8-Day Netherlands Tulips Bike & Barge Spring Tour

Please meet at the Passenger Barge Iris at 12:30pm. The barge will be docked near the Amsterdam Nemo Museum. You will find it tied up at Jetty #2 on the dock area called the Oosterdok. Cruise out through the Amsterdam Harbor onto the Amstel River. Stop for your first ride and enjoy the incredible bike paths and then meet back up with the barge to spend the night in the quaint town of Uithoorn.
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Dinner

Biking: 13 miles (21 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

Your day starts with a ride to one the most beautiful and luxurious castles in the Netherlands, Kasteel de Haar. Tour the castle … complete with towers, gardens and a moat! Enjoy the classic design and ornate decor. After your visit, cycle to Oudewater, a medieval town with a “Heksenwaag,” a place where authorities claimed to determine whether a woman was a witch by weighing her! Your goal for today is the town of Gouda. Yes, the one that gave the cheese its name. Gouda is definitely the most exported variety of Dutch cheese. So you will find many enticing cheese shops here … it’s also the place where the famous biking snack called the stroopwafel was invented. Another well-known product from this town is the Goudse Stroopwafel. Taste one!
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Biking: 32 miles (51 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

Today, you enjoy a great ride through the agricultural heart of Holland. Although the bigger cities aren’t far away, the beautiful green space in this region remains protected … and is dotted with grazing cows, ducks and willow trees. To better understand the full local process, you visit a cheese farm and learn everything about cheese making from one of the farmers. Included is a cheese tasting of some of their specialties. You can visit the shop as well — and have the opportunity to purchase sealed cheese to take home if you like. End the day in Leiden, birthplace of Rembrandt. This town is known for its architecture and for being home of the oldest university in the country, dating from 1575.
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Biking: 31 miles (50 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

Your cycling today includes one of the highlights of the tour. It’s your chance to stroll around the splendid tulip display at the botanical gardens called Keukenhof. This world-famous site offers the spectacle of about 7 million flowering tulips in lovely landscaped gardens at the edge of multi-colored fields of flowers. Plus, you see other magnificent spring blooms — like hyacinths, narcissus, daffodils and more.

Keukenhof is visited by over a million guests every year. So be prepared to hear every foreign language you can imagine. You also cycle through a region of many gorgeous tulip fields and end the day in the heart of the wonderful village of Haarlem. (Yes, Harlem, NY, was named after this town.) Haarlem is a lovely city and is often called “Little Amsterdam.” Your leader will show you around the Old Town and point out some of the unique buildings and features.
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Biking: 25 miles (40 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

Today, you leave Haarlem and cycle through the nature reserve area behind the North Sea dunes. These are great cycling paths! Have lunch at the beach, and if you dare you can go for a swim … or just put your toe in the water. Then you follow the paths and ride further inland to a very precious national gem … the private gardens of Hortus Bulborum. This special garden preserves the ancient varieties of tulips as a resource for the future. Take a tour with the volunteers who are rightly proud of their important work here. Have a cup of tea or coffee at their local shop and enjoy this hidden garden. Then continue cycling to the town of Alkmaar, known as a center of the cheese trade, canals and lovely historical buildings.
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Biking: 34 miles (54 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

The first stop of the day is the windmill in the Schermer. This area uses windmills to pump water and keep the land dry. Learn all about this at an included visit at the preserved windmill here.

Your lunch stop is in De Rijp, another lovely little village, on your way to Zaanse Schans, an open-air museum that welcomes many tourists during the daytime. You stay here on the barge for the night, so you can enjoy the museum exhibits in the afternoon — and even better — walk through it after all the other tourists have left! It is a magical place, and it's so tranquil at that time of day.
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Biking: 23 miles (37 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

Today, the leaders let you know which options are available to either have a shorter ride and visit Amsterdam in the afternoon … or do a longer ride, depending on conditions and preferences. Either way, you arrive and spend your last night on the barge in the harbor in Amsterdam with easy access to further explorations.
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Biking: 16 or 38 miles (26 or 61 kilometres)
Terrain: Easier

Today, after breakfast, we say farewell to you at the dock in Amsterdam at about 9 a.m. You can catch a train to the airport or elsewhere in Europe from Centraal Station nearby where we dock ... or we can help arrange a taxi to the airport … or stay on for more adventures in Amsterdam. (Please note that on the April 3 departure, you travel on the barge Iris, and on the April 18 departure, you are aboard the barge Lena Maria.)
Accommodation: Comfort Iris Barge
Meals: Breakfast