9 Days in the Netherlands — Tulips, Windmills & Dutch Masters
Amsterdam → Sassenheim → Haarlem → Keukenhof → Volendam → Zaanse Schans → The Hague → Delft → Rotterdam → Kinderdijk → Leiden → Amsterdam. Millions of tulips in bloom, iconic windmills, Van Gogh and Vermeer, and the best Indonesian food outside Indonesia. Here's everything we did and what I'd do differently.
Overview
The Netherlands in mid-April is one of the most visually striking places on earth. Millions of tulips in full bloom, historic windmills turning against flat Dutch skies, and centuries-old canal towns that look exactly like the paintings hanging in the Rijksmuseum. It's a compact country — you can reach almost anything within two hours of Amsterdam — which makes it ideal for a single-base trip with day excursions.
We used the Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre as our base for all eight nights. Central Amsterdam covered the arrival day, museum day, and countryside tour day. The remaining days were dedicated to day trips: Sassenheim for the Flower Parade, Haarlem for its charming streets and windmill, Keukenhof for the tulip gardens and cycling through flower fields, a countryside tour to Volendam and Zaanse Schans, a rental car day to The Hague and Delft, and another driving day to Rotterdam, Kinderdijk, and Leiden. The pacing felt right — busy but not exhausting, with enough variety to keep each day fresh.
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Route Map
Click on any marker to see what we did in each area.
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Amsterdam
Amsterdam was both our base and the anchor for three very different days: the arrival day exploring the town center, a full museum and canal day, and a countryside tour returning to the city for the Heineken Experience. The Mövenpick is well located near Centraal Station — walkable to most of the canal ring, with easy access to the ferry terminal and tram lines. The city rewards walking, but cycling is the real way to experience Amsterdam — flat, well-signed, and thrilling once you get used to the pace.
Walked to Dam Square, the historic heart of the city — the Royal Palace, the National Monument, and the Nieuwe Kerk all front this busy square. Then to Van Stapele Koekmakerij for their famous dark chocolate cookies with white chocolate centers (they sell out, so go early or queue).
Begijnhof next — a hidden courtyard from the 14th century, one of the oldest inner courts in Amsterdam. Serene and easy to miss if you don't know to look for the entrance. From there, Bloemenmarkt, the world's only floating flower market. Touristy but beautiful — buy bulbs here if you want to take tulips home.
Afternoon wandering through De 9 Straatjes (Nine Streets) — nine charming streets connecting the main canal rings, filled with independent boutiques, vintage shops, and specialty cafes. Then a quick browse through de Bijenkorf Amsterdam, the upscale department store on Dam Square.
Manneken Pis Damrak for traditional Dutch fries — thick-cut, served in a cone with mayo or peanut satay sauce. Dinner at Sampurna for Indonesian rijsttafel — a "rice table" with a dozen small dishes. Sampurna was one of the best meals of the entire trip — make a reservation. The Netherlands' colonial connection to Indonesia means the Indonesian food here is genuinely excellent, and rijsttafel is the quintessential way to experience it.
Transferred to Grandstand Sassenheim for the annual Flower Parade (Bloemencorso). This is a once-a-year event, usually mid-April Saturday, where enormous floats covered entirely in flowers parade through the Bollenstreek (bulb region) towns. The floats are astonishing — intricate designs made from millions of blooms, each one a work of art. Arrived early to secure grandstand seats; the parade passes Sassenheim around 11:50am. After the parade, the floats are parked on display for closer inspection.
Getting back to Amsterdam took much longer than expected — around three hours with the tour due to heavy traffic. Everyone is heading back at the same time after the parade, so be prepared for a slow return. We'd originally planned to do This is Holland in the afternoon, but by the time we got back we were wiped. Late lunch at Pllek, a creative waterfront spot in Amsterdam Noord with views across the IJ, then called it a day.
Molen De Adriaan English tour — an iconic windmill on the banks of the Spaarne river. The guided tour explains how windmills actually work and gives you access to the top for panoramic views over Haarlem's rooftops. Worth the 30 minutes.
Lunch at by Lima, then a stroll through Grote Markt — the main market square surrounded by medieval buildings, the Grote Kerk (St Bavo Church), and lively with a fair and post-parade float displays on this particular weekend.
Teylers Museum — the oldest museum in the Netherlands (founded 1778). An eclectic collection spanning fossils, scientific instruments, coins, and paintings, housed in beautifully preserved period rooms. The oval room alone is worth the visit.
