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| Netherlands Travel Guide for backpackers |
| Windmills, pretty little girls in pigtails and clogs, and little boys with their thumbs in dykes; this has long been the image of the Netherlands. Not much has changed. Well, that's not strictly true. The microchip has arrived, along with other modernity such as Amsterdam's Architecture Centre Arcam's unusual glass and aluminium building, but the flowers and canals are still there, as well as the landscape of flat land stretching forever into the horizon, making it a cool place for exploring on bike, and the locals are still friendly, the nightlife still a rave. |
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Amsterdam - If ever a city was made for the backpacker it must be Amsterdam, where you can grab a bike and check out most of the attractions around the canals.
Hoge Veluwe - The country's biggest national park where the Kröller-Müller Museum is located, with Europe's largest sculpture garden, showing works by Rodin, Moore and Giacometti, to name just a few artists.
Maastricht - With its beginnings way back in 50 BC, this is one of the Netherlands's oldest towns; great architecture and a banger of a carnival where the costumes and parades are brilliantly bright and crowds stream into town over the Easter period.
The Randstad - Here, spread out in a circle around Amsterdam, the most laid back city in the world, flowers bloom, and in March and May the countryside is one huge garden of scent and colour.
Red Light District - Open sex and seediness draw the peeps to this fascinating place where sluts and smuts hang. Actually it is not as hormone sizzling as it sounds, but check it out all the same with all the thousands of other tourists. |
 DAILY BUDGET in NETHERLANDS - There are a lot of cool activities in Holland that come free of charge, but unless hostels, footwork, and pretending you're not hungry is your bag depend on spending more than EUR30 a day, which will get you all of the above. For US$80-82 you will be able to eat some decent chow, snatch comfortable zzz's in a private room, and use public transport. |
Spring brings tulips and daffodils and winter ice and skating. Summer brings cameras. Thousands of rubber-neckers snap click and flash their way around the country, but it is still a great time for picnics and parties. Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) April 30, is when Amsterdam party's hearty in a mind-blowing street market, just after the Carnaval blast with its crazy costumes and way cool parades in February.
Christmas time is also celebrated to the extreme in the Netherlands, with not one, but two Christmas Day's, 25 and 26 December. |
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