Discover NL

The Netherlands is built around water — Amsterdam’s ring of seventeenth-century canals is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Rotterdam replaced its wartime ruins with daring modern architecture, and the delta wetlands of Zeeland and the reclaimed polders are landscapes found nowhere else. Cycling is the default transport and the network is superb.

Amsterdam leads with the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, the Jordaan neighbourhood and a genuinely international food scene. Elsewhere, the Hague holds the Mauritshuis and the country’s government, Utrecht rewards a slow afternoon on canal-level terraces, and Maastricht’s Roman past and Burgundian eating culture feel distinctly southern. The Keukenhof gardens in spring and the North Sea coast dunes add natural draw.

Top places in NL

• Amsterdam — Ring canals, the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House and the Jordaan — the Netherlands in miniature.
• Rotterdam — A port city rebuilt as an open-air architecture museum: the Cube Houses, the Markthal and Erasmus Bridge.
• The Hague (Den Haag) — The seat of government, the Mauritshuis’s Vermeer and a North Sea beach suburb at Scheveningen.
• Utrecht — Canal-level terraces below the Dom Tower, a medieval centre and a compact, very liveable city.
• Maastricht — The most southerly Dutch city — Roman walls, Burgundian food culture and a famous carnival.