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The Netherlands: April/May 2024

My husband and I (both in our 60s) are back from our 2.5 week trip to The Netherlands (April/May). Thank you to all who answered my questions during the planning process. I hope this report will help others who are considering going.

I will provide itinerary detail below, but will start by summarizing: we absolutely loved The Netherlands. My husband and I take turns selecting our trip destinations, and he was not wowed by my selection of The Netherlands. By day three, he was saying, “I think I could live here.”

The Dutch people are so friendly and warm, the ease of travel is phenomenal and our meals were fantastic. We ate at Dutch, Spanish, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Argentinian, Indian and Moroccan restaurants. With a few exceptions, every meal we had was excellent.

We used The Hague as our base for the first two weeks, and then stayed in Amsterdam the last four nights. In hindsight, we wish we had stayed in The Hague the entire time, and day tripped into Amsterdam for two to three days. I wasn’t expecting much from The Hague, as it doesn’t seem to get as much attention as Leiden, Delft, etc., on the forum, but I thought it looked well-located for our planned day trips. It ended up being a delightful surprise, because from the moment we arrived we felt at home. It is both my husband’s and my favorite place of everywhere we visited. It didn’t feel as touristy as the other cities and didn’t have the constant crush of people to maneuver through. It was relatively quiet, clean and super walkable, with excellent restaurants.

In The Hague, we stayed at Staybridge Suites The Hague-Parliament. I cannot say enough good things about this hotel. One of my main reasons for selecting this hotel was the location and the free 24/7 access to the laundry room. The breakfast was plentiful, and they switched it up throughout our stay. There was a tea/coffee/cappuccino/latte station available 24/7 and a very nice happy hour three evenings per week. The room was large and quiet, had a kitchenette, and the bed was comfortable. The water pressure was great and the hot water plentiful. The tram to the train station was steps away from the front door and the tram to Delft was a half block away. We had initially planned to stay in The Hague, then Utrecht and then Amsterdam, but we liked The Hague and this hotel so much that we cancelled the Utrecht hotel.

In Amsterdam, we stayed at a bed and breakfast (Herengracht 21). It is a canal house built in 1600. It offers two rooms, and we had the room facing the canal (the view was stunning). The room was up two very steep flights of stairs. It is on a fairly quiet street, but of course there was some noise up until about midnight. I can’t comment on the breakfast, as it was offered starting at 8:30, which didn’t work for us because of our museum ticket times. What I realized on this trip is that we are at a point where we value convenience more than charm. We missed the free laundry room, the frig in the room, the 24/7 coffee station, the happy hour. We missed having a door to the bathroom.

Day 1: American Airlines flight from Orlando through Philadelphia. Uneventful, which is all I can ask for.

Day 2: Arrived in Amsterdam at 8am. The line to process through arrivals moved at a good pace and we had no issues. We had very little sleep on the plane, so we were a little out of it trying to figure out the correct train to The Hague, where to tap in to pay, etc. Once we arrived in The Hague, we were too tired to figure out which tram to take, so we walked to our hotel (about a 20-minute walk; very pleasant). We checked in around 10:30am and they were kind enough to prioritize getting a room cleaned so we could check-in early, which we so appreciated. My husband returned the favor by plugging something in that he shouldn’t have, and it flipped the breaker. Staff was very nice about it, though, and fixed it for us immediately.

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We had planned to spend our day at the Mauritshuis, but it was clear that we wouldn’t have the energy to enjoy it. Instead, we walked with the goal of staying awake, getting oriented and finding an ATM. We ate lunch at Restaurant ‘T Goude Hooft. Perhaps it was our exhaustion, but neither of us liked our meals. We had pizza delivered from De Pizzabakkers for dinner, and again we were underwhelmed. We purchased some snacks and wine from the sundries shop in the hotel and were pleasantly surprised by the prices. In the US, I usually feel quite gouged at hotels. These prices here were “hotel-reasonable” and reinforced my positive opinion of the place.

Our hotel room had a beautiful view of the Parliament building. The downside of the room is it faced the street and we could hear the tram that passed by frequently. It quickly became white noise, however, and was not a problem. Overnight, it was extremely quiet and we slept very well.

