Looking for Amsterdam Hotel...Question on Travel Insurance...Best Leak-Proof Travel Bottles

Hello and welcome to the forum.
It would have been better if you started 3 separate threads for your 3 very different questions. Now the answers you will get will be all over the place.
I can only help you with regards to your questions about a hotel in Amsterdam.
Just to double check; you’re talking about this year? If so, you left things very very very late. The last 2 weeks of April are the absolute peak time for Amsterdam, because of the tulips, Kingsday etc etc. People start booking hotels as early as 1 year in advance. Instead of asking for specific recommendations, which are likely to be fully booked already, I would suggest you to go to a website like booking.com. You can search for hotels there, set filters for amenities, review scores, nightly rates etc. See if there still is anything left that appeals to you, read the reviews and come back if you have questions.

Go Toobs are flexible and small. I have never had one leak. A carabiner can clip onto them, and they come in different colours so you can remember which is which. Good camping stores and amazon

Nadia Hotel, near the Anne Frank House.

Reasonable rates, but small rooms. Free good breakfast.

I haven't used GoToobs, but I know when they first hit the market, there was a warning about not putting certain types of things in them, because the ingredients could eat through the plastic. Do some Googling to be sure what you want to store will be OK.

I use Nalgene bottles, which are extremely sturdy plastic, originally designed for use in laboratories, I believe. The Container Store used to carry Nalgene bottles in a variety of sizes, but you can also find them online. I think the smallest size may be 1/2 oz. They are virtually indestructible, and they will not leak in the absence of user error. (I once didn't re-cap a tube of shampoo properly, but I can't blame the shampoo company for that.)

Being sturdy, Nalgene bottles are not featherweight. I'm fanatical about the weight of what goes in my suitcase and wouldn't want to use Nalgene bottles for everything. Instead, I use solid conditioner and depend mostly on hotel-supplied shampoo, taking just one small, hotel-size bottle with me. Shampoo also comes in solid form.

If you want to stick to your preferred liquid products, figure out how much of each one you will need for the length of your trip. It's probably less than you assume, and liquids are heavy.

“Nadia Hotel, near the Anne Frank House.
Reasonable rates, but small rooms. Free good breakfast.”

Nadia Hotel is fully booked for the dates of the OP. Given the extreme crowds due to the tulips and Kingsday and the fact that the OP is rather late looking for a hotel, this will be the case with many other hotels in central Amsterdam.

Re Travel Insurance: since you have another trip planned, consider an annual policy from Allianz. It will save you money in the long run.

Why do you need travel insurance? Ask yourself what happens if you fall off your bike, end up in the hospital with a serious condition and need/want to be evacuated home. Medical evacuation can easily cost over $100,000. There are many threads about insurance and med evac; use the search feature, drill down to forum, then 1 year.

Emergencies can happen to anyone. My friend’s 25 y/o daughter fell off a train step and broke her leg in a couple places. Surgery in France, more surgeries in the US.

As has been noted you are traveling at an extremely busy time of year for Amsterdam. Booking.com might be your best bet to find anything with any availability. Here's another thread with Amsterdam hotel recommendations for a different time of year, in case any of those properties has availability. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/amsterdam-hotel-reccommendations-in-mid-september

Whether travel insurance is "necessary" is based on your own personal situation and comfort level with risk. Insuremytrip and Squaremouth are two websites that allow you to compare plans and prices. Here is a search of recent forum discussions on this topic https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=6m&filter=Travel+Forum&query=travel+insurance&utf8=%E2%9C%93

I use Nalgene containers for liquids and contact lens holders for small amounts of cream. The key to most containers is not to overfill them as they do expand some in flight. Sometimes it helps to put a small amount of Saran wrap over the opening before you put on the lid (but if it's too full it will still explode).

Thank you, @Dutch_Traveler for your guidance and, yes, I am new here and should have posted these three separately, but my time constraints made this more practical than logical. I'll remember to do it that way next time.

I was invited by a former work colleague only a month ago, so indeed with a year's planning done by savvy travelers, we will have to take what we can get. The tour guide said Haarlem may be better alternative and totake the train in.

Very kind of you to respond to quickly and I'll report back with findings and any additional questions.

