.
Train it over to Antwerp and Brugge, Belgium. We also took the high speed down to Heidelberg Germany.

If you were going to be there 14 days and touring by train from a base - which to me is fine - i've done it that much and loved everyplace i've been to, then look into railpasses

Holland Flexipass
3 days unlimited travel in a 1-month period all over Holland. $92 2nd class; $137 first class (youths under 26 $69!)

or 5 days for $147 2nd or $219 ist ($110 youth) - in one month period.

days can be consecutive or space out at your choice.

Or if going to Belgium as well and in 14 days i'd move around to 3 or 4 bases - like wonderful Bruges there is the Benelux Flexipass

5 days of unlimited travel midnight to midnight on all trains in Belgium, Netherland and Luxembourg for $176 p.p. (Saverpass - two or more names on one pass) and $268 in 1st class.

And don't neglect Luxembourg - a gorgeous place.

Or include Germany such as the Rhine or Mosel in your plans there is the Germany-Benelux Flexipass:

5 days in 2-mo period saverpass p.p. $240; $296 first class

6 days $260 2nd $327 1st and also 8- and 10-day versions - all of Germany opens up fly into Amsterdam fly out of Munich or Berlin.

These passes are not sold in Benelux to my knowledge - thru RailEurope in U.S. who markets them to agents or sells direct. Prices have to be same everywhere - no variance. I always recommend BETS www.budgeteuropetravel.com for any railpass for their expert service and lack of RE's $18 mailing fee for passes like the Holland Pass. www.ricksteves.com also has good info on rail travel and passes in these countries. check www.ns.nl for Dutch Rail web site and prices in euro to compare to pass or www.b-rail.be

Note in summer there is a super-duper cheap pass for Holland but only available i think July and August - otherwise the other passes not sold there can be a good deal. But compare and see. Value of a pass is also you can just hop aboard any train any time - no tickets to buy, etc.

I would recommend a car in Benelux as most of the tourist draw is in cities - this does have a population density on par with India.

I would try to get on a bike however, if able and experience Holland's famous bike paths which go everywhere and many folks cycle to recreation and to commute

Possible train trip

1, 2, 3 Amsterdam
Need a couple of days to do justice to city
possible day trips
4- Haarlem (20 mins by train)
5- Alkmaar (45 mins; Friday morning Cheese Market)
6- Den Hague ( 1 hr or less)
7- Delft (neat old town and Delft pottery factory tours
8- Kroller-Muller (2 hr by train/bus) vast National Park with in its centre the famous Kroller-Muller museum with a raft of Van Goghs and a swell outdoor statue park - free bikes let you ride around the wild area of sand dunes and pines.
9- Utrecht - fine town - try to come on Sat when the outdoor market fills up much of the old town.
10-Zaanse Schaans - windmill group just a few minutes from Amsterdam by train - open-air museum of oldtime Dutch and Zuider Zee life
11- Aalsmeer Flower Market - by bus from Amsterdam - one of world's largest flower auctions - huge huge buildings and you can see the action from gallery above
12- Zaandvoort-am-See (sp?) - classic seaside resort - train right to beach - fine beach, casino, etc. also nude beach.
13- Enkhuizen - neat town and famous open-air museum of oldtime Zuider Zee life - very popular - take a boat there from the train station
14- Hoorn another fine old Zuider Zee port - by train

I would suggest doing several days in the Amsterdam area

and then relocating to Bruges (3.5 hr by train), finest medieval looking town north of Alps IMO - and easy day trips to historic Flemish towns like Gent and Ansterp. Brussels is worth a day trip as well (but not more for the average tourist)

then relocating to Luxembourg - fine looking town with gorge running down its middle - easy day trips to Trier, Germany - great Roman ruins

then go down Mosel Valley by train to Cochem - fairy-tale wine town on the stupendous Mosel Valley - cliffs all around several hundred feet high and vineyard clad

day trip from here to do the Rhine cruises thru the Rhine Gorge

return to Amsteram via Cologne (classic 2-hour stop - the world-famous Gothic cathedral is right next to train station - rest of town is rather blah if looking for old-world charm - nice riverfront however.

I'd do 6 days in Amsterdam
3 in Bruges
2 in Luxembourg
2 in Cochem
1 back to Amsterdam

I say i'd do - i mean it could be - i'm just presenting a sample itinerary as mentioned in your post.

Indeed you could spend the whole 2 weeks day tripping from Amsterdam as there are many great easy day trips, including more than i mentioned.

Again consider the railpasses and if Germany the Germany-Benelux.

CORRECTION NOTEN - I mistakingly wrote I would recommend a car when i should have said i would NOT recommend a car

- cities and cars are no fun - hard to find parking, etc. Trains take you right to heart of town - 2-4 trains an hour on most routes - so many and very easy.

i WOULD NOT RECOMMEND A CAR

Just back from my own holiday so I've just spotted this.
If you do not want to base yourselves in Amsterdam for the two weeks, then consider renting a car for part of the time and head east, to Overijssel, Friesland and Drenthe. Sea and boats for you in Friesland, interesting villages and small museums for you both. And tulips too if they are as early as they were this year - Overijssel is one of the biggest (and least visited) areas for bulb growing, as is the area around Alkmaar which you could visit before going over the Afsluitdijk to Friesland.
Maybe you would enjoy a tour of the Ijsselmeer, visiting the old Zuider Zee towns and islands, and some of the m ore modern ones too.
Lelystad, a horrible place on the whole, does have the Batavia, an exact replica of an East India comapny ship and a small museum with the remains of some old ships.

Unless prices for individual tickets have gone way up since I was last there two years ago, the price of the passes sounds ridiculous. I took day trips from Amsterdam and most of the round trip tickets were under $20 so unless you are doing some really long distance travel on those three days, look carefully at prices.

I think Rick Steves has a list of prices in his guide book so that you can compare with the pass.

Enjoy!

Holland Railpass Price

3 days unlimited travel in one month period (flexipass) = $92 p.p. 2nd cl
$137 p.p. first cl

5 days/1 mo = $147
3 days/1 mo $219

www.ns.nl Dutch railways website has normal prices so easy to see if pass is a good deal or not

at $30/day may well be if taking Delft - Den Hague, etc.

But RailEurope.com would charge $18 mailing fee for orders under $399 - one reason i recommend BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com), a RE agent but without the $18 fee. But check www.ns.nl and see if pass will be good or not for your plans. If close go for pass as you may travel more than each day than if buying tickets. Add 3% to euro prices for exchange charges.

I would spend at least 4-5 days in Amsterdam to leisurely enjoy the museums and other wights within the city. It is culturally a veryrich place.

As above, to see tulips takes very specific timing. You'll want to check on that to avoid disappointment.

bkm

May I suggest an Untours apartment in Leiden for two weeks? www.untours.com
We will be in one April/May, and this is our second Untours trip. The first was to Switzerland earlier this year.

After an Untour rep sees you to your apartment, you are on your own unless you need any help. If so the rep is available.

Cost can be with or without airfare and includes a rail pass good for any eight days.