10 Fun Stops on a Road Trip Through the Netherlands in a Rental Car

Amsterdam is a fascinating city—grand yet cozy—where you can easily spend a few days: the medieval city center with its iconic canals, the charming streets of the Jordaan, restaurants and bars in De Pijp, world-famous museums like the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, and, not to mention, a nightlife scene with options to suit every taste. The hippie days, when Amsterdam was the magical center of the world, are long gone, but the city has never lost its magical allure. You don’t need to rent a car to enjoy the historic center. In fact, we actually advise against driving a rental car around the Dutch capital, because the old city center has many narrow one-way streets and parking is extremely expensive (if you can even find a spot). Moreover, most attractions are within walking distance or easily accessible by public transportation within the city.

But enough about Amsterdam—if you’ve rented a car, you’ll probably want to get out of the city to explore the Netherlands. The best spots are easiest to reach by rental car. Plus, if there are two or more of you, it’s often cheaper than traveling by public transportation. Amsterdam is a great starting and ending point for a road trip through the Netherlands in a rental car. Enjoy the Dutch capital at the beginning or end of your road trip, or use Amsterdam as a base for day trips. The Netherlands is so small that you can easily include many of the attractions on our itinerary in a day trip. Of course, you can start this road trip through the Netherlands in any town along the route. To make things easy for you, we’ve included links to places where you can rent a car.

Waterland

If you drive directly from Amsterdam to the next stop on our road trip (the Zaanse Schans), the drive takes less than half an hour. But we recommend first taking a short drive in your rental car right along the IJsselmeer, through quaint villages like Durgerdam and Uitdam. If you then head west, you’ll pass through Waterland: completely flat green grasslands, crisscrossed by countless ditches and small canals. It doesn’t get any more Dutch than that! If you have time, you can hop out of your rental car in the village of Watergang for a canoe trip through the canals.

Zaanse Schans

The Zaanse Schans (near Zaandam) was built to preserve the historic architectural style of the green-painted wooden houses in this region. Along the Zaan River, you’ll also see the quintessential symbol of the Netherlands: eight historic windmills. Four smaller ones are located in the recreated village itself. These windmills were used for various purposes, including sawing wood, grinding spices, and producing linseed oil, mustard, and paper. You can also see how wooden clogs are made and follow the process from the cocoa bean to the final product: chocolate. At the bakery museum, be sure to try the traditional Zaanse Duivekater. A fun sight is the first little grocery store owned by a man named Albert Heijn, who now runs the largest Dutch supermarket chain.

The Zaanse Schans isn’t very large, so on the same day you can drive your rental car on to the next stop—or rather, stops, since there are three of them. You can take your time driving there via back roads (through the oldest Dutch polder, the Beemster) or take the highway via Purmerend.

Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik

These three towns on the IJsselmeer together form the Golden Triangle. All three were important ports for ships sailing to the colonies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and the West Indies (Suriname and the Antillean islands, including Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao). Today, the wealth from that era—the Dutch Golden Age—is still clearly visible.

The first stop is Hoorn, where the city center consists of historic merchant houses and warehouses, each one more beautiful than the last. Many feature facade plaques, and some read like a comic strip. In Enkhuizen, the city walls surrounding the medieval center are well preserved. At the Zuiderzee Museum, you can see how people lived and worked in days gone by, when the IJsselmeer was still an inland sea. The last town, Medemblik, also has a beautiful old town center, with the 13th-century Radboud Castle as its centerpiece.

If you’re visiting these towns on a day trip from Amsterdam, you might consider leaving your rental car in Hoorn, taking public transportation to Enkhuizen, taking a boat from there to Medemblik, and then returning to Hoorn on the historic steam tram.