Day 3: After awaking from a dead sleep, we enjoyed the hotel breakfast and headed to the Mauritshuis, a very short walk. We used their excellent app to do the highlights tour. Of course, Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” was the most popular painting, but we were able to get some face time with her. After a short rest at the hotel, we headed to Escher in Het Paleis. On the way, we encountered an outdoor market set up in a park and purchased kibbeling. YUM. The Escher art at the museum was mesmerizing. The unexpected bonus was the unique and beautiful chandeliers in each room. We walked to Triana, a Spanish tapas restaurant for dinner. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it. Although the temperature was pretty chilly, after dinner we walked to the nearby Grote Markt, which was very lively. I took many pictures of the interesting statues/sculptures, as well as the street lighting, which is beautiful and different from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Day 4: It was cold and rainy, so we took an Uber to the Louwman Museum. The museum holds a private collection of automobiles and motorcycles, mostly historic. We spent over four hours there. My husband is into cars and enjoyed it. We returned to the hotel after, and at dinner time walked to Denneweg Street. The street is full of restaurants and there is a pretty canal there. We went to Taj Mahal, just off Denneweg for an early dinner. The food was very good, the service/ambiance just okay. After enjoying a glass of wine at the hotel’s happy hour, I decided to do laundry. I learned I should have selected the “Express Wash” cycle, as the regular wash cycle took 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Day 5: We took the tram (from the stop at the end of the street) to Delft. So very charming. We toured the Old and New Churches, and climbed the New Church’s tower. After all the work of climbing the steps, my fear of heights took over and I basically clung to the wall, circled around as quickly as possible and headed back down. My husband, thankfully, got some good pictures. We then headed to the De Candelaer Delft Shop. I had emailed the owner before leaving and arranged a tour, which ended up being a walk to the back of the store where the workshop is located. We didn’t get to see work being done, because the painter was out that day, but it was interesting to hear how the process worked. After my husband purchased a coffee mug, we left for a delicious lunch at Bij Best. I had the Feta Whip sandwich, an interesting concoction that included peaches and cashews. It was fantastic. The sweet potato fries were some of the best we’ve had. After lunch, we made our way to the Vermeer Center, which we found underwhelming. We were getting pretty tired at this point, and debated as to whether to return to the hotel or push on to Rotterdam. We opted to go to Rotterdam, since we didn’t think we would have another opportunity to do so. We were so glad we went, as we found the modern architecture so different and interesting.

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We walked a bit, viewed the Cube Houses from the outside (they were closed by this point) and then toured and had dinner at the beautiful Markthal, the huge and colorful food court/market. We ate dinner at Obbas Foodbar. Unfortunately, neither of us liked the food. We strolled a little more after dinner. Lots of people out and about when we got back to The Hague, as King’s Day festivities had begun. It was very lively and fun, and the music went until well after midnight.

Day 6: Although there is no option to tour the Peace Palace itself, we enjoyed the visitor center and the 30-minute audio tour. We had no other plans today, thinking there would be events occurring around King’s Day. Aside from people selling their wares at tables set up on the sidewalks, however, not much seemed to be happening (at least not where we were). We walked around for quite a while and ended up in Chinatown. We had lunch at an Indonesian Restaurant (“Indonesisch”). We had only appetizers, which were decent. We spent much of the late afternoon/early evening sitting by the front window in the hotel’s library, drinking wine, reading, and watching the rain. It was relaxing and the break we needed from walking so much today. For dinner, we walked to Palmette, which was down the street from the hotel. Dinner and service were both excellent.

Day 7: When we got on the train to Leiden, we didn’t realize we were seated in one of the silent cars. Before we even sat down, an elderly lady very nicely let me know, and said that if we wanted to talk we should sit in a downstairs car. This was ironic as twice her phone rang during the short trip between The Hague and Leiden. We (silently!) chuckled as her husband turned to glare at her each time. Once we arrived in Leiden, we jumped on a canal boat tour that was about to depart (with Rederij Rembrandt). It was cold and extremely windy, and luckily the boat was covered because at times it poured rain. After doing some walking and exploring, we went to Rodos Good Taste Restaurant, for Greek food. The meals were delicious (chicken souvlaki and vegetarian stuffed eggplant), and the baklava served with baklava ice cream was even better. The server gave us a complimentary after-dinner ouzo, which was nice. We then headed to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden to see its extensive ancient Egyptian collection. It was enjoyable, although most of the information was in Dutch only (the English audio tour provided some information). When we finished, we came outside to discover it had gotten even colder, so we decided to call it a day. We took the train back to The Hague and stopped at the Albert Heijn grocery located in the train station to pick up sandwiches for dinner in the hotel room.