@Nigel, I tried Go Tools once and while the product worked well, I personally had difficulty securing the top to the bottle when refilling to properly seal it.

@geovagriffith Thank you for the name of the hotel and a helpful description. Sounds perfect, but it seems we may be too late and it's booked.

@acraven I will look into the Nalgene bottles for some items, although like you I do want to consider weight. I may only need a few little lightweight jars for eye and face cream, SPF lotion and will use the hotel shampoo and conditioner to simplify and streamline. I didn't know shampoo comes in a solid form! Interesting. (My friend who travels a lot to Australia uses "Earth Breeze Eco Sheets" which are, apparently eco-friendly laundry detergent sheets. I was planning to take a small laundry bar soap. I learn something new everyday. The Container Store here has really reduced inventory and I didn't see many travel or storage items on my last visit.

Grateful to each of you and thank you again for your time and your comments.

@horsewoofie thank you and you have a given very good examples as to why travel insurance may be important, specially for a trip like this one.

@cl your links are extremely helpful and I will look at them today. I really appreciate you providing them for me so that I can search with greater ease. Thank you.

I think Nalgene makes a few flat containers that might be described as "jars". You can find the whole product line online, I'm sure.

Not all hotels are supplying conditioner these days, though I say that as someone who usually stays in budget-level places, so your experience may differ. I wash my hair every day, and I find one ounce of solid conditioner lasts just about one month. It would be smart to test that sort of thing ahead of time. It works better for me than supermarket liquid conditioner, but hair varies a lot, and your needs may differ. I basically just need something to de-tangle my permed hair.

The biggest leakage issue I've had involves prescription creams in metal tubes. On my long trips, they develop punctures from metal fatigue. Creams in plastic tubes have done fine, though they could obviously develop issues from contact with something like tweezers.

I'd use booking.com to research hotels in Haarlem or Leiden. Once you have chosen a property, find the website and book directly with the hotel.
Have a great trip!

@Pat this really is an excellent idea because the tour guide for the tulip bike tour suggested Haarlem as a nice place to stay, and then take the train in to Amsterdam, and our bike tour begins in Leiden and ends in Noorden.

Even in Leiden and Haarlem a lot of hotels will be booked already. These 2 cities are ideal bases for the tulips, so they are very popular in the last weeks of April and early May.
I can’t stress enough that you need to act now.
I’m sorry to say, but you wasted a month already. The longer you wait, the fewer hotels will be available.

Also, you should double check where your bike tour ends. You mention Noorden, but there is no such place in the Netherlands. Noorden literally means “the north”. The Netherlands does have a lovely city called Naarden, is that where your tour ends?

@Dutch_Traveler Understood, and I get your point. We booked a hotel in Amsterdam today and my travel mate did it with AAA. Thank you for explaining the value of the other two cities and I went to the itinerary and Noorden is exactly how the tour guide is spelling it and she is Dutch. I have no idea where it is or why she spelled it that way, but I just have to trust the information I am reading. Here is the description that she had for day six after we leave Delft: “Today we’ll follow the bucolic Jaagpad route through the surroundings of Noorden that the Dutch call the “Green Heart of Holland” and enjoy some of the best biking in the Netherlands.”

I have great respect for grammar, punctuation and proper spelling and I used to be a writer and editor in a college setting before retiring so I generally don’t make mistakes when spelling something. I proofread often. Your comments are appreciated, and I am grateful that you communicated the urgency of making accommodations. That means a lot and I feel fortunate that we have something now.

Wow, you learn something new every day! I just Googled and it seems there is indeed a very small hamlet in the Netherlands called Noorden.
It’s so small that it only has a bus stop, not a train station.
Although it’s indeed beautifully located in the Green Heart, I must admit I think it’s a bit of an odd place to end a bike tour. Will they at least drop you off at a train station after the tour ends? Or will you have to find your way out of there by bus?

@Dutch_traveler So happy you learned something and that it is indeed a real place, however small. I love being a lifelong learner and it’s nice to know the area is as pretty as they say it is in their description.

Yes, at the conclusion of the tour, drivers will transport people to either the airport for departure or to a train station for further travels. This reminds me that I must start a new post about a question I have about the Amsterdam and Brussels train stations and their platforms. Thank you again for your interest and your extensive knowledge.