Kinderdijk & Rotterdam & Delft & The Hague

About this tour

The full South Holland route in one day: the UNESCO windmills of Kinderdijk, royal The Hague, the Delftware town of Delft and Rotterdam's striking modern skyline.

This is the grand tour of South Holland — four completely different faces of the country in a single, well-paced day. We start early at Kinderdijk, where nineteen windmills have stood in a row along the canals since the 1740s. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the finest windmill landscape in the world; you can walk the towpaths, watch the sails turn and see how the pumping system kept this land dry for centuries.

From there we head to The Hague for the Binnenhof, the Hofvijver and the Peace Palace, then on to Delft — perhaps the prettiest small city in the Netherlands. Lunch is on the Markt square beneath the leaning tower of the Old Church, followed by a visit to Royal Delft, the last remaining 17th-century Delftware factory, where painters still decorate every piece by hand.

The day ends in Rotterdam among the Cube Houses, the Markthal and the Erasmus Bridge. It is a full day, but the driving is comfortable, the stops are generous, and you cover in one day what would otherwise take three.

Good to know: this is our longest and fullest day, so we start early and keep the pace comfortable with regular breaks. At Kinderdijk you can enter one of the working windmills to see how a miller's family lived. Delft is perfect for picking up a genuine hand-painted Delft Blue souvenir, and we can arrange a short boat ride in Rotterdam harbour if time allows.

Highlights

• Nineteen UNESCO windmills at Kinderdijk
• Binnenhof and Peace Palace in The Hague
• Delft's old town and Royal Delft pottery
• Erasmus Bridge, Cube Houses and Markthal
• Door-to-door pickup in Amsterdam