We will be driving through Netherlands in April with our own car. We'd like to stay in a hotel with parking, near public transportation. We do not want to drive in the city, but we do want an easy commute to the center of town each day. We are looking for something around $150 with parking and breakfast. Any suggestions?
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
We once stayed in Hotel Schiphol, a large business hotel on the motorway just west of the Schiphol Airport. You can catch their shuttle to the airport, and a quick train into the center city.
Our room for four people was absolutely huge, with numerous leather couches. And it is the best bargain accommodations we've ever experienced in any country. When the Amsterdam city hotels are full, this property has vacancies.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Haarlem is a smaller town that Rick considers a viable home base for visiting Amsterdam. Trains run frequently and take 15-20 minutes each way. Hotel Lion d'Or is next to Haarlem station and a public parking garage and about 10 minutes' walk to Haarlem town center.
Closer in to the city, Amsterdam Sloterdijk train station looks (on Google maps) like it would be easy to access by large roads, has many hotels around, and the train ride to Amsterdam Centraal is 6 minutes.
Posted by
eugene/springfield, oregon, usa
102 posts
Agree with Laura. Easy access to the big city from the cozy, fascinating, historic and friendly Haarlem makes the big city better. Staying in the big city is very intense. Took my teen age, recent high school graduate daughter, to europe in 1997. Among sights Amsterdam is great, with fine museums, terrific street scenes, amazing canal culture of cafes in varied forms, music venues, on and on. Yet escape from the sometimes frantic city is good too, in the quiet central Haarlem square, at a reasonable cost hotel with friendly locals eating and talking and welcoming to the traveler. Now I always stay in Haarlem and love it.