Nethelands in March second half

Leiden or Den Hague are great choices for a base from which to visit both cities as they’re just 10 train minutes away from each other. Delft ( 10 minutes away from Den Hague). for a half day trip, and Utrecht. (40 minutes away) for a full day trip become possibilities as well.
Be prepared for the possibility of cold rain or even snow.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/the-netherlands-belgium-april-2024-brought-the-rain-pants-needed-the-rain-pants

We really enjoyed both Haarlem and Leiden. I've included our hotels in the above Trip Report. You have a nice amount of time to explore the area. Have a wonderful visit. Safe travels!

Thank you Kenko and Pat. Already have a booking at Residence Inn in Den Hague, but really looking at Leiden as well. From my initial research, Leiden may be a bit better suited for us, as a smaller town, but not too small.

Do they both have diverse cuisine options? We do not need a lot of variety, but enough for a week-long stay. Even during our trips to France, Italy, Greece, who are well-known for their cuisines, we did look out for some variety after a few days.

Any pointers for Keukenhof? We do not bike and the park looks huge. I know we have to book in advance and just hope for a good weather that time. The park opens March 21, and was hoping to book on March 28, but not sure if that is enough time to see tulips.

Is it crazy to do two one or two daytrips to Amsterdam from Leiden or Den Hague? As I said, we prefer to have a single home base, but it is not an absolute must.

Amsterdam is an excellent base for daily train trips, but Leiden or even Utrecht could be fine. Leiden and Utrecht themselves are cities that "can't be seen in one day", but they are less intense than Amsterdam.

https://keukenhof.nl/en/

Keukenhof is not a flower farm. It is an intensely groomed public garden, with permanent evergreen and perennial plantings, water features, and a cosmetic windmill, but heavily focused on bulbs and hundreds of varieties of tulips. They are multiple-planted and re-planted at night, to provide a roughly similar experience throughout their short open season. In fact, you can see (from a distance) some commercial bulb fields over the fence at Keukenhof, but that may not be enough for you. It was for us. There are multiple dining places, beer taps, and small musical events distributed around the gardens.

I was over 60 when we went to Keukenhof, but I found it much less walking than Huntington Gardens or Longwood Gardens. It is much smaller, if "big". It is very crowded, even more so on weekends. So it is hard to "walk fast."

I would say that it is hard to see both Delft and Den Haag on the same day-out from Amsterdam. We slept in Den Haag for a few nights, but if you know what you want to do, that is not essential. There are two or three possible cheese-towns, a bit touristy. We enjoyed a day or half-day out at Amersfoort, although it's a longer walk from the train than some towns. You didn't mention Kinderdijk or the other big antique windmill installation.

Thank you Tim.

Good to know that there is enough in Leiden itself that can occupy us in addition to day trips to other cities. We generally prefer to stay at a home base for a longer period vs. changing location every couple of days, unless it is unavoidable. We did the latter in Greece recently, which was probaly unavoidable considering the geography (Santorini, Iraklio, Chania, Athens, Meteora, Nafplio, Kalamata), but we did have three weeks. In another recent trip we did two bases in Nice and Saint-Remy-de-Provence and did day trips, which was perfect.

Your comments about Keukenhof are reassuring. Both of us love flower fields, my spouse more so, and have fingers crossed as she is very excited. Both of us are around 60, but can handle a good amount of walking, especially on level ground.

We have seven days, so we can think about staying in one base (say Leiden or Hague), make day trips to see the other (Leiden/Hague), Haarlem, Amsterdam (possibly twice), Delft, Keukenhof. Thanks for reminding me about Kinderdijk, and we may decide to cut one of the other destinations to see it. One advantage of a convenient home base is that we do not need to plan most of this, except for the Keukenhof ticket. Which is the other windmill destination?

By the way, I have been to Utrecht (and Amsterdam) multiple times on business visits, but first time for my wife in Utrecht. My business was mostly in another business park there, but evenings were free to explore and loved Utrecht.

I will just agree that you can't really go wrong choosing either Leiden or Den Haag. I have stayed in both several times (and again about the time you will be there), as well as Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Haarlem. (The Netherlands is often my starting and ending spot)

Leiden is a nice smaller town (still decent sized) the central area has canals, a nice pedestrian shopping area, a market on Saturday. Restaurants are a nice selection, but not a wide variety.

Den Haag? It has a large pedestrian center, lots of shops, and a much bigger variety of restaurants. (I just have to say, I have spent lots of time in the Netherlands, but still never really have figured out "Dutch" food, finding lots of other options).

Both are well located, easy train rides into Amsterdam, but also Delft, Rotterdam, Haarlem and lots of smaller towns. Even Antwerp would make a great day trip.

Leiden has some interesting museums, a Pilgrim museum if that interests. Den Haag has interesting places as well, even if you are not big art fans, the Maurithuis is easily manageable, and has some great Vermeers.

Thank you Paul. Looks like the decision is made for me, as there is literally no availability for my dates in Leiden. Something must be going on. Or may be tulip season starting?

Question-
Is Semiretired and APK the same poster?

Tulip season is a really big event in the Netherlands. Book lodging asap. Some of the questions asked are answered in my above Trip Report.
Have a great time!

I wonder if they are the two spouses?

It's not an important distinction, but I suspect that Den Haag is more of a "government city" than is Leiden. So that should mean more high-end and more international food (?) And I think there are even more special busses to Keukenhof in Leiden, but I don't have personal experience. Taking a train to Keukenhof requires a less-known, very local bus line, I think.

Den Haag has an excellent, and very large general art museum which is separate from the Mauritshuis. Interestingly, American modern artists are heavily represented there.

It can't be done by train, but we enjoyed the commercial flower auction market on weekdays at dawn, in Aalsmeer. One reason to go is that it might move, one day, to "online" only, without the viewing galleries and snack bar for tourists. https://www.visitaalsmeer.nl/en/facts-flower-auction-aalsmeer/

Thank you both. Yes, we are the same family - sometimes logged in from spouse account.

All of you have been very helpful. We were looking more into trains and have a couple of follow-up questions.

Most likely we will have four bags ( two check-in and two carry-ons) with us. Yes, usuallly we do not travel in Europe with big bags. This time it is part of a long multi-purpose trip back from Asia. We need to decide how to manage these bags on a train. I can think of two options.
1. Leave the two check-in bags at Schiphol baggage storage. We should be able to manage the carry-ons on the train. They will be bigger than the locker, but there seems to be another storage option at the airport. The baggage charges were not quite clear to us, but may be about EUR 150 for 8 days.
2. Take all four bags with us on the train. This may prove a bit challenging. We noticed that at least some (all?) intercity trains are double-decker, with at least four steps. It was also not clear if there were luggage racks in each compartment. We will land mid-day, so hopefully it won't be crowded. We do not mind standing, but do not want to inconvenience passengers.

3. Taxi is an option, but we can consider it if is more cost-effective vs. #1. Definitely the most convenient. Welcome pickups quoted EUR 170, one-way (Schiphol to our hotel in Den Haag).

Are we overlooking any other options? Thank you.