Anyone been to Breda? Use as a base for day trips?

Breda is much overlooked. The historic center is charming, compact and has that typical pleasant southern vibe as we say in the Netherlands. It misses the museums like you have in other places that draws the crowds. But if it is just for a base for day trips as you say, but also for finding restaurants and cafés, it’s certainly a good place to consider.

It’s indeed wel connected. Rotterdam takes 20 min. by train, Leiden around an hour and Antwerp just a bit more than a half hour. If you don't mind travelling 2 hours to Hoorn it can be doable from Breda to my opinion too. Ofcourse up to you to decide.

Dutch_traveler lives in Breda, she can tell you way much more than I can.

I'm wondering if perhaps Breda might be a good base for day tripping
around South Holland

One thing to be aware of is that Breda is not in South Holland, but in Noord Brabant. The area is actually culturally quite distinct from Holland proper, and the people there do not like to be lumped together with the "Hollanders". The same applies to other regions of The Netherlands outside of Holland.

My apologies WengenK. I apologize for my ignorance, I’ll have to learn the regional names before I leave.

Thank you Wil. That’s very helpful.

@Greg: You don't have to apolgize. It is a common mistake. Like people confusing England with the UK..

I almost spilled my morning tea when I read that Breda had moved overnight from Noord-Brabant to Zuid-Holland. As already explained by other posters, my hometown Breda is not in Holland, it’s in the southern part of the Netherlands about 10 km’s from the border with Belgium. The southern part of Brabant is in Belgium, which is why culturally and historically this part of the Netherlands feels closer to Belgium than it does to Holland. The historical city center of Breda is close to the train station and has some nice sights that are well worth a visit. These include the market square, the church and the beguinage. The beguinage of Breda is one of only two remaining beguinages in the Netherlands. The other one is in Amsterdam.
Due to its geographical location, Breda is an ideal base to train to cities like Delft, Rotterdam. There are 2 hotels on either side of the train station, both are ideal if you want to use Breda as a base for day trips by train, but are still less than a 10 minutes walk to the market square where you’ll find lots of restaurants and cafes.