Droste

As soon as we have finalized our lodging, I will indeed call HAL about transfers and will post what I find out on here.

Just to close this out - after making our reservations at a nice hotel near the museums, we called HAL. They do indeed offer a transfer, even if you don't use their pre-cruise hotel. You do have to meet the transportation at their hotel, but that's a cheaper cab ride than either to the airport or Rotterdam. We're signed up for that and the post-cruise transfer to the airport.

These pre-cruise transfers that aren't from the airport are called "interim" transfers (in case you need to ask about them).

I cannot help you re HAL transfers, but maybe this private driver is an option:

http://dagtoertaxi.nl/services.html

I checked this guy out a few weeks ago and he was already fully booked on the Saturday we're embarking. Guess someone else had the idea way before we did!

As soon as we have finalized our lodging, I will indeed call HAL about transfers and will post what I find out on here.

We decided on 3 full days, so should be enough time to get a sampling of Amsterdam life. Flights are booked! Next up is making reservations for lodging.

Does anyone have any experience with the Holland America transfers? We'll definitely use the transfer post-cruise to the airport, but we haven't decided how to get down to Rotterdam for the cruise. Not sure I want to have to deal with my luggage on a train. HAL has 2 different transfers listed - one is from the airport and the other is listed as an "interim" transfer. Is this perhaps from somewhere in Amsterdam proper? Might be worthwhile...

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! These will come in very handy. We're trying to decide between 2 and 3 full days in Amsterdam. We both figure the day we arrive will not be useful for much except maybe the canal tour.

We will see the windmills on a tour from Rotterdam on turnaround day.

The options for Airbnb in Amsterdam are positively overwhelming! This is a city full of great independent rentals if you are open to the option. Once we started, we didn't look back and rarely stay in hotels now :)

Thanks! Had forgotten that Airbnb might be available there. Will definitely check it out.

Hi everyone! We have booked a B2B fjord cruise on HAL this summer and would also like to spend some time in Amsterdam before the cruise. Does anyone have any specific things we should or shouldn't miss? Any great hotel recommendations? And finally, what would you suggest for getting to Rotterdam for embarkation? I thought about getting the HAL transfer from the airport to reduce a cab fare to something reasonable...