Netherlands: Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam and Friesland

Arrive in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to your hotel by the canal ring

• Dinner
• Stay in Amsterdam
• Drive about 30 min

Evening

Plan to land by about 3 pm to make the evening meeting; the exact time is in your final itinerary. If you are early, leave your bags and walk: the Begijnhof courtyard, the flower stalls on the Singel and the cafés of the Nine Streets are all close. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: two more days here, a train day through The Hague and Delft, a night in Rotterdam, then two nights in Friesland in the north. We then walk along the Herengracht and Keizersgracht as the canal-house lamps come on, and sit down to a welcome dinner of Dutch cooking together.

Included

• Pick-up at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk along the canal ring
• Welcome dinner

The Rijksmuseum at opening and the canals by boat

Museumplein to the canal ring and the Jordaan, then a canal boat

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Amsterdam
• By boat

Evening

We are at the Rijksmuseum for its 9 am opening, on timed tickets, and go straight to the Gallery of Honour while it is still quiet: Rembrandt's Night Watch, Vermeer's Milkmaid and the portraits of the merchants whose money dug the canals. Your guide keeps it to about two hours, with time after for the Delftware and ship models you will see again later in the week. From Museumplein we walk north into the canal ring, listed by UNESCO in 2010, along the Prinsengracht past the Westerkerk and into the Jordaan for a sit-down lunch. In the early afternoon we board a small open canal boat for an hour on the water, under the low bridges and out towards the harbour behind Centraal Station. From about 3 pm the rest of the day is yours. If you want the Anne Frank House, we try to book your timed ticket when the museum releases them, about six weeks ahead.

Included

• The Rijksmuseum at its 9 am opening, with your guide
• Walk through the canal ring and the Jordaan
• Sit-down lunch in the Jordaan
• One-hour canal boat ride

Optional experiences

• The Anne Frank House on a timed ticket, price shown at booking and subject to release
• The Van Gogh Museum on a timed ticket, price shown at booking

A canal bike morning, then tulips or windmills

Amsterdam by bike, then Keukenhof (late March to mid-May) or Zaanse Schans (the rest of the season)

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Amsterdam
• Drive about 1.5 h

Afternoon

After lunch in the city our own vehicle takes us out. From late March to mid-May it is about 45 minutes to Keukenhof near Lisse, where we arrive around 2:30 pm, when many coach groups are leaving, and walk among some seven million tulips, hyacinths and daffodils until the late light; in a good year the bulb fields around the park are in flower too. For the rest of the season we drive about 30 minutes north to Zaanse Schans, where working windmills stand along the river Zaan, and go inside a mill that still grinds.

Evening

Either way you are back in Amsterdam for a free evening.

Included

• Guided bike ride through the canal ring, the Western Islands and the Westerpark, bike hire included
• Sit-down lunch in Amsterdam
• Keukenhof entry from late March to mid-May, or Zaanse Schans with entry to a working windmill for the rest of the season

The Hague and Delft by train, on to Rotterdam

Amsterdam to The Hague by train, then Delft, then Rotterdam

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Rotterdam
• By train

Afternoon

Lunch is sit-down in The Hague. A ten-minute train takes us to Delft, the town in Vermeer's painting: the Markt between the Nieuwe Kerk, where William of Orange is buried, and the City Hall; the leaning tower of the Oude Kerk, where Vermeer lies; and Royal Delft, making blue-and-white pottery since 1653. A 15-minute train reaches Rotterdam by late afternoon.

Evening

Before dinner your guide walks you past the Markthal, the Cube Houses and St Lawrence Church, the old centre's survivor of the May 1940 bombing.

Included

• Intercity train Amsterdam to The Hague, and on to Delft and Rotterdam
• The Mauritshuis in The Hague
• Sit-down lunch in The Hague
• Delft walk with your guide: the Markt, the Nieuwe Kerk and the Oude Kerk
• Royal Delft pottery workshop and museum
• Early-evening walk in Rotterdam: the Markthal, the Cube Houses and St Lawrence Church
• Luggage moved to Rotterdam in our vehicle

Rotterdam by water, the Kinderdijk windmills, north to Friesland

Rotterdam over the Erasmus Bridge, the waterbus to Kinderdijk, then by our vehicle to Leeuwarden

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Leeuwarden
• Drive about 3 h

Morning

Mid-morning the public waterbus carries us upriver past the port to Kinderdijk, about 40 minutes on the water. Its 19 windmills, built mostly around 1740 to drain the polders, are a UNESCO site; we visit a museum mill to see how a miller's family lived, and the pumping station that does the job today.

Afternoon

After a sit-down lunch our vehicle, with your bags, meets us there for the drive north through Flevoland, land taken from the sea in the 20th century, to Leeuwarden, about 230 km and under three hours with a coffee stop.

Evening

You arrive by about 5:30 pm, with the evening free.

Included

• Rotterdam walk with your guide: the Erasmus Bridge and the Kop van Zuid
• Waterbus from Rotterdam to Kinderdijk
• Kinderdijk entry, a museum mill and the pumping station
• Sit-down lunch at Kinderdijk
• Drive to Leeuwarden in our vehicle

Giethoorn early, then a sailing afternoon

Leeuwarden to Giethoorn, then Warga and Grou, back to Leeuwarden

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Leeuwarden
• Drive about 2.5 h

Afternoon

In summer it fills by midday, so we arrive as the boats start, around 9:30, and spend an hour on a quiet electric boat with a local skipper before walking the canal paths. Lunch is sit-down in the village. In the early afternoon we drive back into Friesland, stopping briefly in Warga to see De Bidler, its old church now a theatre, then on to Grou, a sailing village on the Pikmeer. Here we spend about three hours on the Frisian lakes with a local skipper, on a sailing boat the group has to itself. You can sit back or take a turn at the sheets and the helm. If the wind is wrong, we cruise under motor.

Evening

A farewell dinner in Leeuwarden ends the day.

Included

• Boat ride through Giethoorn with a local skipper
• Sit-down lunch in Giethoorn
• Short stop in Warga
• About three hours sailing the lakes around Grou with a local skipper, boat for our group only
• Farewell dinner in Leeuwarden

Leeuwarden, the Afsluitdijk and home

Leeuwarden to the Afsluitdijk, then Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

• Breakfast
• Drive about 2 h

Morning

A last slow morning in Friesland. At 9 am your guide walks you through Leeuwarden, the Frisian capital and European Capital of Culture in 2018: the Oldehove, a church tower left unfinished in the 1530s when it began to lean; the canals around the old centre; the Waag, the old weigh house; and the Princessehof, where the artist M. C. Escher was born in 1898 and which is now a ceramics museum. You will hear Frisian, the province's own official language, on street signs and in the shops. At about 11 am we drive west to the Afsluitdijk, the 32 km dam finished in 1932 that closed off the Zuiderzee, and stop at the monument on the dyke with the Wadden Sea on one side and the IJsselmeer on the other. From there it is about an hour and a half to Schiphol, arriving around 2 pm. Your guide sees you to departures; book a flight after about 5 pm.

Included

• Leeuwarden walk with your guide: the Oldehove, the Waag and the Princessehof
• Stop at the Afsluitdijk monument
• Drop-off at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS), or at Amsterdam Centraal if you are staying on