The North Sea borders the western boundary of Holland. Just behind the beaches and the dunes are the fields of flower bulbs, including the world famous flower park ‘the Keukenhof Gardens.’ In between these colorful fields you will find Holland’s glorious past still alive in historic and picturesque Dutch cities. The west of Holland consists of Zuid-Holland and Noord-Holland. These provinces are the most densely populated provinces of Holland, where each town and city tells its own story of the past. Here you will find an exceptional range of museums, special events, shopping and entertainment facilities.

Noord-Holland

Noord-Holland is a peninsula between the North Sea in the west and the IJsselmeer Lake in the east. Besides the well-known attractions in the city of Amsterdam (such as the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum), other cities worth visiting are Noordwijk (the beach of Amsterdam), Haarlem (the capital of Noord-Holland), Zaandam and Alkmaar. Noord-Holland also has picturesque landscapes and villages, with drawbridges, windmills and tulip fields, as well as historic harbor villages such as Volendam and Marken, where Dutch traditional costumes are still worn. Consider visiting the Zuiderzee Museum, an open-air museum with exhibitions on what it was like to live and work on the Zuyder Zee (now called IJsselmeer) one hundred years ago.
 

Zuid-Holland

This province is bounded by the North Sea in the west. East are the provinces of Utrecht and Noord-Brabant and in the south is Zeeland. The capital is The Hague, the residence of Queen Beatrix, as well as the seat of government and museums such as the Mauritshuis and Miniature City Madurodam. Other cities include Rotterdam (known for its architecture and the largest harbor in the world), Leiden and Delft (famous for delftware). When in Leiden, visit the Naturalis Museum. This museum displays the diversity of nature and natural processes from the big bang to today’s ecosystems.