Travel and Tourism in Netherlands

Amsterdam in Depth: The Canal City

Amsterdam is, by almost any measure, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe — a rival to Venice, Prague, and Bruges for the title of Europe's most visually captivating urban environment. Unlike Venice, it is a living, working city rather than a tourist theme park; unlike Prague, it has not preserved itself in amber since its period of greatest achievement. Amsterdam is a city that has changed continuously while maintaining an extraordinary continuity of urban form: the canal ring that was laid out in the early 17th century is still the organizing structure of the city, the canal houses that were built then still line the canals (many converted to offices, apartments, and hotels, but externally largely unchanged), and the bicycle-filled streets and bridge-crossed canals create a quality of urban life that is genuinely distinctive.

The canal ring (grachtengordel) was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010. It consists of the Singel (originally the moat of the medieval city, later incorporated into the canal system), the Herengracht (Gentlemen's Canal, the most prestigious, lined with the grandest merchant houses), the Keizersgracht (Emperor's Canal), and the Prinsengracht (Prince's Canal, the outermost of the main canals and home to the Anne Frank House). The canal ring is intersected by radial streets that run outward from the city center like spokes, and by smaller cross-canals, creating a pattern of islands connected by the famous 1,281 bridges of Amsterdam. In total, Amsterdam has 165 canals stretching a combined length of about 100 kilometers — more canals than Venice.

Walking the canal ring — either following a specific neighborhood or simply wandering along canal banks and across bridges — is the single most essential Amsterdam experience. The light on the water, the reflections of the canal houses in the still surfaces, the houseboats moored along the banks (Amsterdam has about 2,500 houseboats, home to some 15,000 people), the bikes chained to every available lamp post and railing, the sounds of church bells and trams and the constant ticking of bicycle spokes — this sensory texture is distinctively Amsterdamse and unlike anything else in Europe.

The Rijksmuseum, housed in a grand neo-Gothic building designed by Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers and opened in 1885 (closed for major renovation from 2003 to 2013), is the national museum of Dutch history and art and one of the great museums of the world. Its collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings is unmatched anywhere: Rembrandt's Night Watch hangs in the vast Gallery of Honor at the end of the building, in a specially designed room that gives adequate space to this enormous and endlessly fascinating painting. Nearby are Vermeer's Milkmaid and Woman Reading a Letter, works by Jan Steen, Frans Hals, Jan Davidsz de Heem, and dozens of other Golden Age masters. The collections of Golden Age applied arts — furniture, silver, Delftware, dolls' houses — are also remarkable.

The Van Gogh Museum on Museumplein (opened in 1973 in a building designed by Gerrit Rietveld, with a later addition by Kisho Kurokawa) houses the world's largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh, as described above. It is sold out months in advance and should be booked as early as possible.

The Stedelijk Museum (the national museum of modern and contemporary art, reopened after renovation in 2012 in its extended building that incorporated a bold new white wing nicknamed "the bathtub") holds a strong permanent collection with particular strengths in De Stijl (Mondrian), the Cobra movement, Bauhaus, the New York School, and Dutch post-war modernism, as well as a rotating program of major temporary exhibitions.

The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 needs no further introduction. Book well in advance — several months if possible.

The Jordaan neighborhood, immediately west of the main canal ring, was developed in the 17th century as a working-class district for artisans and immigrants (French Huguenot refugees, among others) and has since been gentrified into what is probably the most charming neighborhood in Amsterdam to simply walk through. Its narrow streets (too small for most vehicles), small canals, 17th century courtyards (hofjes — charitable housing complexes built around quiet courtyards, of which the Begijnhof in the city center is the most famous), independent galleries, specialist shops, cafes, and restaurants make it the neighborhood where Amsterdam's character feels most concentrated and most alive. The Noordermarkt on Saturday mornings hosts an excellent organic food and antiques market that has become one of the city's most pleasant social rituals.

