TOP 22 best attractions in the Netherlands

The pearl of Europe, the Nether­lands is an inter­est­ing hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion. It is a trea­sure trove of rich his­to­ry, cul­ture and art. It is also a coun­try of end­less flower fields, wind­mills, beau­ti­ful water chan­nels and pic­turesque archi­tec­ture.

What to do in the Netherlands

Along with breath­tak­ing gar­dens and pic­turesque vil­lages, tourists will enjoy vis­it­ing the vibrant cap­i­tal city with muse­ums show­cas­ing the rich her­itage of the coun­try’s artists.

The coun­try peace­ful­ly coex­ists with medieval cas­tles and nation­al parks, as well as an inno­v­a­tive tide con­trol sys­tem, which has been named one of the sev­en won­ders of the mod­ern world. All these attrac­tions are locat­ed in a rel­a­tive­ly com­pact area.

Architectural monuments

Royal Palace of Amsterdam

The palace is locat­ed on Dam Square. It was built at the height of the Dutch Gold­en Age, at a time when Ams­ter­dam was an influ­en­tial city in north­ern Europe. The palace orig­i­nal­ly belonged to the munic­i­pal­i­ty of the city and was the build­ing of the city hall.

The struc­ture passed into the hands of the Dutch roy­al fam­i­ly after William of Orange formed the King­dom of the Nether­lands in the ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry. Although roy­al cer­e­monies still take place in the palace today, it is open to the pub­lic most days of the year.

Castile De Haar

Not far from the city of Utrecht is the cas­tle Castiel de Haar — the largest in the Nether­lands. The first men­tion of it refers to 1391. Then it was a for­ti­fied tow­er sur­round­ed by a moat. Grad­u­al­ly it was rebuilt, new walls were added. The tow­er grew and grew and turned into a cas­tle.

De Haar was attacked many times and was par­tial­ly destroyed. But in 1891 they car­ried out a com­plete restora­tion of the build­ing. It is in this guise that tourists see it today. Inside, a col­lec­tion of paint­ings, tex­tiles, antiques and fur­ni­ture has been pre­served.

Mills in Kinderdijk-Elschout

The net­work of mills in Kinderdijk con­sists of 10 mon­u­men­tal wind­mills locat­ed in the province of South Hol­land. These mills are part of a vil­lage that was built in the mid­dle of the 18th cen­tu­ry. Their pur­pose was to pump water out of the marsh­es so that the drained soils could be used for agri­cul­ture.

This is the largest col­lec­tion of wind­mills that can be found in the coun­try and in the world. In 1997, they were includ­ed in the UNESCO World Her­itage List, after which the influx of tourists to the province increased.

City of Valkenburg

If you love his­to­ry, then make sure you don’t miss Valken­burg, which lies in the beau­ti­ful Geul Val­ley. The city con­sists of a sin­gle hill­top cas­tle and dates back to the 12th cen­tu­ry. It crowns the peak Dwingel­rot (or Cas­tle Rock).

In addi­tion to the ancient ruins, the city is also known for its pic­turesque caves, cat­a­combs and under­ground tun­nels. But most tourists come here in win­ter. They are attract­ed by the Christ­mas mar­ket, which runs from Novem­ber to Decem­ber.

Euromast

The tow­er has dom­i­nat­ed the cen­ter of Rot­ter­dam since 1960. The height of the build­ing is 185 meters, which made it the tallest in the city. The name was tak­en for a rea­son — the build­ing real­ly resem­bles the mast of a ship. The tow­er is 9 meters in diam­e­ter.

Climb­ing 100 m, vis­i­tors enter a flat plat­form. Here is a lux­u­ri­ous restau­rant and hotel. Tourists like view­ing plat­forms that offer a panoram­ic view of the city. The first is locat­ed at the lev­el of the bridge, the sec­ond was com­plet­ed lat­er. To do this, in 1970 they made anoth­er super­struc­ture, which was called the Space Tow­er.

Marken village

The lit­tle vil­lage is known for being one of the most beau­ti­ful places in the Nether­lands. Large­ly due to the loca­tion on the pic­turesque IJs­selmeer lake. Crowds of vis­i­tors flock here every year to have fun and buy tra­di­tion­al sou­venirs: post­cards depict­ing paint­ed wood­en hous­es, as well as toy fish­ing boats.

