Best Places to Eat

¨ Greetje (p807)

¨ De Jong (p817)

¨ Foodhallen (p806)

¨ Karaf (p820)

¨ Café Sjiek (p821)

Best Places to Stay

¨ King Kong Hostel (p817)

¨ Dylan (p806)

¨ Trash Deluxe (p821)

¨ Hotel New York (p817)

¨ Hotel de Plataan (p814)

When to Go

Mar–May Col-our explodes as billions of bulbs bloom.

Jul Mild summer temps and long daylight hours keep you out-side cycling and drinking.

Dec–Feb When the canals freeze, the Dutch passion for ice skating is on display nation-wide.

F DNOSAJJMAMJ

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10/50

0/32

30/86

20/68

Rainfall inches/mm

2/50

2.9/75

3.9/100

0

1/25

4.9/125

The NetherlandsWhy Go?Old and new intertwine in the Netherlands. The legacies of great Dutch artists Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh, beau-tiful 17th-century canals, windmills, tulips and quaint brown cafes lit by flickering candles coexist with ground-breaking contemporary architecture, cutting-edge fashion, home-wares, design and food scenes, phenomenal nightlife and a progressive mindset.

Much of the Netherlands is famously below sea level and the pancake-flat landscape offers idyllic cycling. Locals live on bicycles and you can too. Rental outlets are ubiquitous throughout the country, which is crisscrossed with dedicated cycling paths. Allow plenty of time to revel in the magical, multifaceted capital Amsterdam, to venture further afield to charming canal-laced towns such as Leiden and Delft, and to check out Dutch cities like exquisite Maastricht, with its city walls, ancient churches and grand squares, and the pulsing port city of Rotterdam, currently undergoing an ur-ban renaissance. It’s a very big small country.

Includes ¨Amsterdam ................ 801Haarlem ..................... 810Leiden ......................... 811Den Haag ....................812Delft.............................814Rotterdam ...................815Utrecht ....................... 819Maastricht..................820

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1 Cruise the Unesco-listed canals of Amsterdam soaking up one of europe’s most enchanting old cities.

2 Marvel at the astonishing Markthal Rotterdam (p818), an architectural highlight of the Netherlands’ hip-and-happening ‘second city’.

3 explore the centuries-old tunnels below the resplendent

city of Maastricht at Fort sint Pieter (p821).

4 Learn about Vermeer’s life and work at the Vermeer Centrum Delft (p814).

5 Discover the tree-lined boulevards, classy museums and palatial Binnenhof buildings of Den Haag (p812).

6 Delve into the museums in picturesque Leiden (p811)

and dazzling tulip displays of Keukenhof Gardens (p812).

7 Watch windmills twirl and meet the millers at the delightful Zaanse Schans (p810).

8 Follow dikes along shimmering canals or tour the tulip fields of the Randstad on the world’s best network of cycling (p813) routes.

Netherlands Highlights