Rick Steves' Amsterdam, Bruges & Brussels

I have bought many tour books for various trips, and decided to give this series a try. This book was useless. Specifically, minimal restaurant information for Amsterdam, no places to eat at the Hague, the tourist information for Delft was completely unhelpful- impossible to find the tourist information, no directions on where to find the transportation to the factory, the list goes on. Luckily we had internet and sent with Anthony Bourdain's recommendations!

All of Rick Steve's books are excellent for trip planning and during the trip. We have never been disappointed with any of his recommended lodging.

All of Rick Steve's books are excellent for trip planning and during the trip. We have never been disappointed with any of his recommended lodging.

Bought this before going to Amsterdam. It was very useful to read ahead of time and get the feel for the country. I put sticky notes on all pages that I found necessary and was not sorry I purchased it.

Too few maps, poor scale, no street finder. Very few hotels covered, the same for restaurants. There are a few basics covered. This edition appears to be two years old.

this is my first Rick Steves guide book purchase and I am happy with the help it provides in planning a trip to another country. this order arrived very quickly and without extra charge. The maps and suggested walking tours alone made the purchase price worthwhile.

I have used Rick Steves' books for prior trips to Spain and France, and found them incredibly helpful and informative. This one, however, was slim on information. One example is the scarcity of restaurant recommendations in Amsterdam. This one missed the mark.

This guide book is pretentious and impractical. For example, really nothing but "woody" or "gritty" small botique hotels.Really? That's all he can recommend. And his walks and restaurants are the same.

I have several of these books by Rick Steves and find them very useful while travelling and/or planning a trip. They are small enough to carry in purse.

Last summer I returned to my birthplace of Holland, which I had not seen since I was three years old in 1953. After checking out several travel guides, we decided to mainly use this one by Rick Steves. I suppose it helps that I live about 45 minutes from his headquarters and we stopped into his shop a couple of times to pick up travel gear.

We spent two weeks in the Netherlands, staying overnight in four locations, three of which we got out of this book. The book did an accurate job of describing these bed and breakfasts and hotels, and we were not disappointed (although one hotel was a bit of a letdown after we got the best room in the previous hotel).

We stayed near Arnhem, and in Amsterdam, Delft and Haarlem. Based on the book, we enjoyed museums, canal tours, restaurants, walks, bike rides, and we learned how to navigate the airport, the trains and the trams. There is no way you can do everything that is recommended in the book, but Steves and his companions make it very helpful to plan the trip, and to make adjustments in the itinerary once you're on the way.

The one shortcoming is that not enough of the country is covered in the book. We spent a delightful day in Zutphen, looking up family history, and found it to be a town that any tourist would enjoy, but there is no mention of it on these pages. We also considered a side trip to Groningen, but again there was no mention of that region in this book.

Holland may be small, but in our two weeks we discovered that there are distinctive characteristics to each region, and one could easily spend a long time in this country and just barely scratch the surface. Hopefully Steves will consider doing a longer book in the future, because he does such a good job at what he has already covered.