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Netherlands (mainly Amsterdam) trip planned

My wife and I booked our plane tickets from the US to Amsterdam, arriving on 22 April and leaving 26 April to head to Paris via train. I know Kings Day is on 27 April hence why we wanted to leave the day before. While in Amsterdam, our main focus is to visit Keukenhof likely on the 24 April (Monday) and have the rest of our time wondering around Amsterdam to visit the various musuems and general sights of Amsterdam. I booked our hotel at the nhow Amsterdam RAI on Europaboulevard, which is about a 5 to 7 minute walk to the nearest metro station Europaplein (which itself is about 3 stops to Centraal Station for us to get our train and go to Paris). There were lots of options for accomodations but this hotel location seemed reasonable for access to the metro in order to get to Centraal Station to catch the train to Paris.

We would like some recommendations for restaurants to patronize, for those that have any recommendations. Don't want to eat at a Argentine steakhouse (which a past posting mentioned was quite a few to enjoy) or Indonesian food since we can eat that in the US without much fanfare. Any hole in the wall places that others have enjoyed and recommend? Thanks in advance.

Posted by
14737 posts

No restaurant recommendations but just wanted to make sure you are aware there is a special Vermeer Exhibition on at the Rijksmuseum while you are there. You'll need to get tickets in advance if this is of interest to you. Here is the website.

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/vermeer

If you want to see the Van Gogh museum you'll also want to book that ahead of time. Maybe not this far out but a month or so at least. They do sell out so you can't count on buying last minute.

I think there is an Express bus to Keukenhof from that Europaplein area. Is there a reason you chose to be this far out even with the close metro station? The tramlines in Amsterdam are pretty easy to navigate and they all (I think) go to the Centraal Station.

Posted by
41 posts

Thanks Pam. I booked our flights on Travelocity and after booking, I got a list of hotels to choose from. I was overwhelmed. I wanted to be close to a metro station and a short ride to and from Centraal Station. I had a list of a couple of hotels recommended in past postings but they did not come up in the availability. The price I got was $169 a night and it was newly built.

Posted by
1587 posts

“ Don't want to eat at a Argentine steakhouse (which a past posting mentioned was quite a few to enjoy) or Indonesian food since we can eat that in the US without much fanfare.”

I can understand why you would not want to eat at an Argentine steakhouse while in Amsterdam, but I wouldn’t dismiss a rijsttafel so easily. It’s one of the few culinary traditions that we have in the Netherlands https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijsttafel

Your hotel is ideally located for your visit to the Keukenhof. The Keukenhof Express busses leave from Europaplein. Entry+transport combo tickets will become available in February on the official Keukenhof website; https://keukenhof.nl/en/plan-your-visit/