Holiday rentals and lettings in The Netherlands

Table of Contents

• At a glance: What should you know about renting a holiday rental in the Netherlands?
• Holiday rentals and lettings in the Netherlands: find your perfect retreat
• Exploring the Netherlands: our top recommendations
• Activities: What are the top things to do and see in the Netherlands?

• Homes for every trip: Canal-side flats, thatched countryside cottages, dune bungalows and family villas, most with a garden, bicycles and a well-equipped kitchen for self-catering.
• Where to base yourself: Amsterdam for museums, Rotterdam for architecture, Zeeland and the Wadden islands for beaches, Drenthe and the Veluwe for woodland and cycling.
• Guest-rated favourites: Our best-reviewed Dutch lettings of the past year sit at 9.2+, praised for quiet settings, spotless interiors and easy access to cycle routes.
• Best time to visit: April and May for the tulip fields, June to August for beaches and terraces, September and October for quiet towns and lower prices.
• Things to do: Cycle the polders, tour the Zaanse Schans windmills, paddle through Giethoorn, walk the Wadden mudflats and browse world-class art museums.

The Netherlands packs an unusual amount of variety into a small country, and the accommodation follows suit. You will find canal-side apartments in the cities, thatched holiday homes in the polders, snug cottages on the edge of the woods, spacious villas for larger groups and waterside pitches for camping trips along the lakes. Most places are designed for self-catering, so you can shop at the local market and cook at your own pace. For waterside or woodland settings, consider our glampings options near the national parks. A few features come up again and again in Dutch lettings:

• Bicycles included, often one per guest, with a shed or rack for storage
• A garden or terrace with furniture, ideal for long light summer evenings
• Fully fitted kitchens with dishwasher, washing machine and dryer
• Wi-Fi and central heating for comfortable autumn and winter stays

Pet-friendly homes are widespread, so the dog can come along too.

What are the best areas to stay in the Netherlands?

For a first visit, Amsterdam is hard to beat, but the country is compact enough that almost anywhere works as a base. The table below details regions for specific interests:

What do our guests say?

Guests staying in the Netherlands consistently rate the same things highly: peaceful surroundings, homes that are spotlessly clean on arrival and hosts who leave proper local tips. Ratings of 9.2+ are common, with reviewers singling out cycle routes that start at the front door, terraces for slow breakfasts and the easy hop from countryside to city by train.

Here are our top-rated holiday lettings from the past year:

1. Eco forest home by Palette Resort de-Steppe - 9.3+: A woodland retreat in North Brabant with a hot tub and sauna, praised by families for its quiet setting and child-friendly layout.
2. Beautifully situated 6 person holiday home near Kampen - 9.2+: A country house by Lake Veluwe in Overijssel with a terrace, garden and space for six, and dogs are welcome too.
3. Holiday house 1000ft² - 9.2+: A roomy home beside Dwingelderveld National Park in Drenthe, with a pool, terrace and heathland walks from the door.

The Netherlands sits on the North Sea between Belgium and Germany, a flat, water-laced country of polders, canals, dunes and twelve compact provinces.

✈️What is the best way to get to the Netherlands?

For most British travellers the train is the easiest option, though flights and ferries all work well. Here are the most common ways to get to the country:

• Train: Eurostar runs direct from London St Pancras to Rotterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Centraal in around four hours, with no change at Brussels on the outbound leg. From either station, the national rail network reaches almost every town in the country within two hours, and most stations rent bicycles, so you can travel from the platform to your holiday let without a car.
• Plane: Amsterdam Schiphol is the main gateway, with flights from more than twenty UK airports and a train station directly beneath the terminal that reaches Amsterdam Centraal in fifteen minutes. Eindhoven, Rotterdam The Hague and Maastricht Aachen airports serve the south and are handy if you are basing yourself in Limburg, North Brabant or Zeeland.
• Ferry and car: Overnight ferries sail from Hull to Rotterdam Europoort and from Newcastle to IJmuiden, while Harwich connects to Hoek van Holland. Bringing the car makes sense for island and countryside stays; motorways are excellent, though city centres are best left to bicycles and trams.

🥗Where to eat in the Netherlands?

