Netherlands

A cultural heavyweight with an impressive resumé of painters and museums, a countryside dotted with windmills and tulips of every shade, and a populace game for everything from cycling to psychedelic night life, the Netherlands is small yet surprising.

Must Dos

Have an authentic Dutch breakfast – it means starting your day with chocolate.
Go cheese shopping. Edam and Gouda are just two examples of Holland’s historic cheese making tradition.
Have your weight measured in Cheese at Gouda.
See the Bulb parade or Bloemencorso in late April.
Absorb the horrors of Nazi occupation at the Anne Frank museum.
Get on a bike. The Dutch pretty much started the cycling movement.
Visit the Hoge Veluwe National park, a naturalist’s paradise and a great outing for the kids.
Stay in a townhouse turned boutique hotel lining Amsterdam’s canals. It’s like living in a painting.
Get it out of your system and stroll through Amsterdam’s red light area!
Peace out at the Hague, the city dedicated to World Peace. Tour the city and the International Court of Justice in the Peace Palace with a Hague greeter (resident volunteer).
Beach comb across the Frisian Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site stretching from the Netherlands to Denmark. Dune swept islands interspersed with lush green meadows, make for an unspoilt landscape.

8,000 man-made tunnels complete with homes, churches and monuments form the Zonneberg Caves. This labyrinthine underground complex was used to store Dutch art during World War II and served as a hideout as well. Only guided tours are allowed as the caves have no electricity.

Do you know the story behind Van Gogh’s ‘Almond Blossom’? Simply step into the museum for insights and visual treats. Lectures, workshops for children, walk-in painting workshops are all utterly delightful experiences.

There are over forty historic houses, a ‘memory machine’ and a historic train among the many things here. The museum recreates the Holland of yesteryears. Traditional Dutch costumes, inspiring stories of heritage, demonstrations of how people made things with their hands, and more are in store.

See Holland’s flower power on this 40 km stretch starting from Haarlem and running South to Leiden. It contains the densest concentration of flower fields and from late January onwards, the show starts, with crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths and of course tulips taking turns to bloom and enthral!

Dubbed the ‘Garden of Europe’, Keukenhof attracts over 8 million visitors annually to see its flowers. To make your visit extra special, head to the Bulb Information House and take a tour with a gardener, to understand a little bit of the botanical magic!

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