Away from Amsterdam

Sidetrips and day trips from Amsterdam

Several enticing destinations are within easy day-trip distance from Amsterdam—among them the fairy-tale Mudien Castle, the tulip region near Haarlem, the traditional village of Zaanse Schans, and the Van Gogh–packed Kröller-Müller museum in Hoge Veluwe national park.

Any of these excursions could be in of itself a full day trip from Amsterdam. However, you could also fit three of them—the tulip fields of the Bloembollenstreek, the windmills of Zaanse Schans, and the art city of Haarlem—comfortably into a two-day excursion by spending the night in Haarlem, whose museums and 17th-century architecture make for a pleasant base.

Muiden Castle: Just eight miles east of Amsterdam in Muiden, the fairy-tale castle of Muiderslot built in 1285 raises five turreted towers and battlements above a moat, the only access over a drawbridge...

★★ Haarlem: Haarlem makes perhaps the finest day trip from Amsterdam, offering a much more laid-back and less hectic version of a tidy Dutch city. It also has some great museums, including one devoted to hometown hero Frans Hals...

★ Windmills: Zaanse Schans & Kinderdijk: As the countryside north of Amsterdam became industrialized in the 20th century, people realized a way of life was disappearing rapidly. In the late 1950s, dozens of local farms, houses, and windmills from the 17th century were broken down, carted off, and reassembled into a kind of archetypal "traditional" village called Zaanse Schans...

★ Tulips: Keukenhof, Aalsmeer, & Bloembollenstreek: Between Haarlem and Leiden stretches a 20-mile strip of land known as the Bollenstreek, Amsterdam's bulb belt. These lowlands along the North Sea are carpeted with mile upon mile of fields of gladioli, hyacinths, lilies, narcissi, daffodils, crocuses, irises, dahlias, and the mighty tulip...

★★★ Hoge Veluwe Park & the Kröller-Müller Museum: Set in the middle of Hoge Veluwe National Park—a 13,750-acre national park of heath, woods, and sand dunes where the primary form of transportation is by (free) bike—is the Kröller Müller Museum, one of the Netherlands' top modern art museums (from Van Gogh to contemporary) and home to Europe's largest outdoor sculpture garden...

Take a tour

Prefer someone else to take care of the logistics and provide a professional guide for your day trips? Try a day trip from Amsterdam via our partners at Viator.com:

Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs © the Amsterdam Tourism & Convention Board