10 ESSENTIAL TIPS FOR TRAVELING TO HOLLAND

Send

With this guide of tips for traveling to Holland we want to facilitate, as far as possible, the organization of your trip to one of the most incredible countries in Europe. Something important before starting is to clarify that when we refer to Holland, we also refer to the Netherlands. This is due to popularly both names are used to designate the country, although the reality is that "Holland"only refers to the provinces of South Holland and North Holland.

Although on many occasions we have the idea that the Netherlands is only Amsterdam, we assure you that although the city is incredible, in addition to one of our favorites in the world, this country is much more than its capital and keeps impressive places, such as villages full of charm, landscapes dotted with traditional mills and unique cuisine , that we are sure, you will never forget.

Based on our experience of the trip to Amsterdam in 5 days we leave you a selection of those we believe, are 10 essential tips for traveling to Holland. We start!

1. What is the best time?

Although as always we say any time is good for travel to the Netherlands, taking into account the weather and the most frequented times by tourists, we can determine the following distinction.

High season (from June to August): these months are the most suitable for a trip to Holland due to the normally good weather in most areas of the country.
Measured season (April and May / September and October): Although the weather is usually not excessively cold or rainy, it is important to take it into account. The good thing about this era is that tourist places are usually very little crowded.
Low season (from November to March): these months usually bring rain and cold in addition to the closure of many places focused on tourism. Despite this, the tourist places are still open and you can find very tight prices in hotels.

Remember that if you are going to travel in high season, it is important to book flights and accommodation, especially in tourist areas and cities like Amsterdam if you want to get good prices and have options to choose from.

2. Entry requirements

If you are a Spanish or European Union (EU) citizen, you only need your ID or Passport to enter the Netherlands. If you have another nationality, we recommend you check the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Embassy to know the requirements for entering the country.

In addition to the documents mentioned above, another of the tips for traveling to Holland is that you carry the European Health Card so that if necessary, you can be treated. Remember that in addition to this card it is important to have the best travel insurance for Europe if you want to have medical care in the best hospitals and that a repatriation is included if necessary.

We always travel insured with Mondo, with whom we carry a totally adequate insurance to the needs that we will have on the trip. Hiring your insurance here with Mondo, just for being a Street Travelers reader, you have a 5% discount.

3. Security

The Netherlands is considered to be one of the safest countries in Europe, but you should not put aside what we call "journey with common sense". Try not to lose sight of the valuables you carry or your luggage at the stations, especially in the most tourist areas.
In addition to this, in cities like Amsterdam, if you do not know the area where you are staying, it is preferable to ask at your accommodation if it is safe to walk alone at night and if there is any area not recommended.

In addition to this, another of our tips for traveling to Holland and to any destination in the world, is that you carry a copy of your personal and important documentation in the cloud such as your ID, Passport, travel insurance policy or driver's license. In this way, in case of loss or theft, it will be much easier to perform any type of procedure.

Tips for traveling to Holland

4. How to start the trip to Holland?

The first and most important at the time of raising a trip to Holland It is clear how many days you count. Depending on this, the proposal could be to make a route through the country, either by public transport or rental car or choose to make a trip that includes some of the most important cities and surroundings.
Whatever the option and especially if it is your first trip to this country, you will most likely land in Amsterdam with any of the airlines that include this destination in their journeys. We recommend you to look for the flight in a flight search engine like Skyscanner, with which you will have the best options at the best prices.
In addition, we leave you the post How to go from Amsterdam airport to the center so you can make this journey in a comfortable and fast way.

Once you have the flight, the next step would be to find accommodation, especially if you are going to travel to the Netherlands in high season. We recommend using this accommodation search engine, considered the best, with the best prices and the best options.

With these issues already solved, it is advisable to review public transport options, especially if you are going to travel by train and tourist routes to see the options you have. Keep in mind that the train is one of the most comfortable ways to travel around Holland, since the country has a very wide, comfortable and modern network and also the journey is relatively short as it is a small country. Think that for example you can go from Amsterdam to Utrech in 30 minutes, to The Hague in 50 minutes and move to the north or south of the country in about 2 hours.
You can check schedules, prices and even make the reservation in this search engine, which is one of the most recommended.

