I wanted to write a bit here about our trip to the Netherlands this January. We visited the cities and towns of Amsterdam, Delft, the Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Kampen and Zwolle. Before talking a bit about our day-by-day itinerary, I wanted to be sure to share some important tips about traveling here!....
You MUST buy your tickets for Anne Frank WEEKS in advance. I attempted to buy about 10 days ahead of time, and it was sold out. While Rick Steves and other books tell you to buy in advance, and I took them seriously, I had no idea exactly how far in advance to book. We ended up with a 3 hour wait, and it was cold and rainy that day.
ATMs were easy to use here. We have Ally bank, an online bank, and our ATM card with a Mastercard logo worked fine. The ATMs are not as ubiquitous as elsewhere in europe, but ING and Rabobank have several locations in all the major cities that you will see as you explore.
The trains were great, and easy, especially after we did our homework reading about them. If you want to buy tickets ahead of time (and I'll tell you why you might want to in a moment), you need to use the BELGIAN rail site (don't worry, no extra fees) - the Dutch site requires a Dutch bank card. If you do pre-buy this way, your ticket is good on any train between those two cities on that calendar day. The conductors are familiar with the Belgian tickets (our tickets were checked about half the time) and you can scan a barcode on the Belgian ticket if you encounter a gate in the station.
It is entirely reasonable to buy your tickets at the rail stations - the trains are very frequent. But it is important to know that the options for paying (as an American) are 1) coins in the machine (no paper bills), 2) buying from a human agent at a service desk, or 3) use of a Visa/Mastercard with a chip and pin in some machines. Each of these comes with a silly fee of up to a euro per ticket (for not using a reusable/reloadable card as a Dutch citizen). So we used some combination of buying online ahead of time (to get us back to Schipol, for the more expensive legs of the trip), buying from the agent at a desk, and using coins for short trips. Most larger stations appear to have an agent to sell tickets but only during business hours.
The Museumkaart/museum card was great. It paid for itself after a few museums, and allowed us to go into some small museums that we would have definitely skipped otherwise. I would strongly recommend buying the card at a quieter, off the beaten path, museum. This will be less stressful, and will allow you to visit Van Gogh, Anne Frank, or the Rijksmuseum with a better plan. The card IS accepted at the Mauritshuis in the Hague.
I thought winter was a good time to visit. Things were cozy with some Christmas decorations left over. Besides, if you come from the American midwest or northeast, this will probably seem mild to you. It was rainy here and there. But the Rijksmuseum, Mauritshuis and others were uncrowded. Accomodations were cheap. I would take that trade-off. I thought Rick's description of this country as "wind swept" and dreary over the winter was a bit incomplete.
There is more to the country than Amsterdam and a few cute small towns. I think Rick's book on the Netherlands is a bit too Amsterdam-centric. Some of our best memories were made exploring towns that weren't mentioned by him at all. Remember that in 2015 the internet is full of ideas for you - Yelp, TripAdvisor and others are full of information about where the locals go in any corner of any country.
be on the lookout for businesses that do not take cash and take credit only. This can be frustrating as a traveler. This is true at Albert Heijn, and also at the Marqt. At Marqt we were caught with 20 euros worth of food and no Dutch card - luckily the machine accepted our American express without problem. We also came across restaurants in Utrecht and Amsterdam that did not take cash