South Holland (Netherlands)
Rotterdam is the Dutch city that decided to look forward.
Flattened in May 1940 and rebuilt with a taste for experiment, it is now the architecture capital of the Netherlands and the home of Europe’s biggest port, a skyline of white bridges, stacked towers and buildings you will not see anywhere else. In a weekend you can ride the rotating Euroscoop to the top of the Euromast at 185 metres, cruise past container cranes and ocean terminals on a Spido harbour tour, splash into the Maas on an amphibious bus, walk through the mirrored bowl of Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, the world’s first publicly accessible art depot, and eat your way under the vast painted arch of the Markthal beside Piet Blom’s tilted Cube Houses. Across the river, the Katendrecht peninsula holds the ss Rotterdam, the great Holland America Line liner you can tour from bridge to engine room, and Fenix, the art museum about migration that opened in 2025 in the warehouse from which so many emigrants left for America. Beyond the city the classic Holland is close at hand: the nineteen windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site reached by fast ferry, and the canals, churches and blue-and-white pottery of Delft, fifteen minutes away by train. This guide books the tickets worth booking, flags the winter timetables, and matches you to the right hotel, from a boutique suite hotel in an old customs house to a night aboard an ocean liner.
Kinderdijk Windmills (UNESCO World Heritage)
The most famous windmill landscape in the Netherlands, nineteen eighteenth-century mills lining the polder waterways a short fast-ferry ride from Rotterdam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with two museum mills, a boat trip and a film on the Dutch fight against water.
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen
The mirrored, bowl-shaped art depot in the Museumpark, the first in the world where visitors can see an entire museum collection in storage, with timed tickets, glass lifts, open storage halls and a rooftop with birch trees and the Renilde restaurant.
Markthal and the Cube Houses
Rotterdam’s giant arched food hall, with homes built into its walls and a ceiling covered in a vast fruit-and-vegetable mural, facing Piet Blom’s tilted yellow Cube Houses across the Blaak, the city’s most photographed corner and free to wander.
Rotterdam Zoo (Diergaarde Blijdorp)
One of the oldest and best-loved zoos in the Netherlands, close to Rotterdam Centraal, with the walk-through Oceanium aquarium, a gorilla island, polar bears, elephants, giraffes on the savanna and a tropical butterfly house.
Rotterdam’s landmark observation tower beside the Park, with a viewing platform at 100 metres and the rotating glass Euroscoop that lifts you to 185 metres, the highest public viewpoint in the Netherlands, for views over the port, the river and the skyline.
The classic 75-minute boat trip from the foot of the Erasmus Bridge, cruising past the Cube Houses, the ss Rotterdam and Hotel New York and out among the docks and cranes of Europe’s largest port, with audio commentary in English.
The mirrored, bowl-shaped art depot in the Museumpark, the first in the world where visitors can see an entire museum collection in storage, with timed tickets, glass lifts, open storage halls and a rooftop with birch trees and the Renilde restaurant.
FreeRotterdam’s giant arched food hall, with homes built into its walls and a ceiling covered in a vast fruit-and-vegetable mural, facing Piet Blom’s tilted yellow Cube Houses across the Blaak, the city’s most photographed corner and free to wander.
One of the oldest and best-loved zoos in the Netherlands, close to Rotterdam Centraal, with the walk-through Oceanium aquarium, a gorilla island, polar bears, elephants, giraffes on the savanna and a tropical butterfly house.
Rotterdam’s newest major museum, opened in May 2025 in a 1923 harbour warehouse on Katendrecht, devoted to art about migration and crowned by the Tornado, a 30-metre double-helix staircase by MAD Architects with views over the river.
The former flagship of the Holland America Line, the elegant 1950s ocean liner moored at the tip of Katendrecht, which you can tour from the bridge and the sun decks to the gleaming steam turbines in the engine room, with a hotel and restaurants on board.
An hour-long city tour on a bright yellow amphibious bus that drives through the streets of Rotterdam and then plunges straight into the Maas to carry on as a boat, with live commentary in English and Dutch, leaving from the Parkhaven beside the Euromast.
The most famous windmill landscape in the Netherlands, nineteen eighteenth-century mills lining the polder waterways a short fast-ferry ride from Rotterdam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with two museum mills, a boat trip and a film on the Dutch fight against water.
The canal-lined old town of Vermeer and the House of Orange, fifteen minutes from Rotterdam by train, and Royal Delft, the last remaining seventeenth-century Delftware factory, where you can watch painters at work on the famous blue-and-white pottery.
Hotels we would book ourselves, from splurges to good-value bases.
$$$Wilhelminapier (Kop van Zuid)
Rotterdam’s most characterful hotel, in the 1917 former head office of the Holland America Line at the tip of the Wilhelminapier, with 72 rooms including boardroom suites and two rooms in the green rooftop towers, a buzzing café-restaurant and an oyster bar.
Rates on Expedia →
$$$$Kop van Zuid (Stieltjesplein)
Rotterdam’s first boutique hotel and its five-star splurge, in an 1879 former customs house on the Kop van Zuid near the Maas, with individually styled rooms and suites, an intimate bar and lounge and a personal, owner-led feel.
Rates on Expedia →
$$Blaak and Oude Haven
A smart, design-led hotel beside the Oude Haven and the Cube Houses, with 151 compact rooms built around extra-large beds and a tablet that controls everything, self check-in, an all-day canteen and a lively living-room lobby.
Rates on Expedia →Katendrecht
Sleep aboard the former Holland America Line flagship, a 1950s ocean liner moored at the tip of Katendrecht, with 254 cabins and rooms, several restaurants and bars, a Lido terrace with skyline views and the ship’s tours on your doorstep.
Rates on Expedia →
$City Centre (Laurenskerk)
The smart budget base in the heart of the centre, on the Grotekerkplein next to the Laurenskerk and a few minutes from the Markthal, with 180 stylish compact rooms, a New York-themed lounge and a rooftop bar with skyline views.
Rates on Expedia →The practical primer for a first visit to Rotterdam: what to book ahead, getting around by metro, tram and water taxi, how many days you need, winter timetables and where the headline sights and day trips fit.
How to choose your base in Rotterdam, from a historic hotel on the Wilhelminapier and a boutique suite hotel in an old customs house to a night aboard an ocean liner, a design hotel by the Cube Houses and a budget pick with a rooftop bar.
