The Netherlands tulip road trip has a special place in my heart because this was my first ever European road trip just after I moved to Germany. This is where I experienced the quintessence of Europe and where I sincerely fell in love with the idea of the road trip. Moments like passing by lesser-known yet dreamy villages, wallpaper-like landscapes, cute littoral towns, fields full of flowers are safely lingering in my mind!
When it comes to the Netherlands, People tend to lean towards Amsterdam and nothing beyond Amsterdam. Of course, Amsterdam was on our bucket list. But, being in the Netherlands countryside, exploring lesser-known villages, driving through endless color splashing tulip fields were something unique and that’s what we were craving for. If you want to feel the true Netherlands in a few days, we have done some serious work here to put together a great itinerary for you guys. Have a look 🙂
Table of Contents
Day one – Travel to Amsterdam
Your Netherlands road trip starts with a mandatory tour of Amsterdam! So, we reached Amsterdam and checked in to our room. After leaving our luggage and taking some rest, headed out to Leidseplein to watch the vibrant nightlife of Amsterdam.
Today’s Leidseplein was once a parking place for farmer’s horses and cartages, now a buzzing nightlife square. Its streets are fringed by popular pubs, bars, cafes, restaurants, live music, dance clubs and many more.
Day two and Day three – Explore the city of Amsterdam
Amsterdam is every youth’s one of the dream destinations. It’s quirky streets, perky nightlife, happening main squares, busy canals all day long that calmly glitter and reflect decorated bridges at night, famous coffee shops which don’t serve coffee for its customers 😀 , number of museums, make it a unique city break of all.
We explored Amsterdam for the next 2 days but things to do here are vast that we had to pledge to come back again. If you could spend a few more days in Amsterdam, please do so because, boy is it truly beautiful!
Nevertheless, here is a list of things we did in Amsterdam during our stay – do add them in your itinerary if you haven’t chalked it yet.
Day four – A day trip to the neighboring village of Zaanseschans
The Netherlands and its ancient windmills go hand in hand. So, don’t come out of the Netherlands without watching one! Besides, skipping Zaanseschans would not give justice to one’s stay at Amsterdam. So, on day 4 we went to the windmill village – ZaanseSchans where you could easily spend a whole day. As mentioned, the village has few ancient windmills that still is functioning and you could also take a tour of a windmill, other than that, it also has museums, cheese factory, restaurants, and souvenir shops.
Day five – Leave Amsterdam to Giethoorn
On our 5th day, while leaving Amsterdam, we hired a car and started our journey towards Giethoorn. The road trip has some beautiful views of the countryside and hereafter you can expect to get a glimpse of tulip fields on the way.
Day six – Explore Giethoorn and enjoy spectacular Dutch countryside
The quaint village of Giethoorn sprinkles fairy dust on its visitors that makes us wonder if we have stepped into one of those fairy villages we grew up listening to!
Giethoorn is a tiny village in the northeast part of the Netherlands with charming canals, houses, restaurants, museums. It is easy to spend a whole day relaxing and exploring Giethoorn. The village has become quite a famous destination amongst tourists. But, during our visit, as the day progressed, tourists had significantly reduced leaving the calm village to all ourselves!
To read more about Giethoorn, hop on to our separate article on Giethoorn!
Day seven – Lelystad
We stayed in an Airbnb room that was pretty close to Lelystad port and had a pleasing view of canals and water streams that made the area a tiny private island.
We kept this day to explore the Lelystad and the surrounding areas. For the sundowner, we went to the port for a nice dreamy walk along the port, sipped our drinks and ate some scrumptious Dutch food.
Day eight and nine – Drive through tulip fields (explore Noordoostpolder and Flevoland tulip fields)
The most awaited part of the Netherlands road trip is finally here. On day 8 and day 9 drive through Noordoostpolder and Flevoland Tulip fields that covers approximately 120 kilometers of tulip fields in total.
After enjoying our drive through Noordoostpolder tulip fields, we reached a port town Lelystad. We again stayed in an Airbnb room with a lovely view of small canals and water stream.
Day ten – Explore one of world’s larget tulip fields
We drove through approximately 112 kilometers stretch of tulip fields near Lelystad. It was hard not to pit stop in almost all the tulip fields we spotted on our way ?
It was wonderful ten days spent in Netherlands. Exloring Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans, the “The Venice of east – Giethoorn” and never ending tulip fields. Made wonderful memories there. Have you been to Netherlands? Do share your experience and any other places in comments below. We will be happy to visit them during our next trip!