The Albert Cuyp Market, in the De Pijp neighborhood south of the center, is the longest street market in Amsterdam and one of the most multicultural — a genuine working market where Amsterdam residents do their shopping alongside tourists, with stalls selling Dutch and Surinamese and Moroccan and Indonesian food products, clothing, flowers, cheese, and housewares along a single long street that is always crowded and always interesting.

Heineken's original Amsterdam brewery, on the Stadhouderskade, has been converted into the Heineken Experience — a slick and entertaining tour and brand experience that fills the historical brewery spaces with interactive exhibits about the history of Heineken and the brewing process. It is relentlessly corporate but also genuinely fun, particularly for beer enthusiasts.

The NEMO Science Museum (housed in a boat-shaped green copper building designed by Renzo Piano, rising above the entrance to the IJ tunnel at the edge of the harbor) is one of the best science museums in Europe for children and curious adults, with five floors of hands-on exhibits covering technology, science, and human biology. The roof terrace, with views across the harbor and city, is one of the best free viewpoints in Amsterdam.

The EYE Film Institute, on the north bank of the IJ river (accessible by the free ferry from Amsterdam Centraal), is housed in a striking white angular building designed by the Austrian firm Delugan Meissl and opened in 2012. It holds the national Dutch film collection and archive, presents regular screenings of Dutch and international cinema, and has a beautiful terrace restaurant overlooking the IJ waterway.

The Red Light District (De Wallen — the oldest neighborhood in Amsterdam, adjacent to the Oude Kerk cathedral) is one of Amsterdam's most famous and most discussed attractions. Legal and regulated prostitution has operated in this neighborhood for centuries; the current system of licensed window prostitution and sex work venues is intended to provide sex workers with safer and more regulated working conditions than illegal street prostitution. Tourist gawking has become a significant problem — the neighborhood is effectively a tourist destination, with tens of thousands of visitors passing through each evening — and the Amsterdam city government has been implementing measures to reduce the number of sex work venues and the volume of tourist foot traffic. Within the Red Light District stands the Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) — a remarkable hidden Catholic church, built within the attic of a 17th century canal house at a time when Catholic worship was officially forbidden in Amsterdam. The church has been beautifully preserved and is one of the most surprising and moving historical sites in the city.

The Rembrandt House Museum (Rembrandthuis), at Jodenbreestraat 4 in the Jewish Quarter, is the house where Rembrandt lived and worked from 1639 to 1658, when he was forced by bankruptcy to sell it. The house has been restored to its probable 17th century appearance and furnished with period objects (including a remarkable collection of art objects and curiosities that Rembrandt himself collected); the artist's studio, with its ground lenses and grinding equipment, his printing studio, and his living quarters give a vivid impression of the daily working life of the greatest Dutch painter.

Amsterdam has more than 880,000 bicycles — more bicycles than people. Every resident cycles as a matter of course, using their bikes for commuting, shopping, school runs, and social visits in a way that is utterly integrated into daily life and completely unremarkable. Cycling Amsterdam is not optional for a visitor who wants to understand the city; it is as essential as taking a water bus in Venice. Hire a bicycle from one of the many rental shops near Centraal Station and follow the cycle lanes (fietspad) — marked in red, separate from car traffic on most major streets — to explore the city at the pace for which it was designed.

Boat tours of the canals are also essential — either in a larger tour boat or, better, in a rented open boat that gives more flexibility and immediacy. Several companies rent canal boats by the hour (no licence required, the canals are generally slow-moving and easy to navigate), and a few hours exploring the canal ring from the water gives a completely different perspective on the canal houses and bridges. Floating restaurants moored on the canals add to the variety of dining options.

Amsterdam's entertainment scene is concentrated particularly in two squares: Leidseplein (surrounded by cafes, clubs, and theaters, home to the famous Paradiso music venue — a converted church that has hosted virtually every major international rock and pop act since the 1960s — and the Melkweg, another legendary Amsterdam music venue) and Rembrandtplein (surrounded by cafes and bars with a somewhat more mainstream character). The bruin cafes (brown cafes) of Amsterdam — traditional pub-like spaces with dark wood interiors, low lighting, and the convivial atmosphere of a neighborhood local — are among the most pleasant places to spend an Amsterdam evening: sitting with a glass of Dutch beer or jenever and watching the world go by.

