Visit the Netherlands

Travellers to the Netherlands are in for a treat. This North European country boasts attractions such as the capital city Amsterdam, famous for its canals, plus several UNESCO World Heritage sites including Kinderdijk and Schokland. Ahead of your visit to the land of windmills, tulips and Edam cheese, here are some useful travel tips:

• The Netherlands is part of the 26-country Schengen Area. As such, if you hold an ETIAS waiver or a Schengen Visa, you can visit nearby Belgium or Germany, among other countries, with the same travel permit!
• This country uses the euro (3-letter currency code: EUR) as its currency. This is also the case for 18 other countries in the so-called Eurozone, which is useful if you’re touring Europe.
• There are 5 major airports in the Netherlands, based in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Maastricht and Groningen. So wherever you’re travelling to, it’s convenient to fly there.

• The Netherlands’ time zone is Central European Time, or GMT+1. This is 6 hours ahead of New York, USA, 8 hours behind Canberra, Australia, and 3-and-a-half hours behind New Delhi, India.
• The official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, spoken by the country’s 16 million inhabitants. Fortunately, though, if you’re coming as a visitor, English is widely spoken too.
• ‘The Netherlands’ and ‘Holland’ are often used to mean the same thing. Officially, though, only the 2 provinces of Noord- and Zuid-Holland are ‘Holland’, while ‘the Netherlands’ means all 12 provinces!

Check out more handy travel information in the following articles.