THE NETHERLANDS
Cruise the canals. Cycle the rest.
Amsterdam’s canal ring and Golden Age museums, the windmills at Zaanse Schans and the tulip fields at Keukenhof, plus day trips out to Rotterdam, Delft and the storybook villages on the water.
Only in the Netherlands
Three days you can only have here.
Plenty of cities have museums and a boat tour. A canal ring you cruise through the middle of, windmills still sawing wood by wind, the old masters hung where they were painted. Those three are Dutch. Build the trip around them.
From the water
Through the Canal Ring
Amsterdam’s 17th-century canal ring is a UNESCO-listed half-circle of water, and the only way to see how the city actually fits together is from a boat in the middle of it. Gabled merchant houses lean over both banks, bridge after bridge, the whole way round.
- 1 Amsterdam: Classic Saloon Boat Cruise with Cheese & Wine
- 2 Amsterdam: Heated Canal Cruise with Unlimited Drinks & Bite
- 3 Amsterdam: 75 Minute City Canal Cruise with Audio Guide
Still turning
Windmills That Still Work
The green wooden mills along the Zaan don’t pose for photos. They saw timber, grind pigment and press oil by wind, the way they have since the 1600s. Climb inside one and the whole frame shudders as the sails come round overhead.
- 1 From Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans, Volendam & Marken Day Trip
- 2 Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam & Marken Bus Tour
- 3 Amsterdam: Guided Zaanse Schans, Windmills & Cheese Tour
On Museumplein
A Museum Quarter Like No Other
Few cities pack this many great museums into one square mile. The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh face each other across Museumplein, the Anne Frank House a short walk north. Rembrandt and Vermeer hang in the city where they were painted, not on loan somewhere else.
- 1 Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum Entry Ticket
- 2 Amsterdam Anne Frank: Small-Group Walking Tour & Local Guide
- 3 Amsterdam: Madame Tussauds Ticket
The Dutch spring
When the whole country turns colour.
For about eight weeks from mid-March the bulb fields south of Haarlem run in stripes of red and yellow to the horizon, and Keukenhof opens its gates outside Lisse. It is the sight the Netherlands is famous for, and the one you can only catch on a narrow calendar each spring.
Keukenhof & the tulip fields →The first ticket
The one to book before you go.
If you’ve got one morning in Amsterdam, this is where most people spend it. Reserve a time slot before you arrive, because the good ones go weeks ahead.
The classics
The Netherlands’ Most Popular Experiences
Canal cruises, the Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum, the Heineken Experience, the windmill day trips. The handful of things almost everyone books.
By place
Start in a city. Ride out from there.
Amsterdam for the canals and the art. Rotterdam for the bold modern skyline. The Hague and Delft for Vermeer and Delftware. Zaanse Schans for the windmills, Keukenhof for the tulips, Giethoorn for the village with canals instead of streets.
By experience
Or pick the kind of day you want.
A canal cruise if you want the city from the water. A bike if you want to cover ground. A cheese tasting, a museum, a brown café at the end of it. The Netherlands does all of them well.
Out of the city
Which day trip from Amsterdam?
Half of what people come to the Netherlands for sits an hour outside Amsterdam. The hard part is choosing which way to go for the day.
Rotterdam
The city the Dutch rebuilt from scratch.
Flattened in 1940 and rebuilt as a showcase for modern architecture, Rotterdam is the opposite of Amsterdam’s gabled lanes. Cube houses, a market hall like a cathedral, Europe’s busiest port and a skyline that keeps changing. Forty minutes by fast train, and a different country in feel.
- 1 Rotterdam: Harbor Sightseeing Cruise
- 2 Rotterdam: 1-Hour Sightseeing Splash Tour
- 3 Rotterdam: Rotterdam Zoo Blijdorp Entry Ticket
The Dutch way
The locals do it by bike.
There are more bikes than people here, and the whole country is built flat and bike-first. A guided ride is the easiest way into the back streets, the parks and the villages the coaches skip. Three rides to start with.
Tasting the place
Cheese, herring and a jenever or two.
The Dutch table is its own day out. A cheese farm in the polder, raw herring from a street cart, a brown café and a tasting of jenever. The edible side of the Netherlands, in a handful of tours.
After dark
Amsterdam after the museums close.
The red light district, the brown bars, a pub crawl through the old centre. Amsterdam earns its late-night name, and a guide is the easy way to see that side of the city without the tourist traps. Three to get you started.
Plan it
Three perfect days in the Netherlands.
First time over? A long weekend that takes in the canals, the countryside and the colour without doubling back.
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