hey /trv/ my gf and I want to travel to Amsterdam next week and we're looking for a cheap housing. As i expected, this wouldn't be available in Amsterdam but airbnb gives out some neat looking places in "zaandam", which looks quite near to Amsterdam.
My questions are:
How are the landscapes around Zaandam? Could we catch some beautiful sights bicycling to Amsterdam?
How far is it actually away from Amsterdam?
What would it cost riding from there to Amsterdam and back with public transport for 5 days?
Use 9292.nl for planning all public transport in the entire country. Don't know about the site but the app has an English option. Zaandam to Amsterdam Central station is 2,70 euro one way. To Leidseplein also 2,70.
Amsterdam is a zoo with drugs and prostitutes. If the landscape and other tame stuff are what you're after, you might as well just stay somewhere relatively far away from Amsterdam and then just spend ~1.5 hours going there by train to check out the museums and stuff. Personally, I wouldn't spend more than 2 days in Amsterdam anyway since the city really isn't that big.
If you're not Dutch or Nordic, you won't want to bike next week here. The wind is no joke.
Zaanse Schans is something people take the bus to from Amsterdam, and is nice by bike if there's no wind. Windmills and stuff.
That green building is basically the only interesting looking one in Zaandam besides Zaanse Schans. I warned you. Amsterdammers go there for like... Primark.
It is definitely doable riding the train every day to Amsterdam, if you don't mind the extra time and blandness.
>>1077331
A 15 minute train ride is nothing. Don't use a tone like that's a bad thing
>>1077212
I traveled past Zaandam a lot of times. Fucking hate that green building, it's ridiculeous and ugly.
Zaandam to Amsterdam is really easy with train though, fairly cheap as well I suppose.
Like some dude says, it's really windy most of the time so if you're not used to cycling you're gonna have a rough time. Basically the only thing you will see are a lot of pastures, channels and highways anyway.
If I could give you some personal advice. The netherlands are really small. You'll barely ever take a trainride longer than 30 minutes.
Stay in a place like Leiden which is culturally rich but not crowded and degenerate like Amsterdam. Only visit Amsterdam for the big art museums.