Day 8: The most beautiful weather since we arrived, which was perfect for Keukenhof. It was so beautiful and also so crowded. I enjoyed the flowers, and also enjoyed watching people getting their selfies. I repeatedly put my phone away, saying I wasn’t taking any more pictures so I could just enjoy it, only to pull out my phone because something was too beautiful not to capture. We rode the Keukenhof Express from Leiden to the garden, and then took it to Haarlem when we were done. We found Haarlem charming. We toured the St Bavo Church and then pretty much just wandered. We sat outside at a table and had a quick lunch at Tourjours (good parmesan truffle fries). Caught the train back to The Hague, and walked to Limon for a few Spanish tapas. It was still nice enough to sit outside, which we enjoyed.

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Day 9: We trained to Amsterdam and did the RS Amsterdam City Walk. We found it very informative, and we particularly enjoyed visiting the Begijnhof. After finishing the walk, we headed back to the train station to take the free ferry to the A’dam Lookout. For my husband’s birthday, I booked “Swing Over the Edge,” which is billed as the tallest swing in Europe. It is a swing on top of the building that sends you out beyond the edge of the building, over 328 feet above the ground. I basically closed my eyes the entire time, stealing a couple of very quick glances and trying not to throw up. He loved it. We then had a fabulous Italian dinner in Amsterdam at Il Pacioccone.

Day 10: We took the train to Utrecht and did a tour at the Museum Speelklok, which is a museum of self-playing musical instruments. We found it just okay. We had a quick bite to eat in the museum cafe (good quiche), then rushed to our tour of the Dom Tower, which is the tallest church tower in The Netherlands. It was a 578-step climb, and I (again) pretty much clung to the wall at the top. We then walked a bit and stopped at a cafe and had a drink. From there, we went to find the statue “Thinker on a Rock,” which is a take on the Rodin’s “The Thinker” but with a rabbit. We had dinner at a place on the canal called Gauchos (an Argentinian restaurant). It was a good dinner and we enjoyed dining by the canal.

Day 11: The weather forecast called for rain, but again it was just perfect. We took the train to Gouda and saw the Gouda Cheese Market, which is a re-enactment of a 17th century cheese market. Enjoyable, but cheesy (yeah, I did that). We went to Berg’s Bakery for toasties (i.e., cheese paninis) and our first stroopwaffel, both delicious. After lunch, we went to Sint-Janskerk, and did an audio tour of their beautiful stained-glass windows. On our way to the train station, we stopped at a cheese shop for some Gouda and jam, and then at a bakery for bread, which we enjoyed at the hotel’s happy hour.

Day 12: Rainy and cold. We decided to take the day off and stay in. We walked to Triana for dinner (our second time there). The food was again very good and the sangria was great.

Day 13: We took the train to Den Bosch. This was my second favorite city (after The Hague). Very clean and appealing; I would have spent a second day here, had we more time. When we left the train station to walk into town, we were approached by the city’s “Blue Angels,” who are volunteers who assist visitors. They offered us a free hop on/hop off van ride to the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center (our first stop), which we accepted. We had scheduled a personal tour of the art center, and it was quite enjoyable. Our tour guide was 86-years-old, and we had a lovely conversation with him after the tour, sharing information about our respective countries. At his recommendation, we went to lunch at Picasso. We sat on their charming back terrace, and the food was delicious. We made our way to St John’s Church. We were going to do the tower climb, but decided we didn’t need to do a third church tower climb. We enjoyed touring the church, though, and seeing its beautiful stained-glass windows. After more walking through town, we bought tickets to do a canal ride. About 20 minutes before the ride, the sky got very gray and cloudy and it was clear it was about to rain. I went back to the ticket desk to let them know we weren’t going on the tour, in case someone else wanted the tickets. The clerk chastised me, saying rain was no reason not to take the tour. “Oh good, they are able to cover the boat?” No. The Dutch do not let the rain deter them. The rain did deter us, however, and we headed to the train station. When we got back, we went to De Pannenkoeken Club, because I wanted to try Dutch pancakes. It is a small family restaurant and we were very happy we went there.

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The wait staff were so kind, asking us questions about the United States and our stay, and offering to take a photo of us. They let us know about Remembrance Day and the 2-minutes of silence that would occur at 8pm in honor of those who died in wars since WW2. You could have heard a pin drop during the silence; it was quite moving.

Day 14: We relocated to our Amsterdam B&B. After check-in, we went out to explore, using the Rick Steves’ Jordaan audio tour. We stopped at the t-shirt shop mentioned in the audio tour and picked up souvenirs for family/friends. We ate dinner at The Pantry. It is a small place, and I was very glad we had a reservation, as there was a long line of people waiting. We were seated at the front window, which was very enjoyable. The restaurant serves traditional Dutch food, and it was delicious. We stayed up late roaming and stopped and had a drink on the way back to the B&B.