In the sum­mer months, eth­no-fes­ti­vals are held here. Res­i­dents dress in tra­di­tion­al clothes, and ancient crafts come to life in their hands.

Churches and cathedrals

Grote Kerk

The Goth­ic red brick church is locat­ed in The Hague. The orig­i­nal build­ing here was built in the 13th cen­tu­ry, but it was demol­ished to the ground in 1539 and rebuilt.

The church has a proud his­to­ry as the place where mem­bers of the Dutch roy­al fam­i­ly, includ­ing King Willem-Alexan­der, were bap­tized. Sights include the tallest bel­fry in Hol­land with 51 bells, a rich­ly dec­o­rat­ed wood­en pul­pit and an organ.

De Ode Kerk

De Oude Kerk was built in 1213, mak­ing it the old­est build­ing in Ams­ter­dam. The church served the Catholic com­mu­ni­ty until the Ref­or­ma­tion, when the Dutch Calvin­ists over­threw papal con­trol. Like many of Ams­ter­dam’s icon­ic build­ings, the foun­da­tion of the church is laid on top of a huge man-made mound. Today the build­ing is used for cul­tur­al and reli­gious pur­pos­es: con­certs, award cer­e­monies and Catholic ser­vices are held here.

Mosque De Blauwe Moskee

The Great Mosque in the west of Ams­ter­dam, despite the tra­di­tion­al Ara­bic archi­tec­ture, is in per­fect har­mo­ny with the mod­ern forms of the city. And the out­er walls are dec­o­rat­ed with water motifs. The mosque was built in 2008 by sev­er­al Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions to accom­mo­date Ams­ter­dam’s grow­ing Mus­lim pop­u­la­tion.

Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple

This large tem­ple is locat­ed in the heart of Ams­ter­dam’s Chi­na­town. Parts of the build­ing were brought from Chi­na, although it looks more like tra­di­tion­al Thai struc­tures. The rooftop is adorned with Chi­nese zodi­ac fig­ures and the over­all archi­tec­tur­al style con­trasts beau­ti­ful­ly with the typ­i­cal Dutch town­hous­es in the area.

Museums

Miffy Museum

This kid-friend­ly muse­um in Utrecht is ded­i­cat­ed to Miffy the rab­bit. But it also hous­es a col­lec­tion of oth­er items relat­ed to the car­toon’s cre­ator, Dick Bruna. These include car­toon projects he has done for char­i­ties.

The themed muse­um is per­fect for ele­men­tary and mid­dle school kids and even has an indoor play­ground. And par­ents can relax in a cozy cafe.

Museum Kröller-Müller

In 1938, the Ger­man Helene Kröller-Müller bequeathed an exten­sive Van Gogh col­lec­tion to the Dutch peo­ple and opened a new muse­um in Otter­lo under her sur­name. This muse­um owns the sec­ond largest col­lec­tion of Van Gogh paint­ings in the world and is one of the most pop­u­lar muse­ums in the Nether­lands.

The main exhi­bi­tion con­sists of 11,500 items and is locat­ed in the cen­ter of the Hoge Veluwe park. Today, after com­plete recon­struc­tion, it is a mod­ern muse­um com­plex, also known for its sculp­ture gar­den. It is vis­it­ed by 400,000 peo­ple every year.

Rijksmuseum

The insti­tu­tion is rec­og­nized as the largest muse­um in the Nether­lands and con­tains 1,000,000 works of art, arti­facts and objects that rep­re­sent every peri­od of Dutch his­to­ry. Here you can get acquaint­ed with the art of Hol­land from the Mid­dle Ages to the present day.

The loca­tion of the works deserves spe­cial atten­tion. Here, 8000 works in 80 rooms reveal dif­fer­ent eras before the vis­i­tor’s eyes. The per­ma­nent col­lec­tion includes such mas­ter­pieces as Rem­brandt’s Night Clock and Ver­meer’s The Milk­maid.

Mauritshuis

Since the begin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry, the Mau­rit­shuis has main­tained a large col­lec­tion of works by artists from the Dutch Gold­en Age, which includes works such as Ver­meer’s Girl with a Pearl Ear­ring. And the muse­um itself is a real mas­ter­piece.