And last but not least, it is convenient to review the tours and excursions you want to do to check the available times and places, especially in high season, at which time the most tourist places and cities like Amsterdam, usually Receive many travelers.
You can check and book here the best tours and excursions in the Netherlands.

Zaanse Schans

5. Holland route

If you have 10-15 days, one of the most recommended options for travel to Holland It is to make a route through the country, which includes some of the essential places to see in Holland.
Our proposal is to start in Amsterdam, where we recommend you spend an average of 3-4 days to visit the city and from there make a trip to Zaanse Schans, known for its mills and Edam, Marken and Volendam, all of them a few kilometers from the capital.
In case you want to make these excursions in a comfortable way and with a guide in Spanish, you can book this excursion to Zaanse Schans by bus or this excursion to Edam, Marken and Volendam.

After these first days you will follow the route through the Netherlands approaching Utrech, city of contrasts, where you can enjoy museums, churches, parks and cultural activities in addition to discovering what they say, it is the city with the most beautiful channels of the world.
If you want to know better the history of the city and not miss anything important you can book this free tour of Utrecht for free!

The next stop on the trip to Holland will be Delft, located less than an hour from Utrech which is known for its blue pottery and has a beautiful old town, surrounded by ancient canals, in which it will seem that you go back in time while you walk for it's streets.
Although you can get to Delft by train if you want to know more about the city and its surroundings, it is highly recommended to book this excursion to Delft, Rotterdam, The Hague and Madurodam by bus and with a guide in Spanish.

After these two visits, we suggest you continue approaching The Hague, one of the most important and elegant cities in Holland, where you can spend one or two days knowing places like the Noordeinde Palace, the Binnenhof, the Mauritshuis museum or the Peace Palace
The next stop will be in Rotterdam, a city unconventional, which after suffering a devastating Nazi bombing in 1940, was rebuilt showing today in its relief some of the most modern buildings in the country.
If you want to know more about these two cities, we recommend you book this excursion to The Hague and Rotterdam, with a guide in Spanish.

The next stage will take you to Keukenhof, considered one of the most beautiful gardens in the world in which more than 7 million tulips bloom each spring, making it one of the great reasons to travel to Holland on these dates.
Although you can arrive perfectly by public transport if you want to do it in a more comfortable way and not miss anything, we recommend you book this excursion to Keukenhof with a guide in Spanish.

Keukenhof

And finally, this route through the Netherlands will take you to Alkmaar, where it is held every Friday between 10 am and 12:30 pm, from April to September, the most famous cheese market in the Netherlands, which as you can imagine, It's one of the things you can't miss on this amazing trip.

In case you have 3-4 more days, an incredible option would be to end the trip in the impressive Dutch Friesland Islands, Texel, Terschelling, Ameland, Vlieland and Schiermonnikoog, located in the north of the country and which are one of the most beautiful landscapes incredible that you can see in Holland, in which in addition to relaxing, you can enjoy its extensive white sand beaches, which even come to be compared on many occasions with the paradisiacal atolls of the Pacific.

6. Amsterdam

Amsterdam is without any doubt, one of the cities that you can not miss if you are going to travel to Holland. Famous for its canals Amsterdam is also synonymous with bicycles and tolerance and we cannot forget that the city is considered by many to be one of the most tolerant cities in the world, in which its multicultural society moves at the stroke of a pedal.
With hundreds of places to visit, including its canals, surrounded by barking houses with colorful facades from the 16th and 17th century, the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum museums, the Flower Market, Begijnhof, the Anne Frank House or Dam Square, which is another of the places to visit in Amsterdam, we recommend you spend a minimum of 2-3 days in the city to get to know it and even extend a couple of more days if you want to make a trip around.

In addition to all these places, we recommend you complete this list of the best things to do in Amsterdam, with which you can get to know the city much more thoroughly.

You can also follow these optimized guides for days that will help you enjoy the city of the canals to the fullest.

