Near Amsterdam

The old town of Bruges is beautiful!

Was going to suggest Kinderdijk too. It's a UNESCO world heritage site. We drove our own car around the couple of times we've been to The Netherlands so can't advise on public transport but should imagine it's fairly easy to get around.


kinderdijk.com/about-kinderdijk/story/unesco-world-heritage/


First visit we stayed in Utrecht and loved it. There is a great railway museum, there is also Museum Speelklok, dedicated to self playing musical instruments. A real little gem of a museum.

www.discover-utrecht.com/

If you not set on another city we loved our visits to Dr Hoge Velume National Park. As well as cycle routes around the park, there is an art museum in the park with the second largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world. The park also includes a sculpture garden.

Admission includes the use of a white bike to cycle around, you just use it, leave it outside the restaurant or museum and if it's gone when you come out just pick another one, they don't come with locks.


www.hogeveluwe.nl/en

www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/discover-the-park/art-and-architecture/kroller-muller-museum

Check the current situation with credit cards, it's been a few years so things might have improved but we were surprised we couldn't use credit cards everywhere. Thankfully we had enough currency to buy groceries.

I loved my visit to Delft while we stayed at The Hague. Granted, I wanted to go to Delft because when I did my archeological field school in undergrad, one of the items we kept finding was delftware from the colonial period. Both are beautiful cities, and the tram was easy to navigate.

We really enjoyed Zandvoort, a beach resort area on the North Sea. It was May, so a little chilly but everything was still open and people were enjoying the beach. An easy train ride from Amsterdam, too.

Off the beaten path, but if you are a war and/or history buff, a visit to Nijmegen is a great choice. It’s a beautiful city and one of the oldest in the Netherlands. And there’s a modern bridge that serves as a memorial for the battle featured in the movie A Bridge Too Far. Residents walk the bridge every day at sunset to honor the Allied soldiers who died there. It’s pretty cool. There’s also a huge concert venue there - worth checking to see who is playing.

And from there it’s an easy trip to Köln (Cologne) to which is a super old Roman city and one if the few in Germany that wasn’t completely destroyed by bombs. We really enjoyed our stay there.

Interesting. I didn’t find this to be the case—we used our US CC almost everywhere and didn’t ever have an issue. We used cash in the markets and pâtisseries, but otherwise usually used a CC, even in rural Belgium (which can be a bit like going back in time!)

I will say that a lot of European businesses upgraded their CC machines/software and their online reservation systems with COVID. That was a really nice perk of the pandemic. 

It was incredible, although I preferred his painting of Delft that hangs in the same room as the Girl with the Pearl Earring.

I really enjoy going to Royal Coster Diamonds in the Museumplein in Amsterdam.  Always enjoy looking at some different cut diamonds (& other stones) as well as many unusual settings.

Hi! You have received some great advice. I just wanted to let you know you’ll be fine with your CC. Visa and Mastercard are accepted everywhere, American Express a little less. You have received some very good recommendations, the Wadden islands are worth visiting too and if you like nature/water/sailing I would recommend somewhere n Friesland. Oh, and I personally really like Maastricht. Brussels is very easy with Eurostar (fast train)