Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory Forums

Hi All,

Me and the ol" wifey are heading back to the Dam for the third time later this year. Being the female she is she wants to do a little more than just go to a coffeeshop then walk and then go to another coffeeshop.

I can't imagine what's wrong with that!

But... and this is a big BUT...she's a lot of fun and she has been right about these things so often that I'm going along for the ride.

So....where can I rent a car that won't cost a fortune, and where can we go on day trips and two or three day jaunts. For adventure and some history?

Is the train out of the question?

A car in Amsterdam must be a nightmare.

If not, I've used:

http://www.argusrentals.com/

to book a car before I left the states.

Try checking out Leeuwarden. I read that Friesland dialect is the closest language to english. That's kinda neat.

Some other towns you might look at:

Sneek
Alkmaar
Zutphen
Near Appeldorn there are free range monkeys

try europ car in town stay away from the airport as duties will be as much as the car but be prepared to take it in the rear parking in the dam.

We are going to get one for our trip to westerbork but plan to return it when we return to the city.

There are MANY car rental (auto verhuur) places in Amsterdam. You can check out quite a few of them thru the dutch yellow pages here:
http://dtgi.detelefoongids.nl/dtgi/Zoek ... =Amsterdam
Good luck! Peace.

Thanks for your input, it is a lot of stuff I hadnot thought about. I live in the Florida Everglades and if you leave the house, you're driving. I will certainly be looking into the trains too.

Half the fun of these trips is the planning. Please keep those ideas coming, the more info, the better

I found this site that is very reasonable for American travelers.

http://www.autoeurope.com/index.cfm?aff ... SgodI2hdfg

I think the Train is the best way to travel. It's about 40 euro average to rent a car per day, but that can effectively double by the time you pay parking in different locations. Not to mention, once ya get out into the countryside...there isn't really that much to see, it's flat!. 2 hours on a train will take ya pretty much anywhere in Holland, so most excursions are well under that....6 hours and yer in Berlin!. It's clean, quick, reasonably priced and lets ya try that unexpected gram of nice weed ya weren't gonna buy cos yer driving. Plus in some towns here, it aint so much driving...more 'Whackey Races'.

Doc - If you can pick up your car at one of the intown locales you'll save a good bit vs. getting a car at Schipol . We've had the best luck with this outfit.

http://www.e-sixt.com/

as for trips ...We've enjoyed driving thru NL the last several Junes . For the CS Scene Leeuwarden is our favorite of the provincial towns we've visited. For history and architecture maybe Middelburg or Zutphen (both have nice CSs-see reviews on this site) Have you been to Haarlem ,or Utrecht ?
If you opt for Fryslan- Hindeloopen,Dokkum and Harlingen are great little towns for daytrips. Harlingen is on our list for a revisit this summer (1 CS )
Valkenburg way down in Limburg is a nice ,though very touristy town near Maastricht ,even got a hilltop castle .Alas no CSs,but close enough to Maastricht for an easy train daytrip. If you really want to get out in the boonies theres Bourtange on the German border . A restored 1700s star fortress town ...anyway I Could go on and on about all the cool NL places we've visited . Would be glad to tell more about hotels etc. if you decide on a place we've visited ...have fun planning .