It is locat­ed in a 17th-cen­tu­ry man­sion, which was designed by Jacob van Kam­p­en, the author of the Ams­ter­dam Roy­al Palace. Orig­i­nal­ly serv­ing as a res­i­dence and hotel for dig­ni­taries, the Mau­rit­shuis is locat­ed in the city cen­ter of The Hague.

Ridderzaal

The Knights’ Hall, also known as the Rid­derza­al, is locat­ed in The Hague and is part of a court com­plex from the medieval peri­od. The hall over­looks a huge court­yard cov­ered with cob­ble­stones. This place is con­sid­ered one of the cen­ters of Dutch pol­i­tics and the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of Par­lia­ment is held here every year. It is best to vis­it the Knights’ Hall with a group, accom­pa­nied by a guide, because this is one of the most impor­tant build­ings in the his­to­ry of the Nether­lands.

Floating House Museum

One of the most quaint muse­ums in all of Ams­ter­dam is locat­ed on one of its beau­ti­ful canals. The muse­um is called Hen­dri­ka Maria and is fur­nished to give an idea of ​​how peo­ple lived in house­boats over the years. The exhi­bi­tion shows how life has changed in house­boats, as well as pho­tos of canals as they were in the old days.

Sex Museum

Venustem­pel has the right to be called the first muse­um of sex in the world. It is housed in a build­ing that dates back to the 17th cen­tu­ry and has a wide dis­play of sex relat­ed items. Here you can find a lot of erot­ic art, as well as pho­tographs, sculp­tures and strange acces­sories like chasti­ty belts. The pur­pose of the muse­um is to tell the sto­ry of how sex­u­al­i­ty has evolved over the years.

Natural attractions and parks

Efteling

The largest amuse­ment park in the Nether­lands is locat­ed in Kaat­sheuv­el. The park is divid­ed into dif­fer­ent zones, known as realms, each focus­ing on a dif­fer­ent ancient myth or leg­end. Eftel­ing claims to be one of the old­est theme parks in the world. Heroes of fairy tales come to life here, a talk­ing tree grows, dryads live in the for­est, and Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood befriends a wolf. In addi­tion, the park has six roller coast­ers and 36 rides.

Texel Dunes National Park

Due to its out­stand­ing nat­ur­al beau­ty, the west­ern coast of Tex­el Island has been pre­served as a nation­al park. This piece of land is inhab­it­ed by a vari­ety of flo­ra and fau­na, includ­ing rare birds.

The pre­ferred way to get around the park is on foot or by bike. Tourists do not get tired of being sur­prised at the num­ber of land­scapes that replace each oth­er. Dunes, forests, waste­lands, salt marsh­es and beach­es — all this diver­si­ty of nature is in Tex­el.

Blooming Keukenhof

Keuken­hof, also known as the Gar­den of Europe, amazes with a riot of flow­ers of all shapes and shades. As far as the eye can see, there are col­or­ful flower beds. Tulips are the sym­bol of the coun­try, but the gar­dens and pavil­ions dis­play an impres­sive col­lec­tion of not only tulips, but also hyacinths, daf­fodils and many oth­er flow­ers.

Keuken­hof is locat­ed in the heart of the Bol­len­streek, or bul­bous region. There is a big parade of flow­ers called Bloe­men­cor­so Bol­len­streek and is con­sid­ered the largest in the world.

Hoge Veluwe National Park

The Nether­lands is often pre­sent­ed as a small coun­try, but there is enough space for exten­sive nation­al parks. The largest of them is Hoge Veluwe, which is locat­ed between Apel­doorn and Arn­hem. It is ide­al for fam­i­lies.

There are areas cov­ered with for­est where you can meet deer, roe deer and oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the ani­mal world. Grace­ful heather-cov­ered dunes offer the chance to watch rare species of birds.

Artis Royal Zoo

Atris first opened its gates in 1838, mak­ing it the old­est zoo in the Nether­lands. 900 dif­fer­ent species of ani­mals live here, many of which are housed in rich­ly dec­o­rat­ed and spa­cious rooms designed in the 19th cen­tu­ry.

The menagerie also has an aquar­i­um, which was built in 1882. It is home to sharks, eels and col­or­ful trop­i­cal fish. And around the zoo there are spe­cial stalls that sell tra­di­tion­al Dutch pan­cakes called bit­ter­ballen.