That's mainly a problem for people that can't look further than Amsterdam. Which is not by far the nicest place to live (or visit) in the Netherlands, anyway. It's not the worst place (that's Emmeloord), but randomly picking another spot won't hurt.
Any recommendations? Based on the little I've seen of the country I'd say Rotterdam is my favorite place to visit, but if I was moving there I'd probably settle on Utrecht
Utrecht is indeed great and really pretty. It's where I usually take people visiting NL, cause I always feel like a tourist myself when in Amsterdam, plus it's only 15-20 minutes by train.
Rotterdam is so huge that it really depends where you look :) I've heard an equal amount of love and hate stories :)
And other recommendations ... as I try to think of some, I realize it's pretty much a list of the rest of medium-large cities in the Netherlands. Unless you don't like cities, in which case maybe check out a tourist or bicycle guide. Try the province of Friesland for some real pretty non-city places? But there's so many others, just pick a spot, any spot, then Google it. The Netherlands isn't that big ;-)
