PsiFighter37

I did not realize that Haarlem was only a 15-minute train ride from Amsterdam. Now leaning towards hopping the train out there to get to Keukenhof, and we can spend some time on the way back to Amsterdam in town. Now just need to see if things are open on Good Friday, or if we will just be walking around town...

JBord

Good point. I haven't been there during a major religious holiday, not sure what to expect. Haarlem is worth at least a couple hours of wandering, if you decide to do it that way and things are open.

Sjoerd

Everything is open on Good Friday. Only some workers (I believe government and banks) get a day off. Traffic will be busy as many people take a four-day weekend (Good Friday-Easter Monday) to go somewhere.

wijnands

Easter weekend is crazy with tourists, tons of germans as well. If you do want to visit Keukenhof go early on the friday.
Haarlem is nice to wander around, pick up a walking tour at the tourist office if you want some structure. Frans Hals museum can be nice if you like 17th century painters but otherwise go to the Teylers museum, one of the oldest in the world and the old party still feels like a victorian collection of science bits.

Trains are an easy way to get around the Amsterdam-Haarlem-Leiden triangle, they run frequently and take not that much time.

PsiFighter37

Duly noted...will try to make it out on Friday then! Already have my Combi-Ticket (train + bus + entry), so hopefully makes it painless.

Do folks think Keukenhof + Haarlem is a full day worth of activities? It seems like, depending on how much time we spend in Haarlem, that we could probably make it back to Amsterdam in mid-late afternoon.

Ditto

Take into consideration that the bus ride is about 45 minutes, and you can easily spend the whole day in Keukenhof alone

Giggleswick

Depends upon what you like, of course. I like museums and architecture and spent a very full day in Haarlem alone: Frans Hals Museum, Teylers Museum, Grote Kerke, Grote Markt, several hofjes (former almshouse courtyards with gardens), walking along the river. Or you could just take a quick peek at the city, if that's more to your liking.

UKtravelbear

I would highly recommend the Hermitage Amsterdam. There is currently a fabulous exhibition of portrait paintings from the Golden Age.

I thought Our Lord in the Attic to be fascinating (link is to the museum website).

The Amsterdam Museum provides a good background to the history of the city.

Someone mentioned the Dutch Resistance Museum. I was less than taken by this museum. There is little explanation in English and many of the exhibits are dated and there are, IMHO, huge gaps in the timeline and little explanation about how the resistance was organised etc. Unless this was a field of special interest then I would put low down on your list of places to visit,

Canal Tours are ten a penny. Avoid the ones starting at Centraal Station / The Dam. I thought the 75 minute blue boat trip from near the Hard Rock Cafe / Rijksmuseum to give a better feel and view of the city.

Haarlem was lovely but the Frans Hals museum is distinctly lacking in numbers of his actual works though his 'night watch' paintings are impressive. My visit was mid march and they were about to open a refurbished section of gallieries so that may rectify things. I'd check the website.

I would also suggest Leiden as a good place to visit.

Giggleswick

Here's a bit of unsolicited OT art historical pedantry: Rembrandt's "Night Watch" is known by that name not because the militia it depicts were on duty at night or anything like that, but because it used to be coated in such a dark, discolored varnish that it looked like the scene took place at night.

As well as the civic guard group portaits by Hals, the group portraits of the regents and regentesses of the almshouse are pretty impressive, too, as are his smaller works in the collection. I believe that the museum has the largest number of Hals works of any museum, but it's only about a dozen.

PsiFighter37

Thanks for the advice! Here's what we ended up doing, along with my thoughts:

-Hotel: the Pulitzer is fantastic. Easy access to Centraal (3 stops on the 13/17 tram). Right on the canal. Very solid breakfast included with the stay, and cozy rooms that don't feel too cramped. Nothing like having afternoon/early evening sunlight streaming into a canal-facing room.

-Museums: ended up doing Van Gogh and a fraction of the Rijksmuseum. Van Gogh was really interesting - had forgotten how short he lived and how compressed his artistic career actually was. Really cool to see the evolution of his style. Rijksmuseum is gigantic, and the Dutch paintings were a refreshing change from all of the religious art that dominates in Florence (where we went a couple months prior).

-Tulips: We were there before peak season (some of the tulips were suffering, and the endless rows of tulips were not fully planted yet), but Keukenhof is quite magnificent. If you aren't aiming to go through every nook and cranny, you can finish in under 2 hours.

-Food: Amsterdam food, outside of hamburgers (which were exceptionally mediocre everywhere we had them) is phenomenal. Bord'Eau was a compact, excellently-done 2-star Michelin restaurant. John Dory is absolutely fantastic at executing a seasonal seafood-heavy tasting menu. Choux is very experimental but was probably the best dining experience of the entire trip. Guts & Glory - good food, but the 'chapter' feature of the restaurant means you may hit a cuisine you're not really there to try (we were there for French food).

Drink: Brouwerij 't IJ is overrated. Beers were unexeciting, and it was very crowded on Saturday afternoon. Jopenkerk (in Haarlem) was excellent - huge space in a church retrofitted to be a brewery, lots of different styles on tap and in bottles. A must-stop if you are in town.

I would love to come back and explore more of the town next time. What a city!

JBord

Thanks for coming back and posting the short reviews. Glad you loved one of my favorite cities!

The food comment above surprised me! I always think of Amsterdam as fairly uninspired food (no offense, just in comparison to other cities I've visited). But I haven't been to any of the high-end restaurants, perhaps next time I'll try a couple out.

PsiFighter37

They aren't necessarily 'high end' in the sense that I think of U.S. restaurants. Choux's 7-course tasting menu costs 60 euros. That is a great, great deal for the kind of food they delivery. John Dory was 5 courses for 55 euros. A lot of restaurants, when we were looking them up, tended to have tasting menus that averaged ~10 euros a course. Very reasonable, IMO.

GiantCow

Thanks for the write-up. I'm saving this thread for my upcoming trip to Amsterdam later this year.

KLouis

Everything in life is relative! The other evening I had a delicious multi-dish dinner that, including wine and digestif, went up to almost 60 € (for three). I excused the high price because everything was fish and sea-food...

At any rate, the thing that gets on my nerves every time I have dinner in the Netherlands is the looong time one has to wait between courses.

PS Of course, I forgot to mention, the dinner above was it was not in Amsterdam but in Heraklion!

greg0ire

Sorry to revive. We are a family of five and will be in AMS for three full days in mid June. Since we can't visit Keukenhof, would Royal FloraHolland Aalsmeer be a good alternative? We are staying at DT by the train station. Is there an easy public transportation route to get there if it's worth doing? Thank you!