Day-by-day programme of this 10-day itinerary across Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht and the villages.
Day 1 â Arrival in Amsterdam
Landing in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands: a human-scale city of canals, bicycles and crooked houses leaning over the water.
- âïļ Amsterdam â Aeroporto di Amsterdam-Schiphol (AMS)
- ð Jordaan â The Jordaan is Amsterdam's most romantic district: a network of quiet canals, crooked 17th-century houses, flowered bridges, galleries, shops and the 'brown cafes', wood-panelled bars with a homely feel. Born as a working-class quarter, it is today the city's most authentic and photographed heart. You wander aimlessly along the Prinsengracht and Brouwersgracht canals. It's the perfect way to ease into Amsterdam's slow rhythm, before dinner in a historic cafe.
- ðĻ Mr. Jordaan â Centro / Jordaan, Amsterdam
Day 2 â Amsterdam of the museums
A day in the Museum Square, among the masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age and the world's largest collection of Van Gogh.
- ð Rijksmuseum â The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands and the temple of the Dutch Golden Age: here you admire Rembrandt's 'Night Watch', huge and theatrical, alongside masterpieces by Vermeer (the 'Milkmaid'), Frans Hals and hundreds of others. The building itself, in brick and stained glass, is a wonder. It's best to book your ticket online to skip the queue. A few steps away, in the same square, another great name in art.
- ð Van Gogh Museum â The Van Gogh Museum holds the world's largest collection devoted to the painter: over 200 paintings and hundreds of drawings and letters, from the 'Potato Eaters' to the 'Sunflowers', from the Arles bedrooms to the last, tormented landscapes. The route follows his life and illness, told with great sensitivity. Here too, a timed ticket is required. Outside, you relax in the city's great park, a short walk away.
- ð Vondelpark â Vondelpark is Amsterdam's green lung: lawns, ponds, paths and an open-air theatre where, in summer, cyclists, families and students stretch out in the sun. It's the right place to rest your legs after the museums, perhaps renting a bike to do as the locals do. Back towards the centre, in the evening you treat yourself to a typical dish in a brown cafe.
- ð―ïļ Restaurant - Amsterdam â Dutch cooking is plain and hearty: bitterballen (fried meatballs) with beer, pea soup (erwtensoep), raw herring (haring) served on the street, stamppot (mash with vegetables and sausage). But Amsterdam is also a capital of Indonesian cuisine, a colonial legacy: the rijsttafel, the 'rice table' with dozens of small dishes, is an experience to try. You dine among the canals; tomorrow it's the turn of the city's most moving history.
Day 3 â Amsterdam, history and canals
A day between the memory of Anne Frank, a cruise on the UNESCO canals and the city's lively markets.
- ð Anne Frank House â The Anne Frank House is the most moving place in Amsterdam: in the secret annexe behind a swivelling bookcase, the young German-Jewish girl hid for two years with her family before being deported, writing the diary that moved the world. You walk in silence through the empty rooms, left as they were. Tickets are sold ONLY online, weeks ahead: it is the city's most sought-after visit. Outside, you let the emotion settle from the water, on a boat.
- ðŊ Prinsengracht canal cruise â The best way to understand Amsterdam is from the water: a canal cruise, gliding under the lit bridges, past the narrow, very tall 17th-century merchants' houses, with hooks on the roof to hoist furniture. The canal belt (Grachtengordel) is a UNESCO site, dug in the golden age when Amsterdam ruled world trade. An hour of pure magic. Then you walk to a hidden courtyard.
- ð Begijnhof â The Begijnhof is an oasis of silence in the heart of the city: an enclosed courtyard of 17th-century houses around a garden, founded for the Beguines, pious women who lived in community without taking vows. Here stands the oldest wooden house in Amsterdam. Step through the gate and the noise vanishes at once. A peaceful pause before plunging into the city's most colourful market.
- ð―ïļ Albert Cuyp Market â The Albert Cuypmarkt, in the multi-ethnic De Pijp district, is the largest street market in the Netherlands: a hundred stalls of cheese, flowers, clothes and street food from all over the world. Here you taste two Dutch icons: poffertjes, soft little pancakes with icing sugar, and above all the warm stroopwafel, the waffle with caramel in the middle, made fresh. It smells wonderful. Tomorrow you leave the city, towards the windmills.
Day 4 â Windmills and fishing villages
A trip north of Amsterdam among the windmills of Zaanse Schans and the picturesque fishing villages on the old inland sea.
