Which Small town outside Amsterdam?

We’re going to need a bit more info to help you properly. When will you be visiting? And what is your definition of “small and quaint”?

I’m not sure, either, what you’re looking for in small and quaint, but here are some ideas:

I have not been to Haarlem or Leiden, but I’ve heard good things.

I think Delft is a nice town to visit. They have a tower that leans more than the one in Pisa, and are famous for their Delftware (the blue and white patterned china).

Another option is Gouda, where they have a nice outdoor daily market, some interesting architecture (the city hall), and a cheese museum.

If you’re on your way to Berlin, you could consider Amersfoort or Deventer, as well.

I guess small isn't clear. We want to be able to see a lot of a city/town that is easily walkable. Population size or land size isn't important, just don't want to choose a heavily touristy area.
Most likely will be last visit to Netherlands and would like to pick the perfect place that is a step back in time.
Hoping to stay within 45 minutes of Amsterdam as the train we are catching to Berlin leaves at 7:50am.
We will be visiting in mid October.

Haarlem or Leiden are likely your two best choices. Delft, Den Haag, and Utrecht would also do, but further, putting you at or over your 45 minute trip mark for an early train. What days of the week would your nights be? That may have some influence if you can catch a market day or other event.

Plan on arriving early Sunday morning and leaving Tuesday. Would really like to attend a market.

I’m sorry, but I think you’re looking for something that doesn’t exist. You want to step back in time, but you also don’t want a heavily touristy area.
All the cities that were mentioned in this thread are cities were people live, work, study etc. They aren’t open air museums, so you will see cars, busses and lots of bikes in the streets.
Delft in particular is very touristy with lots of tourists visiting for Delft Blue and to step in the footsteps of Vermeer

Don’t get me wrong; all of the cities mentioned are well worth a visit, but they aren’t a step back in time and there definitely will be other tourists.

We spent a week in charming Leiden. It is not a small town! But it is a university town and has all the Pilgrim history too as they spent ten yrs there before sailing to North America. Delft is smaller.
We also enjoyed The Hague too.

We visited the Netherlands this spring and stayed in Utrecht. We loved it ... compact, lively, with a convenient train station.

I have been to Delft, Den Haag, and Leiden. I know that Delft has a market on Thursdays and Leiden has a market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I have been to both; they were perfectly nice markets but not unusual or special from what I saw. . The historic center of Delft and Leiden are both pretty compact. Delft would probably most fit your desire for quaint and picturesque but as others mentioned is a little further from Amsterdam and gets many tourists. When I was there in October on a rainy weekday, I saw few other tourists but I imagine spring and summer would be more crowded. Delft is an easy day trip from Leiden, so I suggest staying in Leiden and visiting Delft from there.

I have visited all above mentioned places with the exception of Amersfoort. But all are touristy, one a bit more than the other. The only city (not mentioned here) that gives me the feeling stepping back in time is Dordrecht, no idea why it is so much overlooked but it's very lovely and compared to the other cities there are hardly tourists to see. Easy to get to the windmills of Kinderdijk from there if of interest. As far as I know there is no market on Mondays and the fastest train journey to Amsterdam Centraal takes 1 hour and 1 minute.

If you are willing to take a later train to Berlin, Dordrecht is worth to consider, just a matter of flexibility.

Go to Hoorn.

I loved staying up n Haarlem.

What did you like about Haarlem? Any hotels or restaurants you would recommend?
Thanks

Here’s what I wrote about Leiden. I stayed there one night while switching airlines going through Amsterdam. I would love to go back and spend a few more days there both for the atmosphere & to see some of the museums.

*”I stayed one night in nearby Leiden at the Boutique Hotel Steenhof Suites. Originally the plan was to stay in Amsterdam or near the airport, but the available hotels were so expensive! I was able to take a 15-minute train from the airport to Leiden and stay in a beautiful, historic building with a room with white stucco artwork, a fireplace, tall ceilings, very modern bathroom with a view on a canal street - all for less than half the price - an easy decision!

Leiden is beautiful, and the area around the university and the center provided so many options for taking lovely photos! I stopped into Kopje van Leiden for a wonderful coffee & chocolate break! I walked off what was left of my feet and relaxed in my spacious room, enjoying reliving my trip locations!

The last day, I took the easy train connection back to Schiphol & flew Delta from Amsterdam to Seattle, to Spokane.”*

I really liked staying in a historical building! Here’s more info about its history. All of the rooms look beautiful from the photos. I chose their Rapenburg Suite, and it was lovely! https://www.steenhofsuites.nl/en/history/

Are you planning to go to Amsterdam to catch the train for Berlin? If so, you may not need to back track. As you look at potential places for your 2 nights, check on going to them from Schiphol and leaving from them for Berlin instead.

For example, I looked at Arnhem. It's about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Schiphol via direct (no changes) train. I used Sunday, February 11th for a sample date. And I just Googled "train schiphol to arnhem centraal." You could do something similar for other towns to get an idea of the possibilities for your arrival day at Schiphol. Click on something "direct" that you like and then click on the NS link to to verify the scheduling. Even if the train is direct there might be stops along the way. So that's for getting to your chosen town directly from the airport.

