Holland: Windmills & Waterways a la Carte

Visitors are drawn to Holland to celebrate its legendary windmills, waterways, and brilliant spring tulips. During this week, you experience these and many more highlights of this gateway to Europe. This tour is easily accessible for all walkers, and incorporates plenty of time to explore Holland’s historic cities, world-class museums, and to fully enjoy the elegant accommodations. Together, they provide a relaxed introduction to the best of this proud nation. Walking à la Carte tours include a world of options—additional cultural opportunities—along with plenty of walking. The choice is always yours.
    Encompassing a walking tour of Amsterdam, the “Venice of the North,” and the Zuid neighborhood of Anne Frank, the itinerary progresses to Holland’s signature fields of tulips in peak bloom at the stunning Keukenhof Gardens. Later in the week, you walk the trails of Holland’s most famous national parks: the wind-swept dunes of De Kennemerduinen on the North Sea coast and De Hoge Veluwe, home not only to deer and boar, but also to a sculpture garden and the renowned Kröller-Müller museum, with its fabled collection of Van Gogh and other modern works. A tour of Holland would not be complete without a visit to the famous 18th-century Kinderdijk windmills, the power source for the land-reclamation projects that quite literally made this densely populated country habitable.
    Accommodations are in carefully renovated historic buildings in the heart of the cities of Haarlem and Utrecht and are indulgent and sophisticated. Haarlem is the home of the Franz Hals Museum, with its prime examples of Holland’s glorious 16th-century art, and Utrecht was founded as a Roman outpost and later a Christian stronghold, with its famous cathedral. Food and drink are equally satisfying, a mix of elegant dining rooms serving locally produced fare, fresh picnics, and bistro favorites, accompanied by Holland’s crisp brews.