Escorted Netherlands Holidays and Guided Tours
The Netherlands is perfect for exploring, with its easy-to-travel distances, flat, well-maintained roads and an abundance of experiences in a compact country. In just a few days, you could wander through the colourful tulip displays at Keukenhof in the morning and admire Rembrandt’s The Night Watch by the afternoon.
Our Dutch holidays combine beautiful gardens, world-class art and cultural discoveries, with selected Christmas departures offering the chance to experience Amsterdam at its most magical. Whether travelling by coach and ferry, Eurostar, air or river cruise, there are plenty of ways to discover the charm of the Netherlands.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Netherlands Tours
Keukenhof opens in late March and closes in mid-May, and the middle two weeks of April are the most reliable for both the gardens and the surrounding bulb fields. Nothing is guaranteed as a mild winter brings the display forward and a cold spring holds it back. The pavilion flower shows change through the season, so there is always something in bloom under cover.
The Netherlands is flat, but Keukenhof covers 79 acres and a morning there may mean a couple of hours on gravel paths. Amsterdam's museums involve browsing gallery floors, and the older canal streets have cobbles and narrow pavements. Coaches drop off as close as the city allows, and we will always work with you to ensure all your group members can enjoy your tour with Airedale.
Tell us what you and your group can manage comfortably before you book, and we will be honest about whether a particular itinerary suits you.
All of our tours can be tailored to your group, whether you are an Arts Society, u3a, gardening club or a large group of friends; every itinerary can be personalised to your requirements.
Each private tour offers you exclusive use of your coach, support from the Airedale team with planning and a 24-hour contact line whilst at your destination, offering you peace of mind as you travel.
Keukenhof and the tulip season
Keukenhof, on the old estate lands at Lisse between Leiden and Haarlem, plants around seven million bulbs each autumn for a season that lasts barely eight weeks. Some 800 varieties of tulip appear, along with hyacinths, narcissi and the flower shows held in the pavilions. It opens in late March and closes in the middle of May, which is why our garden tours cluster tightly in spring.
The commercial bulb fields around the gardens are a separate spectacle, and their timing does not always match Keukenhof's. Mid-April is usually the safest bet for both, though a warm March can bring everything forward.
Our Keukenhof holidays pair the gardens with the rest of Dutch spring: a whisperboat through the canals, the model gardens at Bloemenpark Appeltern, a cheese farm and clog factory, and the windmills at Zaanse Schans. The river cruise version adds Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Volendam from the water.
Dutch art and the Golden Age
For a country this size, the collections are remarkable. The Rijksmuseum holds the Rembrandts and the Vermeers; the Van Gogh Museum a few minutes' walk away has the largest single gathering of his work. The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem sits in the painter's own town, where his loose, quick brushwork looks less like the seventeenth century than it has any right to.
Beyond Amsterdam, our art tours take in the Kröller-Müller Museum, set in the woods and heathland of the Hoge Veluwe National Park with its own substantial Van Gogh holdings, and the Vincentre at Nuenen, where he lived with his parents and painted The Potato Eaters.
Where we can arrange a guided tour inside a museum rather than leaving you with an audio handset, we do. It makes a real difference in a building the size of the Rijksmuseum.
