Hello fellow travelers! My husband, kiddo (6 years), our babysitter, and I will be in the Netherlands for about 60 days this summer, bouncing around between several different cities.
For one of the weeks, we'd like to visit the smaller towns to the north of Amsterdam: Edam, Volendam, Marken, Hoorn, Alkmaar, etc. We are thinking of renting a car for the week to explore the area. We're looking at an apartment on Airbnb in the town of Middenbeemster that indicates that there is street parking nearby, and I've found a car rental for about 250 euros for the week. I know that bikes are the norm, but having to rent three adult bikes plus a child seat of some sort would be actually just as (if not more) expensive as the car car (even taking fuel costs into account).
My question is - would I be crazy to rent a car in the Netherlands for visiting those smaller cities? Are there other factors I should consider in the car vs. bike decision? We're ok with parking on the outskirts of towns and walking 10-15 minutes into the city center., and my husband has driven in several other European countries (England, Italy, France, Germany) with no issues. Of course we won't be driving the car into any big city (planning to pick up and drop off at Schipol) before continuing on by train.
As always, I appreciate the input of this forum so much!