Frisian Lakes Region

The Zuiderzee became the IJsselmeer when the Afsluitdijk was completed in 1932. You drive across that dike to the province of Friesland, or Fryslân, as the Frisians themselves say. While driving across the dike in your rental car, you’ll see only the IJsselmeer, but if you stop halfway, you can also see the other side—the Wadden Sea—from the footbridge. In the Frisian Lake District, you can enjoy a variety of water sports to your heart’s content: sailing, canoeing, water skiing, and much more. What’s more, there are many historic towns scattered among the lakes, such as Sneek, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, and Workum. These are just five of the eleven Frisian cities that you can easily visit along the Eleven Cities Route if you’ve rented a car. Just like the famous skating race, the route begins in the Frisian capital, Leeuwarden. Do you have some time to spare? Then take a trip to one of the Frisian Wadden Islands, each of which has its own unique atmosphere. You can take your rental car on the ferry to Terschelling and Ameland.

Groningen

You can drive directly from Friesland to our next stop, but a visit to Groningen is really a must. This college town has plenty of cozy pubs, and from Groningen’s most iconic landmark—the Martini Tower—you’ll enjoy a fantastic view of the city and its surrounding countryside. You can also look down on the city from the adjacent Forum, which offers a beautiful view of the Martini Tower. The Groninger Museum regularly hosts interesting exhibitions and displays.

Once you’ve made the trip to Groningen, drive from there to Zwolle in your rental car via small country roads through the countryside of the province of Drenthe: a mix of wet and dry heathlands, marshes, and forests.

The Hanseatic City of Zwolle

Zwolle is often overlooked, but that’s completely unfair. It’s one of the Dutch Hanseatic cities and a beautiful, historic, and very charming city. There are several parking garages around the city center where you can safely park your rental car. In the city center, you can see the outlines of the former fortress: some of the pointed bastions have been beautifully restored, and there are also a few remnants of the city wall. The impressive Sassenpoort is the only one of the six city gates that has been preserved. For book lovers, Zwolle boasts the most beautiful bookstore in the Netherlands, located in a unique setting: the Broerenkerk, a historic monastery church dating from the fifteenth century.

North of Zwolle lies the Weerribben-Wieden National Park, a labyrinth of ponds, lakes, ditches, swamp forests, and vast reed beds. Here you can see why the nearby village of Giethoorn has no roads, only ditches. Unfortunately, Giethoorn—especially in the summer—is overrun with tourists, but this national park is not.

If you’d like to visit Zwolle and the surrounding area on a day trip from Amsterdam, you can drive there in about an hour in your rental car through the Flevoland polder—another quintessentially Dutch landscape.

Utrechtse Heuvelrug

Also very easy to reach and perfect for a day or weekend trip: the ANWB’s Utrechtse Heuvelrug route. If you’re driving there from Amsterdam, it’s best to start at Hilversum; if you’re following our road trip itinerary, Bunnik (right off the A12 highway) is the best starting and ending point, since you can then easily continue your road trip in your rental car.

So this is essentially a loop within a loop. The route mostly winds through dense forests and isn’t very long (93 kilometers), but there’s so much to see along the way that you’ll definitely want to set aside a full day—or even two—for it. Along the route, you’ll come across many country estates and castles ( Zeist Castle, Groeneveld Castle, Drakensteyn Castle, Huis Doorn, Sandenburg Castle), watchtowers (near Leersum), and the Henschotermeer recreational lake. If you’re traveling with children, it’s a great idea to leave the rental car behind for a bit and climb the Pyramid of Austerlitz.

You should definitely take the opportunity to veer off the route every now and then, for example to visit the incredibly charming town of Amersfoort or the provincial capital, Utrecht. On the western outskirts of that city lies one of the most beautiful castles in the Netherlands: De Haar Castle, which is surrounded by an estate with beautifully landscaped gardens.

The Biesbosch

The poet Marsman wrote: “When I think of Holland, I see wide rivers flowing slowly through endless lowlands.” And that is exactly the landscape you’ll encounter as you drive from Bunnik toward De Biesbosch in your rental car. The best way to cross the Lek River is by taking the ferry to Culemborg, and between Brakel and Herwijnen there’s a car ferry across the Waal. Between these two major rivers, opt for a drive along the much smaller but romantically meandering Linge River. Not far from Brakel lies the beautifully restored Loevestein Castle, right on the banks of the Waal.

