Map: Haarlem Hotels & Restaurants
Cute and cozy, yet authentic and handy to the airport, Haarlem is a good home base, giving you small-town warmth overnight, with easy access (20 minutes by train) to wild-and-crazy Amsterdam during the day.
Bustling Haarlem gave America’s Harlem its name back when New York was New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony. For centuries Haarlem has been a market town, buzzing with shoppers heading home with fresh bouquets, nowadays by bike.
Enjoy the market on Monday (clothing) or Saturday (general), when the town’s atmospheric main square bustles like a Brueghel painting, with cheese, fish, flowers, and families. Make yourself at home; buy some flowers to brighten your hotel room.
Haarlem’s TI (VVV), in the town center, is friendlier, more helpful, and less crowded than Amsterdam’s, so ask your Amsterdam questions here (April-Sept Mon-Fri 9:30-18:00, Sat 9:30-17:00, Sun 12:00-16:00; Oct-March Mon 13:00-17:30, Tue-Fri 9:30-17:30, Sat 10:00-17:00, closed Sun; inside the town hall at Grote Markt 2, toll tel. 0900-616-1600—€0.50/minute, haarlem.nl, info@vvvhaarlem.nl).
The TI offers a good selection of maps and sightseeing- and walking-tour brochures, and sells discounted tickets (€1-2 off) for the Frans Hals Museum and the Teylers Museum.
By Train: Lockers are available at the station at the very end of platform 3a (€3.70/day, no coins—use a credit card or buy a “Chipknip” prepaid debit card at a ticket window). Two parallel streets flank the train station (Kruisweg and Jansweg). Head up either street, and you’ll reach the town square and church within 10 minutes. If you need help, ask a local person to point you toward Grote Markt (Market Square).
By Bus: Buses from Schiphol Airport stop both in the center (Centrum/Verwulft stop, a short walk from Grote Markt) and at the train station.
By Car: Parking is expensive on the streets (€2.70/hour). It’s cheaper (€1/30 minutes; €2.50 overnight—19:00-8:00) in these central garages: at the train station, at the southern end of Gedempte Oude Gracht (the main thoroughfare), near the recommended Die Raeckse Hotel, and near the Frans Hals Museum. The most central garage, near the Teylers Museum, is pricier (€1.50 every 40 minutes—essentially, €2.75/hour).
By Plane: For details on getting from Schiphol Airport to Haarlem, see here.
Blue Monday and Early Closures: Most sights are closed on Monday, except the church, De Adriaan Windmill (closed Tue), and History Museum Haarlem. The Corrie Ten Boom House is closed Sunday-Monday, and closes early the rest of the week (15:00).
Internet Access: Try Suny Teletechniques (€2/hour, daily 10:00-24:00, near train station at Lange Herenstraat 4, tel. 023/551-0037) or High Times Coffeeshop (free if you buy some pot, Lange Veerstraat 47).
Post Office: There isn’t one. To buy stamps, head to a newsstand with the orange TNT logo; if you need to send a package, ask your hotelier for help.
Laundry: My Beautiful Launderette is handy and fairly central (€6 self-service wash and dry, daily 8:30-20:30, €9 full service available Mon-Fri 9:00-17:00, near V&D department store at Boter Markt 20).
Bike Rental: You can rent bikes from Pieters Fietsverhuur inside the train station (fixed-gear bike only-€6.50/day, €50 deposit and passport number required, Mon-Sat 6:00-24:00, Sun 7:30-24:00, Stationsplein 7, tel. 023/531-7066). They have only 50 bikes to rent and often run out by midmorning—especially when the weather’s good. Rent a Bike Haarlem charges more, but is friendly and efficient, and carries plenty of new, good-quality bikes. If you’re renting for less than a full day, negotiate a cheaper price (fixed-gear bike-€10/day, 3-speed bike-€13.50/day, mountain bikes available, after-hours drop-off possible, ID required for deposit—if you don’t want to leave ID, there’s a €150 cash deposit; April-Sept daily 9:00-18:00; Oct-March Tue-Fri 10:00-17:30, Thu until 18:00, Sat 10:00-17:00, closed Sun-Mon; near station at Lange Herenstraat 36, tel. 023/542-1195, rentabikehaarlem.nl).
Taxi: The drop charge of €7.50 gets you a little over a mile.