Next I Googled "train from arnhem centraal to berlin" and used Tuesday, February 13th. There were lots of options with only 1 change taking from about 5 hours 10 minutes to about 6 hours 20 minutes. There are varying places for the change and the time difference seems to be because of the length of time between arrival and departure. That fastest train has only 3 minutes between, so I'd never pick that one!

BTW -- I also tried Amsterdam to Berlin for February 13th and the time is about the same from there as it is from Arnhem. I couldn't get the NS website to work, maybe because of the holiday. I chose the dates in February because there was nothing loaded after the end of March.

You may wonder why I chose Arnhem. My main 3 reasons are:

The Open Air Museum -- https://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/. Definitely a step back in time, but maybe not exactly the kind you hope to find.

The Kröller-Müller Museum -- https://krollermuller.nl/. Modern and contemporary art. Good Van Gogh collection.

The De Hoge Veluwe National Park -- https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/nl/ontdek-het-park. This should be beautiful in October.

And the city itself ...

Visit Arnhem -- https://en.visitarnhem.com/. Be sure to click on Transportation to see the amazing train station.

Holland.com, Arnhem -- https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/discover-the-netherlands/visit-the-cities/arnhem.htm.

You can't go wrong with any of the options being suggested. But I've been to Haarlem and Leiden once each and to Arnhem twice. I found Arnhem more interesting and less crowded, especially with non-Europeans, than either of them.

I assume you have already looked at the NL ( or DB) rail website, so you know it's at least 5 hours to Berlin. The Netherlands is a prosperous, modern country, so postwar development has erased all of the war-movie villages you may be imagining. Perhaps you understand that you are actually asking for a "lovely historic center, surrounded by banal low-rise residential sprawl."

I don't mean that as a slam at all, but Gouda, Alkmaar, Amersfoort, and even Delft (an especially nice destination) fit that description. You are not going to get a B and B in a Dutch painter's historic home. Deventer has a very pretty historic center, but that is quite small. I remember passing their micro-Red Light district on foot, to get there. I'm particularly fond of Amersfoort, where you see a lot of locals living and shopping. But it's not big enough for multiple days of exploring. And it's a long walk from the train station. Even busy Arnhem has a tiny medieval square, full of bars and restaurants. Haarlem is a big city, but our Host here, Rick, has recommended it for people who find Amsterdam too crowded or expensive. You've seen Amsterdam, otherwise I'd echo the TA New York newsboard, "To see NYC, stay in NYC."

Another plus for Delft is the accessibility of Den Haag sights, like two fabulous art museums, including The Girl With the Pearl Earing.

We rented an apartment in Haarlem and got takeout for most, maybe all, of our meals. I thought Haarlem was a nice size and had things to do — we especially liked the Corrie Ten Boom house — but was quiet and easy to navigate. It was a quick and easy train ride to Amsterdam.

You have an early train out of Amsterdam, which is a big station and could take a bit of time to transfer from one track to another,. So for sure you need to be looking at convenient direct frequent connections.

Hoorn is a great idea. Train 25-35 minutes direct every 15-20 minutes all day. Great looking, charming Dutch seafaring town with historic uniformity.

Delft is painfully charming. Sweet town. But an hour-ish to Amsterdam every half hour, half of those trips indirect. For me it would feel a little too far. Gouda pretty darn cute too, but maybe harder transfer logistics.

I very much like Amersfoort, would strongly consider living there if moving to the Netherlands. But it isn't entirely preserved charm, rather a place with sporadic (though still plentiful) charm and really fantastic good living amenities. In my recollection the train took a bit to get to Amsterdam, some routes changing in Utrecht (which is a great city, but along with city Den Haag should not be on your list). Plus the train station in Amersfoort is a hoof from the center. In such a short stay you want more convenient transfer.

I agree with Will that Dordrecht has wonderful historic town appeal and is under-visited. I'm not sure how easy or frequent direct trains are to Amsterdam Centraal. Remember it being like 90 minutes with a change and not super frequent train line?

I've spent something like 12 nights in Leiden on four separate trips. And many months (maybe 5-6 lifetime) over a dozen+ visits all over the Netherlands exploring small towns and cities.
Many tourists love Leiden, but I would skip it. Won't enumerate my reasons why (I'm in the "meh, Leiden" minority and don't want to constantly relitigate). But if you're talking about a charming historical town, I think you want something more like Delft, Gouda, or Hoorn. Leiden to me isn't a cute town like Delft, but rather a stately, burgerlijk small city, population approaching twice the number in Hoorn for instance. It's not a bad place, but there's just so much more to choose from in the Netherlands that I like better.

Haarlem is nice too, close and a pretty center. Also maybe bigger feeling than you are after, in a bit more suburban in it's vibe? Hard to say ....

Anyway, I would vote Hoorn.

Lastly, it isn't clear exactly in your OP, but if you are planning on spending your time in Amsterdam, for that short of a time just stay in Amsterdam. But if you want to spend your full day in a pretty, quieter town, then Hoorn etc ...

Is there a way in Hoorn to see the 2nd lowest point in the Netherlands, the dikes and farmland around the DeBeemster area and the Shermer windmills without having a car or hiring a guide who has one?

@Backyard; you’re new to the forum, so you probably aren’t aware but in general it’s best to open your own topic when you want to ask a new question that’s not really relevant to the current topic.
To answer question; You can visit the windmills in Schermerhorn by public transport, but it’s much easier to do from Alkmaar than from Hoorn.