How to Plan a Trip to the Netherlands

You’ve decided to plan a trip to the Netherlands – way to go! The Netherlands are a great introduction to Europe for folks who’ve never been, and a great place to explore for European vets looking to dive deeper into a country’s culture and customs. 

Planning A Trip To The Netherlands – What You Need To Know 

It’s pretty easy to have a great time in the Netherlands, but you’ll have to make some choices. Some of your most important decisions involve: 

The Best Time Of Year To Visit The Netherlands 

As we’ve mentioned in other posts, one of the great things about visiting many European countries is there’s really no bad time to visit. 

Of course, a lot depends on specific things you might want to do (like bike) or see (like tulips), but the Netherlands really are a time-agnostic destination if you’re looking to: 

In fact, late winter and early spring are some of the best times to do these things because the streets and museums are less crowded, hotels have their best rates, and the volume of bike traffic is down (a little). 

Amsterdam gets crowded during Spring Break, and then again in April. Considering that you’ll likely spend some time in Amsterdam no matter where your Dutch vacation takes you, it’s something to consider. 

Spring starts in earnest in April and continues through May. Summers are relatively temperate, though all of Europe has been hotter than normal lately. Fall doesn’t kick in until mid-October, and November is generally quite pleasant. 

How To See Tulips In The Netherlands 

Speaking of seasons, spring is the time to see Dutch tulips, and the most famous place to see them is the Keukenhof Gardens, an hour or so outside of Amsterdam. 

Tulip season doesn’t really get going until the second week of April. You can visit the gardens several weeks before that, but you’ll largely have to content yourself with crocuses and cut flowers in the display areas. (The tulip fields are spectacular, but so are the cut flowers. Don’t miss them!) 

You have multiple options for seeing the tulip gardens. You can: 

However you decide to see the gardens, buy tickets in advance. 

Keukenhof isn't the only tulip garden in the Netherlands. Other gorgeous gardens and/or tulip farms include: 

With all of these, the same basic advice applies:  

One more thing: You probably won’t be able to take tulip bulbs home with you because of agricultural restrictions. Ask before you buy if the bulbs are okay to take back to the States. 

Getting Around In The Netherlands 

Even though the Netherlands have more canals than Texas has tumbleweeds, they won’t impede you driving or taking the train. 

Speaking of which, the main means of getting around the Netherlands are: 

Let’s look at each separately. 

Driving around the Netherlands 

Driving in Amsterdam can be a bit much; not necessarily because of the traffic (which isn't appreciably worse than any major European city) but because of bicycles. 

We’ll discuss biking later, but from a driver’s standpoint bikes are a scourge. They’re even more dangerous and annoying since e-bikes have come along, and particularly the motorcycle-like e-bikes that many children can and do ride in the Netherlands. 

Eternal vigilance is the rule for driving in major Dutch cities, but once you get outside of the city traffic moves freely and swiftly on well-maintained, mostly multilane roads. 

Your only challenge in the countryside is knowing when to take an exit. Exits are well-marked, but everything’s in Dutch, which can be a baffling-looking language if you’re English-only. 

However, that barrier can be overcome if: 

In general driving in the Netherlands is going to be a little more easy-going than driving in other European countries – just what you need as you’re finding your way. 

Taking the train in the Netherlands 

If you’re traveling between cities in the Netherlands, trains are your best option by far. They’re frequent, fast, clean, and relatively cheap. 

Because the Netherlands is a compact country, train travel in-country takes very little time. Most destinations are only an hour or two from Amsterdam. You can easily do a day trip out of Amsterdam to practically any other destination in the Netherlands and be back to Amsterdam for a late dinner. 

Even better, Amsterdam is a great hub for hopping to London and Paris.  

Once you start taking trains in Europe you won’t want to get around any other way.  

Netherlands Rails has all the details. 

Mass transit in the Netherlands 

Just as you’d expect, mass transit in the Netherlands is clean, fast, orderly, on time, and relatively inexpensive. 

Amsterdam has above-ground trams, a below-ground metro, and frequent buses. 

Other cities aren’t quite as elaborate with their mass transit, but most cities have buses that can get you around. 

