Getting to Schipol from Leiden or Den Haag

you can look it up there; there is a direct from Leiden to Schipol
https://www.nsinternational.nl/en

Check the Dutch train website to check connections for yourself:

https://www.ns.nl/en

Personally, I wouldn't choose a town to stay in based solely on whether it avoids a change of trains, though of course that would be nice.

I stayed a night in Delft a few years ago - LOVED it! I day tripped to The Hague, which was pleasant but I found Delft much more charming (and smaller) . FYI, normally there is direct train service between Delft and Schiphol, but when I traveled between them, some construction forced me to change trains anyway. Could happen with any of the towns you choose.

The Hague is the least interesting city to stay. Leiden, Utrecht and the suggested Delft are all agreeable places to stay for a few nights, and have excellent rail connections with Schiphol airport. Leiden and Utrecht have four direct Intercity trains per hour; Delft two direct and another two which involve an easy change in Leiden (just crossing the platform). Just pick the city which appeals most (I have a slight bias for Leiden...).

Thanks, all. Not having to change trains would be a minor convenience, not a major consideration. Just thinking about the last day of the trip: the fewer complications, the more pleasant the day.

I'm leaning toward Leiden myself, but there are so many museums in Den Haag! And a great looking affordable B&B!

I know, I know, all these cities are close together and the public transportation is excellent. I'm just tossing ideas around in my head before choosing a base.

Thanks for the input.

Leiden is a beautiful canal filled small city with great dining and transportation options. We love visiting there. We also are fond of The Hague. Both are great choices. Delft is small, more touristed., nice for a half a day.

For an American, The Hague is too much like a modern US city. Sure there are old sections, but there's also lots of new construction and even skyscrapers. If you want a more Old World setting, then Delft or Leiden would be much better.

I liked The Hague on my single visit there, but it was back in the 1970s, so I can well imagine that the percentage of modern architecture has increased. Still, it has at least one really fine museum, the Mauritshuis.

Schiphol is between A'dam and Den Haag. It's about 10-15 minutes more by train from DH than from A'dam. Most, if not all, the trains from A'dam to AMS continue on to DH and vice versa, so it's just as easy to get to AMS from one as from the other. Besides the Mauritshuis, there's the Escher Museum, the Mesdag and Madurodam. It's also a convenient day trip by local tram to Delft.

Thanks again. I'm still leaning toward Leiden, but not completely convinced. We only have about 3 or 4 days in the Netherlands after our tour. Maybe 4 or 5 if we leave Paris the day after the tour ends. If we had more time, I'd split our stay between 2 towns.

Leiden to The Hague takes 11 mins with the Intercity train and 18 with the all-station Sprinter train. A tram in The Hague takes longer.

We've stayed in Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Delft in the past. They're all lovely, but we'd like to try something new this time.

My personal take:

Utrecht is lovely, has unique bi-level canals, several great museums, and few tourists. If you go, my favorites were the Centraal Museum (with quite a variety from ancient ships to modern graffiti art), the Railway Museum, and the Museum Speelklok, with music boxes and huge fairground organs (you see it with a one hour tour, on which a docent demonstrates the various music-makers). There's even a tiny red-light district, if you crave such things.

Leiden is also nice, and has the oldest university in the Netherlands. While Utrecht and Delft also have universities, only Leiden looked or felt like a "college town," with visible students. I enjoyed my canal cruise there, as well as the science museum. Did you know that kidney dialysis and EKG's come from the Netherlands? I didn't, until I went to the museum.

The Hague has interesting museums - but for me, that was the only interesting thing about it. It definitely wasn't as attractive as Leiden or Utrecht. However, if you are drawn to the Gemeentemuseum (modern art including lots of Piet Mondrian), or the others mentioned by Chani (all good), then staying there would be worthwhile.

You really can't lose, and as said, you can stay in any of these and see the others as easy day trips.

After consulting with our Travel Group today, I've pretty much decided on Leiden, with day trips to Den Haag and Utrecht.

Now, my next dilemma is whether we should cut short our stay in Paris by a day to have an extra day in the Netherlands. But I must say, if that's my biggest dilemma, life is pretty damned good.

Thanks again to you all.