Local Guide: Consider hiring Walter Schelfhout, a bearded repository of Haarlem’s historical fun facts. If you’re into beer lore, Walter’s your guy (€85/2 hours, also leads a beer walk sponsored by the Jopenkerk brewpub, tel. 023/535-5715, mobile 06-1258-9299, schelfhout@dutch.nl).
Best View: At La Place (top-floor cafeteria of the V&D department store—see here), you get wraparound views of the city as you sip your €2 self-serve tea.
Best Ice Cream: Gelateria Bartoli (on the south side of the Grote Kerk) is the local favorite (daily April-Sept 10:00-22:00, March and Oct-Dec 12:00-17:30 in good weather, closed Jan-Feb).
Haarlem’s Grote Markt, where 10 streets converge, is the town’s delightful centerpiece...as it has been for 700 years. To enjoy a coffee or beer here, simmering in Dutch good living, is a quintessential European experience. Observe. Sit and gaze at the church, appreciating essentially the same scene that Dutch artists captured centuries ago in oil paintings that now hang in museums.
Just a few years ago, trolleys ran through the square, and cars were parked everywhere. But today it’s a pedestrian zone, with market stalls filling the square on Mondays and Saturdays, and café tables dominating on other days.
This is a fun place to build a picnic with Haarlem finger foods and enjoy great seating on the square. Look for pickled herring (take-away stand on the square), local cheese (Gouda and Edam—tasty shop a block away on Barteljorisstraat), french fries with mayonnaise (recommended old-time fries place behind the church on Warmoesstraat), and, in the summer, stroopwafels (waffles with built-in syrup) and poffertjes (little sugar doughnuts, cooked on the spot).
This 15th-century Gothic church (now Protestant) is worth a look, if only to see Holland’s greatest pipe organ (from 1738, 100 feet high). Its more than 5,000 pipes impressed both Handel and Mozart. Note how the organ, which fills the west end, seems to steal the show from the altar. Quirky highlights of the church include a replica of Foucault’s pendulum, the “Dog-Whipper’s Chapel,” and a 400-year-old cannonball.
To enter, find the small Entrée sign behind the Coster statue on Grote Markt.
Cost and Hours: €2.50, Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00, closed Sun to tourists, tel. 023/553-2040, bavo.nl.
Concerts: Consider attending (even part of) a concert to hear the Oz-like pipe organ (regular free concerts Tue at 20:15 mid-May-mid-Oct, additional concerts Thu at 16:00 July-Aug; bring a sweater—the church isn’t heated).
Haarlem is the hometown of Frans Hals, the foremost Dutch portrait painter of the 17th-century Golden Age. This refreshing museum, once an almshouse for old men back in 1610, displays many of Hals’ greatest paintings, crafted in his nearly Impressionistic style. You’ll see group portraits and paintings of old-time Haarlem. Stand eye-to-eye with life-size, lifelike portraits of Haarlem’s citizens—brewers, preachers, workers, bureaucrats, and housewives. Take a close look at the people who built the Dutch Golden Age, and then watched it start to fade.
Along with Frans Hals’ work, the museum features a copy of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Flemish Proverbs, a fun painting that shows 72 charming Flemish scenes representing different folk sayings. Pick up the chart to identify these clever bits of everyday wisdom. It’s near the 250-year-old dollhouse on display in a former chapel.
Cost and Hours: €10, often €13 with special exhibits, Tue-Sat 11:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Mon, Groot Heiligland 62, tel. 023/511-5775, franshalsmuseum.nl.
This small museum, across the street from the Frans Hals Museum, offers a glimpse of old Haarlem. Request the English version of the 10-minute video, low-key Haarlem’s version of a sound-and-light show. Study the large-scale model of Haarlem in 1822 (when its fortifications were still intact), and wander the three rooms without English descriptions.
Cost and Hours: Overpriced at €5, Mon-Sat 12:00-17:00, Sun 13:00-17:00, Groot Heiligland 47, tel. 023/542-2427, historischmuseumhaarlem.nl. The adjacent architecture center (free) may be of interest to architects.
Haarlem was home to Corrie ten Boom, popularized by her inspirational 1971 book (and the 1975 movie that followed), The Hiding Place. Both tell about the Ten Boom family’s experience protecting Jews from the Nazis. Corrie ten Boom gives the other half of the Anne Frank story—the point of view of those who risked their lives to hide Dutch Jews during the Nazi occupation (1940-1945).