You can combine these routes by booking one of these tours or guided tours in Spanish that will allow you to know the history and curiosities of the capital of Holland, among which are:

You can find much more information about the city in the post 10 essential tips for traveling to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam

7. Zaanse Schans

Another place you can not miss at travel to Holland It is Zaanse Schans, a small town located just 20 kilometers from Amsterdam, which has become an open-air museum due to the good state of preservation of its traditional wooden houses and mills.
In addition to enjoying one of the most recommended walks in the country, you can enter some of the windmills, see a cheese farm, where you can not stop buying and trying some of its delicacies and even meet a factory of clogs

You can visit Zaanse Schans from Amsterdam by taking a train at the Central Station that will leave you at Koog-Zaandijk station in 15 minutes and once there, you should take a short 10-minute walk, crossing a drawbridge, to get to the part Tourist of Zaanse Schans, where the mills are located.
Remember that although you can spend a whole day, visiting Zaanse Schans can be done perfectly in half a day, including transfers.

Another more comfortable option to get to Zaanse Schans is to book this bus tour that includes a guide in Spanish.

Zaanse Schans

8. Edam, Volendam and Marken

These three charming villages are another of the great reasons for travel to Holland In addition to one of the best tours and excursions in Amsterdam.
Although you can start the route through any of the three locations, it is normal to start in Volendam, a small fishing village, which seems to be taken from a story and is only 30 minutes by bus from Amsterdam.
Here we recommend you to enjoy the port area, where the most picturesque houses are located, as well as stopping at one of its terraces to drink or snack in front of a landscape that we are sure, you will not forget.
From here you can take a ferry to Marken, which is probably the quietest town of the three, where you can enjoy a traditional Dutch town, with beautiful streets dotted with houses with gardens and orchards, which make it an unforgettable place.

At this point and if you have not eaten yet, this can be a good place to do it in the afternoon to catch a bus to Edam, 20 kilometers from the capital, where you will find a small Amsterdam in which the main protagonists are the channels and lined with traditional colored houses.
Remember that if your visit is during the months of July and August and it is also Wednesday, you can see a recreation of the old cheese market.

A good option, if you do not want to waste much time on public transport is to book this excursion to these three villages with a guide in Spanish that also includes Zaanse Schans.

9. Dutch gastronomy

Another of the great reasons for travel to the Netherlands It is its gastronomy. Although we know that in a few lines it is impossible to summarize everything that entails, we do want to leave you with a selection of some of the most traditional dishes of Dutch gastronomy so that your trip is as complete as possible.

Bitterballen: Probably the best known snack in the country. It consists of small balls of meat cooked with spices that is coated with crusty breadcrumbs and to which mustard is added.
Rijstaffel: Rice boiled with vegetables, legumes, meat to which coconut is added in some of its variants.
Erwtensoep: Pea soup.
Rookworst: Smoked meat sausage that is cooked with spices and salt.
Stamppot: This is one of the most typical dishes and consists of mashed potatoes with vegetables, which are cooked with butter. There are different varieties, depending on the ingredients that are added.
Dutch cheeses: This is one of the elements of the cuisine of the Netherlands that you cannot miss. The best known are Gouda and Edam, with worldwide fame, although you have hundreds of varieties and options to choose from.
Stroopwakels: typical cookie that is stuffed with caramel sauce. Delicious!

Bitterballen

10. More tips for traveling to Holland

Other of the best tips for traveling to Holland They are:

It is important to remember that the Dutch usually eat earlier than in the rest of Europe, so restaurants usually also have a shorter schedule. Breakfast is usually from 07h to 09h, lunch from 11am to 1pm and dinner between 6pm and 8pm, the latter being the strongest dish of the day.
Remember that in order not to pay commissions and always have the current change we recommend you use the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to get money at the ATMs. They are the ones we use, They are free and will save you a lot.
You can find much more information on this topic in the post The best cards to travel without commissions.
Although it may seem silly, bikes and trams make very little noise. Look well before crossing the street.
As we mentioned before, although it is possible to move around the country with a rental car, we recommend using the train, as it is a comfortable, fast and above all, easy to use transport.
In the Netherlands (Holland) the voltage is 230V, the frequency 50 Hz and the plugs are of the type F as in Spain, so you will not need an adapter.

Do you want to travel to Holland for free?
Get it here:
The best offers of Flights to Holland here
The best hotels at the best prices in Holland: here
Book the best tours and excursions in Holland in Spanish here
Book your Airport⇆Amsterdam transfer here
Get € 35 for your reservation with AirBnb here
Book your travel insurance with a 5% discount here
Rent your car in Holland at the best price here