- Taking to the canals of Amsterdam to see the city from water level
- Watching the windmills of Kinderdijk appear out of the low sky
- Wandering through the ancient university towns of Leiden and Utrecht
- Cycling through polder lands, along a patchwork quilt of canals and waterways in Zeeland
- Get up (very) early to miss the queues for Anne Frank’s house
- Seeing carpets of color in North Holland’s tulip fields
- Experiencing a myriad of birds and wildlife in the backwaters of South Holland
- The Hoge Veluwe National Park, and the Kröller-Müller within
- Seeing the famous Netherlands tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens
- Strolling along the beautiful canals in Amsterdam and Leiden, birthplace of Rembrandt
Best Things to Do in Netherlands
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Things to do in Netherlands - Expert's guide
The Netherlands has the feel of a big city, one filled with charming villages, scrumptious cheese, and canals bordered by gabled homes. Open spaces undulate with thousands of flowers and hundreds of windmills.
It’s only about a 2 hour traverse across the country which means that it’s easy to pack these top ten Netherland attractions into a shorter visit. Most of the attractions are in Amsterdam, the capital, and if you haven’t looked at a map of the Netherlands since grade school, knowing the lay of the land will help you get your bearings.
1. Van Gogh Museum
Did you know that it was Vincent Van Gogh’s sister in law, Jo, that made Van Gogh famous? She was married to Vincent’s brother, Theo, who always wished to raise awareness of his brother’s work. When Theo died, Jo became heiress to hundreds of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings.
In Theo’s memory, his wife sold Vincent’s art to collections that were publically accessible all around the world. Jo saved a few cherished pieces that were kept in the family.
At the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, this private collection can be seen along with other famous works like The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers and Almond Blossoms. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh’s artwork.
2. Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum, also in Amsterdam, is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history. Past exhibitions have included a gold cup, regarded as the most important of all treasures belonging to the Dutch royal family, the world’s most comprehensive and representative view of the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn’s entire body of work and the iconic works of Spanish born fashion designer Paco Rabanne whose metal and plastic designs caused a global sensation.
3. Anne Frank House
Anne Frank was 13 years old when she and her family, along with four other people, went into hiding from the Nazis. Their hiding place was constructed by Anne’s father with help from colleagues in the annex of the building where he used to conduct business.
Throughout the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, you can still see traces and personal objects of the people who hid there. Learn what Anne Frank meant to more than 22 individuals who knew her. In the Diary Room, you will see the red-checked diary she received for her birthday on June 12, 1942 and soon filled to help pass the time and overcome her isolation.
4. Vondelpark
Rapid expansion in Amsterdam beginning in the 1860s gave inhabitants the foresight to plan for a large open space. Vondelpark is an open-air park over 100 acres in size where city-dwellers and visitors can enjoy cycling, strolling, children’s playgrounds, people-watching, and free concerts in the summer. Restaurants and cafes located within the park are hotspots for visitors who come by the millions each year.
5. Bloemenmarkt
In Amsterdam’s city center and part of the UNESCO-listed canal district, the Singel canal is home to the Bloemenmarkt. This floating flower market has been selling flowers rain or shine since 1862.
If visiting in the Spring you are sure to find tulips, synonymous with Holland since they were first imported from the Ottoman Empire 400 years ago. If you are a true flower bulb aficionado, you’ll also want to visit the Keukenhof Gardens just south of Amsterdam in Lisse. You’ll be fully delighted with over 7 million hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses.
6. Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
Discover the Plymouth Colony backstory. In a beautifully preserved house that was built around 1365, the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum tells the story of the American pilgrim fathers. The pilgrims were religious refugees from England who lived in Leiden in voluntary exile for 12 years before they left to establish the first English settlement in North America.
7. Amsterdam Canal District
The Amsterdam Canal District is a fantastically preserved feat of urban planning that dates back to the late 16th century.
The project made the city an artificial port and involved draining of swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs around the city and filling in the intermediate spaces with gabled homes and monuments. In 2010 the city’s fortified boundary area, called the Singelgracht, was inscripted on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
8. Sample Dutch Cheese
Dutch cheeses have been called Holland’s “yellow gold.” There are three cheese markets, Alkmaar, Gouda and Edam. If traveling to Alkmaar between April and September on a Friday, you can’t miss the opportunity to try the “yellow gold” at the Alkmaar cheese market which has been taking place since 1365.
9. Groesbeek
For World War II history buffs, Groesbeek, on the eastern German border near Nijmegen, was the September, 1944 site of one of the largest air landing operations in history.
A few months later the Rhineland offensive began. Allied forces, including Americans, occupied large portions of Germany and liberated the Netherlands, a liberation that served as a harbinger to that of the whole of Western Europe. Visit The Freedom Museum (Vrijheidsmuseum)to learn more about the occupation, liberation, and rebuilding of Holland.
10. Kinderdijk
Last but not least, a trip to Kinderdijk to see the iconic windmills of the Netherlands is another Amsterdam stop. Windmills have been in continuous use since the middle ages to drain low lying land for the use of agriculture and settlement. At Kinderdijk, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site, you’ll see the dykes, reservoirs, pumping stations and 19 beautifully preserved windmills.
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