Amsterdam-Day Trips by Train

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips

And click on "At a Glance"

We loved Corrie Ten Boom’s house tour in Haarlem and walking through the town as we made our way to her house….it is a charming place. We also took the Anne Frank home tour in Amsterdam. We spent a day touring Delft….took the factory tour and had high tea in their restaurant…..walking their town square wash a treat. We stayed in Leiden and loved it…..even took our canal tour there and visited a working windmill. Amsterdam was wonderful…..we used it as a day trip from Leiden to have the Van Stapele cookies (a must!!!) , the Rijksmuseum, a WW2 Resistance museum tour and walk through the beautiful canal streets. We trained from Leiden to Brugge for a 3 night stay and LOVED it…….tho looking back at am sorry we did not try to see The Hague as everyone seems to love visiting there.

Michelle, There's quite a bit of information in this thread - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/itinerary-help-amsterdam-and-haarlem. And I added 2 Trip Reports inside as well.

You can also enter 'Amsterdam Day Trip' in the search bar if you tap on those horizontal lines in upper left hand corner of RS , you can see it way up there. I usually search for 'within the past year'. Hope you have a great trip!

Day trips I would recommend, based on experience:
- Keukenhof amazing, would plan a whole trip around it if it’s open when you’re visiting, but probably only takes half a day
- Leiden I spent my afternoon here after Keukenhof, would have loved to have a full day or more
- Hoorn I went to Alkmaar in the morning which I wouldn’t recommend, but I loved Hoorn and wished I’d make time for Enkuisen on this day instead
- Broek en Waterland & Edam half day unless you add Volendam…I didn’t spend much time there and went on to Marken instead which I didn’t think was worth it, but it was also raining
- Haarlem: this wasn’t a day trip for me, I stayed there for 4 nights to allow for a more affordable base for day trips but I loved it. Would highly recommend at least a full day there, if not staying overnight for part of your visit…the Hals Museum is particularly good.

As far as Amsterdam itself

• Anne Frank House with introductory program - so moving, very well presented

• The Pantry for Dutch food (def make a reservation)

• Rijksmusem if you’re at all into Dutch masters, Van Gogh museum if you're into his work (I’m an art lover; would go back to both in a heartbeat..both world class)

• Vondelpark (I wish I’d rented a bike to explore more. If you have time & the weather is nice, I’d reserve a half a day just for the park. A great counterpoint after one of the museums)

• Stroll the canals in the Jordaan/Nine Streets area

• Find a great brown cafe for a rest stop…there are so many all over the city, but cafe de docker is a favorite.

• Don’t bother: dam square, red light district (my opinion only…your mileage may vary!!)

These aren’t exactly off the beaten path recommendations but if you only have 2 days in Amsterdam, that’s what I’d prioritize.

I think MaggieD is spot on with her recommendations.

All I would add - as "we are 4 active adults (2 couples) in our 60's." - is that most if not all of Maggie's recommendations can be augmented by using bicycles as your transportation to any and ALL on her list.

IOW - consider renting bikes for the duration of your Amsterdam stay, and using them to get around in the city and for day trips. The "journey" then becomes a wonderful part of each item on your itinerary.

It does make a trip to Hoorn or Leiden a full day endeavor, but man does it make it fun :)