The Ten Boom House is open only for English tours—check the sign on the door for the next start time. The gentle and loving one-hour tours come with a little evangelizing that some may find objectionable.
Cost and Hours: Free, but donations accepted; April-Oct Tue-Sat first tour at 10:00, last tour at 15:30; Nov-March Tue-Sat first tour at 11:00, last tour around 15:00; closed Sun-Mon year-round; 50 yards north of Grote Markt at Barteljorisstraat 19; the clock-shop people get all wound up if you go inside—wait in the little side street at the door, where tour times are posted; tel. 023/531-0823, corrietenboom.com.
Background: The clock shop was the Ten Boom family business. The elderly father and his two daughters—Corrie and Betsy, both in their 50s—lived above the store and in the brick building attached in back (along Schoutensteeg alley). Corrie’s bedroom was on the top floor at the back. This room was tiny to start with, but then the family built a second, secret room (less than a yard deep) at the very back—“the hiding place,” where they could hide six Jews at a time. Devoutly religious, the family had a long tradition of tolerance, having hosted prayer meetings here in their home for both Jews and Christians for generations.
The Gestapo, tipped off that the family was harboring Jews, burst into the Ten Boom house. Finding a suspicious number of ration coupons, the Nazis arrested the family, but failed to find the six Jews (who later escaped) in the hiding place. Corrie’s father and sister died while in prison, but Corrie survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp to tell her story in her memoir.
Famous as the oldest museum in Holland, Teylers is a time-warp experience, filled with all sorts of fun curios for science buffs: fossils, minerals, primitive electronic gadgetry, and examples of 18th- and 19th-century technology (it also has two lovely painting galleries and hosts good temporary exhibits).
Cost and Hours: Overpriced at €10, includes excellent (and I’d say, essential) audioguide, Tue-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Mon, Spaarne 16, tel. 023/516-0960, teylersmuseum.nl. The museum’s modern café has good prices and faces a delightful garden.
Visiting the Museum: The science-oriented sections of this place feel like a museum of a museum. They’re serious about authenticity here: The presentation is perfectly preserved, right down to the original labels. Since there was no electricity in the olden days, you’ll find little electric lighting...if it’s dark outside, it’s dark inside. The museum’s benefactor, Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, was a very wealthy merchant who willed his estate, worth the equivalent of €80 million today, to a foundation whose mission was to “create and maintain a museum to stimulate art and science.” The museum opened in 1784, six years after Teyler’s death (his last euro was spent in 1983—now it’s a national museum). Add your name to the guest book, which goes back to before Napoleon’s visit here. The freshly renovated oval room—a temple of science and learning—is the core of the museum; in the art salons paintings are hung in the old style.
Haarlem’s old-time windmill, located just a 10-minute walk from the station and Teylers Museum, welcomes visitors with a short video, a little museum, and fine town views.
Cost and Hours: €3; April-Oct Mon and Wed-Fri 13:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 10:30-17:00, closed Tue; same hours in winter except only open Fri-Sun, Papentorenvest 1, tel. 023/545-0259, molenadriaan.nl.
Making a scenic 50-minute loop through and around Haarlem with a live guide who speaks Dutch and sometimes English, Post Verkade Cruise’s little trips are more relaxing than informative (€11; April-Oct daily departures at the top of the hour 12:00-16:00; Nov-March same hours Wed-Sun, reservations required; also evening cruises, across canal from Teylers Museum at Spaarne 11a, tel. 023/535-7723, postverkadecruises.nl). For a similar experience in an open boat, find Haarlem Canal Tours, farther down Spaarne, across from #17 (€13.50, reservations smart, 70-75 minutes, leaves every 1.5 hours daily 10:00-19:00, may not run in bad weather and off-season, haarlemcanaltours.com).
Wander through a little Red Light District that’s as precious as a Barbie doll—and legal since the 1980s (2 blocks northeast of Grote Markt, off Lange Begijnestraat, no senior or student discounts). Don’t miss the mall on Begijnesteeg marked by the red neon sign reading ’t Steegje (“free”). Just beyond that, the nearby ’t Poortje (“office park”) costs €6 to enter. Jog to the right to pop into the much more inviting “Red Lantern” (window-shopping welcome, at Korte Begijnestraat 27). As you wander through this area, remember that the people here don’t condone prostitution any more than your own community back home probably does; they just find it practical not to criminalize it and drive it underground, but instead to regulate it and keep the practice as safe as possible.
