Amsterdam is four days. The rest of the country is an hour away.
Which canal boat is worth the money. What a timed Van Gogh slot costs. Whether the mills at Zaanse Schans beat the row at Kinderdijk. Reviews of every tour you can book in the Netherlands.
A boat, a bulb field and the mills at Zaanse Schans.
01The first afternoonAmsterdam Classic Saloon Boat Cruise with Drinks and CheeseA saloon boat through the Jordaan with cheese and a glass in hand. Ninety minutes, and the city arranges itself.
02The timed ticketVan Gogh Museum TicketThe Van Gogh Museum sells slots online and nothing at the door. Afternoons in summer go days ahead.
03The day out of townZaanse Schans, Volendam, and Marken Day TripWorking mills at Zaanse Schans, the harbour at Volendam, then the boat across to Marken.
04Spring onlyKeukenhof Ticket and Roundtrip Shuttle TransferKeukenhof opens for about eight weeks. After the middle of May the bulb fields are cut and the gates shut.
Open boat, saloon boat or the covered hour. Pick your deck.
Amsterdam has more canal than road in the middle, and four kinds of boat go down it. What separates them is the roof, the drinks and whether anyone is talking.
Amsterdam first, then the towns the train reaches before lunch.
Six places, none of them two hours apart. The canal city, a port rebuilt in glass, the town Vermeer painted, wharf cellars along the Oudegracht, a mill above Haarlem, and a village with water where the street should be.
The mills, the bulb fields and the lake villages are all a morning away.
Zaanse Schans still saws timber with the wind. Kinderdijk lines nineteen mills along one polder. Giethoorn has no through road, and Keukenhof only exists for eight weeks a year. Every one of them is a day trip out of Amsterdam and back.
Amsterdam sells its museums by the timed slot, not at the door.
Every museum and ticket →
Van Gogh, the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House all run on slots bought online in advance. Book the hour, then plan the day around it: the museum quarter is fifteen minutes from the centre by tram and the last hour before closing is the quiet one.
- 1Van Gogh Museum Ticketfrom $32
- 2Rijksmuseum Entry Ticketfrom $31
- 3Anne Frank’s Story – Guided Walking Tour through Amsterdamfrom $39
Van Gogh, and how far ahead
Two hundred paintings and the letters, hung in the order he painted them. Slots are sold online only and the afternoon ones go first in summer. The last entry of the day is the emptiest.
The Rijksmuseum, done in an hour
The Night Watch hangs at the end of the Gallery of Honour and most people walk straight to it. Come in at nine or after three and you get the Vermeers to yourself.
Moco, the Royal Palace, the Icebar
Banksy and a basement of light rooms at Moco, the marble state rooms on Dam Square, a bar built out of ice. All three sell tickets for the same afternoon, which the big two rarely do.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in the country.
Every Dutch tour we have reviewed →Two museums, a garden that opens in March and a great many boats. What earns each of them the slot.
1
Van Gogh Museum Ticket
See Van Gogh’s greatest works, letters, and drawings at Amsterdam’s timed-entry museum, with optional audio guide and flexible cancellation.
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
Heineken Experience Ticket
from $28
5
Rijksmuseum Entry Ticket
from $31
6
Classic Boat Cruise with Optional Cheese & Wine
from $18
7
Evening Cruise with Optional Wine and Snacks
from $22
8
75 Minute City Canal Cruise with Audio Guide
from $17
What a day out in the Netherlands actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best Dutch days come in under the price of dinner.
The canal hour, museum entry, a cheese and stroopwafel tasting, the guided walk through the Jordaan.
Full days out: Keukenhof and the bulb fields, Giethoorn by whisper boat, the mill run to Zaanse Schans.
A driver for the day, small groups with the guide to yourself, and the boat you hire rather than share.
Three things that only happen in the Netherlands.
Old towns and good galleries exist all over Europe. Mills that still saw timber, seven million bulbs planted by hand, and a village that swapped its streets for water do not.
The Zaanse Schans Mills
The Zaan was the first industrial district in Europe and it ran on wind. Hundreds of mills sawed timber, ground pigment and pressed oil along this stretch of river; a handful were moved here and still work. Go inside the sawmill and watch the whole building turn on its cap to face the weather.
- 1Zaanse Schans, Volendam, and Marken Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 15,931 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
Keukenhof and the Bulb Fields
Seven million bulbs go in by hand every autumn for a garden that opens in the middle of March and shuts in the middle of May. The fields around Lisse are the real spectacle and they are cut for the bulb trade as soon as they colour, so the window inside the window is about ten days.
- 1Keukenhof Ticket and Roundtrip Shuttle Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,799 reviews
- 2Tour to Keukenhof Gardens with Windmill Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,819 reviews
- 3Keukenhof Gardens Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,741 reviews
Giethoorn
Peat diggers left the trenches that became the canals, and the village never got a road through the middle. Deliveries come by punt, the bridges are wooden and high enough to duck under, and the electric whisper boats are quiet enough to hear the ducks argue.
- 1Giethoorn Day Trip with Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,372 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
Four Dutch bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast on the morning. These four run on timed slots, a growing season and a calendar that takes no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Anne Frank’s Story – Guided Walking Tour through AmsterdamThe house releases its timed tickets six weeks out and they go in the same week. A guided walk of the neighbourhood is the fallback, and it is a good one.
- 02Keukenhof Ticket and Roundtrip Shuttle TransferThe gardens open in the middle of March and close in the middle of May. Outside those eight weeks there is nothing there to visit.
- 03Van Gogh Museum TicketEntry is by timed slot, sold online and not at the door. In summer the afternoon hours go days ahead.
- 04Light Festival Boat with Unlimited Drinks OptionThe light works go up along the canals at the end of November and come down in the third week of January. The boats fill over Christmas.
It rains sideways here, and the good answer is a roof.
The wind comes off the North Sea with nothing in its way, which is why the bikes have no gears and the boats have glass on top. A wet afternoon is not a lost one. Covered boats keep running, the museums are ten minutes apart by tram, and the brown cafes were built for exactly this.
- 1Van Gogh Museum Ticketfrom $32
- 2Heineken Experience Ticketfrom $28
- 3Hop-on Hop-off Old-Fashioned Heritage Tram Tourfrom $18
By place - the cities and the towns between them
By kind of day - water, gallery, saddle or table
Amsterdam, the mills, Haarlem, then south to Vermeer and the harbour.
Zaanse SchansThe newest Dutch tour reviews.
More new reviews →
Full-day excursion to Edam, Volendam, and Marken
Read our review →
Amsterdam Old-West Vegan Food Tour with Local Guide
Read our review →
Amsterdam Private Walking Tour of Famous Painters
Read our review →
Amsterdam Family Friendly Historical Walking Tour
Read our review →
Private Tour of Rotterdam and The Hague including Transfer
Read our review →
Private Tour of The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam with Lunch
Read our review →