We are fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful countries in Europe. Our home country the Netherlands has beautiful coastal areas, green forests, modern cities, picturesque villages, fairytale castles and so much more. A road trip is a great way to experience all those sides of the Netherlands. And you don’t even need a full week or vacation to do see.
We selected the most beautiful road trips in the Netherlands for you, all doable in just one day (or combine them in one big road trip around the country!).
Driving and renting a car in the Netherlands
The roads in the Netherlands are easy to drive. There are many extremely good quality highways around the country, though the road trips in these blog will bring you to the more smaller, but equally good quality roads. It’s very safe to drive.
Renting a car is fairly easy as well. You can rent a car at the airports, but also at the bigger towns. When booking a car abroad, we usually book one online in advance to make sure we get the best price deal and insurances are all included.
To get a good indication of the prices for a rental car in the Netherlands, we recommend you to check prices on Discover Car Hire. They often have the best deals and indicate clearly what insurance coverage is included.
#1 Delta route in Zeeland
Download route | The Delta Works in Zeeland, Brabant and South Holland are impressive proof of the engineering talents in the Netherlands. The 13 Delta Works were built after the flood of 1953, which flooded a large part of this area in the Netherlands.
The Delta Route takes you along all these structures on a great one-day road trip along the southern coast. The route combines a unique structure with the beautiful Zeeland coast.
#2 Veluwe Road Trip
Download route | The Veluwe is the most beautiful and best-known nature reserve in the Netherlands, though the Veluwe area covers a bigger part of the country than just the nature reserve. The cities and villages, museums and forests make the Veluwe one of the highlights of any visit to the Netherlands.
We combined all our favourite Veluwe highlights in one road trip, creating a road trip you could do in one day or you could spend a week uncovering all the destinations. Our route starts in the town of Arnhem and ends in the more northern city of Apeldoorn. In between you’ll drive past castle Rosendael, National Park De Hoge Veluwe with its Kröller Muller museum, the stunning Radio Kootwijk, the Pomphulweg and Royal Palace ‘t Loo. Plenty of reasons to make a stop of at least half a day!
Read more: we wrote an extensive blog about our favorite highlights of the Veluwe. Most of them are included in this road trip itinerary.
#3 Road trip itineraries for Drenthe
Download routes | Drenthe is worth not just one, but two road trip itineraries: the Hunebed Highway and the Middenveldroute. The Hunebed Highway is the tourist inspired name for the N34 road. Along this road are 47 of all 52 ancient dolmens (‘hunebed’ in Dutch) located.
The red-blue signs along the road will indicate where to stop to visit these unique, prehistoric structures. The surrounding area at the dolmens are beautiful with heather, forest and sandy plains, creating perfect stops to go for a hike as well.
The Middenveldroute focuses on this beautiful Drenthe landscape. Highlights along the Middenveldroute are the former Nazi camp Westerbork, medieval museum village Orvelte and Dwingelerveld National Park.
Read more: we wrote a blog about the best places to visit and things to do in Drenthe.
#4 The Holland America Route
Download route | This road trip is a nod to the historic Holland-America line from the port of Rotterdam to the United States. This road trip itinerary won’t bring you that far away from the Netherlands, but does give you a fun day touring around a beautiful part of the Netherlands.
This road trip starts in a town called America, located in the southern province Limburg. The itinerary will lead you along the Maas river for 150 kilometers. The tour ends in Gelderland at the castle ruins of Batenburg and castle of Hernen.
#5 Six-castle route in Friesland
Download route | Friesland is home to dozens of castles, called ‘stinten’ or ‘staten’ in this specific part of the Netherlands. There are more than 50 of them in this northern province!
This Dutch road trip will bring you to the six most beautiful Frisian castles and country houses. Which gems are there on this route? The Poptaslot with gardens in Marssum, the Dekemastate in Jelsum, the Fogelsanghstate in Veenklooster, the Schierstins in Veenwouden, the Uniastate in Bears and the Princessehof in Leeuwarden (unfortunatly most of the websites are only available in Dutch). You last stop – the castle in Leeuwarden – is home to a ceramic museum.
#6 The Sagenland Route in Twente
Download route | The east of the country is your destination for the Sagenland Route, the ultimate road trip through the Dutch landscape.
The drive covers pretty much all of the Twente region, leading you to water mills, historic farms, picturesque villages, ancient churches, the nature reserve of Springendal, the historic Ootmarsum and the Singraven country house. The Sagenland Route is created by the ANWB (Dutch road assistance) and is the only one clearly signed along the way, so you don’t even need to bring your road map for this trip.
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