Haarlem’s evening scene is great. Consider four basic zones: Grote Markt in the shadow of the Grote Kerk; Lange Veerstraat; Boter Grote Markt; and Vijfhoek (Five Corners).
Grote Markt is lined with trendy bars that seem made for nursing a drink—Café Studio is generally the hot spot for a drink here (at Grote Markt 25); I’d also duck into the dark interior of In Den Uiver (near the Grote Kerk entry at Riviervischmarkt 13, live jazz Thu and Sun). Lange Veerstraat (behind the Grote Kerk) is colorful and bordered with lively spots. Boter Grote Markt is more convivial and local, as it’s less central and away from the tourists—try the nearby Jopenkerk brewpub (described later). Vijfhoek, named for the five lanes that converge here, is incredibly charming, although it has only one pub (with plenty of drinks, bar snacks, a relaxed crowd, and good indoor or outdoor seating). Also worth exploring is the area from this cutest corner in town to the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk), a couple blocks away. If you want a more high-powered scene, Amsterdam is just 20 minutes away by train.
The helpful Haarlem TI can nearly always find you a €29 bed in a private home (€5.50/person fee, plus a cut of your host’s money; two-night minimum). Avoid this if you can; it’s cheaper to reserve by calling direct. Nearly every Dutch person you’ll encounter speaks English.
Haarlem is most crowded in April, particularly on Easter weekend, during the flower parade, on King’s Day (usually April 27), and in May, July, and August (especially during Haarlem’s jazz festival on the third weekend of August).
The prices listed here include breakfast (unless otherwise noted) but don’t include the €2.20-per-person-per-day tourist tax. To avoid excessive street noises, forgo views for a room in the back. Hotels and the TI have a useful parking brochure.
$$$ Hotel Lion D’Or is a classy 34-room business hotel with all the professional comforts, pleasingly posh decor, and a handy but less-than-quaint location (Db-€150, Fri-Sat Db-€125, extra bed-€15, check website for special deals, ask for Rick Steves discount with 2-night stay if you book direct, air-con, elevator, free Internet access and Wi-Fi, across the street from train station at Kruisweg 34, tel. 023/532-1750, hotelliondor.nl, reservations@hotelliondor.nl, friendly Dirk Pauw).
$$$ Stempels Hotel, modern yet elegant, is located in a renovated 300-year-old building. With bare floors, comfy high-quality beds, and minimalist touches in its 17 rooms, what it lacks in warmth it makes up for in style and value. Double-paned windows help keep down the noise—it’s just a block east of Grote Markt—with a bustling brasserie and bar downstairs (standard Sb-€95, standard Db-€112-150, pricier rooms and suites available, breakfast-€12.50, in-room computers with free Internet access and Wi-Fi, elevator, Klokhuisplein 9, tel. 023/512-3910, stempelsinhaarlem.nl, info@stempelsinhaarlem.nl).
$$$ Hotel Amadeus, on Grote Markt, has 15 small, bright, and basic rooms, some with views of the square. This charming hotel, ideally located above an early 20th-century dinner café, is relatively quiet, especially if you take a room in the back. Its lush old lounge/breakfast room on the second floor overlooks the square, and Mike and Inez take good care of their guests (Sb-€60, Db-€85, check website for special deals, ask for Rick Steves discount with 2-night stay and cash, free Wi-Fi, Grote Markt 10—from square it’s a steep climb to lounge, elevator inside ground-floor café if you need it, tel. 023/532-4530, amadeus-hotel.com, info@amadeus-hotel.com). Hotel Amadeus’ breakfast room overlooking the main square is a great place to watch the town greet a new day—and one of my favorite Haarlem moments.
$$$ Ambassador City Centre Hotel, with 46 comfortable rooms in a big, plain hotel, is located just behind the Grote Kerk. If you’re willing to trade some street noise for amazing church views, ask for a room in the front (Db-€100, often less off-season, breakfast buffet-€13.50, free Internet access and Wi-Fi, Oude Groenmarkt 20, tel. 023/512-5300, acc-hotel.nl, info@acc-hotel.nl). They also run Hotel Joops, with 32 rooms, a block away (rooms are €10 cheaper; studios and apartments with kitchenettes for 2-4 people-€110-140 depending on season and number of people).
$$ Central Hotel Malts rents 12 bright, simple, and fresh rooms for a good price. The rooms in front are big, but not recommended for light sleepers (small D-€75, small Db-€79, standard Db-€89, big Db-€95, check website for best prices, no elevator, free Wi-Fi, Zijlstraat 56, tel. 023/551-2385, maltshotel.nl, info@maltshotel.nl, Marco and Andrea). They also offer €65 studio apartments with kitchenettes near the Red Light District.
