Best dutch travel guides according to redditors

The undutchables. They wrote a book

/joke

I think it's from undutchables, a popular polemic about the Netherlands produced by the English-speaking and Netherlands-loathing expat community. The pun is intentional. The Dutch term for it is steenkolenengels.

This silly bint should venture a little further from the university campus area in her research.

I will take this advice seriously. I am meeting up with two other girls for dinner, and let them know about that. I convinced my Dad to buy me the books for the guides with pull out maps.

Belgium, Amsterdam, and Paris.

Oh oh oh!! We're also going to the Anne Frank house so I can cry and feel awful. I just figured out within the past 6 months someone in my family was a big guy in the Nazi party. So, yeah, as if I didn't already feel terrible...

Lonely planet Pocket edition.

Has good suggestions, guides and tips along with a very good foldout map.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lonely-Planet-Pocket-Amsterdam-Travel-x/dp/1742200540

Fluent for me means without Dutch accent. Plus I probably use a ton of "undutchables" - Dutch expressions directly translated to English. But I can say most of what I want to say.

The UnDutchables: an observation of the netherlands, its culture and its inhabitants

Hah, you have a lot of 'us' down pat. For further amusing reading, I highly recommend "The Undutchables" and "The Dutch, I presume?" but I'm sure they have been recommended to you by now. ;)

I don't have an answer to your question but rather a comment on living in the Netherlands, I lived there for years as an expat (I'm American). I don't want to discourage you from learning Dutch but you should know that the overwhelming majority of the population under the age of about 65 speaks English fluently. English is mandatory for all students from early grade school, and most learn a third language fluently as well (usually French or German). They do appreciate it when a non-native tries to converse with them in Dutch, but more often than not they will respond to you in English. Even when I was certain my pronunciation and grammar were correct I would still get responses in English, it can be very frustrating. It definitely makes it more difficult to raise your oral proficiency while living there. The answer I got as to why they would do that is "Well it's just easier for us [i.e. them]". Still, having a basic level of vocabulary was very useful in day to day life as most things are only written in Dutch.

PS - This book is pretty much considered required reading for expats moving to the Netherlands, don't be surprised if some of your new Dutch colleagues try to give you a copy. The Dutch are strangely proud of their cultural idiosyncrasies.