There are dozens of historic towns in the Netherlands that deserve a visit. The most well-known obviously is the historic 17th-century city center of Amsterdam. Its historic architecture can be explored by a boat tour which goes through its lovely canals (known as grachten). The center became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.
Many visitors include a day-trip to one of the West's other historic cities. North Holland is filled with them — Haarlem, Alkmaar, Hoorn and Enkhuizen are less than one hour away as a day-trip from the capital. South Holland also has a few interesting historic towns. Delft is a tourist-favorite with its traditional architecture, canals, bikes, and the world famous blue and white ceramics. Gouda is known from the world famous Gouda cheese — but besides the cheese market, its historic town center is a really fun walk. Leiden, while historical, has much of a student-feel due the presence of the oldest university of the Netherlands there.
Utrecht is not visited a lot by foreigners, but its hard to understand why — it has the amenities of a big city, but its canals feel even more calm and relaxed than those in average medium-sized cities. Its an excellent destination to visit some antique stores or grab a beer while seeing the boats pass by. Amersfoort is a lot smaller, but again, its ancient center makes for a nice day out.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Western Netherlands
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Western Netherlands - updated May 2024
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Western Netherlands Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