These places are all run as sidelines by restaurants, and you’ll know it by the style of service and rooms. Lobbies are in the restaurant, and there are no public spaces. Still, they are handy and—for Haarlem—inexpensive.
$$ Hotel Carillon overlooks the town square and comes with bell-tower chimes and a little traffic. With run-down public spaces and st-e-e-e-p stairs, it’s an old-school, over-the-restaurant place. The rooms themselves, however, are freshly updated and pleasant. The front rooms come with more street noise and great town-square views (tiny loft S-€45, Db-€80-90, Tb-€110, Qb-€150, ask for Rick Steves discount when you reserve—must show book on arrival, no elevator, free Wi-Fi, Grote Markt 27, tel. 023/531-0591, hotelcarillon.com, info@hotelcarillon.com, owners Kelly Kuo, Andres Haas, and June).
$$ Die Raeckse Hotel, family-run and friendly, is not as central as the others and has less character and more traffic noise—but its 21 rooms are decent and comfortable. Quiet rooms in back cost more than the noisy rooms on the street—but they’re worth it (Sb-€55, smaller Db-€80-85, big Db-€85-90, Tb-€120, Qb-€130-145, €5/night discount for 2-night stay, ask for Rick Steves discount if you book direct and show this book on arrival—good only Nov-March, free but time-limited Internet access, free Wi-Fi, Raaks Straat 1, tel. 023/532-6629, , die-raeckse.nl, dieraeckse@zonnet.nl).
$$$ Hotel Haarlem Zuid, with 300 modern rooms, is sterile but a good value for drivers. It sits in an industrial zone a 20-minute walk from the center, on the road to the airport. They are renovating about two-thirds of the rooms; rates may rise as a result (Db-€89-140, breakfast-€13, elevator, free Wi-Fi, free parking, laundry service, free fitness center, reasonable hotel restaurant, Toekanweg 2, tel. 023/536-7500, hotelhaarlemzuid.nl, haarlemzuid@valk.com). Bus #300 conveniently connects the hotel with the train station, Grote Markt, and the airport (every 10 minutes, stop: Europaweg).
$ Stayokay Haarlem Hostel, completely renovated and with all the youth-hostel comforts, charges €25-30 for beds in four- and six-bed dorms. They also rent simple €60-80 doubles (€2.50 less for members, includes sheets and breakfast, save by booking on their website, pay Internet access, free Wi-Fi, laundry service, reception open 8:00-23:00, Jan Gijzenpad 3, two miles from Haarlem station—take bus #2 from station, or a 10-minute walk from Santpoort Zuid train station, tel. 023/537-3793, stayokay.com/haarlem, haarlem@stayokay.com).
(See “Haarlem Hotels & Restaurants” map, here.)
Jacobus Pieck Eetlokaal is popular with locals for its fine-value “global cuisine,” good salads, and unpretentious flair. Sit in the peaceful garden courtyard, at a sidewalk table, or in the romantically cozy interior. The Oriental Peak Salad is a perennial favorite, and the dish of the day (dagschotel, €12.50) always sells out (great €7 sandwiches at lunch, Tue-Sat 11:00-16:00 & 17:30-22:00, closed Sun-Mon, cash only, Warmoesstraat 18, behind church, tel. 023/532-6144).
De Lachende Javaan (“The Laughing Javanese”) is a long-established Indonesian place serving a memorable rijsttafel (€20-24, Tue-Sun 17:00-22:00, closed Mon, Frankestraat 27, tel. 023/532-8792).
La Plume Restaurant steakhouse is noisy, with a happy, local, and carnivorous crowd enjoying the candlelit scene (€20-25 meals, Mon-Fri 17:30-23:00, Sat-Sun 17:00-23:00, satay and ribs are favorites, Lange Veerstraat 1, tel. 023/531-3202). The relaxing outdoor seating faces the church and a lively pedestrian street.
