bestof_holland

Amsterdam • Floriade • Aalsmeer • Scheveningen • The Hague • Delft • Rotterdam • Nijmegen • Arnhem • Groningen • Volendam

The 'Low countries' may be flat but this fabulous tour will elevate you to new heights of pleasure and delight with memories of bridges, windmills, clogs, cheeses, diamonds, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. Delft, Arnhem and Amsterdam, 'Venice of the North'. Plus visit the amazing Floriade Exhibition!

Day 1 Depart USA Overnight flight to Amsterdam. Day 2 Arrive Amsterdam (2) On your arrival at Amsterdam Airport you are transferred to your hotel. After check-in there's time to relax or perhaps explore this friendly city. This evening, we will enjoy a welcome dinner in a local Dutch Rijsttafel restaurant with our Tour Director and fellow traveling companions. Hotel: Novotel (2 nights)
Day 3 Amsterdam Today, an included canal cruise is the ideal way to see the city before we stop to visit a diamond-polishing factory. Other treasures await us at the Rijksmuseum, famous for its Rembrandt paintings including the 'Nightwatch'. Next we will visit the amazing Floriade exhibition which takes place in the middle of a Polder in the district of Haarlemmermeer. 150 years ago…this land was the sea! The exhibition features everything from vegetables and fruit to mushrooms, bulbs, flowers, plants, trees, bushes, shrubs and all sorts of things to smell, hear, feel and taste!
There is an indoor area under glass, which is bigger than the size of four football fields, as well as the lakes and waterfalls in the vast outdoor area. After a full afternoon of horticultural wonder, we return to our hotel for dinner! Day 4 Amsterdam – Rotterdam An early morning departure to Aalsmeer to visit the flower auction. Then we will visit the bulb fields at Keukenhof. (These are open from April till the end of May. Once they are closed this tour will visit Holland in miniature at Madurodam). Later, on to Scheveningen before we drive through the 'garden city' of The Hague.
The town of Delft, and the Royal Delft Pottery factory, is our last visit of the day before arriving in the port of Rotterdam. Your evening is at leisure to do as you please. Why not take a trip up the Euromast for astonishing views of the city from on high? Hotel: Inntel
Day 5 Rotterdam – Arnhem After breakfast our morning orientation tour of Rotterdam is followed by a drive to visit the 'Delta Expo' at the Eastern Scheldt Dam. Then we continue on to Tiel where we visit an old Pewter factory. Next we journey to Nijmegen to visit the museum at Groesbeek, dedicated to the history of 'Operation Market Garden' in 1944. Finally, we make our way to Arnhem to see the famous World War II Bridge before reaching our hotel. Hotel: Mercure Postilion
Day 6 Arnhem – Groningen This morning we enter the largest park in Holland – the Hoge Veluwe – and the Kröller-Müller Museum, which houses one of the greatest collections of modern Art in Europe with some of Van Gogh's most famous works. Then close to Apeldoorn, we visit the 17th century Het Loo Palace with its formal gardens. Here there's time at leisure perhaps for some lunch before stopping in Staphorst where life has hardly changed over the last 400 years! Finally we drive to Groningen for the night. Our evening meal is at the hotel tonight. Hotel: Mercure Martinihal Day 7 Groningen – Amsterdam Today after breakfast, we begin our journey into the Frisian Lake District to Bolsward, Workum and the fishing port of Makkum, famous for its ceramics.
From here we continue our drive along the Asfluitsdijk and on via the cheese-making village of Edam to Volendam. We stop to take a snapshot of a working windmill, as well as visiting a Dutch cheese farm where delicious Edams and Goudas flavored with all sorts of herbs – even stinging nettles ! are made. Later we make our way back to Amsterdam via the tunnel and the balance of the day is at leisure. You may wish to visit the Anne Frank House or one of the city's modern Art museums. Hotel: Novotel
Day 8 Amsterdam – USA We transfer you to the airport for your return flight to America.