The Hague: City of Justice and Beauty

The Hague (Den Haag — also officially called 's-Gravenhage, "the Count's hedge," a reference to its medieval origins) is the seat of the Dutch government and parliament, the residence of the Dutch Royal Family, and the home of more international justice institutions than any other city in the world: the International Court of Justice (the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, which settles disputes between states), the International Criminal Court (which prosecutes individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Europol (the European Union's law enforcement intelligence agency), and many others. This concentration of international justice and governance has given The Hague a cosmopolitan, sophisticated character very different from Amsterdam's canal-city charm.

The Mauritshuis (housed in a perfect 17th century Dutch classical palace, built for Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen and converted to a museum in 1822) is one of the greatest small art museums in the world. Its collection of Dutch and Flemish Golden Age painting — concentrated in about forty rooms of the original palace — includes a remarkable concentration of supreme masterpieces: Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and View of Delft, Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (his first great group portrait commission, depicting the public dissection of a criminal's body with a brilliance that combines the accuracy of scientific illustration with the tension of theater) and self-portraits, Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch (a tiny painting, just 33.5 by 22.8 cm, in which a small bird is depicted with startling immediacy against a pale wall), and works by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, and Rubens.

The Peace Palace (Vredespaleis), built with a donation from the American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and opened in 1913, is a large neo-Gothic building housing the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. It can be visited on guided tours (when the court is not in session) and represents the idealistic vision of a peaceful world order governed by law — an aspiration that seemed both naive and urgent when it was built on the eve of the First World War, and has not lost either quality since.

The Binnenhof (the Inner Court) — the complex of medieval buildings in the city center that houses the Dutch parliament (States General) and has done so for centuries — is one of the oldest and most continuously used political buildings in the world. The Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights), built in the 13th century, is used for the ceremonial opening of parliament by the Dutch monarch each September.

Madurodam, on the outskirts of The Hague, is a miniature recreation of the Netherlands in 1:25 scale — with working windmills, docks, a Schiphol airport with moving aircraft, the Rijksmuseum, and dozens of other Dutch landmarks and scenes recreated in miniature. It was established in 1952 as a memorial to George Maduro, a Dutch Jewish resistance fighter who died in Dachau concentration camp, and remains enormously popular with families.

Scheveningen, the beach resort immediately adjacent to The Hague, is one of the most popular seaside destinations in the Netherlands — a wide sandy beach with a long pier, a lighthouse, a large casino, numerous restaurants and beach clubs, and the characteristic atmosphere of a working North Sea resort. The Pier at Scheveningen, rebuilt in 2013, extends 400 meters into the sea and provides panoramic North Sea views.

Rotterdam: The Phoenix City

Rotterdam is the most dynamic, most architecturally adventurous, and in some ways most modern city in the Netherlands. Unlike Amsterdam or Delft or Utrecht, Rotterdam has no medieval center and no 17th century canal ring — because the German Luftwaffe destroyed what there was on May 14, 1940, in the bombing raid that compelled Dutch surrender. What Rotterdam has instead is one of the most concentrated and remarkable assemblages of innovative contemporary architecture in Europe, built on the blank canvas that the destruction left.

The Erasmus Bridge (Erasmusbrug), designed by the Dutch architect Ben van Berkel and opened in 1996, is a single asymmetric pylon cable-stayed bridge across the Maas River that has become the symbol of the new Rotterdam — elegant, confident, and strikingly modern. Nicknamed "the Swan" (de Zwaan) for its distinctive form, it is lit dramatically at night and provides the backdrop for the most photographed view of the Rotterdam waterfront.