Walked the charming streets, then tea at Jopenkerk — a converted church now housing a brewery and cafe. The interior is spectacular: stained glass windows and vaulted ceilings with copper brewing equipment. Dinner at De Lachende Javaan for more Indonesian food. Train back to Amsterdam.
Keukenhof is staggering. Seven million bulbs across 32 hectares — tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, and dozens of other varieties in every colour imaginable. The indoor pavilions are just as impressive, with themed exhibitions and special cultivars. Mid-April is peak bloom — every bed was at its fullest.
At 12:30 we rented bikes from the park to explore the surrounding flower fields. This is the hidden gem of the Keukenhof experience — cycling through vast commercial tulip fields stretching to the horizon, row after row of colour. A practical tip: you can always leave the park with your bike, explore the fields, and return to Keukenhof to continue sightseeing. Don't try to hit every farm on the route though — it's very difficult to do all of them in one day. Pick one and enjoy it properly. We chose Tulip Experience Amsterdam because they had a great indoor museum before the fields — the outdoor fields are smaller, but the museum makes up for it. Lunch at Hofboerderij, a farm-style restaurant near the park. Then Keukenhof Castle before returning bikes.
Back to Amsterdam. Dinner at Loetje — known for their biefstuk (steak), a local institution.
Lunch at The Pantry for traditional Dutch food, or The Seafood Bar nearby if you're in the mood for fresh oysters and fish.
Anne Frank House at 3pm (pre-booked). This is a must but also deeply sobering. The house itself is small and austere — walking through the concealed annex where the Frank family hid for two years is an experience that stays with you. Tickets release online about six weeks ahead and sell out within minutes. Set a reminder and be ready to book the moment they go live.
Late afternoon canal tour with Those Dam Boat Guys — a small-boat, guide-led tour (~75 minutes) through the UNESCO-listed canal ring. More intimate than the big tourist boats, with local stories and good commentary. Desserts at Winkel 43 for their famous apple pie — widely considered the best in Amsterdam, served warm with whipped cream.
Dinner at De Kas — farm-to-table dining in a converted greenhouse on the outskirts of the city. The restaurant grows its own herbs and vegetables in the surrounding gardens. A special meal.
Volendam is a picturesque fishing village on the Markermeer lake — colourful wooden houses along the harbour, fish stalls selling smoked eel and kibbeling. Marken is a former island village with characteristic green wooden houses. Zaanse Schans is the star — an open-air museum with working windmills, a pewter factory, a clog workshop, and a cheese farm. Touristy, yes, but worth it for first-timers. The windmills against the flat Dutch sky are exactly as photogenic as you'd expect.
Returned to Amsterdam around 3pm. Quick laundry run at Wash Place (useful to know about for a longer trip), then the Heineken Experience — an interactive brewery tour through the original Heineken brewery. More entertaining than expected, with a tasting at the end. Book online to skip the queue.
Dinner at Sea Palace — a floating Chinese restaurant in the harbour near Centraal Station. The setting is unique even if the food is more about location.
The Hague & Delft
Day 7 was our first rental car day. Enterprise pick-up near Centraal Station, then south to The Hague and Delft. The Netherlands is small and the motorways are excellent — The Hague is about 50 minutes from Amsterdam, and Delft is just 15 minutes further. Having a car made the day flexible and allowed us to catch sunset at the coast.
Drove to Delft — a beautiful canal town and the birthplace of Vermeer. Royal Delft Store for the iconic blue-and-white Delftware pottery. Had high tea lunch at Royal Delft — served on Delftware, naturally. Then the hands-on highlight: a traditional tile painting workshop where you paint your own Delft tile under guidance. Book in advance — it's a genuine craft experience, not a tourist assembly line. Toured the Royal Delft Museum to see the full production process and historic collections.
Back to The Hague to explore the city center — the Binnenhof (the Dutch parliament complex), Mauritshuis exterior (home of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"), and the surrounding streets. Dinner at Waroeng Padang Lapek for more Indonesian food — the Indonesian restaurants in The Hague are arguably even better than Amsterdam's.
Ended the day at De Pier in Scheveningen, The Hague's seaside district. Sunset at approximately 20:44 — watching the sun drop into the North Sea from the pier is a perfect way to close the day.
