Amsterdam To Rotterdam With Extra Stops

The case for slowing down a short trip

It might seem excessive to plan stops for a journey that takes under an hour end to end, but that's part of the appeal here: because the distances are so small, adding two extra towns costs very little time and almost no logistical complexity. Everything runs on the same rail network, tickets are simple, and nothing requires more than an hour of travel between stops.

This is also a good route for travelers with limited time who still want more than one Dutch city on their trip. You can do the whole thing without checking a bag out of a single hotel.

Gouda, more than the cheese

Gouda's cheese market is what most people have heard of, and it does still run on summer Thursday mornings with wheels of cheese stacked and traded in the main square much as they have been for centuries, though today it's largely performed for visitors rather than genuinely commercial.

The town hall in the center of the Markt, a Gothic building from the fifteenth century, is one of the oldest of its kind in the Netherlands, and the stained glass windows in Sint-Janskerk nearby are worth the small entrance fee, some of them among the most significant in the country.

Delft, familiar and quieter than you'd expect

Delft has a reputation that precedes it, mostly through Vermeer (who was born and worked here) and the blue and white pottery that carries the town's name. Despite that, it manages to avoid feeling like a theme park version of itself, partly because it's also a working university town with a population that outnumbers its tourists most of the year.

The market square, with the Nieuwe Kerk on one side and the town hall on the other, is a good place to orient yourself, and a short walk from there gets you to the Vermeer Centre and the old pottery workshops if that history interests you.

• Markt square framed by the Nieuwe Kerk and the town hall
• Royal Delft workshop for the pottery, if you have an extra hour
• Canal walks through the old town, quieter than Amsterdam's
• A short stop at the Prinsenhof museum for local history

Finishing in Rotterdam

Rotterdam is a deliberate contrast to everything before it. Bombed heavily in 1940 and rebuilt almost entirely in modern style, it has none of the canal-house postcard look of the other stops, and that's precisely why it works as an ending. The Erasmus Bridge, the Cube Houses, and the Markthal give the city a skyline unlike anywhere else in the country.

A day is enough to get a sense of the city's architecture and its harbor, though travelers with more time often find Rotterdam rewards a second day, particularly for its museums and its increasingly strong food scene.