- ð Zaanse Schans â Zaanse Schans is postcard Holland: a row of green windmills along the river Zaan, 18th-century wooden houses, little bridges and meadows. The mills, still working, ground pigments, spices and oil; you can step inside to watch the gears turn. All around, workshops for wooden clogs (klompen) and cheese. Half an hour from Amsterdam, it's a time machine. Then you continue to the sea, to a fishing village.
- ð Volendam â Volendam is the liveliest fishing village of the old Zuiderzee: a little harbour facing the water, low houses, fish shops and people in traditional costume with lace caps. You lunch on a smoked-eel sandwich or kibbeling, deep-fried fish nuggets, watching the boats. From here a short ferry takes you to an island from another age.
- ð Marken â Marken was a fishing island, now linked to the mainland: a cluster of dark-green wooden houses, built on stilts against floods, around a little harbour and a lighthouse. The lanes are so narrow and quiet they look like a nativity scene. It is one of the most authentic corners of the Netherlands, away from the crowds. You return to Amsterdam for the night; tomorrow you head far off, to a village without roads.
Day 5 â Giethoorn, the green Venice
A longer trip, to the north-east, to the famous village of Giethoorn, where you move only by boat along the canals.
- ðŊ Giethoorn â Giethoorn is nicknamed the 'green Venice' or 'Venice of the North': a village without roads, where the thatched-roof cottages, surrounded by flowering gardens, are linked only by canals and dozens of little wooden bridges. You move on foot along the paths or, better, by renting a 'whisper boat', the silent electric dinghy, to glide between the houses. It is a fairy-tale haven of peace, far from everything. A lunch break on the water, then back to Amsterdam.
- ð―ïļ Restaurant - Giethoorn â Lunch in one of the restaurants overlooking Giethoorn's canals, with a terrace on the water and boats drifting past: Dutch pancakes (pannenkoeken), sweet or savoury, soups and lake fish. The quiet is total, broken only by the quack of ducks. A relaxing finale before the road back to the capital; tomorrow you leave Amsterdam and head south, among tulips and cities.
Day 6 â Tulips and the court city
You leave Amsterdam heading south, between charming Haarlem, the Keukenhof tulip fields and elegant The Hague, seat of government.
- ð Grote Markt - Haarlem â Haarlem is a miniature Amsterdam without the crowds: a charming little city of canals and brick, with a great square, the Grote Markt, dominated by St Bavo's cathedral and the town hall. The Golden Age painting of Frans Hals was born here. Alleys, hidden courtyards (hofjes) and quiet cafes make it a delightful stop. A few kilometres away, in spring, the greatest flower spectacle in the world bursts into bloom.
- ð Keukenhof â The Keukenhof, near Lisse, is the most famous tulip garden in the world: seven million bulbs that every spring (late March to mid-May) turn 32 hectares into an explosion of red, yellow, purple and orange, among landscaped beds, greenhouses and ponds. All around, the bulb fields in coloured stripes visible even from the sky. It is open only in spring: out of season, you linger in Haarlem and move on. A spectacle worth the trip. Then you reach the government city, The Hague.
- ð Binnenhof â The Hague (Den Haag) is the city of government, parliament and the Dutch royals, elegant and refined. Its heart is the Binnenhof, a Gothic complex of buildings around a courtyard and a pond, the seat of the Dutch parliament for eight centuries. All around, orderly avenues, embassies and museums. It is a 'de facto' capital without being one in name. You dine in the centre; tomorrow the museum that holds the 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'.
- ðĻ Best Western Plus Plaza Den Haag â Centro, L'Aia
Day 7 â Vermeer and the sea, on to Delft
A day between Vermeer's masterpiece, the North Sea beach of Scheveningen and lovely Delft, home of the blue pottery.
- ð Mauritshuis â The Mauritshuis is a small jewel of a museum, in a 17th-century mansion beside the Binnenhof: few rooms, but an incredible density of masterpieces. Here lives Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', the 'Mona Lisa of the North', alongside Potter's 'Bull', Rembrandt and the Flemish masters. You leave with your eyes full. Then, in minutes, you reach the open sea.
- ð Scheveningen â Scheveningen is The Hague's beach and the most famous in the Netherlands: a long stretch of sand on the North Sea, with the pier reaching out over the water, the Ferris wheel, the cafes and the windswept promenade. You lunch on fried fish watching the kitesurfers. Even just to breathe the sea air, it's worth the stop. Then you head back inland, to the city of blue porcelain.
