Top 10 Things To Do in the Netherlands (City Guides) Wimup

Quick answer · where to go in the Netherlands

Base yourself in Amsterdam or Utrecht and the rest of the country comes to you: Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft, Haarlem and Leiden are all inside an hour by train. Give Amsterdam two or three days, then trade it for one deliberate contrast: Rotterdam for postwar architecture, Maastricht for the Burgundian south, or Giethoorn and Groningen for water and quiet. April, May and September are the windows worth booking, and the bulb fields peak in the second half of April.

All regions Randstad North Holland South Holland Utrecht Friesland & the north Limburg North Brabant Zeeland & the delta Wadden islands

Jump to City guides Fun fact Stereotypes Famous Dutch faces Food FAQ

3 Netherlands city guides

Sorted by what travelers are saving this month.

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

About a quarter of the Netherlands sits below sea level, and roughly 17 percent of the present land area was taken from the water. Schiphol airport stands on the bed of a lake drained in 1852, about four metres under it.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.

"The Netherlands is Amsterdam"

The realityAmsterdam holds the canals, the Rijksmuseum and most of the arrivals. It does not hold the postwar skyline of Rotterdam, the university quiet of Leiden, the Vermeer light of Delft or the Burgundian food of Maastricht, and every one of those is a train ride from the same platform.

"The country is called Holland"

The realityNorth Holland and South Holland are two of the twelve provinces, the two the tourist trail happens to run through. The national tourist board stopped using Holland as the country brand in 2020, which is the clearest signal you will get that the rest of the country noticed.

"Everything is legal here"

The realityCannabis is tolerated rather than legalised: licensed coffeeshops may sell it under conditions, and Amsterdam has banned smoking it on the street in parts of the old centre. Prostitution is legal and regulated, and photographing the window workers is not.

"It is one flat field of tulips"

The realityThe bulb fields are a spring crop, concentrated on the sandy strip behind the dunes, and they are bare by June. The rest is pasture, glasshouse, forest on the Veluwe, and hills in south Limburg that climb a little over 320 metres.

"Dutch directness is rudeness"

The realityA Dutch no is a real answer, given early to save everyone the guessing. It is not an opening position and it is rarely personal. Answer in the same register and the conversation gets shorter and more useful.

"It rains here constantly"

The realityA maritime climate spreads the rain thinly across the year rather than saving it for a season, so no month is reliably dry and none is a washout either. The wind matters more: it will win against an umbrella, so bring a jacket.

Clogs, tulips and windmills on every postcardMore bicycles than peopleBlunt to the point of rudeCheese at breakfast, cheese at lunch, cheese at the borrelEverything settled by consensus, the poldermodel in miniatureThe whole country in orange on King’s DayA coffeeshop on every corner

Cultural notes that actually help

Say hello when you walk into a small shop, a bakery or a waiting room. Entering in silence reads as rude.
Do not stand in the red asphalt. It is a cycle lane, it is a road, and at eight in the morning it is busy.
Directness is the local courtesy. Ask plainly, answer plainly, and take a no at face value.
Appointments hold. Coffee at three means three, and dropping in unannounced is unusual outside close family.
Splitting a bill down to the cent is normal, and a payment request by phone afterwards is not a slight.
Congratulate the whole family at a birthday, not only the person whose day it is. It surprises every visitor once.
Cash is the exception now, and some cafes and shops take cards only. Carry a card that does contactless.

Famous Dutch faces

The names behind Dutch art, design, science, sport, music, film and thought. Pick a field.

Rembrandt van Rijn

The Night Watch, and the Leiden miller’s son who made Amsterdam the centre of European painting

Vincent van Gogh

Painted for barely a decade, from Brabant to Provence, and changed what colour was for

Johannes Vermeer

Delft’s painter of interior light. Only about 34 paintings are attributed to him

Anne Frank

Wrote her diary in hiding on the Prinsengracht between 1942 and 1944

Johan Cruyff

Ajax, Barcelona, and the Total Football both clubs are still arguing about

M.C. Escher

Impossible staircases and tessellations, from a graphic artist born in Leeuwarden

Piet Mondrian

Reduced painting to black lines and three primaries, and founded De Stijl on it

Max Verstappen

Formula One world champion, and the reason the Zandvoort grandstands turn orange

Frans Hals

Haarlem’s portraitist, who painted laughter loosely and centuries early

Jan Steen

Painted chaotic households so often that a Dutch phrase for a messy home carries his name

Willem de Kooning

Rotterdam-born, New York-made, and one of abstract expressionism’s founding figures

Gerrit Rietveld

The Red and Blue chair, and the Utrecht house UNESCO lists as world heritage

Rem Koolhaas

Rotterdam architect, founder of OMA, and a Pritzker laureate

Dick Bruna

Utrecht illustrator who drew Miffy in thick outlines and flat colour from 1955 on

Viktor & Rolf

Couture duo who met at art school in Arnhem and stayed based there

Christiaan Huygens

Found Saturn’s moon Titan in 1655 and built the first pendulum clock two years later

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Ground his own lenses in Delft and saw bacteria before anyone knew what they were

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Liquefied helium at Leiden in 1908, then discovered superconductivity in 1911

Ireen Wüst

Speed skater who won individual gold at five consecutive Winter Games

Marianne Vos

World champion on the road, in cyclo-cross and on the track, often in the same season