Rotterdam, Kinderdijk & Leiden
The second rental car day covered the most ground: south to Kinderdijk for the UNESCO windmills, then Rotterdam for modern architecture and the Markthal, and a dinner stop in historic Leiden on the way back. A long day but every stop was worth it — Kinderdijk especially is unmissable.
Drove to Rotterdam — a completely different city from Amsterdam. Bombed flat in WWII and rebuilt with bold modern architecture, Rotterdam feels more like a contemporary design showcase. Lunch at De Ballentent by the harbour. Walked through Museum Park and Het Park, past the Art Depot Museum exterior (the mirrored-bowl Depot Boijmans, striking from outside). Het Kijk Kubus Museum House — the famous Cube Houses by Piet Blom, one of which is open as a museum showing how people actually live inside these tilted cubes. Finally, Markthal — a horseshoe-shaped building with apartments arching over a covered market hall, its ceiling covered in a massive colourful mural. Great architecture and great food stalls.
Left Rotterdam and drove to Leiden for dinner at Waag, a historic weigh house turned restaurant in the centre of this university town. Returned to Amsterdam.
Final Day — Amsterdam
Then over to Albert Cuyp Market — Amsterdam's most famous and largest street market, running daily in the De Pijp neighbourhood. Over 250 stalls selling everything from fresh stroopwafels and herring to cheese, flowers, and clothing. A great last stop for snacks, souvenirs, and soaking in the local atmosphere.
Headed to Schiphol for the 18:25 flight, Turkish Airlines TK 1954/54 back to Singapore. Arrive 3 hours early for Schiphol departure — the airport can be slow during tulip season, and you'll want time for the tax refund e-kiosks.
What I'd Do Differently
Book Anne Frank House tickets the moment they go on sale
Tickets release online approximately six weeks before your visit date. They sell out within minutes — often in under two minutes. Set an alarm, have the page loaded, and be ready to click the instant they go live. This is not an exaggeration. If you miss the window, your only option is the last-minute release on the day (very limited).
Spend more time at Keukenhof — arrive right at opening
Keukenhof opens at 8am and the first hour is magical — almost no crowds, perfect light for photos, and the gardens feel like they're yours alone. Plan for a full day: the gardens in the morning, bike the surrounding flower fields in the afternoon. We did this and it still felt like we could have stayed longer.
Stay near the gardens instead of Amsterdam
If I did this trip again, I'd fly into Schiphol, rent a car immediately, and drive to stay near the tulip fields — somewhere around Lisse, Noordwijk (a nice beach town), or even Haarlem. This puts you right next to Keukenhof, the flower fields, and the parade route. You'd wake up surrounded by tulips instead of commuting an hour each way from Amsterdam. Save the Amsterdam hotel for the museum and city days later in the trip.
The flower parade route is longer than you think — use it
The Bloemencorso doesn't just pass through Sassenheim. The floats start at Noordwijk (the beach town) the day before the parade for an evening preview. On parade day, the route passes through several towns before ending in Haarlem, where the floats are displayed at Grote Markt. If you're staying near Haarlem or the coast, you can catch the parade at multiple points and get much closer for photos than from a grandstand. The Haarlem endpoint is great because you can walk right up to the floats.
Consider staying one night in Rotterdam or The Hague
The driving days (Days 7 and 8) were long. An overnight in Rotterdam or The Hague would have broken up the driving and given more time to explore each city properly. Rotterdam in particular deserves more than an afternoon — the modern architecture and food scene justify a full day.
The countryside tour is touristy but worth it for first-timers
Volendam, Marken, and Zaanse Schans are undeniably tourist-oriented, but they deliver exactly what you'd hope for: wooden shoes, cheese wheels, working windmills, and picture-perfect Dutch villages. If it's your first time in the Netherlands, do it. On a return trip, you'd skip it for deeper dives elsewhere.
Rent a bike in Amsterdam for at least one day
Amsterdam is built for cycling. The bike infrastructure is extraordinary — dedicated lanes everywhere, traffic lights for cyclists, and a city that's perfectly flat. Walking is fine, but cycling lets you cover three times the ground and experience the city the way locals do. Just watch the bike lanes when you're on foot — locals will ring at you.