The Cube Houses (Kubuswoningen), designed by the architect Piet Blom and completed in 1984, are one of the most recognizable architectural experiments in the Netherlands. A cluster of cube-shaped houses rotated 45 degrees and placed on concrete stalks, they appear to defy gravity and common sense simultaneously; one of them is open to the public as a museum. The Rotterdam Central Station (redesigned by Benthem Crouwel Architects and opened in 2014) is another striking example of the city's commitment to architectural quality in public infrastructure — a vast angular canopy of triangular panels rising over the platforms.

The Markthal (Market Hall), opened in 2014 to a design by MVRDV (one of the most internationally significant Dutch architecture firms), is an enormous arch-shaped residential and retail building enclosing a covered market hall under a vaulted ceiling decorated with a colossal 4,000-square-meter fruit and vegetable motif. The market underneath offers fresh produce, food stalls, and restaurants; the apartments in the arch above have glazed facades looking down into the market.

The Hotel New York, in the former offices of the Holland America Line (the shipping company that carried millions of European immigrants to America through Rotterdam in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), is one of the most atmospheric hotel and restaurant buildings in the Netherlands — a grand art deco building at the tip of the Wilhelmina Pier, with river views and a remarkable sense of historical resonance.

The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has one of the richest art collections in the Netherlands — strong in Dutch Golden Age painting, Surrealism, and old master drawings — but has been closed since 2019 for renovation, with its collections stored in the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, a remarkable free-standing art storage building designed by MVRDV in the form of a reflective silver sphere (the mirrored surface reflects its surroundings) with public access to the visible art storage facility and a rooftop restaurant.

Rotterdam's Witte de Withstraat is one of the liveliest streets in the Netherlands for galleries, independent restaurants, and bars — the cultural and social center of the young, creative Rotterdam that has emerged in the decades since the post-war rebuilding. The street art scene in Rotterdam is also exceptional; the city actively commissions and promotes large-scale murals and public art installations throughout its neighborhoods.

Erasmus — Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, the great Renaissance humanist scholar and the most famous person born in Rotterdam — was born in 1469 and became one of the most influential intellectual figures of his age. His In Praise of Folly (1511), written at the house of his friend Thomas More in England, is a brilliant and witty satirical examination of human foolishness and a critique of religious abuses that helped prepare the ground for the Reformation; his vast editorial and translation work (including the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament) was one of the great scholarly achievements of the Renaissance. A bronze statue of Erasmus stands in the Grotekerkplein in the center of Rotterdam's Old South neighborhood, one of the few areas of the city to survive the bombing.

The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the third largest in the world by annual cargo volume. The Europoort and Maasvlakte complexes — artificial land created by extending the port into the North Sea — stretch some 40 kilometers from the city center to the North Sea coast and handle an enormous variety of cargo (crude oil, container goods, bulk commodities, and more). A harbor boat tour is one of the best ways to understand the scale and complexity of this vast industrial landscape.

Delft: The City of Vermeer and Delftware

Delft is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval Dutch cities, a place where the 17th century urban fabric has survived in remarkable completeness — its canals, bridges, historic buildings, church towers, and market square creating an ensemble of extraordinary quality. It is also the birthplace of Johannes Vermeer and the origin of Delftware (the distinctive blue-and-white tin-glazed pottery that has been produced in the city since the late 16th century and has become one of the most recognized symbols of Dutch decorative arts).

Delftware originated as a Dutch imitation of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain that was arriving in enormous quantities in the Netherlands through the VOC trade in the early 17th century. Dutch potters, unable to match the hardness and translucency of true porcelain (which required kaolin clay and kiln temperatures that European technology had not yet achieved), developed instead a technique of covering earthenware with a tin glaze that provided a white ground, on which blue (cobalt) designs could be painted before firing. The result — Delftware — was not technically equivalent to Chinese porcelain, but it was beautiful in its own right, and the combination of Dutch decorative sensibility with Chinese visual motifs (as well as original Dutch subjects — windmills, tulips, ships, domestic scenes) produced a style that was entirely distinctive and immensely successful.

