Day Trip From Amsterdam

What time of year will you be there?

I would suggest Delft. It's beautiful.

The RS tour of Belgium and Holland stays 2 nights in Delft with one free afternoon where most of my group took the tram into Den Haag to visit the Mauritshuis.

There are some day trips from Amsterdam to visit windmill areas but you’ll see a lot of them on the tour. You can visit them in Bruges and on our transit day from Bruges to Delft we stopped in a really cute town for lunch where windmills figured prominently.

You could do a day trip to Haarlem but to be honest I’d probably remain in Amsterdam as there is a lot to see there that you won’t have had time for.

I can definitely recommend Haarlem. It's only 15 minutes by train from Amsterdam. You could also choose to stay an extra day in Amsterdam, there's so much to see and to do.

I was vague on my previous reply about where we stopped for lunch because I just couldn't remember the name, lol. It was on the day we were going from Bruges to Delft and seeing the Delta Waterworks (more interesting than I thought they would be, lol!) and our guides chose to stop at Zierikzee. I do not know if this is a usual stop or if Ellen (and assistant Nico) just liked it. It was definitely not a tourist town, lol! Anyway, very cool old windmill there although it was not open for visits at that time.

We will be on tour from April 3-13 this year. Thank you for the replies; it was helpful to hear from people on the tour. Harlan was the town we were considering. Think we may just stay in Amsterdam; had read that three days was sufficient. Thank you very much.

“ Harlan was the town we were considering”
Do you by any chance mean Haarlem? If that’s what you meant, it’s indeed an easy day trip from Amsterdam. But there may very well be other day trips that might suit you better. What do you want to see during your day trip? How far are you willing to travel? By train?

Keukenhof will be open then (https://keukenhof.nl/en/). That would be my vote.

That is a wonderful time to go! The flowers at Keukenhof are unbelievable so you are very lucky to be going on this tour when they are open. This tour date will visit Keukenhof as an activity.

Your profile doesn't suggest where you are from so no idea about your tolerance for cold. I was comfortable although others on my tour were cold and wore jackets. I had a puffy vest and waterproof rain jacket (also windproof). I also had lightweight Smartwool glove liners which I wore several times.

I'd look at what you want to do in Amsterdam and see if the extra day can be filled with activities that interest you. On your first full day you'll do a walking tour and visit the Anne Frank Huis. On the next day you'll have the tour of the Rijksmuseum in the AM.

During your time frame there is a special Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. You'll need a separate ticket to get in to this exhibit if it's of interest to you. If you can call the RS office ask them what time they plan for the morning visit to be over...usually it's around noon-1230. I'd book the Vermeer for 130 or after so you can get a bite to eat. (And another reason to call is to make sure for your tour date they are doing Anne Frank on day 1 and the Rijks on day 2).

You may also want to get tickets to the Van Gogh Museum. This museum sells out so you'll want to get your tickets ahead of time for this as well.

If you have an interest in the Resistance movement in Netherlands in WWII the Resistance Museum is very good and offers a thought-provoking look at how we, personally, might deal with being invaded.

https://www.verzetsmuseum.org/en/world-war-ii-in-the-netherlands

There are also several other museums that might be of interest, including the Maritime Museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_Amsterdam

Editing To ADD: Here is a link to the itinerary for the Belgium and Holland tour for those that aren't familiar with the tour. They will visit Keukenhof instead of the Flower Auction since it's during Keukenhof's blooming time.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/holland-belgium/belgium-holland

Thanks for the info. Did you enjoy your RS tour?

If you are asking me...yes, indeed! I loved this tour! There is so many interesting things to see.

I loved the day from Ghent to Bruges that was devoted to the WWI battlefields and trenches. So very interesting. Lunch was at a farmhouse on an active potato farm. The farmer mentioned he'd dug up 4 WWI ordinance pieces in his spring plowing. After lunch he pointed them out....had them stored on a pallet off to the side awaiting the Belgium military's bomb disposal unit. SO hard to comprehend that even after 100 years stuff is still being dug up out of that clay soil! I also thought it was interesting to visit the German cemetery at Langemark (where the first chemical gas attack occurred) Apparently the German government does not pay for upkeep and it is rarely visited by German tourists. A German Flying Ace, Werner Voss, is buried there. There was also an opportunity at another location to go into some of the trenches. No idea how any of them survived.

I was not sure about the day the Delta Waterworks are visited. I'm not an engineer but that was very interesting as well. This was the coldest day as it was very windy when we were are the first stop on a dam.

One thing a friend warned me about was the hotel in Delft. If you are staying at Hotel de Plantaan, the interior decorations are pretty weird. All rooms are decorated differently so after we checked in everyone went around to see everyone else's room. Mine was painted orange and had a big snake painted on the ceiling over the round bed. The most disconcerting thing was the wallpaper in the bathroom was of a young aboriginal boy staring directly at you while you are in the shower, hahaha! Yikes.

I'm sure you will enjoy it as well! I went in to Ghent 2 days ahead although I'd been in Paris for a couple of weeks so did not have jet lag. Just wanted to enjoy the location!

Thank you so much for describing the tour. Definitely have Resistance Museum on
list now. Purchased Vermeer tickets for the 13th early so if weather is nice we could go to Haalan.

April 11-After Anne Frank tour we plan on doing the following during our free time.
Stroll Thru Jordaan area -most charming neighborhood
West Tower
Nine Streets-great for architecture and shops
Church in the Attic-must do. Incredible. 1 to 2 hours

April 12th- Rather than visiting Rijksmuseum with tour group, we could visit Resistance Museum then

and then do Vincent Van Gogh. Would think 2 museums in one day would be enough.

13th we are entirely on own. So Vermeer and then day trip or enjoy Amsterdam.

Hahaha!!! I’ve got tickets for the 13th too!! I think mine are for 9A. Be sure to download the app for the Rijksmuseum and have your earbuds in your pocket. A couple years ago I did a special Rembrandt exhibition there and they had the whole audioguide on the app. I’d much rather listen that way than to cary a heavy audioguide with me.

Your plan looks good although I would get Van Gogh tickets for the afternoon of the 12 th in case you decide to do the guided tour of the Rijksmuseum with your group. I don’t think the Resistance Museum sells out so you can get tickets at the last minute.

The Resistance museum recently reopened after major renovations and a complete overhaul of the exhibit. As soon as it reopened, emotions ran very high about the new exhibit. People feel that this renovation has changed the museum too much and not for the better. They feel the museum places to much emphasis on and is too understanding for those who were on the “wrong” side during the war. On the other hand they feel the new exhibit paints some of those active in the resistance in a very negative light.
I haven’t yet been able to visit the museum myself, so I don’t know if those who are critical or flat out negative about the new exhibit have a point. Until I’ve visited the museum myself, I don’t feel comfortable recommending nor discouraging a visit to the museum.

Thanks for replying. Read 2023 reviews on trip advisor and they were very good.
I saw the French series, Resistance, which portrayed that all resistance leaders were not “good guys.”

Oh, DutchTraveler, that is very sad to hear. It's been years since I went and found it very thought-provoking so I'll be very sorry to see how it's changed. Thank you for the head's up.