The Biesbosch is a unique tidal river delta. It is a land of marshes, willow forests, small islands, and creeks, where a diverse array of waterfowl, beavers, and other animals call home. You can canoe or kayak through this water-rich area on your own or take a ride on an electric boat. There are also marked hiking and biking trails. Close to the Biesbosch lie historic fortified towns such as Geertruidenberg, Woudrichem, and Gorkum. You can spend the night in one of these towns, or in the Biesbosch itself (hotel, hostel, and campground), or in the somewhat larger city of Dordrecht.

Kinderdijk Windmills

To visit the famous windmills of Kinderdijk, you can park right at the start of the Molenkade, but parking there is limited. In Alblasserdam, there is a larger parking lot on Marineweg, where, after parking your rental car, you’ll be transported to the windmills by shuttle bus or ferry. It’s also the starting point for a beautiful walking route along the Kinderdijkpad, which takes you not only past the windmills but also through the peaceful countryside with rustling poplars, gnarled pollarded willows, and swaying reed beds.

You wouldn’t think so when you see the flat countryside around the windmills, but you’re actually standing on the edge of the Randstad, the heavily urbanized western part of the Netherlands. Nestled between those major cities are two gems:

Delft and Leiden

Both are university cities: Delft is home to the renowned Technical University, and Leiden has the oldest university in the Netherlands.

Delft is nestled between Rotterdam and The Hague and is world-famous for its Delft Blue pottery. It is still produced by the De Porceleyne Fles factory (English: Royal Delft), which also serves as a museum. The old city center, crisscrossed by canals, is a succession of historic monuments and stunning architecture, such as the Oostpoort, the Oude Kerk (dating from the 13th century), and the Nieuwe Kerk (dating from the 17th century). Members of the Dutch royal family are buried in the latter church, beneath the mausoleum of William of Orange.

Leiden has been an important city since the late Middle Ages. The Singelgracht canal surrounding the old fortress is still completely intact, and within it you can enjoy historic buildings and intimate courtyards. The city is home to the Netherlands’ most important archaeological museum, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. The natural history museum Naturalis is also well worth a visit.

Back to Amsterdam

The Oude Rijn flows right through Leiden and empties into the North Sea at Katwijk. There are beautiful beaches near that town, as well as to the south (Wassenaarse Slag) and to the north (Noordwijk). Not only are they lovely in the summer, but even when it’s not so warm, you can enjoy a refreshing walk on the wide sandy beach. In the spring, it’s fun to take a drive in your rental car through the bulb-growing region with its vast fields full of flowers.

Haven’t had your fill of historic cities yet? Then head to Haarlem in your rental car. Or would you like to see more of the water-rich Netherlands and the river that gave Amsterdam its name? Then drive your rental car from Leiden to Leimuiden and follow the Drecht and Amstel rivers back to the Dutch capital.

Amsterdam as a Base for Day Trips

If you’re using Amsterdam as a base for trips with a rental car, it’s best to book accommodations near the ring road (A-10). For relatively affordable lodging that’s also close to the ring road, the northern district is perfect. Thanks to Metro Line 52 (also known as the North-South Line), Amsterdam-Noord has an excellent and fast connection to the heart of downtown. This way, after a day out in your rental car, you can easily park in Noord and then head into the city center for a bite to eat and a drink.

Traveling Abroad by Rental Car

The Netherlands is a small country, but as you’ve read above, there’s plenty to see and do. We haven’t listed everything by a long shot, but we hope this has inspired you to rent a car for a road trip or day trips in the Netherlands.

That said, there are also beautiful towns and other attractions just across the border. Just think of the historic cities in Belgium, such as Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent. As a rule, it’s no problem at all to drive through neighboring countries in a car rented in the Netherlands; you just need to let the rental company know that you ’ll be crossing the border. This is important for insurance purposes.