The Netherlands is a pretty small country, about twice the size of New Jersey. Every year millions of travelers to the Netherlands stay only in Amsterdam. Some visit the Netherlands’ second largest city, Rotterdam. Smart travelers with enough time head outside of the biggest cities to visit some of the Netherlands’ unique day trip destinations which are easily reachable from Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
The Netherlands’ day trip options are varied, including villages, beach towns, cities, and windmills. Which Netherlands day trips you choose will depend on the time of year and the weather. During our winter vacation in the Netherlands, we chose Haarlem, Kinderdijk, Gouda, Delft, and The Hague as our day trip destinations.
Haarlem
Haarlem is a medieval city approximately 12 miles west of Amsterdam. Haarlem has the charm of Amsterdam in a more compact and far less crowded package. There are many things to do in Haarlem, so it’s worth setting aside a full day to explore Haarlem.
Visitors to the Corrie ten Boom House learn the story of the Ten Boom family while sitting in the family’s living room before touring the house where the family hid six people. Unlike the Anne Frank house, they didn’t live in a hidden annex. They lived in the house, sleeping in bedrooms and eating with the family, but there was a hidden space behind a brick wall of Corrie’s bedroom, reachable by a false back in the bottom of a cupboard, where they could run and hide in just over a minute. The only way they could go outside was by going up to the roof and crouching down behind the banister, out of sight from the neighbors, because you could never know who to trust.
The family had a jewelry shop connected to the home, and Corrie ten Boom used a simple triangular plaque advertising watches to signal to those outside whether or not the house was safe to enter. In February 1944 the house was raided and the family arrested, as well as resistance workers who came to the house because the Gestapo put the signal back up. Corrie’s father died in prison and her sister died in Ravensbrück concentration camp, but Corrie survived, as did the six people who hid during the raid and were saved from the tiny hiding place a few days later.
Visitors to the Corrie ten Boom House should make reservations in advance. The house can only be visited on a tour, and tours are limited to 20 people. Morning tours require reservations while afternoon tours are on a first come, first served basis.
For two hundred years after his death, his paintings were held in such poor esteem that they were sold for very small amounts of money. In the 1800s he gained popularity again and famous painters would copy his works to learn his techniques. The museum displays some of these copies next to the originals and the free audio guide shares stories of the artists who traveled around the world to see his art.
Another unique thing to do in Haarlem is visiting the hidden gardens, or hofjes, of Haarlem. Haarlem has 21 hidden gardens, the oldest of which, Hofje van Bakenes, was created in 1395. The gardens were surrounded by almshouses where poor widowed or unmarried women lived, and the private gardens were a place for them to gather together.
Kinderdijk
A thousand years ago this area of Alblasserwaard was a peat bog, which meant lots of fertile soil, but not a lot of dry ground to build on. Eventually, the solution to the problem was discovered, windmills. The windmills were used to both pump extra water out and bring water back in when levels got too low, as that could cause the ground to sink.
Visitors to Kinderdijk can see the visitor center, which is a modern pump station and has an informative movie about the windmills. There are also two windmills open to visitors. It is interesting to see how families used to live in these windmills and learn how they would communicate with each other to protect the land.
Gouda
We are big cheese lovers so we couldn’t pass up the possibility of taking a day trip to Gouda, a town known for its namesake cheese. Plus Gouda is a very cute town. One thing to know before heading out on a day trip to Gouda – Gouda is not pronounced goo-da. The correct pronunciation is gow-da, with a very guttural “g.”
The museum also features a few other items unique to Gouda including the long skinny curved Dutch clay pipes and candles. Candles are such a thing in Gouda that Gouda has an annual event, Gouda by Kaarslicht, a tradition where all buildings on Gouda’s main square are lit with candlelight.
Outside of the weighing house is Gouda’s huge market square, Plaza Markt.
Gouda is a very short train ride from Rotterdam and is reachable by train from Amsterdam as well.
Delft
Delft is another town in the Netherlands with lots of pretty canals and architecture. It is also famous for Delft Blue earthenware. Chinese porcelain was very popular in the Netherlands, so when the import of porcelain from China declined because of civil wars in China, Dutch potteries started developing their own versions of the blue and white porcelain.
Other sites to see in Delft are the Oude Kerk (Old Church), Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), City Hall, and the Oostpoort (Eastern Gate).
Delft can be reached by train or bus from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. We visited Delft on a day trip from Rotterdam that also included The Hague as Delft is between the two cities.
The Hague
While Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is the seat of the Netherlands’ government. That made me imagine it would be a modern city, but The Hague is actually a very charming old-world city. It is also located on the coast of the North Sea.
