Top things to do in Holland

Amsterdam’s compact Old Centre contains many of the city’s attractions and takes about forty minutes to walk across. Centraal Station lies on its northern edge, and from here the city fans south in a web of concentric canals (grachts), surrounded by expanding suburbs. To the south is the city’s main square and energetic party venue, Leidseplein, with the leafy Vondelpark and Museum quarter just over the Singelgracht to the south. The Jordaan to the northwest features mazy cobbled streets. Spot the many canals trickling through the city too.

Just over fifteen minutes from Amsterdam by train, Haarlem is a handsome, mid-sized town that can be easily explored in a few hours. It also makes a good alternative base to Amsterdam at busy times. Those after a decent pint will also love the Jopenkerk, a church converted into a brewery. The core of Haarlem is Grote Markt and the adjoining Riviervismarkt, flanked by the gabled, originally fourteenth-century Stadhuis. Inside, the mighty Christian Müller organ of 1738 is said to have been played by Handel and Mozart.

Delft, 2km inland from Den Haag, is perhaps best known for Delftware, the delicate blue and white ceramics to which the town gave its name in the seventeenth century, and as the home of the painter Johannes Vermeer. With its gabled red-roofed houses standing beside tree-lined canals, the town has a faded tranquillity - though one that can suffer beneath the tourist onslaught in summer. Delft’s main square, the Markt, is framed by the impressive Nieuwe Kerk.

Looming skyscrapers, gritty docklands - Rotterdam is the Netherlands but not as we know it. The largest seaport in Europe, Rotterdam’s urban landscape is largely a result of the hammering it received during World War II when bombing completely levelled the city. Today, with its elegant Erasmus bridge, playful Blaak cube houses and the vast Tetris-block “De Rotterdam”, the city can boast some of the most adventurous architecture in the world. There’s also plenty to keep you entertained, including a great museum park, the bohemian Witte de Wittstraat artistic quarter and, last but not least, the welcoming and independent-spirited Rotterdammers themselves. Looking for Holland holiday packages? We’ve certainly got you covered!

A short hop from Amsterdam, Utrecht, with its world-class university, stunning medieval architecture and canals full of people lazily boating about in summer, has an almost Oxbridge feel. The city is perhaps best known for the 1713 Peace of Utrecht, a series of treaties which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. Its focal point is the fourteenth-century 110m-high Dom Tower - the highest church tower in the country.

Squashed between the Belgian and German borders, Maastricht is one of the most delightful cities in the Netherlands. A university town popular with foreign students, it made a fitting location for the 1992 treaty that established the modern EU and the euro (you’ll find € symbols decorating the pavement). The trendy Wyck quarter is home to a cluster of bars, restaurants and the city’s most interesting shopping street, Rechstraat. It’s worthy of a couple of nights to explore properly.

What to do in Holland if you like cheese? Head to Gouda of course! A pretty little town some 25km northeast of Rotterdam, Gouda makes an enchanting day-trip. Its Markt - the largest in the Netherlands - hosts a touristy cheese market every Thursday (April to late Aug), an event that dates from the Middle Ages when farmers would barter their goods using a handjeklap (hand-clapping) ritual.