Discover Holland

A word about the name first, because it is the thing most often got wrong. Holland is properly two provinces -- North and South Holland -- which between them hold Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and most of what visitors come for. Using it for the whole of the Netherlands is common abroad, and mildly irritating to anyone from the other ten provinces. This section covers the country.

What makes it unusual as a destination is compression. The whole country is about 41,000 square kilometres, the trains are frequent enough that timetables barely matter, and almost nowhere is more than three hours from anywhere else. A single base can reach most of it, which is true of very few countries and changes how a trip here is planned: you are choosing which city to sleep in, not which region to sacrifice.

The other defining fact is water. Roughly a quarter of the country sits below sea level, and the landscape a visitor reads as characteristic -- the straight canals, the raised roads, the fields in neat rectangles below the waterline -- is drainage infrastructure that happens to be beautiful. It is maintained continuously and always has been; the bodies that do it are older than the state.

Is Holland the same as the Netherlands? Not strictly. Holland is a region of two provinces, North and South Holland, which contain Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. The country is the Netherlands, and people from the other ten provinces will tell you so.

Is cannabis legal? No -- it is tolerated. Possession, use and trade remain technically illegal, and what exists is a policy of not prosecuting small amounts and licensing the premises that sell it, while production is prosecuted. The practical position for a visitor is narrower than the reputation suggests.

Do I need to speak Dutch? No. English is spoken nearly universally and usually very well. A few words of Dutch are appreciated and will almost always be answered in English anyway.

Do I need cash? Rarely, but the reverse catches people out: many places are card-only, and some take domestic debit cards but not foreign credit cards. Carry a little cash and more than one card.

When are the tulips out? Roughly April into early May, varying with the year. They are a commercial crop, so the flowers are cut once the bulb has what it needs and the display can end without warning.

Is it expensive? Yes by European standards, and accommodation in central Amsterdam is in a category of its own. Sleeping in another city on the same rail corridor is the single biggest saving available.