Suggestions for a base outside of Amsterdam

I highly recommend considering Amersfoort as your base. It's a beautiful city and it is easily accessible by train. Utrecht is just 15 minutes away by train.

It seems you haven’t yet visited the northern and southern part of our country. In the north I suggest you to look into cities like Groningen and Leeuwarden. In the south I can suggest cities like Maastricht, ‘s Hertogenbosch or Breda.

Since your three day trips are all north of Amsterdam, you might want to consider Hoorn, which is a beautiful small city that sits right on the water. I spent the day there but would have loved to have spent more time. And it's an easy commute by train to Edam, Volendam and Marken also.

ETA: Dutch_Traveler, do you think some of those might be a difficult commute consider her three day trips? For example, Groningen would be almost a 3 hour trip by train to Edam, and even farther to Marken.

Mardee, we are doing our day trip to Edam, Volendam and Marken when we are based in Amsterdam.

@Mardee; please reread the question of the OP. They’re not looking for a base to take their day trips to Edam, Volendam and Marken. They will be visiting these 3 cities in one single day trip with their friends from Amsterdam.
The OP is looking for a place outside of Amsterdam to stay in before their friends arrive. The OP has indicated that they’ve already seen quite a few cities in our country, which is why I suggested the cities that I suggested.

Edited to add; I just noticed that the OP has confirmed that they’re looking for a place to stay outside Amsterdam. Not for a base to daytrip to Edam, Volendam and Marken.
My recommendation for exploring the north or south of The Netherlands still stands. Maastricht in particular has a completely different atmosphere than the other Dutch cities the OP had already visited.

Oh, oops. Sorry for the confusion! Although I did wonder why you would be taking 3 day trips from a destination where you are only staying 3-4 days. 😊 Now it makes sense.

Amersfoort is a pretty town, with a nice feel of prosperous Europeans in an historic setting. But there is not enough to do right there for me to want to sleep there multiple nights. Also, the train station is a substantial walk from the downtown. (Of course you have to locate a hotel, which could be anywhere.)

Because you slept already in Leiden, I'd suggest that you consider Utrecht, which also has a great deal to do right in the same city. You haven't proposed eastern Netherlands, like Apeldorn, the palace, Hoge Veluwe park & art museum, Nijmegen, Deventer. I am not a "car nut", but I did find a car useful for that area. I think Utrecht has more charm than Den Haag, but there is a lot of good art in Den Haag. Did you visit there from Delft anyway?

Engineers often have interest in The Delta Works. I haven't been there. BTW, I found it was a mistake to return the car inside the city of Amsterdam!

I forgot to mention that when we were based in Zutphen, we did see Amersfoort, and also visited Kampen and Zwolle. We also did a day trip to the Maeslant storm surge barrier from Delft and another to Keukenhof from Leiden. Would you recommend going up to Groningen and Leeuwarden or staying in Utrecht, Den Bosch or Dordrecht?

“ Would you recommend going up to Groningen and Leeuwarden or staying in Utrecht, Den Bosch or Dordrecht?”

I only feel comfortable to make a recommendation to friends and family I know really well. Since I know very little about you, I can’t recommend a certain city.
What I do recommend you to do, is to look up and read into the cities I mentioned; Groningen and Leeuwarden in the north and Maastricht and ‘s Hertogenbosch in the south. You can then decide for yourself which one appeals to you the most.

Utrecht. Lovely small city. Big enough to have everything you need in terms of shops and restaurants, small enough to wander. A real sense of a city going about its own business despite being drop dead gorgeous in parts. Similar vibe to Leiden in that sense.

I forgot to mention that when we were based in Zutphen, we did see
Amersfoort, and also visited Kampen and Zwolle. We also did a day trip
to the Maeslant storm surge barrier from Delft and another to
Keukenhof from Leiden. Would you recommend going up to Groningen and
Leeuwarden or staying in Utrecht, Den Bosch or Dordrecht?

I've been to all the places you visited Cheryl, and all the places the Dutch_traveler lists (which are all strong suggestions for sure).

Given that you've already visited a number of more northern-Netherlands-vibing Hanseatic cities and towns (isn't Zutphen charming?!), and also the south Holland coast, I'd go south interior. The atmosphere is different in the south, particularly from the area you visited, which is still quite representative of it's deep history of what Max Weber characterized as ascetic Protestantism. The south is historically more Catholic, with a bit more of a rollicking festival culture one might associate with Catholic culture.

All degrees of course - contemporary Netherlanders in general have some average similarities - but regional vibes still exist.

Den Bosch/s'Hertogenbosch would be number one on my list. It's my favorite city in the Netherlands. If not then Maastricht, which is wonder historic university city where you can do many easy-transit, interesting day trips, including Aachen and Liege. Both Den Bosch and Maastricht are good-living, well off places - tons of nice (and still affordable) amenities for tourists to enjoy.

Have a great trip!

I may have missed it, but I didn’t see Arnhem mentioned. RS doesn't list it either. I've been there twice, separated by 35 years.

This Wikipedia article has the basics about the city: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnhem

The suggestions here might be of interest: https://en.visitarnhem.com/to-see-do/museums-attractions

I've been to the Kröller-Müller twice and the Airborne Museum at Hartenstein once. Sad to say, I've never been to the Dutch Open Air Museum.

We had a car, so we didn’t take the train there, but it looks like Arnhem Central Station itself is worth a look: https://architectenweb.nl/nieuws/artikel.aspx?id=37938

Other public transportation is good as expected in the Netherlands: https://en.visitarnhem.com/plan-your-visit/transportation

I like Arnhem! Apeldoorn and Nijmegen too. But all three more or less feed into the area the OP has already travelled (Hanse Northeast).

The monkey wrench is day trip to Edam/Volendam area. Kind of a pull from Arnhem, and also from the cities I suggested (or rather Dutchtraveller suggested and I endorsed). But it's a little country, probably better to stay somewhere new if a little distant than tune the whole visit around one day :)

I’m going to jump on the Utrecht recommendation train, partially because I live there. The city itself is lovely with canals and a large cathedral tower, and we also have the major train station in the Netherlands. It’s very easy to do day trips to anywhere else in the Netherlands.

So far you get good advice from the other posters.

In case you like to explore the southern part of the Netherlands like Dutch_traveler suggests is to my idea Breda a good base for daytrips. By train it’s well connected with ‘s Hertogenbosch and takes a half hour, Utrecht 1h 07m, Maastricht 1h 52m, Dordrecht 23m, Arnhem 1h 17m, about the same time as the latter Middelburg. Across our national border you can even visit Antwerp, with a direct highspeed train it will take 35m.

The historic centre of Breda is nice and has a pleasant vibe and if you like theme parks the Efteling is within easy reach and getting to the Open Air Museum just north of Arnhem is from there doable too. Lovely Veere is worth considering and 20m with the bus from Middelburg train station.

The northern part of the Netherlands is worth considering too, but you have to include the countryside to get the best experience. For that it’s better having a car, with public transport it will be too much time consuming to my opinion.

Thanks to all of you that responded! I appreciate the time you took to give your suggestions. We've decided to use Utrecht as our base, since it seems fairly central and well connected by train to other cities in the south. We're going to add an extra day to have more time to explore the cities in the area.

Hoorn is perfect, close to all the places you mentioned and near enough to Amsterdam to get anywhere else you want to go.

We stayed a week because we had Covid there but I would think Hoorn would be ideal for four nights.