Help with 11 day Netherlands itinerary 2018

I'll prob come back and mention a few things - gotta get my doggie out for a walk, but I can take 5 min right now...

We did Ams this past April. We were there from Apr 9-14, then went to Dordrecht for 3 nights.

And of course, you can plan your day trips to suit the weather - which I had hoped would be warmer, but the wind was quite chilly, so take some warm pull-overs!

OK, we also did Keukenhof...(Apr 13). My husband is not an early riser, so we knew we couldn't get there first thing. We got there maybe noon-ish. So...if you like bike riding, you can rent bikes right there in the parking lot and bike around the tulip fields. I'm not a huge fan of bicycles anymore, but I really enjoyed it. Biking was pretty easy since it's so flat. (google Rent a Bike Van Dam) We were out about 3 hrs or so. We did the bike rental first as when we arrived, the parking lot/lines were busy. When we got back around 3:30 - we waltzed right in. The pavilions were not crowded at all. I had overheard a man the day before saying they arrived first thing and even then the pavilions were really crowded. So going in after 3pm was a great idea. We stayed about 2.5-3 hrs or so. I actually got all tulip-ed out...lol. And timing was perfect for the tulips - most in bloom for us. And the bike ride was one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

We visited Kinderdijk from Dordrecht. What we thought we could do was take a ferry right from Dor to Kin...nope - the direct ferry didn't start until I believe it was May 1 (we went apr 15). So we had to get off the ferry and take a bus. Unfortunately, I didn't figure out where the bus stop was, and we wandered in the wrong direction and was almost an hour before we found a stop to get us to Kinder. Upon taking the bus back, we realized if we'd only walked a few more minutes in the initial direction we had been going, we would have hit the bus stop...so check your map! Again - it was lovely but very cool. You can wander around Dordrecht from the ferry stop, and easily walkable from the train stn. It's pretty compact and has a nice little downtown area. Don't forget to check out the windmill in Dordrecht! It is open certain days of the week, so check the times if you want to go in...

I had contemplated Zaanse, but read it was quite touristy, and since we did Kinder, we skipped it.

If you can schedule the visit to Keukenoff to the latest date possible, you give everything there a little more time to bloom.

One open-air museum should be enough, so I'd drop Zaanse Schans and just focus on Hoorn and Enkhuizen. The Westfields Museum in Hoorn is magnificent: Try to book your virtual reality tour of 16th-century Hoorn in advance. I'd plan on two days in Amsterdam if you friend hasn't been there before--get your Anne Frank tickets exactly two months before the day you plan to visit.

Thanks everyone for your comments! Most appreciated.

If it weren't for our desire to visit Keukenhof, we would be starting our trip a month later when the temperatures are likely to be a little warmer. At this stage the plan is to be in Leiden from April 23 for about 6 days. I understand that the tulips can flower earlier or later each year depending on the weather. Nicole, thanks for your tip about going later in the day to avoid some of the crowds and as well as the bike hire.

I too am wondering if we should skip Zaanse Schans. I plan to read up more on both open air museums as I've heard they are quite different. T, the virtual reality tour of Hoorn sounds very different and I will certainly include it.

I'm still unsure whether to stay in Amsterdam or Haarlem for our day trips in that area. I'm starting to lean towards Amsterdam purely for the slightly shorter travelling time to each of the destinations.

I can't comment on Ams vs Haarlem - we only visited Haa for part of a day. We did really enjoy our visit to St Bavos cathedral - mainly because one of the custodians approached us, then spent a good 45 min pointing thing out, telling us the history of the church, and taking us 'behind the ropes' for up close looks at the pulpit. Seriously, if you can find out when the custodians are there, and you see one (there seemed to be 2 - wearing red sweaters) - latch onto them! Made a quick cursory visit into the church into a really interesting visit!

And yes - I'm not one to travel in April, (usually Sept) but I did it purely for the tulips...I will say - spring was much further along that at home. It didn't even look like spring here until a month after we got home (spring sucks in Nova Scotia - ugh - takes so long to get here). NL at tulip time was on my bucket list. It wasn't the temps so much as that I didn't pack warmer clothing. Our arrival day - Apr 9 - was gorgeous...20C, sunny...then, the next day...temps dropped, cool breezes...I had only packed one 3/4 sleeve shirt (rest tshirts) and a fleece pullover for warmth. My light jacket was no help. I think I wore the fleece for 8 days straight. A light pair of gloves would have been a great thing to pack (and wouldn't have weighed anything)...I was actually hoping we'd find some gloves somewhere, but wrong time of year. But our day visiting Den Haag was beautiful and sunny.

And of course, by the time we got to Belgium, it was much nicer...and when we got to Paris 11 days later - it was hot and I actually got a sunburn. It's really hard to pack for April...it never went below freezing, and most days were 10-12C, but the winds were strong, making it feel colder. Kinderdijk was the worst - I couldn't stop shivering, even with a tshirt, fleece and jacket. We had...I think...two days of showers, but never anything bad. The rainiest day in Ams - we went into a restaurant when it started raining, by the time we left, it had stopped. Ditto Belgium - one heavy rain lasted about 20 min (long enough for me to eat my waffle under cover), then the sun came out and played peek-a-boo with some light showers.

A good selection of places to visit. Not only the usual suspects.
One practical thing: there is no real need to change hotels, distances being so short and the trains so frequent. Leiden is an good central point (it has even a direct half-hourly train service to Utrecht, taking some 50 mins). For a change of scenery, consider Utrecht. It has excellent train connections, with Amsterdam at some 30 mins.