Haarlem, Netherlands - with a side trip to Leiden

Leiden remains my favorite little spot - though I have yet to spend more than a day there. Unfortunately, longer rentals (with kitchens) are surprisingly hard to find. Leiden is full of canals and is a bit smaller than Haarlem (population wise) - it also seemed a bit less crowded in the main areas. BUT it is a college town, so some times will be more expensive to visit than others.

Haarlem was a pleasant surprise with lots of cafes, restaurants, and a zillion little shops to browse. As a bonus, there is a huge weekend market in town. It is very close to the sea - similar to Den Haag, but we didn’t visit (it was rather chilly and windy the week we were here).

It takes less than an hour to get from Haarlem to the sites in Amsterdam, so a nice compromise, if you are looking for a slightly quieter home base and are planning to do the tulip gardens in the spring.

We had an amazing rental with a great kitchen, so took advantage of the tons of vegan protein options at the grocery store and cooked most of our meals. I wish we had so many (affordable) options in the U.S.! We stayed about a 25 minute walk from the train station, so took busses a lot (they were very nice and didn’t stop much - actually less than the trams). We were close to a larger nature park in town with a little mini farm - do go and check it out! FYI - the little bags to identify at the entrance are animal poo…not seeds. yes, I squished one and found out…oops. Thankfully, it was in plastic and I had a new hand sanitizer bottle!