Day 15: For the popular museums, I purchased opening hour tickets because of the conventional advice that the crowds are the smallest at that time. My second lesson learned on this trip (besides we prefer lodging convenience over charm) is that opening hour tickets don’t work for us. My husband is not a morning person, and despises being rushed. I did not sleep well our first night in the B&B because there was noise from the outside when the window was open but the room was stuffy when the window was closed. We had 9am tickets to go to the Van Gogh museum, but at 7am I was still wide awake and in a foul mood. At that point, I had zero tolerance for hearing my husband complain about an early wake-up, so I opted out. Was he happy when he woke to find out he didn’t have to get up and get going? Yes. Did we regret it later? Yes. But we spent an enjoyable morning and early afternoon roaming with no agenda, having (more) tasty toasties for lunch (Cafe Herengraad). Later in the afternoon, we took a canal boat tour with Those Dam Boat Guys, which is a very casual and unscripted experience in a small boat (10 people total). My husband loved having a personal conversation with the guide, but I would have preferred something more informative. We went for dinner at Cafe Sonneveld. The food was good, but the service was slow.

Day 16: Started with a visit to the Anne Frank Museum, and then took the ferry to the STRAAT museum (dedicated to street art and graffiti). After lunch, we toured the Lord in the Attic (Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder), a church house built in the 1600s. We stopped at a brewery for a drink before dinner, and struck up a conversation with a couple and their toddler at a nearby table. We ended up having dinner together at Aneka Rasa, an Indonesian restaurant. We shared the rice table, and it was a great experience. The restaurant owner was so friendly, asking everyone’s name when we arrived and then calling us each by name when we left.

Day 17: Our last full day in The Netherlands (unfortunately). We did the highlights audio tour of the Gallery of Honour at the Rijksmuseum. The Vermeer paintings were again our favorites. After an okay brunch, we walked to the albertcuyp market, where we had our second stroopwaffel (even more delicious than the first). We went to the Dutch Resistance Museum, which was excellent and I highly recommend. I learned so much on this trip about The Netherlands’ WW2 experience. We had walked so much at this point, we were done. We hobbled back to the hotel and napped. We had dinner at Mozo, a Moroccan restaurant. We both ordered tangines, and they were excellent.

Day 18: We took the train from Centraal Station to the airport. Super easy.

Great scenery, great sites, great people. Go to The Netherlands!

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Having been in the country probably a week before you, this was a particularly fun read, and you went to many places we didn't get to, that I'll bookmark for the future.
Thanks for sharing! What is next?

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I hope to get to the Netherlands in the future. I enjoyed your detailed report. Thank you!

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I love the Netherlands, too, and really enjoyed reading your trip report. I've made a note to visit Den Bosch the next time I am in the Netherlands.

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Great report! It seems you had an enjoyable visit despite the not so enjoyable weather. Also I applaud you for taking the effort to correctly spell the name of all the cities, sights, restaurants etc.
For those reading and wondering about the weather in April. The weather in April can and will be anything from rainy and cold to sunny and warm or even hot.

When I read that Den Bosch (full name ‘s Hertogenbosch) was your 2nd favorite city, I was a bit puzzled because it may be my favorite city in our country. However when I read your report of that day, I understood why; you didn’t try the local delicacy the Bossche Bol!!! What a shame you missed that! Going to ‘s Hertogenbosch and not eating a Bossche Bol is like going to Gouda and not try the stroopwafels and cheese. A Bossche Bol is a giant profiterole filled with whipped cream and covered in a thick layer of chocolate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bossche_bol
I’m sure that if you had tried it, ‘s Hertogenbosch would be your favorite city in the Netherlands :-)

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574 posts

Great report. I'd say it's too bad you are not here now because the weather is glorious, ranging in the 70s with bright blue skies. The downside of that is all you'd want to do is park yourself outside a café or wander down the tree lined streets and canals. And you'd miss out on all the great museums.
I've lived her for 5+ years. Every day you see something different.

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Thanks to all for the kind comments! Dutch_Traveler--I'm sure you are right, the Bossche Bol would have nudged 's Hertogenbosch into first place! I saw one in a bakery window during our dash back in the rain to the train station, and made a split second decision to keep running, which I regret. Just one of many reasons to go back!

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I enjoyed your report. I think I need to add Den Bosch to my dream trip to the Netherlands.

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Loved every minute of reading this report and also gained a lb or 2 just reading. Thank you!