The Netherlands

Designed and built between 1925 and 1931, this modernist World Heritage–listed factory northwest of the city centre is an icon of 20th-century industrial architecture. Often described as a 'glass palace' (it's...

Offering a wonderful introduction to Dutch and Flemish art, this splendid museum is set in a 17th-century mansion built for wealthy sugar trader Johan Maurits. It became a museum housing the Royal Picture...

The Rijksmuseum is among the world's finest art museums, packing in works by local heroes Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh as well as other masterpieces in the 8000 works on display over 1.5km of galleries. To...

Impressive for both its size and its magnificent stained-glass windows, Sint Janskerk had chequered beginnings: previous incarnations of the building burned down with ungodly regularity every 100 years or so from...

The Anne Frank Huis draws around 1¼ million visitors each year. With Anne’s melancholy bedroom and her actual diary – sitting alone in its glass case, filled with sunnily optimistic writing tempered by quiet...

It's a moving experience to visit this museum, which traces Van Gogh's life and development via the world's largest collection of his work, both familiar paintings and wonderful little-known pieces. It's...

The roll-call of artists represented in the collection of Rotterdam's pre-eminent fine-arts museum is stellar and spans multiple periods and movements: Rubens, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas,...

A private park for the wealthy until 1953, Vondelpark now occupies a special place in Amsterdam's heart. It's a magical escape, but also supplies a busy social scene, encompassing cycle ways, pristine lawns,...

One of the best-preserved fortifications in the country stands at tiny Bourtange near the German border. With its flooded moats, solid defences and quaint houses protected from all sides, it is a sight to behold,...

This captivating museum consists of two sections, 300m apart: open-air Buitenmuseum, with more than 130 rebuilt and relocated dwellings and workshops, and indoor Binnenmuseum, devoted to farming, fishing and...

A visit to Hoge Veluwe easily fills an entire day. Highlights include scenic cycling and hiking through pine forests and past unexpected open-drift sand dunes, and gorging on Van Gogh masterpieces in world-class...

The nation's biggest moated castle is a remarkable feast of Gothic spires, turrets and portcullis gates. It has a glorious chapel, and is surrounded by a large English landscaped garden with broad paths, statues...

Nature lovers are in paradise in this tiny national park protecting the man-made watery shallows of Lauwersmeer, split between Friesland and the neighbouring province of Groningen. The lake was formed in 1969...

Nestled between trees, this striking museum has works by some of the greatest painters of several centuries, from Bruyn the Elder to Picasso. Its Van Gogh collection rivals that of the artist's namesake museum in...

The patchwork of dune-scape running along the western coast of the island is a prime reason for visiting Texel. Salt fens and heath alternate with velvety, grass-covered dunes; plants endemic to the habitat...

The waterlogged area north of Alkmaar was once home to 15,000 tiny, yet productive, farms, each one an island, whose farmers tended their crops by rowboat. You can tour the auction house where farmers arrived...

An essential for anyone keen to learn about the region's WWII history, the National Liberation Museum is divided into three parts. The introductory, red-walled section analyses the rise of Fascism after WWI and...

No single sight evokes the undercurrent of explosive creativity pulsating through the Frisian capital quite like this 19th-century prison-turned-cultural centre. Dozens of entrepreneurial start-ups and young...

One of the Dutch sites on Unesco's World Heritage List, this stretch of the Alblasserwaard polder encompasses two canals, 19 traditional windmills, a pumping station that's been repurposed as a visitor centre and...

Inside a 19th-century, primrose-yellow mansion used by both the British and the Germans as HQ during Operation Market Garden, this much-visited museum does a good job of laying out this disastrous mission and...