Boating in Holland: a travel and boating holiday guide to North Holland, Utrecht & South Holland
25 minutes’ drive from Amsterdam, Vinkeveen is the gateway to the provinces of North Holland, Utrecht and South Holland. In these parts of The Netherlands, windmills line the waterways, green fields etched with dykes spread as far as the eye can see, and cities are characterized by gabled houses and bridged waterways. In spring, meanwhile, the countryside of South Holland turns brighter than a pop art painting, thanks to the blooming of millions of seasonal tulips.
Contents:
- Main cruising times
- Holland cruising map
- Top towns and cities to visit in Holland
- Best for windmills
- Best for flowers
- Discover Holland by bike
Getting around Holland by boat
A combination of lakes, rivers and canals spill their way through the North Holland, Utrecht, and South Holland regions. The largest waterway is the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, where you’ll navigate alongside barges and larger pleasure ships.
Main cruising times from our Vinkeveen base:
| Weesp | 2 hours |
| Muiden | 2 hours 15 min. |
| Amsterdam | 4 hours 30 min. |
| Utrecht | 4 hours 30 min. |
| Gouda | 10 hours |
| Lisse | 11 hours 30 min. |
| Leiden | 13 hours 30 min. |
| Zaanse Schans | 7 hours |
| Edam | 7 hours 30 min. |
Holland cruising map
Click on the map to view on full screen.
Top towns and cities to visit in Holland
Vinkeveen
The glassy lake of Vinkeveen is striped with manmade sand islands topped by houses that look like they’re floating. During spring and summer, it’s a water sports hub, with paddleboarders, water skiers, wakeboarders, and sloop boats (single-masted sail boats) winding through the gentle waves.
Must dos in Vinkeveen
- Have a drink at the Harbour Club: The Harbour Club (Groenlandsekade 1. Tel: +31 297 784 911. theharbourclub.com/en/vinkeveen) is a few minutes’ walk from the Le Boat base. The bartenders here expertly flare cocktails like watermelon mai tais and there are caviar and oysters on the menu if you want to start your boating holiday in style.
- Boat around Vinkeveen Plassen: Take in the pontoons, floating houses, and house boats around the lake.
Don’t forget: Pop into town for supplies. The Albert Heijn supermarket has everything you need to stock up ahead of your journey, from fresh meats and cheeses to bottled water and wines.
Utrecht
Utrecht is a mini Amsterdam. Canals curve through the city, spanned by more than 800 bridges,18th-century gabled buildings overlook the waterways, and cyclists, on basketed bikes, stream through the streets.
Must dos in Utrecht
- Take a walking tour of the wharf cellars: Utrecht is a multi-storey city. Many of its gabled buildings sit above waterside wharf cellars that served as storage and unloading spaces as long ago as the12th century. Today, they’ve been turned into cafes, bars, shops, and restaurants with outdoor seating areas. This three-kilometre walking tour takes in some of the best of them.
- Have a drink at Winkel van Sinkel: Once the Netherlands’ first department store, this statue-fronted Neoclassical building is now a grand café (Oudegracht 158. Tel: +31 302 303 030. dewinkelvansinkel.nl). Inside, it’s all dark wood and balustraded balconies. Or there’s a buzzy terrace out front for sunny days. The drinks menu is as vast as the building itself. Take your pick from speciality coffees, craft cocktails, or more than 90 beers, which are best enjoyed with a ‘borrel plank’ – a sharing platter of snacks.
- Scale the Dom Tower: At 112 metres tall, Dom Tower (Domplein 9. Tel: +31 30 236 0010. www.domtoren.nl) is the tallest church spire in the Netherlands. On a guided tour, visitors can climb the 465 steps to the top.
- Go underground at DOMunder: Beneath Utrecht’s main square, there’s a warren of passageways and exhibition rooms that offer an insight into 2,000 years of the city’s history (Domplein 9. Tel: +31 30 236 0080. www.domunder.nl).
Gouda
A 10-hour boat ride west from Vinkeveen, Gouda is best known for its namesake cheese. More than 600 million kilograms of it are produced in the Netherlands every year and the city celebrates this in everything from its lighting (mini gouda lights festoon some of the streets) to its museums. There is more to Gouda than dairy produce, though. Medieval buildings, a restaurant-ringed main square, and a clutch of independent shops await visitors to this canal-circled city.
