Where to stay in Haarlem near train station?

There is the Hotel Lion d'Or Haarlem right near the station, not stayed there, but know others that have with favorable impressions.

I have usually stayed near the Grote Markt, several blocks walk from the train station, but lots more right around there for restaurants, bars, and shops. I have stayed in the Ambassador City Center, Amadeus Hotel, and the Hotel Carillon, all fine, the latter two maybe a bit more "rustic".

Haarlem is an adorable town. The train station essentially is at the beginning of the town, and the marketsquare is a 10 minute walk, from there. I don't have a hotel suggestion, but I'm sure there are nice options. It's a really walkable town, and I would choose to be closer to the GroteMarket with lots of shops and restaurants than right at the train station.

Thank you for your responses it really helps

We stayed at Brasss Hotel Suites which is just near the market square. An easy 10-15 minute walk from the station.

You may want to consider taking the direct bus 300 to Haarlem, rather than taking the train.

There is no direct train connection between Schiphol and Haarlem and you will need to change trains at Amsterdam Sloterdijk.

I stayed at the Hotel Lion d’Or this past Oct. It wasn’t my favorite hotel, but the location was great. The train station, city center and windmill were all within walking distance. Here’s what I had to say about the hotel in my trip report:

I stayed at the Hotel Lion d’Or. This hotel was not great. The RS book
describes it as having “pleasingly posh décor” and that may have been
the case 20 years ago, but it just felt dated to me. I wondered how
long the decorative green blanket at the end of the bed had been
there. And the carpet had seen better days. I picked it for the
location near the train station because I would be taking day trips.
My room faced the train station and it was very loud, even with the
window closed. Loud from people, not the trains. This was a train
station that people liked to hang out in front of and there were often
police officers there dealing with people. I think trying to get them
to move on.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-the-netherlands-and-belgium-my-trip-report

You may also find the Public Transportation section of my report helpful. Traveling in the Netherlands is super easy as you can just tap in and out using your credit card to ride the trains, buses and trams. No need to buy tickets.

Have a great trip!!

Thank you. The link is very helpful on public transportation

I just stayed at the Hotel Malts in early May. It was close to Grote Market but on a quieter street and about a 12 minute walk to the train station. There was also a bus stop close by for a quick ride to the station. The hotel was great, especially the owners. I highly recommend it, and Haarlem in general.

Oh, and as someone else said, it’s very easy to take the bus from the airport to Haarlem rather than the train.

I just came back from Haarlem and there were 4 of us and we rented an apartment for a week which was great. The ML hotel was very helpful and is an upscale hotel. We were 5 to 10 minutes from the train station. But look for quiet streets as someone mentioned.

Since there were 4 of us with luggage, we took an Uber from Schiphol but as everyone said, Bus 300 goes directly there. After that, the train goes directly into Amsterdam Central and day trips to Delft, ect.

Feel free to PM me as I figured out the transportation thanks to this group and the very helpful people at the NS train station.

Thank you everyone for all the recommendations.

We stayed at the Hotel Boutique Staats in Haarlem just this past April, 2024. It is located in an old school house, very charming and great breakfast. If you book directly, the breakfast deal is under 10 euros. The street is extremely quiet in a residential neighborhood, yet just a two minute walk from the train station. Once you exit the station , turn left, away from the commercial area. I'd definitely return.
We timed it, and from the moment we pulled our room door closed, to having our butts on a train seat, usually took four minutes, as a train to Amsterdam was usually in the station .
There are stairs , no lift. The walk to market square was 10 minutes.
Enjoy this wonderful area .

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

Just returned from a trip to the Netherlands a few days ago. We flew into Amsterdam and went straight to Haarlem.
The #300 bus from the airport was very easy and convenient to get to Haarlem. We stayed at Ambassador City Center Hotel, and we found the location (while a 10-15 min walk from the train station) to be ideal. You are right in the heart of Haarlem Grote Market where all the cute stores, restaurants etc are all located. At night when it gets dark (around 10pm) you can see the stain glass window from the outside of the church which is just steps away from the hotel.
If you are trying to choose between being close to the train or atmosphere...I would highly recommend staying closer to Grote Market, and having a little extra walk to the train.

We took a walking tour of Haarlem and they brought us to this great Vegetarian restaurant that was on top of a 6 story parking garage. It was an old Green house, and had fantastic views of Haarlem- DeDakkas- https://www.dedakkas.nl/ (you do have to walk up the stairs to the top since the elevator is broken).

To Pat:

I believe I asked you a question on a different/similar thread, and based on that and several other comments, I just switched our reservation from Hotel Lion d'Or to Boutiquehotel Staats, Hopefully we will love it, as it's a non-cancellable reservation! I usually try not to do that, but am considering buying a travel insurance policy to cover any losses from non-cancellable reservations. I found a better price being offered on Agoda, which I have never used, did a quick Google search to see if they were legit, saw good reviews so I booked. Right after booking I kept scrolling and saw not-so-good reviews, but I emailed the Staats directly to see if they had our reservation and they confirmed they did, so hopefully all good.

My husband felt like from the pictures that the rooms will be dark--did you find that? Only negatives I saw in the reviews, besides a few that mentioned this, were about the stairs. But we will have only carry-ons, so hopefully not a problem. All that was available was what they call a junior suite, which supposedly has a king bed.

We are planning on taking the bus to and from the airport. I read your post regarding transportation but still am a little confused. Can you clarify? I understood you to mean that no cash can be used. Do we have to set up an account? I have never set up Apple Pay; would that be more convenient than using a credit card? We are not going to be there long (2 nights and only one full day) so I expect our travel will be limited to the bus to and from Haarlem, and a train ride in and out of Amsterdam to look around and have lunch.

Thank you!

Although not Pat, you may find information you are looking for in this thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/buying-ticket-for-300-bus and https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/bus-from-schipol-airport-to-haarlem in addition to Carrie's and Pat's trip reports mentioned above.

If you have one credit card between the two of you, you can use the physical card for one person and Apple Pay or equivalent using the same credit card on a mobile for the other person. You each will need to tap in and out individually. However, you can still procure paper tickets with the driver (although slightly more expensive to pay for the ticket) or for the train at a vending machine or counter (at Haarlem train station) with credit cards (no cash accepted).

You can read more on https://www.ovpay.nl/en on using credit cards (no Amex) on Dutch public transport.

We will be in Amsterdam this week soon…and have a reservation in Haarlem at Corrie Ten Boom house in Haarlem. Have any of you in Haarlem visited that? Wonder about walking distance from train station.

All2alb, the walk from the Haarlem train station to the Corrie ten Boom house is probably 15 minutes. I didn't do the walk directly, ( couldn't get tickets ), but so much in Haarlem is pretty close together. Enjoy this beautiful country!

It is an easy 15-min walk from the station. Just take the Kruisweg/Kruisstraat and you walk to it in a straight line.

Thanks for your help Pat and Barney. Hope your questions got answered also Bachmeier! I will miss you by a couple weeks! Enjoy your trip also!

all2alb, it’s a short walk from the train station to the Corrie ten Boom house, just before you get to Grotemarket square just as Corrie described in The Hiding Place. It is how we spent our last day in Amsterdam and it was such a wonderful moving tour. Having heard her speak near the end of her life it felt like a full circle moment to see her home. Our tour guide could not have been lovelier.

Thank you everyone for all your responses. Very helpful in planning my trip

Thanks, Barney.

I did a lot of googling and never found anything as helpful as the link you shared. It certainly looks easy, and we will both have our own cards.