Pizzeria-Ristorante Venezia, run for 25 years by the same Italian family from Bari, is the place to go for pizza or pasta (€8-10 choices, daily 13:00-23:00, facing V&D department store at Verwulft 7, tel. 023/531-7753). You’ll feel like you’re in Rome at a good indoor table, or sit outdoors for good people-watching.
Lange Veerstraat Restaurant Row: If you don’t know what you want to eat, stroll the delightful Lange Veerstraat behind the church and survey a fun range of restaurants (from cheap falafels to Cuban, and much more).
On the Spaarne River Canal: Haarlem seems to turn its back on its river with most of the eating energy a couple of blocks away. To enjoy a meal with a nice canal view, consider the Spaarne 66 Restaurant Bar. The Lemmers girls (a mom and her daughters) run this cozy eatery, with a woody, old-time interior and fine outdoor canalside seating (light €7 lunches, €20 Mediterranean/Dutch dinner plates, €31.50 three-course fixed-price meal, daily in summer 10:00-24:00, closed Mon-Tue in winter, Spaarne 66, tel. 023/551-3800).
Dressy Splurge: At Lambermon’s, expert chef Michèl Lambermon serves chichi pan-European cuisine in a suave, modern, corner restaurant. The Michelin-rated brasserie offers €29 two-course fixed-price lunches and €45 three-course dinners (€29-32 main courses, daily 12:00-15:00 & 18:00-22:00; Korte Veerstraat 1, tel. 023/542-7804).
Trendy Brewpub: While beer-drinking is a religion in Belgium, it’s also getting that way in Haarlem, where the Jopen brewery has converted a church into a flashy gastropub called Jopenkerk. With 18 brews on tap, including a Hoppenbier from a 1501 recipe, this is a beer lover’s mecca. Budget pub grub is served on the ground floor, or try the upstairs restaurant for more elegant fare (€8-10 burgers, salads, and quiche in the pub, €15-23 main dishes in the restaurant, daily 10:00-1:00 in the morning, Gedempte Voldersgracht 2, tel. 023/533-4114).
(See “Haarlem Hotels & Restaurants” map, here.)
La Place is a snazzy chain cafeteria that dishes up fresh, healthy budget food. Sit on the top floor or the roof garden of the V&D department store with Haarlem’s best view. If you’re too hungry to ride six floors of escalators, they offer the same food on the ground floor (Mon 11:00-18:00, Tue-Sat 9:30-18:00, Thu until 21:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, Grote Houtstraat 70, on corner of Gedempte Oude Gracht, tel. 023/515-8700).
Friethuis de Vlaminck is your best bet for a cone of old-fashioned, fresh Flemish-style fries (€2, Tue-Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Mon, Warmoesstraat 3, behind church, tel. 023/532-1084). Ali offers a dazzling array of sauces. With his help, you can be adventurous.
Supermarkets: Albert Heijn has two convenient locations. One is in the train station (Mon-Fri 6:30-21:00, Sat 10:00-21:00, Sun 9:00-21:00, cash only), the other is at Kruisstraat 10 (Mon-Sat 8:00-22:00, closed Sun, cash only). The DekaMarkt is a few blocks west of Grote Markt (Mon-Sat 8:00-20:00, Thu-Fri until 21:00, Sun 16:00-21:00, Gedempte Oude Gracht 54, near the V&D department store).
From Haarlem by Train to: Zandvoort (2/hour, 11 minutes), Amsterdam (6/hour, 20 minutes, €3.70 one-way, €7.10 same-day round-trip), Delft (2/hour, 40 minutes), Brussels (hourly, 2.75 hours, transfer in Rotterdam), Bruges/Brugge (hourly, 3.5 hours, 2-3 changes—avoid Thalys connections if traveling with a rail pass).
To Schiphol Airport: Your best option is the bus (4-10/hour, 40 minutes, €4—buy ticket from driver, bus #300). For most of the trip, this bus travels on its own limited-access roadway—what transit wonks call a “busway.” To catch the bus from the middle of Haarlem, head to the Centrum/Verwulft stop, near the V&D department store. To catch it from the train station, look for the “A” bus stop marked R Net. You can also get there by train (6/hour, 30-40 minutes, transfer at Amsterdam-Sloterdijk station, €5.40 one-way) or taxi (about €30-40).