Must dos in Gouda
- Experience the Cheese Market: Every Thursday between April and September, Gouda’s main square fills up with great wheels of cheese for the weekly cheese market. Traders here still demonstrate a14th-century hand-slapping bartering method. All Le Boat cruisers have well-proportioned fridges, so be sure to pick up a couple of wedges to enjoy back onboard.
- Get hands-on at The Gouda Cheese Experience: This interactive museum (Agnietenstraat 21, 2801 GZ Gouda. Tel: +31 182 787 934. Web: goudacheese-experience.com) tells you everything you need to know about Gouda, from how it’s made to the best ways to eat it. You can even attempt to pick up a replica cheese to experience how heavy they can be (spoiler: they can weigh up to 16 kilograms).
- See how stroopwafels are made: As well as being the home of Gouda cheese, the city claims to be the birthplace of the stroopwafel (find out more about this sweet treat in our Typical Dutch foods and where to try them article). Visitors can see how they’re made at Kamphuisen Stroopwafel (Markt 69, 2801 JM Gouda. Tel: +31 182 634 965. Web: syrupwafflefactory.com).
Weesp
A pocket-sized Amsterdam, Weesp is a two-and-a-half hour boat ride north from Vinkeveen. Boat all the way into the city centre, to WSV de Vecht marina, and you can moor in view of the working Molen De Vriendschap windmill and watch its sails spinning from your deck.
Must dos in Weesp
- Have a drink at Wispe Brouwerijj: Overlooking the Small Weesp canal in the city centre, where you may have cruised earlier in the day, the Wispe Brouwerijj brewery (Herengracht 16, 1382 AE Weesp. Tel: +31 294 785 587. Web: wispe.com) is located inside a neo-Gothic church. There are more than 18 beers on the menu. For something a little bit different, try the spicy mango version.
- Pop into Molen De Vriendschap: This working flour mill (Newweg 109. www.molen-devriendschap.nl) is open to the public between 10am and 4pm on Saturdays.
- Try a Weespermop: Weespermoppen are the city’s signature sweet treat. Read more about them in our foodie article Typical Dutch foods and where to try them.
Edam
Another of The Netherland’s Golden Age cities, Edam is a place of wonky-walled gabled buildings, wooden-fronted houses, waterside walkways, and red-rind cheese.
Must dos
- See the leaning tower of The Church of our Dear Lady looks like it’s dozing off. Listen to it chime every 15 minutes.
- Learn all about Edam cheese at the Kaaswaag: Built in the18th century, this former cheese weighing house is now a museum dedicated to all things Edam (Spui 9, 1135 BA Edam. Tel: +31 299 783 230. Web: henriwillig.com). Visit on a Wednesday in summer to see a reenactment of the historical cheese market unfold on the square outside
For more about Edam cheese see our ‘Typical Dutch foods and where to try them’ article.
Leiden
As the birthplace of Rembrandt, the city where the tulip was introduced to Holland, and the home of the Netherlands’ oldest university, Leiden, a short boat journey from Lisse, has no shortage of claims to fame.
Must dos in Leiden
- Take a city walk: With its red bricks, sash windows, iron lamp posts, and cobbled streets, Leiden was made for ambling. Pick up a copy of the Rembrandt Route guidebook from the tourist information office and you can strategically tick off all the spots linked to the Dutch master painter in the city.
- Bike out to De Tulperij: 40 minutes from Leiden by bike, De Tulperij is a flower farm with more than 600 varieties of tulips and dahlia on display (Oude Herenweg 16 B. detulperij.nl).
Muiden
A moated castle and Unesco-protected forts await visitors to this Medieval town, a few river bends away from Weesp.
Must dos in Muiden
- See Muiden Castle: With a timeline that can be traced back 700 years, this turreted moat-ringed castle (Herengracht 1. +31 294 256 262. muiderslot.nl) is one of the oldest and best preserved in the Netherlands. Head inside to hear stories of the kidnap plots, stabbings, and conspiracies sewn through the castle’s history.
