I think you make some very good points DoD.
But the cities mentioned in the Netherlands so far are all major cities, which means there should be plenty of bars and hotels to be found.
The issue about cost is something else entirely.
I do not really have a feeling for which countries/cities would be expensive, so I'll take your word on it. But I can easily see that NL is a fairly expensive country.
As a possible suggestion that I would like to throw out there there is Gent in Belgium. I recently spent a weekend there with a group of friend and I really liked the city. Not really sure about possibilities for hotels and such, but it is about 1 hour in a direct train connection from Brussels airport.
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