According to Google Maps data and reviews, Beluga Loves You is the best rated restaurant in the Netherlands. Below is a table showing the top 5 highly-rated restaurants hand-picked by our travel experts.

⭐Our guests’ recommendation: Our guest traveller Emma Wilson recommends the Café de Klepel in the Netherlands: a small candlelit bistro tucked down an Amsterdam side street, with a short daily menu, excellent wine advice and a welcome that makes solo diners feel at home.

☀️When is the best time to visit?

There is no bad season, but late April and May are the headline months, when the bulb fields between Leiden and Haarlem turn to colour and the weather is mild enough for long cycle rides. July and August bring beach weather and busy terraces, while September and October offer quieter towns, golden light and better value on holiday lettings.

Spring

• Best for: Tulip fields, cycling tours and garden visits such as Keukenhof.
• Weather: Mild days around 12 to 18 degrees, with fresh mornings and occasional showers.
• Atmosphere: Cheerful and busy around King’s Day at the end of April, calmer elsewhere.

Summer

• Best for: North Sea beaches, island hopping and open-air festivals.
• Weather: Warm and changeable, usually 20 to 25 degrees with sea breezes on the coast.
• Atmosphere: Lively, with packed terraces, canal boats and full campsites in Zeeland.

Autumn

• Best for: Woodland walks, museums and food-focused city breaks.
• Weather: Cooler and wetter, with crisp bright spells and temperatures near 12 degrees.
• Atmosphere: Relaxed and local, with quiet cycle paths and easier restaurant tables.

⭐Our Hosts’ recommendation: Our Netherlands local expert, the team at Eco forest home by Palette Resort de-Steppe recommends coming to visit the pine woods and heathland of North Brabant in early autumn, when the paths are quiet, the light is soft and the cycle routes towards the Belgian border are at their best. Pack walking boots, borrow the bikes and finish the day in the sauna. You can read more about local tips on the team’s page.

1. Cycle the polders and dunes
2. Windmills at Zaanse Schans
3. Amsterdam’s great art museums
4. Boat through Giethoorn
5. Walk the Wadden mudflats

1. Cycle the polders and dunes

   Cycling is not a novelty here, it is simply how the country works. Nearly every holiday let comes with bikes, and a network of numbered junctions makes route planning easy: pick your numbers, follow the signs and you cannot get lost. Ride the dune paths between Noordwijk and Zandvoort for sea views, or head inland across the polders past windmills, drainage ditches and grazing cattle. In spring the bulb fields around Lisse make an unforgettable detour, and cafes along the way serve apple tart the size of a doorstep.

2. Windmills at Zaanse Schans

   Half an hour north of Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans preserves a working riverside village of green timber houses and turning windmills. You can climb inside a mill to watch millstones grind pigment or oil, then walk on to a cheese farm and a clog workshop where craftsmen carve a pair in minutes. The site is free to wander and best visited early, before the coaches arrive. Combine it with nearby Kinderdijk in the south, a UNESCO-listed row of nineteen eighteenth-century mills.

3. Amsterdam’s great art museums

   Few cities of this size hold so much art. The Rijksmuseum covers eight centuries of Dutch history, with Rembrandt’s Night Watch as its centrepiece, while the Van Gogh Museum next door tells one artist’s story through more than two hundred paintings. Book timed tickets in advance for both. Beyond the Museumplein, the Mauritshuis in The Hague holds Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Rotterdam’s Depot Boijmans lets you walk through an entire art store.

4. Boat through Giethoorn

   In Overijssel, the village of Giethoorn has canals instead of roads, with thatched farmhouses linked by more than 170 little wooden bridges. Hire a quiet electric whisper boat and drift past gardens and reed beds, or take a guided trip out onto the Weerribben-Wieden wetlands, the largest peat marsh in northwestern Europe. Come early in the day or outside high summer to see it at its calmest, and pair it with a walk through the surrounding nature reserve.

5. Walk the Wadden mudflats

   At low tide the sea retreats from the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and guided mudflat walks set out from the northern coast towards islands such as Ameland and Schiermonnikoog. It is muddy, bracing and genuinely memorable, with seals hauled out on the sandbanks and vast flocks of wading birds overhead. Never go without a licensed guide, as the tides move fast. Ferries from Harlingen and Holwerd make a day trip to the islands simple.