Amsterdam is the start. The Netherlands is the trip.
Which canal cruise earns the money. When Keukenhof opens and when it shuts. How to reach Giethoorn without a car. Every bookable day out in the country, reviewed.
The days the Netherlands is known for.
Mills that still turn, a flower garden open eight weeks a year, a village that swapped its streets for water, and the boats that tie the rest of it together.
The best Dutch days start with a coach out of Amsterdam.
All 128 windmill day trips →
Zaanse Schans is forty minutes north. Keukenhof runs shuttles through the spring. Giethoorn is a long ride for a village with no road down the middle. These three carry more travellers than anything else outside the capital.
Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken
Six working mills on the Zaan, then the old fishing harbours on the Markermeer where the cheese is pressed and the clogs are cut while you watch.
Keukenhof and the bulb fields
Seven million bulbs planted by hand in a park that opens for eight weeks and then closes for the year. The fields around Lisse are free and every bit as loud.
Giethoorn by whisper boat
Wooden bridges, reed roofs and electric boats quiet enough to hear the ducks. Most days pair it with the Afsluitdijk or the Zaan mills on the way back.
Amsterdam was built on water, so start on it.
Ninety kilometres of canal, more than a thousand bridges and a seventeenth-century ring the UNESCO list protects. An hour on an open boat explains the layout faster than a day of walking it.
Three things only the Netherlands has.
Old towns and cathedrals turn up all over Europe. A village without streets, a garden with a season measured in weeks, and industrial mills still sawing timber belong to this country alone.
Giethoorn
The peat diggers of Giethoorn cut the ground away and left the water behind, so the village grew along canals with footbridges instead of a high street. Deliveries still arrive by boat. Hire an electric punt and the loudest thing you hear all afternoon is your own wake against the reeds.
- 1Ultimate Giethoorn Experience with Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,592 reviews
- 2Giethoorn, Afsluitdijk, Zaanse Schans Day Tour Incl Hotel Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,679 reviews
- 3Village & National Park Canal Cruise with Coffee★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,596 reviews
The Bulb Fields
Keukenhof plants seven million bulbs each autumn for a park that opens in late March and closes in the middle of May. The commercial fields around Lisse and Noordwijkerhout are the real spectacle: solid blocks of colour running to the dunes, and the growers top them within days of the bloom.
- 1Keukenhof Entry & Shuttlebus with Flexible Return★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,891 reviews
- 2Keukenhof Ticket with Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,089 reviews
- 3Tour to Keukenhof Gardens with Windmill Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,819 reviews
The Zaan Mills
The Zaan was an industrial estate before anyone had a word for it: hundreds of mills grinding pigment, mustard and oil for the shipyards. A handful survive at Zaanse Schans, still turning, still selling what they make. Kinderdijk, an hour south, keeps nineteen mills that drain the polder to this day.
- 1Zaanse Schans, Volendam & Marken Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 18,501 reviews
- 2Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam & Marken Bus Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 15,034 reviews
- 3Day Trip to Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam and Marken from Amsterdam★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,392 reviews
What travellers to the Netherlands actually book.
The whole list →The tours more people take than any others in the country, and what each one gets you for the money.
1
Van Gogh Museum Ticket
Timed entry to Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, with access to permanent and temporary exhibitions, optional 11-language audio guide, and mobile voucher entry.
From · $32
Read our review →
2
Amsterdam Classic Saloon Boat Cruise with Drinks and Cheese
from $21
3
Amsterdam Luxury Canal Cruise + Unlimited Drinks & Bites option
from $18
4
Rijksmuseum Entry Ticket
from $31
5
Classic Saloon Boat Cruise with Cheese & Wine
from $18
6
Evening Cruise with Optional Wine and Snacks
from $23
7
Heated Canal Cruise with Unlimited Drinks & Bite
from $18
8
75 Minute City Canal Cruise with Audio Guide
from $18
Rotterdam rebuilt itself on purpose, and it shows.
Flattened in 1940 and put back up as an argument for the new: cube houses on stilts, the Markthal arch, Europe’s largest port, and nineteen polder mills at Kinderdijk half an hour upriver.
All 90 Rotterdam tours →
A Dutch day out, sorted by price.
Every tour on the site by what it actually charges. Most of this country costs less than the seat you picked on the flight over.
Museum entry, an hour on a canal boat, a cheese tasting, a guided walk. Most of the Netherlands sits in this band.
The full days out: windmill villages with lunch, Keukenhof including transfers, Giethoorn and back with the boat covered.
Private guides, chartered saloon boats and the small groups that cap at eight people.
The Hague and Utrecht sit forty minutes from the crowds.
The Hague keeps the Vermeers, the parliament and a pier at Scheveningen. Utrecht drops its cafés to water level on a two-storey canal nobody else in the country built. Both are day trips on an ordinary train ticket.
- 1City Canal Cruisefrom $22
- 2Madurodam Miniature Park Entry Ticketfrom $24
- 3Hop-on Hop-off Heritage Tram Tourfrom $21
Book these before you fly to the Netherlands.
Nearly everything here can wait until the night before. These cannot. They run on timed tickets, a fixed release schedule and a season measured in weeks.
- 01Amsterdam Anne Frank: Small-Group Walking Tour & Local GuideHouse tickets are released online on a set schedule and go quickly. There is no ticket desk at the door.
- 02Keukenhof Entry & Shuttlebus with Flexible ReturnThe gardens open for about eight weeks from late March. Outside that window there is nothing to visit.
- 03Van Gogh Museum TicketEntry is timed and dated. The middle of the day goes first, often days ahead.
- 04Light Festival Boat with Unlimited Drinks & SnackThe route is lit from late November to late January only, and the weekend boats fill early.
The canals do their best work after the lights come on.
Every evening sailing →Evening Cruise with Optional Wine and Snacks
Read our review →
Evening Candle Light Cruise With Wine & Cheese
Read our review →
Light Festival Boat with Unlimited Drinks & Snack
Read our review →
Dutch rain comes in sideways. Have the indoor day ready.
The North Sea throws weather across a country with no hills to slow it down, and it can arrive in any month. Every good answer is under a roof: the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh, a cheese tasting, the brewery on the Stadhouderskade, a workbench and a lump of clay.
- 1Van Gogh Museum Ticketfrom $32
- 2Amsterdam Classic Saloon Boat Cruise with Drinks and Cheesefrom $21
- 3Rijksmuseum Entry Ticketfrom $31
The Randstad ring, stop by stop.
Amsterdam
Zaanse Schans
Haarlem
The Hague
Rotterdam
UtrechtBy city — wherever you are based
By the kind of day you want
The newest Dutch tour reviews.
Everything recent →
Private Rotterdam Cruise Port Departure Transfer to Amsterdam
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Amsterdam Christmas Walk with hot drink and Dutch treat
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Red Light Secrets Museum Amsterdam & 1-Hour Canal Cruise
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Private Tour to Kinderdijk and Delft / Leiden / Hague / Gouda
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1-15 persons Taxi or Bus Transfer Amsterdam in Amsterdam City
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Haarlem Private Day Trip from Amsterdam with Local
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All Inclusive Guided Walking Beer Tours Amsterdam
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Private transfer Schiphol (AMS) to or from Rotterdam
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Airport or Port transfer Business Class (private car service)
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