Our trip is set. Lodging, flight and most of our transportation is booked. Now the enjoyable struggle with what to do, what to see and where to eat can begin. A little help with our itinerary would be greatly appreciated. We will arrive in Amsterdam on Sunday, July 17th around 14:00 and most of us will depart on Thursday night, July 21st. There will be 7 of us, all adults in our early 30s. We are traveling by Rail. With the exception of my wife and I, the group has not experienced Amsterdam or Holland. Our pace could be called leisurely active, hoping to experience as much as possbile while taking some time to reflect, digest and smell the tulips. Many of the "Top 10" experiences (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, canal cruise) will be on our itinerary, but my wife and I are looking for alternative ideas outside the city center or absent from the travel guides. Much of the group will venture out of Amsterdam to Belgium for a day trip, but my wife and I are looking for an alternative since we have visited much of Belgium. We have been to Antwerpen, the Hague, the Keukenhopf and Delft. We are thinking about Haarlem and are open to other ideas. Any and all suggestions on how to organize our days would be greatly appreciated.
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New Paltz, NY
9100 posts
Within Amsterdam, be sure to check out the new Hermitage Museum, which is currently the city largest art museum.The FOAM photography museums isn't typically listed in any of the guidebooks, book I've seen some amazing exhibits there; they change exhibits almost every month. A very underrated museum IMO is the Tropical Museum featuring beautiful exhibits about third-world cultures. There are two museum which have just opened, I'll be checking them out in three weeks on my next visit:) They're the Tulip Museum, and the Canal House Museum. For the latter you need to make reservations: http://hetgrachtenhuis.nl/ Be sure to check out "what's on" for the dates you will be in the city here: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/whats-on