- ð Delft â Delft is one of the loveliest and most compact cities in Holland: quiet canals, a great square with the Nieuwe Kerk (where the Dutch royals rest) and the Renaissance town hall. It is the home of the painter Vermeer and of the famous blue-and-white pottery, 'Delftware', which you can watch being hand-painted in the historic workshops. Without Amsterdam's crowds, it is enchanting. You sleep here or in nearby Rotterdam; tomorrow the country's most modern city.
- ðĻ Hotel Coen Delft â Centro storico, Delft
Day 8 â Rotterdam, the city of the future
Destroyed in the war and rebuilt with courage, Rotterdam is the opposite of Amsterdam: skyscrapers, experimental architecture and Europe's largest port.
- ð Markthal â The Markthal is the symbol of new Rotterdam: a huge glass-and-concrete arch, with apartments in the vault and, below, a vivid covered market. The ceiling is covered by a giant digital artwork, the 'Cornucopia', of fruit and flowers. Below, stalls of cheese, spices, fish and street food from around the world. It's the right place for breakfast. A few steps away, the strangest houses in Europe.
- ð Cube Houses â The Cube Houses (Kijk-Kubus) are Rotterdam's architectural icon: a row of yellow houses shaped like cubes tilted 45 degrees, resting on a pillar, conceived in the 1970s as 'trees' of an 'urban forest'. One of them can be visited and shows how you can really live inside a tilted cube. Eccentric and brilliant. You continue to the river and the bridge that symbolises the city.
- ð Erasmusbrug â The Erasmusbrug, the 'Swan' for its elegant shape, is the cable-stayed bridge crossing the river Maas that has become Rotterdam's symbol. From here you get the best view of the skyscraper skyline, unique in Holland, and of the port. You can go up the Euromast for the view from above or take a cruise in Europe's largest port. The city that looks ahead. You dine among the skyscrapers; tomorrow a trip to the Kinderdijk windmills and to Gouda.
- ð―ïļ Fenix Food Factory â On the Katendrecht island, in an old port warehouse, the Fenix Food Factory gathers craft breweries, cheesemongers, bakers and street kitchens: the young, creative face of Rotterdam, to enjoy with a sharing board and a local beer looking at the river. The city is a rising multi-ethnic food capital. You head back to the hotel; tomorrow you return to the Holland of windmills, at Kinderdijk.
- ðĻ The James Hotel Rotterdam â Centro, Rotterdam
Day 9 â Windmills, cheese and Utrecht
The Holland of windmills at Kinderdijk, a UNESCO site, the cheese city of Gouda and arrival in lively Utrecht.
- ð Kinderdijk â Kinderdijk is the purest image of Holland fighting against the water: nineteen 18th-century windmills lined along the canals, built to drain the polder and keep the land dry, below sea level. It is a UNESCO site. You walk or cycle the dyke among the mills, entering one of them to see how the miller lived. An iconic, silent landscape. Then you reach the city of Holland's most famous cheese.
- ð Gouda â Gouda gives its name to Holland's most famous cheese. Its great market square, with the isolated Gothic town hall at its centre and the picturesque public weigh house (Waag), is among the loveliest in the country. In summer, on Thursday mornings, the historic cheese market is held, with the golden wheels piled up and the haggling sealed by clapping hands. You taste mature Gouda and the syrupy stroopwafels, born right here. Then, a short ride to Utrecht.
- ð Dom Tower â Utrecht is a lively university city, less touristy than Amsterdam, with a delightful medieval centre. It is dominated by the Dom Tower, the tallest Gothic church tower in the Netherlands (112 metres): those who climb its 465 steps enjoy a view reaching all the way to Amsterdam. At its foot, the cathedral and Utrecht's unique canals, with their two-level wharves (the werf) turned into cafes and waterside terraces. You dine along the canals; tomorrow a last morning and the journey home.
- ðĻ NH Centre Utrecht â Centro storico, Utrecht
Day 10 â Utrecht and departure
Last day: a morning among Utrecht's two-level canals, then the train to Schiphol and the return flight.
- ð Oudegracht â The Oudegracht, the 'old canal', is the heart of Utrecht: unique in the world for its two-level wharves, where the old merchants' cellars at the water's edge are now cafes and restaurants with tables right on the canal. A walk along the water, a last stroopwafel and a coffee are the perfect way to close the trip. Then you take the train to the airport, your eyes full of canals, windmills and tulips.
- âïļ Utrecht â Aeroporto di Amsterdam-Schiphol (AMS)
