Dutch Corridor in One Day?

Delft’s old town is tiny and its attractions can be seen in half a day. Rotterdam is the Netherland’s main port city. with a population of more than one million and many museums that can easily take an entire day. If you simply want to see what this contemporary city looks like— it’s quite different from the other two— a tram ride from the train station gives a good tour. The Delfshaven neighborhood of Rotterdam is what remains of Rotterdam’s historic architecture.
Leiden, with a population of 110K, is home to the Netherlands’ most prestigious university with centuries-old architecture along its canals. There are a number of top-notch museums including the archaeological museum called the “National Museum of Antiquities.”
Leiden can easily take an entire day or two to visit.
Another city for you to consider seeing is The Hague, which is only 15 train minutes from Delft and 13 train minutes from Leiden.

Thank you, Kenko, for this information about the three cities. Sounds like it makes sense to budget more than just a day to see them.

You also need to include travel time. Are you traveling by public transport? Will you be in one of the three towns when you start?

If you plan to do this from Amsterdam by train, you will need to calculate in at least 1-2 hrs for travel and be aware of the closing time of the museums you want to visit (typically 17:00) plus I would assume a lunch. Use the 9292 website or app for public transport travel options and time, think of what you want to vist at a minimum (like the windmills at Kinderdijk when in Rotterdam) and check opening hours on their websites. I won’t be surprised you would need 2-3 days.

These would most likely be day trips from Haarlem. In Cameron Hewitt's blog post (link in my original post) he makes it sound like it's possible to visit all three cities in a day because they are well connected by train, so that's why I'm asking for a sanity check from folks who have attempted it or have knowledge of the area.

Can you do it one day? Sure. Will you experience the places properly? I don’t think so.

What you can expect and do is well described in this blog and post https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/the-netherlands-belgium-april-2024-brought-the-rain-pants-needed-the-rain-pants and https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/after-belgium-would-you-recommend-den-haag-or-rotterdam. They will give you a sense of what people have while visiting these places.

The old Rotterdam city center was almost completely destroyed by a German bombing raid in May 1940 to speed up the Dutch capitulation. It has become a post-War II playground for architects. As you can read opinions are divided. It would maybe good the read up on Rotterdam so you know what to expect (maybe in combination with Delft for the contrast?).

Whether or not this itinerary will work depends upon Dutch railway construction during your visit. Delft was very difficult for us to reach as a result of construction. Frankly, I didn't find it to be worth the effort, though others obviously disagree.

the construction at Delft is now very nearly completely complete. This video from 3 weeks ago shows the new track complete, another excellent Dutch train video by Machinist Stefen (congratulations on his very recent wedding) https://youtu.be/Qx15r-3pnpk?si=jMY0iUwH6LU5US

It appears that the construction works in Delft have been completed late August.

You can use https://9292.nl/en or https://www.ns.nl/en (train only) to plan your trip, which will include construction work and diversion delays. Information on maintenance work can be found here: https://www.ns.nl/en/travel-information/maintenance-on-the-tracks/.