Discover Holland and Belgium

A popular haunt for creatives, students and bohemian spirits, De Pijp has always harbored beatnik flair and is nowadays Amsterdam’s lively Latin Quarter. The Jordaan is known for its beautiful houses, nice restaurants and original shops. Once a working-class bastion, it’s now attracting art galleries, restaurants and boutiques. Explore this part of the city with a local guide who will show you its best-kept secrets. You’ll also visit some flower markets and stroll past beautiful canal houses.

Head to the museum quarter and visit Rijksmuseum, a national museum dedicated to arts and history, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer. You will also visit the Van Gogh Museum which is dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries.

Meet your guide and take the road north to a small place called Jisp. This is how a lot of Dutch villages used to be built, along the waterways. You’ll then continue your trip on a dike, along the water, enjoying the very flat Dutch landscape to a place called Spijkerboor for a warming cup of coffee. Then it’s onward to Schermerhoorn to visit the windmill museum, enjoying stunning views over five other working windmills and the tulip fields. End the tour in the village of Broek in Waterland to enjoy a traditional ‘pannekoek’ in a very charming local restaurant.

Bruges the best-preserved example of medieval Flanders and, similarly to Amsterdam, the heart of Bruges is surrounded by an almost continuous ring of canals. Therefore Bruges is also known as “the Venice of the North”. Enjoy a guided tour and walk down small streets, pass green parks, see picturesque houses and marvel at city highlights like the Beguinage and Minnewater, the Burg and city hall, the belfry, the Church of our Lady, the old nunnery and St. Saint Saviour’s Cathedral.

Your guide, an author and passionate historian of the Flanders Fields, will collect you at your hotel and drive you to Ypres where you will spend time visiting some Flanders Fields sites. The visit will give you a better understanding of the physical and strategic challenges faced by the World War I soldiers and generals. Some of the sites included in the tour are The Ypres Sallient, Passchendaele, Site John McCrae, Menen Gate, Polygon Wood and In Flanders Fields Museum.