Four 70+ will be in Amsterdam to start our Avalon river cruise on the Rhine to Basel. We enjoy the sights and photo opportunities, not so much museums. Would also like to do a day trip to ?
Looking for sightseeing ideas, lodging and location recommendations. Any luck with Airbnb?
Posted by
San Franciso Bay Area, USA
1028 posts
You will be in Amsterdam at the tail end of the season at the Keukenhof gardens. I was there in mid-April and was too early for the tulips, have been there first week in May and it was glorious. If the tulips are in bloom, it is worth the trip and you will get lovely photos. Here is the link to the web site: https://keukenhof.nl/en/.
Have a great trip,
Sandy
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks. We will put that on our go see list.
Posted by
307 posts
We took the Avalon Tulips of Holland cruise last April and are in your age bracket :-)
Great cruise line and I am sure you will be happy with the tour; ours was absolutely fabulous.
We came 3 days early and stayed two days after.
We used the three days ahead of the cruise to acclimate to the time change so we could enjoy the cruise.
Our cruise included Keukenhof Gardens; if you can get there, they are spectacular.
We rented a house in Zandaam, a suburb of Amsterdam for the 3 days prior through VRBO and were very pleased.
It gave the four of us plenty of room and we had a house with a great location to use.
We only visited the Rijks and Zanse Shanse for museums; otherwise, just wandered around and took in the sights.
After the cruise we took the train to Ghent and Bruges for two days. Not nearly enough time; could have used one more day or two!
In Amsterdam, we highly recommend Martine's Table for dinner one evening. Booking ahead, you should have no problem getting reservations.
We also ate at a rice table one evening. There are many to choose from; Blauw is very good, we went to Sama Sebo. Others on this forum like Puri Mas.
We also took a canal cruise and used the Blue Boat Company; others here like the Dam Boat guys.
On accommodations, be aware that many of the rentals may have narrow sets of stairways that can be troublesome to navigate unless you go down them backwards!
Finally, before we headed off the Belgium, we made a reservation at the Sheraton at Schipohl for our last night before leaving. the hotel is adjacent to the airport withing walking distance as well as several other hotels. Great place to get a good nights sleep before returning home. More importantly, we were able to store our larger luggage during our Belgium trip so we only took a small bag and the necessities. Very helpful.
Enjoy your cruise when you go.