Tiësto

The Breda DJ who took Dutch dance music from club nights to stadiums

Armin van Buuren

Trance producer from Leiden, and the A State of Trance radio show behind him

André Rieu

Maastricht’s waltz conductor, who plays his own home square every summer

Paul Verhoeven

Amsterdam-born director, from Turkish Delight to RoboCop and Basic Instinct

Rutger Hauer

Actor from Utrecht province, and Blade Runner’s Roy Batty

Carice van Houten

Actor, from Black Book at home to Game of Thrones abroad

Erasmus

Rotterdam’s humanist, whose Greek New Testament reset European scholarship

Baruch Spinoza

Amsterdam-born philosopher whose Ethics cost him his community and outlived everyone in it

Harry Mulisch

The Assault and The Discovery of Heaven, the postwar novelist Dutch schools still set

Cees Nooteboom

Novelist and travel writer, read more widely in German than in Dutch

Must-try Dutch food

The classics first, then the snack bar, the sea, the sweet counter and the Indonesian half of the menu.

Stamppot

Potato mashed through kale, endive or sauerkraut, with a smoked sausage laid over it.

Broodje kroket

A crisp ragout croquette crushed into a soft white roll with mustard. Lunch, standing up.

Bitterballen

The same ragout rolled into spheres and fried, with mustard and a beer. The default borrel order.

Kapsalon

Fries, shawarma, melted gouda and salad in one tray. Invented in Rotterdam, and eaten late.

Kibbeling

Battered chunks of white fish with garlic sauce, from the same fish stall.

Zeeuwse mosselen

Mussels from the Zeeland delta, steamed plainly, at their best from late summer into autumn.

Poffertjes

Small yeasted pancakes under butter and icing sugar, from a stand at any fair.

Appeltaart

Tall cinnamon apple cake with a lattice lid, served with plain whipped cream and coffee.

Tompouce

Puff pastry, crème pâtissière and pink icing. It turns orange when the national team plays.

Gouda

Aged cheese from South Holland, sold young and mild through to old and crystalline. Taste before you choose.

Limburgse vlaai

A wide, shallow fruit tart from Limburg, cut in slices that assume you came hungry.

Koffie verkeerd

Coffee with warm milk, the everyday order, and a biscuit on the saucer.

Patat met

Thick-cut fries with mayonnaise. Ask for oorlog and satay sauce and raw onion go on top.

Erwtensoep

Split pea soup thick enough to hold a spoon upright, served with rye bread and bacon.

Pannenkoeken

Plate-wide pancakes eaten as a full meal, sweet with syrup or savoury with bacon and cheese.

Frikandel

Deep-fried minced sausage from the snack bar wall. Speciaal means curry sauce, mayonnaise and onion.

Haring

Raw herring cured in light brine with onion and pickle, taken from a stall and eaten standing.

Stroopwafel

Two thin waffle discs glued with warm caramel. Buy it off the iron at a market, not from a box.

Oliebollen

Fried dough balls with raisins and icing sugar, sold from street vans around New Year.

Drop

Liquorice, sold in dozens of shapes and strengths. The salted kind is an acquired taste, and nobody will warn you.

Rijsttafel

The Dutch-Indonesian rice table: a dozen small dishes at once, a colonial invention that became a national habit.

Saté met pindasaus

Grilled skewers under peanut sauce, on menus from brown cafes to snack bars.

Nasi goreng

Indonesian fried rice, long naturalised, and a Dutch weeknight staple.

Zuurvlees

Limburg beef braised sweet and sour with vinegar and apple syrup, served with fries.

Jenever

Juniper spirit and gin’s ancestor, poured to the brim and first sipped without lifting the glass.

Advocaat

Egg and brandy liqueur, thick enough to take with a spoon and topped with cream.

Netherlands travel FAQ

How many days do you need in the Netherlands?+

Five days covers Amsterdam properly plus two other cities without moving hotel. A week adds the south or the north, and ten days is enough to take in both. Nothing is far: the country is roughly three hours end to end by train.

Is Amsterdam enough, or should I go further?+

Amsterdam is worth two or three days and it is not the country. Rotterdam an hour south is its opposite in almost every way, Delft and Leiden are small and walkable, and Maastricht in the far south feels closer to Belgium than to the Randstad. Pick one contrast and the trip stops being a city break.

When is tulip season, and is Keukenhof worth it?+

The bulb fields run from roughly late March to mid-May and peak in the second half of April, which is also when Keukenhof is at its fullest and busiest. Go on a weekday, go early, and give the fields around the gardens as much time as the gardens.

Do I need to speak Dutch?+

No. English is spoken almost everywhere and menus, signs and museum labels are usually bilingual. Opening with a hallo and a dank je wel is noticed and costs nothing.

Trains or a rental car?+

Trains. The intercity network reaches every city in this guide, runs several times an hour on the main lines, and a contactless bank card now checks you in and out. A car is a parking problem in the Randstad and only earns its keep for the Wadden coast or the Veluwe.

Should I rent a bike as a visitor?+

Yes, in the smaller cities. Utrecht, Delft, Haarlem and Groningen are the right size for it and the lanes are separated from traffic. Amsterdam in high season is expert traffic, so ride it once you have watched how it works, and always lock the frame to something fixed.

Top 10s across the Netherlands

When to visit the Netherlands