I am looking at a few places for rent in Amsterdam but not sure of the neighborhoods in terms of convenience, safety and anything else that we should know,
We are staying four nights one place is about 10 mins from Vondel park the other is on a little island almost across from the train station in an area called Haarlemmerbuurt. Reviews for each say that they are convenient but looking for some other opinions. We don't want to be in the center of town so that is ok just convenient to get to bus and or train to get whereever we need to get to. we will be flying in but then taking the train to Ghent when we leave.
Thanks!!

I suppose the second location is Prinseneiland. Very nice. "10 minutes from Vondelpark" can be anywhere: can you be a bit more specific?

If the spot at Prinseneiland is nice with easy access to Haarlemmerstraat and Jordaan, I would choose that.

the first one is said to be in Oud-Zuid just west of Vondelpark
the other area I mentioned is in Haarlemmerbuurt which appears to be in the North western area above the rings I hope that helps

Actually you are correct the second place the address says Prinseneiland --That is the one I like the most. Not sure how easy though to access the rest of AMsterdam from there as I cannot see where there are many busses or trains.

Prinseneiland is a really neat part of Amsterdam - old bridges and buildings - it seems isolated but it really is not - a tram I believe terminates there and if you take the foot tunnel under the railways you are in the heart of Amsterdam - if the other were east of Vondel Park I'd recommend that too but it's west and though an OK area nothing special.

Do check out Vondel Park however.

If looking for other ideas on Amsterdam check out my and others comments on this thread I started several years ago but mainly still valid:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ite-things.cfm

Barbara, your access to Haarlemmerstraat and Jordaan, and the northern canal ring is along Grote Bickersstraat: there's an underpass underneath the railway lines.

I've marked Grote Bickersstraat 2 on Google maps: you can cross the railway lines from there and then you end up at Korte Prinsengracht at the corner of Haarlemmerstraat, a foody's paradise.

Choosing between Oud Zuid (boring, well heeled, snobby) and Prinseneiland, I'd go for Prinseneiland.

https://www.google.nl/maps/place/Gro...7b28fd78?hl=en

Adding: going west from Prinseneiland, you reach Haarlemmerplein, or Zoutkeetsgracht (the terminus), which means the #3 tram which rides a strange, circuitous route AROUND the centre, not through it. So if you have a lot of business in the centre of Amsterdam, the #3 is pretty much useless to you.

Adding also, if you walk north to Pontsteiger, you can take the ferry to NDSM from there. That's a cool spot to have a completely off the beaten track lunch, or even dinner at Noorderlicht: raw, industrial, quirky.

And if you walk west across Westerkanaal, you reach the Spaarndammerbuurt, hotbed of the Amsterdam School: socialist and utopian workers' housing from the 1910s.

http://www.european-architecture.inf...ND/AMS-B02.htm

Hi Barbara

My husband and I were in Amsterdam last year for 3 nights and stayed in the Jordaan and loved it! We flew in and trained out and it was pretty easy.

We found it easy to get around the place by walking and catching a few trams. It was a lovely quiet neighbourhood and we thoroughly enjoyed just wandering the area and canals (we felt very safe too).

If you are in this area we would highly recommend Restaurant Black & Blue (great place to eat a meal by a canal) and Bar Brandstof (one of the few places on our 6 week trip that knew what a flat white was and also knew how to make a great one).

One cool thing about Prinseneiland is, that you'll have good access to Jordaan and to Haarlemmerstraat.

Other great Jordaan places are Toscanini for high end Italian food, Bordewijk with its Dutch inspired "international" cuisine.

Winkel, on the corner of Noordermarkt has the best appeltaart in town, and on saturdays there's a cool farmers market on Noordermarkt.

A typical Dutch cafe is De Kat In De Wijngaard and Capri, on Lindengracht is an ice cream place/pizzeria/modest Italian restaurant that's been there for decades. Not an obvious choice, but a no frills, authentic one.

So the Prinseneiland Is apt fell through.. but we are confirmed for one in either the southern part of Jordaan or northern part of Oud West.. The street is called Van Reigersbergenstraat- it seems pretty central so we are hoping we made a good decision.
I will take all of your wonderful suggestions and put them on the list We have 4 days so we should be able to do a lot.
We do plan on eating out lunch mostly and doing light dinners in (take out/pick up) our trip is close to a month long so we need to keep expenses down. Any suggestions for restaurants that are inexpensive are appreciated (please dont say MacDonalds though!

Department stores have reasonably priced cafeterias with typical down home Dutch food - fairly good quality and often on the top floor with nice views. Casual dining - no waiters to deal with and mostly Dutch there.

HEMA stores have good inexpensive take out deli fare as do large supermarkets like Albert Heijns.

Try eating at Bakers and Roasters, it is a groovy cafe, they have two cafes. I tried to post the link but it just wouldn't work.

Van Reigersbergenstraat? I wouldn't go there. There's nothing central about it, the only direct means of getting to the city is the #14 tram. South Jordaan is more central by far. I guess you'll be in one of the upmarket apartment blocks they built there. Those are quite nice, but the area is a bit of a desert. The one interesting thing near there are the new "Markthallen" on Jan van Galenstraat. Other than that it's a totally meh neigbourhood. Nothing wrong with it, but a bit of a trek to get to your apartment at the end of a day, and there's not much in the area itself.
http://www.iens.nl/restaurant/amsterdam/west

This comment from one of the posts for this apartment and all the posts say its a short walk to downtown
"1 minute up the street you find a supermarket, 2 minutes away you find cafes and resturants and within 15 minutes you find yourself in the middle of the city centre. What a perfect location! The neighbourhood was really nice and quiet" From the looks its not far at all.. interesting what you say, WE did not want to be in a noisy area but still wanted to be fairly close. I guess we will see it says its in the west.

Google map it. I had friends living on Bilderdijkstraat, which is in the general area, only a bit more to the south, and we used to live in Jordaan. Weirdly it took a very long time to get there, because of the awkaward tram connections.

For years, people say the area is "emerging", but I don't see many signs of that. Note, it's not a slum by any means, but central it isn't.