Netherlands: Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam and Friesland

1. Day 1: Arrive in Amsterdam

   Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to your hotel by the canal ring

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Amsterdam
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), about 20 km from the centre. A driver meets you in arrivals and takes you to our hotel, a short walk from the canal ring, so the city starts at the front door. 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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: About 2 km of easy walking in the evening.

2. Day 2: The Rijksmuseum at opening and the canals by boat

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

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Amsterdam
   Day 2 details

   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

   Easier option: Take the tram from Museumplein to the Jordaan and meet the group for lunch.

   Free time: From about 3 pm

   Activity: About 6 km on foot, with standing time in the museum.

3. Day 3: 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)

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Amsterdam
   Day 3 details

   Amsterdam is easiest to understand from a bicycle, and it is calmest early. At about 8:30 am we set off with a local bike guide on city bikes, riding the quiet side canals, the Western Islands and the Westerpark, about 12 km at an easy pace on cycle paths, with stops to talk. 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. 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

   Easier option: Skip the bike ride: take the morning canal walk with your guide instead, on foot and at your pace, and meet the riders for lunch.

   More active option: Add a longer loop over the IJ on the free ferry behind Centraal Station to Amsterdam Noord and back, about 20 km in all.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: The bike ride is about 12 km on flat, separated cycle paths at an easy pace; helmets are available but not usual in the Netherlands.

4. Day 4: The Hague and Delft by train, on to Rotterdam

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

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rotterdam
   Day 4 details

   Today is a train day, and your bags go ahead in our vehicle to the Rotterdam hotel. We take the intercity from Amsterdam Centraal to Den Haag Centraal, about 50 minutes, and walk past the Hofvijver pond and the Binnenhof, the seat of Dutch government (under long renovation, so seen from outside), to the Mauritshuis. Inside are Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and View of Delft, Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson and Fabritius' Goldfinch, in rooms small enough to see them properly. 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. 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

   Easier option: Skip the Rotterdam walk and rest at the hotel; your guide points you to the Markthal for dinner.

   Free time: Evening free in Rotterdam

   Activity: About 7 km on foot across three cities, plus three short train rides with only a day bag.

   

5. Day 5: Rotterdam by water, the Kinderdijk windmills, north to Friesland

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Leeuwarden
   Day 5 details

   Rotterdam was rebuilt after its centre was bombed in May 1940, and it chose new buildings over copies. We start at 9 am on foot across the Erasmus Bridge, opened in 1996, to the old Holland America Line quays on the Kop van Zuid, where the line's former head office is now a hotel, and look back at the towers of De Rotterdam and the Maas. 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. 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. 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

   Easier option: Ride our vehicle from Rotterdam to Kinderdijk instead of the waterbus.

   More active option: Walk the full dyke path past all 19 mills at Kinderdijk, about 6 km, while the group takes the boat along the mill canal.

   Free time: Evening free in Leeuwarden

   Activity: About 6 km on foot, then the longest drive of the trip, under three hours with a stop.

6. Day 6: Giethoorn early, then a sailing afternoon

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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Leeuwarden
   Day 6 details

   We leave Leeuwarden at about 8:30 am for Giethoorn, about an hour south-east. The old village has no road through it: thatched farmhouses sit on small islands among canals cut by peat diggers, joined by wooden footbridges. 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. 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

   Easier option: Stay ashore in Grou during the sail: the waterfront cafés and the church on the hill are a short walk from the harbour.

   More active option: Cycle the 15 km back from Grou to Leeuwarden on the farm-road cycle paths after the sail, bike hire included, and meet the group for dinner.

   Activity: Getting on and off the sailing boat means a step down from the quay; the skipper and your guide help.

   

7. Day 7: Leeuwarden, the Afsluitdijk and home

   Leeuwarden to the Afsluitdijk, then Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   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

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm. About 3 km on foot in the morning.

   

Wildlife and weather: April and early May bring tulips at Keukenhof but cool, windy days; June to August are the warmest and busiest, with light until after 10 pm; September is quieter and still good for sailing. Showers are possible in any month.

• Amsterdam3 nights
• Rotterdam1 night
• Leeuwarden2 nights