Booking Guide
The Netherlands in tulip season requires more advance planning than you'd expect. Several attractions have timed entries or limited availability:
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Keukenhof | Book online in advance. Combo ticket includes bus from Amsterdam RAI. Arrive at 8am opening for the best experience. |
| Anne Frank House | Tickets release online ~6 weeks ahead. Set a reminder — they sell out in minutes. This is the hardest ticket in Amsterdam. |
| Van Gogh Museum | Book a timed entry slot online. Morning slots give you the most breathing room. |
| This is Holland | Book at least a day in advance — slots sell out, especially during tulip season. Exchange tickets at the venue. |
| Heineken Experience | Book online to skip the queue. The interactive tour takes about 90 minutes. |
| Canal Tour (Those Dam Boat Guys) | Book online, ~75 min. Small boats, better than the large tourist boats. |
| Countryside Tour | Book through tours-tickets.com. Full-day guided to Volendam, Marken & Zaanse Schans. |
| Royal Delft Workshop | Book the tile painting workshop in advance. Includes museum entry. |
| Teylers Museum | Book a timed entry online. The oldest museum in the Netherlands — art, science, and natural history in Haarlem. |
| Flower Parade | Grandstand tickets at Sassenheim via bloemencorso-bollenstreek.nl. Once a year, mid-April Saturday. Floats preview at Noordwijk the evening before. |
| Restaurant reservations | Book De Kas, Sampurna, and De Lachende Javaan ahead of time. Popular spots fill up during tulip season. |
Planning Timeline
| When | What to Do |
|---|---|
| 3 months before | Book flights, hotel, and Keukenhof combo tickets. Mid-April hotels in Amsterdam fill up fast during tulip season. |
| 6 weeks before | Anne Frank House tickets (critical — set an alarm). This is the single most important booking of the trip. |
| 1 month before | Van Gogh Museum, Heineken Experience, This is Holland, Royal Delft tile painting workshop. |
| 2 weeks before | Canal tour (Those Dam Boat Guys), countryside tour (tours-tickets.com), restaurant reservation for De Kas. |
| 1 week before | Enterprise car rental confirmation, download offline maps, check Flower Parade grandstand tickets. |
When to Go
Mid-April is the sweet spot. Keukenhof opens late March and runs to mid-May, but the fullest blooms — when every bed is at peak colour — happen around the second and third weeks of April. The Flower Parade is timed to this period. Weather is unpredictable: expect anything from bright sunshine to sudden rain showers in the same afternoon. Pack layers and always have a compact rain jacket or umbrella.
Photos
Click any photo to view full-size. (Photos coming soon!)
What to Eat
Dutch cuisine gets an unfair reputation. The street food is excellent, the cheese is world-class, and the Indonesian food — a legacy of the Netherlands' colonial history — is genuinely the best you'll find outside Indonesia. Here's what to prioritise:
Quick Tips
- OV-chipkaart: Get an anonymous card at Schiphol for all public transport (trains, trams, buses, metro). Top up at machines throughout the country.
- Weather: April is unpredictable — pack layers and always carry a rain jacket or compact umbrella. You'll likely see sun and rain in the same afternoon.
- Cycling: Amsterdam is bike-first. Walk carefully in bike lanes (locals will ring at you). Consider renting a bike for at least one day — it transforms the experience.
- Tipping: Not obligatory but 5–10% is appreciated at sit-down restaurants. Round up at cafes.
- Tax refund: Keep receipts for purchases above the minimum. Process the refund at Schiphol's e-kiosks before departure — quick and painless.
- Museums: Most require pre-booked timed entry. Don't assume you can walk up — especially Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House.
- Albert Heijn (AH): The main supermarket chain. Great for cheap snacks, sandwiches, and drinks on the go. Branches everywhere.
- Indonesian food: The Netherlands has arguably the best Indonesian food outside Indonesia, thanks to colonial history. Don't miss rijsttafel at least once.
- Schiphol departure: The airport can be slow — arrive 3 hours early, especially during tulip season when it's packed with tourists.
- Car rental: If you're staying in the city centre (like Mövenpick), be aware that parking is expensive and limited. The hotel is also a tram ride from Centraal Station, so factor that into your pickup plan. Enterprise near Centraal Station is convenient for day trips — the Netherlands is small enough to do The Hague, Delft, or Rotterdam as comfortable day drives.
Nine days in the Netherlands during tulip season felt like the perfect amount of time. The country is compact, beautiful, and endlessly varied — from Keukenhof's seven million blooms to Kinderdijk's UNESCO windmills, from Van Gogh's masterpieces to a quiet rijsttafel dinner. Hope this helps with planning. Feel free to reach out if you have questions.