Netherlands Highlights
Amsterdam
The city's unmissable sights include the Anne Frank House, chronicling the German occupation, the Stedelijk Museum, specialising in modern art, the Van Gogh Museum and the vast Rijksmuseum, with its amazing collection of paintings by Dutch Masters'. See also our online city guide to Amsterdam.
Haarlem
The home of Teylers Museum, the oldest museum in the Netherlands. This magnificent relic of the Dutch Enlightenment has been preserved in its original state and contains a large collection of fossils, scientific instruments and an important collection of Dutch and Flemish prints, and 19th-century Romantic paintings.
Leiden
On a branch of the Rhine in a bulb-growing region this likeable university town full of cafés and student bookshops is home to the oldest and most renowned university in the Netherlands. The Hortus Botanicus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, founded in 1818, has an extensive collection of archaeological finds from the Netherlands, ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt.
Keukenhof
The world-famous tulip park of De Keukenhof in the town of Lisse hosts the greatest open-air flower festival in the world. This amazing sight draws hundreds of thousands of people each year to see the display of 6 to 7 million tulips, hyacinths and narcissi (29 March-24 May).
The Hague
A combination of culture and history, monumental and modern architecture, museums, stately hotels, antique shops, gastronomy and natural beauty lend The Hague an air of sophistication and elegance.
Delft
This pleasant old town has changed very little since Vermeer painted the View of Delft, now in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
Rotterdam
The largest and busiest port in the world, Rotterdam is home to the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, one of the best art collections in the Netherlands. The museum owns a number of well-known early Flemish paintings, plus Old Masters such as Rembrandt's tender portrait of his son, and a modern collection featuring canvases by Monet, Van Gogh, Kandinsky and Magritte.
Maastricht
The Netherlands' oldest city, Maastricht has been open to foreign influence from Roman traders, Charlemagne's soldiers and Burgundian merchants. The result of such a cosmopolitan history is a relaxed city confident of its traditions and its dialect, which, unlike many parts of the Netherlands, Maastricht has retained.
Zeeland
What were once islands are now linked to each other and the mainland by the giant causeways of dams, barriers and raised dykes that form the Delta Works, a tourist attraction in its own right. The scale of these engineering works staggers the imagination.
Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe
One of the country's most beautiful conservation areas. Once royal hunting territory, The Nationaal Park de Hoge Veluwe still has miles of forests that are rich in wildlife, including deer and boar.
Achterhoek
Land reclamation over the past few centuries has turned the Achterhoek into a fertile expanse of fields and meadows hemmed in on all sides by woods. Stately castles, farmhouses, pristine gardens and tiny, unexpected museums all lie along the hundreds of bicycle routes, waiting to be discovered.
Utrecht
In one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, several medieval town houses still stand on Oudegracht. The Domtoren (cathedral tower) is one of the architectural marvels of the Gothic age. Built between 1321 and 1383, it rises to an ethereal octagonal lantern 112 metres high.