The Royal Delft factory (Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles), established in 1653 and the only Delftware factory operating continuously from the Golden Age to the present, can be visited: the factory tour shows the entire production process from hand-painting to firing, and the museum section displays historical Delftware spanning four centuries. It remains a working factory, producing hand-painted pieces in the traditional style, and also a commercial enterprise selling its products to visitors.

Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632 and spent his entire life in the city. A bronze statue of Vermeer stands near the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) on the market square; his grave is in the Oude Kerk (Old Church), a magnificent Gothic building slightly leaning due to foundation settling. Vermeer's house, where he worked, was on the Voldersgracht (he lived above his parents' inn) — the exact location can be identified but the building no longer stands. Walking the streets of Delft, particularly along its canals (the Voldersgracht, the Hippolytusbuurt, the Koornmarkt) with Vermeer's View of Delft (in the Mauritshuis in The Hague) in mind, is one of the most emotionally satisfying pilgrimages available to lovers of painting.

The Prinsenhof Museum in Delft occupies the former convent that served as the seat of William of Orange during the Dutch Revolt. It was here, in 1584, that William of Orange was assassinated by Balthasar Gerards, a Catholic zealot acting on behalf of Philip II of Spain — who had placed a large bounty on William's head. The bullet holes in the stairwell wall from this first successful head-of-state assassination by pistol are still visible, preserved behind glass.

Utrecht: The Cathedral City

Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, is often overlooked by international tourists in favor of Amsterdam, but it repays attention with some of the most distinctive and beautiful urban spaces in the country. The most unusual feature of Utrecht's canal system — unique in the Netherlands and possibly in the world — is the presence of wharf cellars (werfkelders) built along the canal walls below street level: medieval warehouse and storage spaces, accessible from the canal by water and from the street above, that have been converted over the centuries into restaurants, cafes, galleries, and live music venues. Sitting at a canal-side restaurant in Utrecht, with the cellar ceiling above you and the water of the canal at eye level, is a genuinely distinctive experience.

The Dom Tower (Domtoren), the tower of the former cathedral church of Utrecht, is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands at 112.5 meters. It was built between 1321 and 1382 and was connected to the cathedral nave by a section of the church that was destroyed in a tornado in 1674 — leaving the tower standing free, connected to nothing, a peculiarity that gives the Dom Square (Domplein) its distinctive open character. The Dom Tower can be climbed on guided tours; the views from the top on a clear day extend across the flat Netherlands landscape for extraordinary distances.

The University of Utrecht, founded in 1636, is the oldest and largest university in the Netherlands and gives the city its youthful, intellectually lively character. The university district, centered on the Drift and the Janskerkhof, is full of bookshops, cafes, and academic institutions.

The Miffy (Nijntje) Museum in Utrecht celebrates the creation of artist and author Dick Bruna (1927-2017), who was born in Utrecht and created the Miffy character in 1955. Miffy — the simple, round-faced, cross-shaped rabbit that has become one of the most recognizable children's characters in the world — was designed with extraordinary graphic simplicity, using thick black outlines and primary colors. Bruna's studio in Utrecht (on the Oudegracht) is marked with a Miffy statue; the Nijntje Museum is designed specifically for young children.

The Thirteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The Netherlands has thirteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a remarkable concentration of outstanding universal value in a small country. Each represents a different aspect of Dutch achievement.

The Schokland and Surroundings (inscribed 1995) is a former island in the Zuiderzee that was abandoned by its inhabitants in 1859 due to constant flooding, later incorporated into the Noordoostpolder when the Zuiderzee was drained in the 1940s, and preserved as a testament to the Dutch struggle to inhabit and reclaim land from the sea.

The Defence Line of Amsterdam (1996) is a unique circle of 135 forts, inundation sluices, and water management structures built around Amsterdam between 1883 and 1920 as a national defence system using controlled flooding as a defensive weapon. The 135-km circle of defensive works, designed to create an inundation zone impassable by enemy armies, represents the last large-scale use of water as a defensive weapon in European history.

The Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout (1997) — the nineteen 18th century windmills near Rotterdam described above — is one of the most visited UNESCO sites in the Netherlands.

The Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour in Curacao (1997) — a Dutch colonial city on the Caribbean island of Curacao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands — is inscribed for its outstanding colonial architecture and urban planning.

The thirteenth site, inscribed in 1997, is the Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, on the Caribbean island of Curaçao — a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands whose colonial town centre blends Dutch gabled facades with Spanish, Portuguese, and African architectural influences in a riot of tropical colour.

The Droogmakerij de Beemster (Beemster Polder) (1999) is the oldest Dutch polder, created by draining a large lake in North Holland between 1607 and 1612. Its grid of roads, canals, and fields — planned on a rational geometric system — is the oldest example of 17th century Dutch land reclamation and planning and has been almost entirely preserved in its original form.

The Rietveld Schröderhuis (2000) in Utrecht is a small house designed in 1924 by the architect Gerrit Rietveld in collaboration with his client Truus Schröder-Schräder, as a physical embodiment of the De Stijl movement's principles: primary colors, white, grey and black surfaces, the dissolution of the traditional room through moveable partition walls, and an integration of interior and exterior space. It is the only building in the world that can be said to be a fully realized work of De Stijl architecture.

The Amsterdam Canal Ring (Seventeenth-century canal ring area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht) (2010) is inscribed for its outstanding universal value as an example of 17th century large-scale urban planning, one of the most ambitious and successful examples of planned urban expansion in history.

The Van Nellefabriek (2014) in Rotterdam is a spectacular modernist factory complex, designed by the architects J.A. Brinkman and L.C. van der Vlugt and completed in 1930, that is considered one of the finest examples of functionalist industrial architecture in the world. The large glass curtain walls, the circular towers connecting production and warehouse facilities, and the overall composition embody the optimistic spirit of early 20th century modernism.

The Colonies of Benevolence (2021) is a transnational inscription shared between the Netherlands and Belgium, covering a number of early 19th century planned colonies established by the Society of Benevolence as an experiment in social reform — model agricultural settlements designed to provide training, work, and discipline to the destitute poor. The Dutch colonies, in Drenthe and Overijssel, are remarkable survivals of an unusual social experiment.

The Wadden Sea (2009, extended 2014) is a transnational inscription shared between the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, covering one of the world's most important temperate coastal wetland ecosystems.

The Frontiers of the Roman Empire — The Lower German Limes (2021) is a transnational World Heritage property along the former Roman frontier on the Rhine, including a number of sites in the Netherlands.

The Water Defence Lines of the Netherlands (the combined Defence Line of Amsterdam and the New Dutch Water Line, separately inscribed) complete the tally — a remarkable testimony to the role of water, both as threat and as tool, in Dutch history and identity.

Leiden: University City and Rembrandt's Birthplace

Leiden, between Amsterdam and The Hague on the Dutch coast, is one of the most rewarding cities in the Netherlands for the intellectually curious visitor. It is home to the University of Leiden, founded in 1575 as a gift from William of Orange to the city that had heroically withstood a Spanish siege, which is the oldest university in the Netherlands and one of the oldest in Europe. Leiden has educated Descartes, Spinoza (who lived here as well as in Amsterdam), and countless Dutch scientists, philosophers, and statesmen. The Hortus Botanicus of Leiden University, one of the oldest botanic gardens in the world (founded 1590), was where Carolus Clusius first cultivated tulips in the Netherlands, making it indirectly the birthplace of the Dutch tulip industry.

Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606 and spent his early life and training there before moving to Amsterdam. The Lakenhal Museum (recently renovated) houses an excellent collection of Leiden Golden Age paintings, including early Rembrandt works. The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities), in a handsome neoclassical building, holds the most important Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern collections in the Netherlands, including a complete Egyptian temple (the Temple of Taffeh, donated by Egypt) reassembled inside the museum.