And a bonus: Many Netherlanders speak reasonably good English, so asking where a bus goes or when another bus might be coming will generally get you reliable answers. 

Biking in the Netherlands 

In your mind’s eye, the Netherlands is a place where everyone straps on their wooden shoes and bikes to the market over arched bridges that cross canals, with windmills turning slowly in the background. 

The wooden-shoes thing is almost entirely in the past, but arched bridges, canals, windmills, and bikes everywhere – those are still things in the Netherlands. 

Particularly bikes. 

Most major Dutch cities have designated bike lanes. “Well, yeah,” you say. “So does Chicago.” The difference between a bike lane in Chicago and one in the Netherlands is that in the Netherlands, the bike is king. 

As a pedestrian in the Netherlands, you need to look both ways before crossing the street – for bikes. As a driver, you always have to make sure the intersection is clear – of bikes. 

As mentioned earlier, the rise of motorcycle-like e-bikes has made bike awareness even more important. Collisions with one of these bikes, which can routinely top 30 mph, do not end well. 

Given that, why would you want to bike in the Netherlands? 

Several reasons: 

Biking in Amsterdam is a bit like driving in New York City – bewildering at first, but you get used to it. Stick with the traffic flow and you’ll be fine. 

Anywhere outside of Amsterdam, biking is a joy. It’s like the country was made to be explored by bicycle. 

Whether you rent a bike and create your own excursion or go with a bike-tour operator like Lifecycle Adventures, you’re going to have a good time biking in the Netherlands. 

A couple of tips if you bike it yourself: 

On the other hand, if you’ve never ridden an e-bike, now’s your chance. Many Dutch have switched to these bikes because they’re so fun to ride, with zero learning curve. 

Some e-bike must-dos: 

Canal cruises in the Netherlands 

River cruises are a popular way for many Americans to see the Netherlands for the first time.  

However, if you’re looking to explore the Netherlands further in a more intimate way, canal cruises are a cool option. 

These smallish boats go places the big river cruisers can’t, often include bike excursions, and give you an up-close look at the country, its history and its culture.  

Canal cruises go slowly on smaller waterways, generally out of Rotterdam or Amsterdam, often as far north as Friesland.  

A couple of caveats with these cruises: 

If you’re interested, check out the offerings from lines like Aurora and European Waterways. 

Museums And Cultural Centers In The Netherlands 

Amsterdam is obviously the cultural heart of a country that’s produced a whole school of painters, Rembrandt most prominent among them, as well as perhaps the most compelling painter of all time, Vincent Van Gogh (pronounced “Van Gockh” in the Dutch manner). 

If museums are your thing, Amsterdam is the place to start. The city’s museum plaza is a square of greenspace rimmed by the country’s cultural treasures: 

Each museum is worth visiting, but depending on your artistic preferences, you may spend more time in one or another.  

The Van Gogh and modern-art museums sometimes share exhibits, making it possible to see both with one admission.  

Taken by itself, the Van Gogh museum is a trifle disappointing, only because the artist’s most iconic paintings hang in other museums around the world. On the other hand, the National Museum is the place to see many of the great paintings of the Dutch masters – Rembrandt, Hals, Vermeer, and others.  

But the Netherlands has many more museums worth visiting outside of Amsterdam, including:
 

Off-The-Beaten Path Destinations In The Netherlands 

In the Netherlands the beaten path is Amsterdam and environs. To see more of the country, take day trips or excursions to cities like: 

There are many more, and with a country so compact and easy to get around, it’s not hard to find them for yourself. 

Buying Travel Insurance For The Netherlands 

You’ll probably have some spur-of-the-moment expenses in your trip to the Netherlands, but you’ll have a lot of prepaid expenses too – things like airfare and hotels. 

That’s why it makes sense to buy travel insurance for your trip to the Netherlands. 

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection’s wide array of travel insurance plans lets you cover everything from a river cruise to a bike tour, with an easy purchase process and super-quick claim service. 

Planning A Trip To The Netherlands: The Bottom Line 

The Netherlands are compact, friendly and easy to get around, making them the perfect destination for a fun, hassle-free European vacation. 

With good planning and travel insurance, what’s there to worry about? When the destination is the Netherlands, the answer is, “Practically nothing.”