The Netherlands in the eyes of a native

When we were in the Netherlands, we were pretty lost. Thankfully, my friend found online a very nice native boy who came to see us and helped us with everything. He was there for us the whole summer and showed us everything (useful things but also beautiful places). The Netherlands is a very interesting country with so many things to do, we didn’t realize it until we saw it ourselves. This boy shared with me his opinions about the Netherlands and now I’m gonna share them with you.

What are the nicest places to visit in the Netherlands

Northern part of the Netherlands offers a lot of beautiful islands. The tourists often don’t go there because it’s far from the bigger cities. You have to get there with a boat. These islands have stunning views and if you are lucky you can see seals there.

One of the nicest cities is Breda. It has the most beautiful church. Big and really pretty park. It is very lively and has a lot of lights, which make a great atmosphere. Other nice cities worth visiting are Maastricht and Nijmegen. Of course, tourists shouldn’t miss out on the biggest cities Utrecht, Den Haag, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

The Netherlands also has a few national parks. Most known are National park Veluwezoom, National park De Biesbosch and National park De Groote Peel. The most famous is National park Veluwezoom. It has beautiful nature, flower meadows and also wild animals walking around. In National park De Biesbosch you can enjoy a boat trip through some canals and see a lot of mills.

What mistakes tourists make?

Tourists often see the Netherlands only as Amsterdam. If you go there for a trip it’s nice to see Amsterdam and you can’t miss it out for sure. BUT, the Netherlands has a lot to offer and it would be a little sad to not also check some other places.

Note: Many people come to the Netherlands to party. There are many bachelor parties, birthday parties and so on. It’s all good and you should definitely enjoy an amazing trip and go a bit crazy but don’t go overboard. People often come there for drug use and alcohol and make a lot of mess. It’s important to remember that you are just a visitor and you should have respect otherwise the locals won’t like you.

Food advice

There are a lot of snack bars that offer a lot of national Dutch food. You can enjoy there fries, frikandel, kroket, mexicano, kaassoufflé, bitterbal and others. Fast food is also a national food for Dutch people.

You should also try some national sweets. Most famous are stroopwafels and gevulde koeken. Dutch people also really like pancakes. There are several pancake restaurants where you can enjoy pancakes sweet or salty.

Don’t be surprised by the lifestyle of the Dutchies. They really enjoy pastry. Just a slice of bread with a piece of cheese can be their breakfast, lunch and dinner. They can eat bread with anything and enjoy it like a five star restaurant experience.

Things he doesn’t like about the Netherlands

The weather in the Netherlands is terrible. It’s changing every 5 minutes and it’s cold. It’s very often windy or rainy and it’s for a lot of people very depressing.

Another big deal in the Netherlands is a lot of nationalities. The Dutch government accepts a lot of immigrants in the country. These are coming for work or better life and it often brings a lot of conflicts between people. The country is becoming overpopulated and the locals don’t have much space for themselves. Dutch culture is disappearing, it’s sad to see.

Credit for the photos goes to my talented friend Tasha!