- Explore Fort Pampus: Crowning a man-made island in the Ijsselmeer lake, a 30-minute ferry ride from Muiden, this fort (1398 PX Muiden. Tel: +31 (0)294 262326. www.pampus.nl) was once part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site and interactive museum. For ferry tickets and times visit pampus.nl.
Alkmaar
The most northern point you can travel in North Holland with Le Boat, Alkmaar pairs its gabled houses and canals with a yawning central square, overlooked by a 56-metre-tall bell tower.
Must dos in Alkmaar
- Browse the cheese market: Taking place in the Waagplein main square, Alkmaar’s cheese market runs every Friday morning between April and September.
- Duck into the National Beer Museum: Discover how beer is brewed and why it has become so popular in the Netherlands at this homage to hops. End your visit with a tasting in the museum bar (Houttil 1. Tel: +31 725 115 547. www.proeflokaaldeboom.nl).
The best places to see windmills in Holland
Zaanse Schans (north of Amsterdam, 7 hours boating from Vinkeveen)
A procession of 10 windmills lines the banks of the Zaan River in Zaanse Schans, backed by the meadows of the Kalverpolder region. Built between the17th and18th centuries, they’re still in working order, housing modern-day spice, paint, oil, and saw mills.
With a Zaanse Schans heritage site ticket (Schansend 7. Tel: +31 75-681 00 00. www.dezaanseschans.nl), visitors can go inside the mills (check specific opening days and times on the Zaanse Schans website) to watch demonstrations, shop for the products each mill makes onsite, and climb onto the viewing decks that stand just beneath the sails.
There are also eight museums onsite at Zaanse Schans, digging into topics from timepieces to merchant life, as well as a clog workshop, where you can see clog-makers in action.
Top tip:
Hire a bike from Le Boat and you can follow the eight kilometre Hotspot Wormerveer cycle trail around the attraction’s highlights. It includes a pit stop at a coffee stall with al fresco seating.
Gouda
There are four windmills within walking distance of Gouda city centre. One of the oldest flour mills in the Netherlands, De Roode Leeuw, is open on Thursdays and Saturdays. The18th century Mill t’Slot and De Mallemolen, one of the largest polder mills in Holland, welcome visitors on Saturdays. The Haastrechtse Mill, meanwhile, can be visited by request.
The best places to see flowers in Holland
Lisse
Set to the west of Amsterdam, Lisse is known as The Flower Town of the Netherlands. Most famously, it’s the springboard to Keukenhof, one of the world’s largest flower gardens. Yet, there’s even more to this petalled place than The Garden of Europe.
Must-dos in Lisse
- Delve into Keukenhof: Known as the Garden of Europe, Keukenhof flower park (Stationsweg 166A. keukenhof.nl) spills out over 79 acres and is sewn with more than seven million spring-flowering bulbs. Sculptures, picnic areas, and ornamental lakes punctuate the expanses of tulips, crocuses, hyacinths, daffodils, and irises. Open mid-March to early May, daily.
- Discover the Black Tulip Museum: At this museum in the centre of Lisse, you can delve deeper into what it takes to cultivate, trade, and breed some of the Netherlands’ favourite flower bulbs (Grachtweg 2a. Tel: +31 252 417 900. museumdezwartetulp.nl). The Tulip Barn: The countryside around The Flower Barn (3e Loosterweg. thetulipbarn.com) is streaked with more than a million flowers, representing 200 tulip varieties. Open end of March to early May, daily.
Discover Holland by bike
The Netherlands is threaded with cycling routes, so it’s worth hiring bikes with Le Boat. In this part of the country, the Koe Kaas Route is one of the most scenic. Meandering through the cress-coloured Krimpenerwaard countryside near Gouda, it passes cheese farms, countryside coffee shops, and lesser-known villages.
Breukelen is also an excellent Le Boat stop to bike around. Short, level trails take you into the leafy countryside beyond the town, through dinky villages, and back again for little effort.
Lengthier options include…
- The Utrecht Breweries Cycle Route: A 57-kilometre circular trail taking in tasting rooms, craft breweries, and a vineyard enroute.
- The Loosdrecht Lakes: You can pick this 49 kilometre route up from either Breukelen or Maarssen and follow it to the lakes of Loosdrecht (or if you boat into Loosdrecht from The Vecht, you can do the route in reverse).
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