To the travel photographer the Netherlands offers a wealth of opportunities, from its beautiful gardens, to its quaint old market towns to beautiful landscapes filled with windmills. It has a lot to offer and what’s more it’s practically on the doorstep for the UK and most of Europe as well. There are plenty of airlines flying to Holland, however for UK photographers (and European ones as well) I suggest taking the car. It gives you so much more freedom and there are plenty of ferry operators to choose from. As for the attractions well I’ll name just a few of the many possibilities.
Keukenhof is, you might say, the Dutch equivalent of Kew Gardens. This 32 hectare park, only open from the 18th of March to the 16th of may, is dedicated to that famous Dutch export the Tulip. In fact it is full of all sorts of bulbs; daffodils, hyacinths and many more as well as thousands of tulips. The park has 15km of trails and it offers amazing photographic opportunities with fields of different coloured flowers. It is well worth visiting Holland in the spring, just so you can make the most of the opportunity.
Keukenhof. Photo by Peter RobinettThere are a lot of beautiful Dutch towns and here I will just name a few of them with their most important attractions. Alkmaar, established in 943, is the cheese capital of Holland. On Fridays from the 2nd of April till the 3rd of September, between 10am and 12.30pm, there is a traditional cheese market, it is an amazing site. The rest of the town has beautiful architecture and canals to give you more photographic opportunities than just the market.
Edam and Volendam are located a stone’s throw away from each other. Edam is the world famous town, that has exported its cheese all over the world and Volendam is one of the only Dutch towns where it is still possible to see people wearing the traditional costume, especially if you go on a national holiday. Both towns have great architecture and are located near the big lake the Ijsselmeer, offering opportunities to photograph some traditional Dutch boats.
Gouda is the other famous cheese town in Holland; it has some nice old buildings. This includes the church of St Jan, which is the longest church in Holland and it has an amazing 70 stain glassed windows. There are also various museums and other exciting buildings.
These are just a few of the wonderful old Dutch towns; there are many others that are worth visiting, Maastricht, Delft, Haarlem to name but a few. I recommend getting the Rough guide to the Netherlands to see what other delightful towns his country has to offer.
The polder landscapes, dissected by waterways and windmills, provide excellent opportunities for landscape photography. In Kinderdijk, not too far from Keukenhof, there are 19 windmills, in 2 opposite rows, these provide great photographic opportunities. Especially on Saturdays in July and August when all the windmills operational. However you don’t need to go to Kinderdijk to see windmills, there are still around 1000 windmills in the Netherlands.
Windmills at Kinderdijk. Photo by Jack VerslootFor wildlife photographers, the Netherlands can also offer some great opportunities; there are lots of water birds, due to the amount of ditches, canals, rivers and lakes. The beaver has also recently been reintroduced in the Biesbosch national park. The Hoge Veluwe, in the middle of the country is the biggest national park (at 5500 hectares) in the Netherlands. Some of the wildlife you might be able to photograph there includes red deer, wild boar, pine martins and the introduced mouflon.
All in all Holland offers some great photographic opportunities and one of the best things about is that is practically on the doorstep for much of Europe.
Hotels Combined can help you find the best Dutch hotel deals.
If travelling from the UK the following ferry services are available.
Harwich-Hook of Holland with StenaLine
Hull to Rotterdam with P&O Ferries
Newcastle to Amsterdam with DFDS
Cheese Market in Alkmaar. Photo by Paul Downey
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Tags: holland, landscape, netherlands, wildlife, windmills
