First trip to the Netherlands - trying to decide on two home base locations

When is your trip?

We will land on April 19th

The Tulip/ Flower Parade ends in Haarlem April 20, 2024, and the floats will be on display in town the next day. I know this because of the great folks here on the Forum.
We are staying in both Leiden and Haarlem, (sandwiching the Belgium segment of our trip), and focusing on different areas from each base. Haarlem will be our base for Amsterdam and the flowers fields. We haven't been there before, so I hope it works well.
Have a great trip!

Will the flower parade make it really busy in Haarlem for the weekend of the 20th? If so, we may try to rent some bikes and ride to the North of Amsterdam

As you probably know you are there for the Tulips. Keukenhof will be really crowded, so Book things early. Haarlem and Leiden are both less than an hour from Amsterdam by different version of intercity or light rail. Leiden is where the Mayflower Covenant Folks stayed before leaving for the New World. Everyone rides bikes there so you will not be lonely. Sounds like a good time.

Leiden has 2 all day markets per week, Wednesday and Saturday. Saturday is the larger of the two. They were both great to visit as we stayed for 6 nights in Leiden.

There are easily 50 or more towns and cities in The Netherlands that will qualify. In only one week you could not possibly go wrong. Find yourself an inn that appeals to you and go from there.

I rented a bike just outside the Keukenhof gardens and took one of the routes on the map they gave me. It was fantastic! Tulip fields everywhere. Spent about 3 hours. One of the best days of my trip... and I was there just when you're planning to be there.

You could use just choose one base: Utrecht. Utrecht is the central hub for trains and has good connections to places in the Netherlands. You can reach all the places you mention within 30 to 90 minutes (Keukenhof). It saves you from loosing time checking out in the morning and checking in between two places. And it’s probably cheaper to stay there as well. You can spend the evening in Leiden and take a train back. They run every 30 minutes till midnight and then hourly through the night from Leiden. Utrecht has a nice towncentre .

I loved the few days I spent in Utrecht. An absolutely charming small city with all the modern facilities you could want but also canals and lovely old houses and some good museums.

The train station is huge and right near the city centre and you can easily get around from there. Everywhere is within easy reach.

I was there in July this year and even then it did not feel heavily touristed.