Now that we have whetted your travel appetite to visit Rotterdam, one of the best places to stay in which is actually located in the heart of Rotterdam, the Inntel Hotels Rotterdam Centre is situated at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge. This modern designed hotel has bedrooms which are fully air conditioned and modernly designed that also gives you a view of Mass River. The good thing about this hotel is that you get to have access on their fine and complete amenities, such as the H2O Wellness Club with swimming pool, the finish Panorama Sauna, Turkish steam bath and the Life Fitness Gym. Since the internet is the most needed modern add on in life now, they have free internet corner and free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.

With the unique design and location of the Inntel Hotels Rotterdam Centre it has been favored by a lot of tourists and travelers may it be for business or pleasure. The location itself is very convenient to a lot of people since a metro station and tram stop are just in front of the hotel itself. Food will never be an issue at the Inntel Hotels Rotterdam Centre since you will have scrumptious breakfast buffet in their own restaurant the ‘Aan het Water’ which overlooks the waterfront. They also have their own bar and brasserie that you can linger on capturing breathtaking views of Rotterdam. Enjoy it by yourself or with colleagues and friends and surely you can cap off the night well with this to end your evening.

Surrounding the Inntel Hotels Rotterdam Centre are interesting Rotterdam attractions that would complete your stay. From the maritime museum , museums, art halls, and the Euromast tower, have it within walking distance from the hotel and surely you can have a wonderful stay and a guaranteed complete with everything that Rotterdam can offer you.

One of the exciting things you can find in Amsterdam is the widely use of bicycles which can fun when you’re touring around the city. This is somewhat a preserved culture for the Dutch people. Most locales in Netherlands have a bicycle in their garage, which is why you can cut short on budget to Amsterdam when traveling, for you get to save on your transportation cost by just renting a bike and use it to tour around. A Canal bus tour would be nice for a tourist to experience the city’s exquisite sites like their Broadway Theatre and canal views of the city. A boat travel can also be one of the best city tour excursions when you opt to go sight seeing in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam also has rich taste in sports which features the one of the biggest soccer club in Europe football which is AFC Ajax. Soccer considered as number one sport in the world. Dutch are fond of watching and playing soccer. Tennis and volleyball are also popular in Netherlands. If you are inclined in musical genre such as broadway shows and ballet, it is best spend on a budget to Amsterdam travel for it host a full datebook of musical shows, pop and jazz. Theater and world class opera are also fun to watch in Amsterdam. A city full of colors and excitement you don’t want to miss.

Things to consider why we should put Amsterdam on our budget list for travel leisure for we can do many things such as jogging around the city to see its beautiful scenery and many parks to choose from for Amsterdam has many beautiful parks. Cycling and bicycle riding also is fun. Museum tours would match your Amsterdam experience. A boat riding experience could be a romantic ambience for lovely tourist couples. Accomodation not even a problem on a budget to Amsterdam for there many exquisite cheap hostels which are open for 24 hours a day. So curfew in this city is not a problem. You don’t have to worry about locations for it is GPS site.You won’t get lost and very easy access place. So touring around Amsterdam could be much more fun. Try also coffee shops for they can help you relax and unwind for a little bit.

Best Time to visit:

If you have a sound budget, you can make a trip in peak season, but if a fixed amount restricts your budget, then definitely go in the off seasons which will make you enjoy and allow seeing all famous tourists places very peacefully and affordable. The low down season to visit Amsterdam is between late October and early March.

Best Places to visit:

Anne Frank House:

Anne Frank House is known as the hiding place for Anne Frank and her family while escaping Nazis. It is a historical place where she wrote her diary and stayed for two years. It is worth seeing.

Canal Cruises:

This is a gateway to enter in the city which can be explored initially. Numerous canal cruises are available at affordable prices. If you are interested to visit all important sights in Amsterdam, the best way is to hire a regular cruise which offers a taste of Amsterdam drink. In evenings, small cruises can also be hired just to take a small ride.

Van Gogh Museum:

Vincent Van Gogh was the renowned Amsterdam painter who has been honored by inaugurating Van Gogh Museum. It holds the beautiful combinations of his unique artistic marvels.

Red Light District:

This is the one of the old areas in Amsterdam where tourists like to visit for parties and late nights. It is safe and lively, contrary to the red light areas spread across the globe. There are many cheap bars and hotels where you can grab the drink.

Groningen, located in the northern part of Netherlands, has a rich and colorful history that goes a long way back. In fact, the oldest archeological findings in this place date back to the third century BC. Today, Groningen is the capital of the province of Groningen. It is a place with many faces. For the locales, Groningen, in the first place, is a student-city. It has a famous university, another university dedicated to applied sciences, a school for fine art and design, an academy of music and many more training institutes. The 400-year-old University of Groningen is one of the largest and oldest in the country as well as in the world. But it’s the rich history of the place alive in the historical buildings, courtyards and certainly in ‘Uncle Loek’s Horse’. One of the world’s largest natural gas fields is located in this region. It has a largely flat terrain and agriculture is the main occupation. The city’s love for sports reflects through the popular soccer club FC Groningen and the fact that Groningen has been chosen as ‘world’s best bicycling city’.

Best Time to Visit

Summer is the best time to visit Groningen. The average temperature during this time is 24°C with occasional very hot days. Snowfall is pretty common in winter. Rain here occurs in the form of light showers throughout the year.

Places to Visit

Groningen has a glorious past history of more than 5,000 years. Today the city is known as an important commercial and industrial centre in the country, a city with varied opportunities for living, working, shopping and relaxing. This amalgamation of a golden past and a prosperous present draws thousands of visitors to this region each year. Groningen also enjoys a leading edge in the fields like development of research, innovation and entrepreneurship. In a nutshell, Groningen is a real ‘City of Talent’.

The Groninger Museum

Designed by the famous Italian architect Mendini, the Groninger Museum is one of the must-see spots in this region. Surrounded by water, it looks like a sea-going vessel that accidentally ended up in the city canal. It bears the finest example of the modern architecture in Groningen. You can enjoy a lot of exhibitions from several artists here. But these exhibitions change regularly. It is very difficult to say what is exposed in the museum because it changes regularly. When you are in Groningen just see for yourself. The more than 100 years old library of the Groninger Museum gives an answer to many questions. You will find literature on all collections of the museum; Ancient and Modern Fine Art, Archeology & Regional History and Applied Art are only a few to name.

The Wall House

The Wall House or the Bye House manifests itself as an autonomous, sculptural object. Originally designed in 1973 for Ed Bye, in Ridgefield, Connecticut USA, it only existed as a concept for a long time until Groningen decided to actually build the house. A striking concrete wall is the basis of the structure. It draws a line between the service spaces and the living spaces that are stacked one above the other in three organic volumes. You will find the bedroom downstairs, on the second floor there is the kitchen and dining area and the living room is on the top floor, each with a framed view of the lake.

The Martini Church and Tower

The Martini tower is one of the most well known monuments in Groningen. With a height of 97 meters, you can never miss this tower once you visit this town; that’s for sure. Statistically, it is third highest tower of The Netherlands and still dominating the Groningen skyline for more than 500 years. You can also climb up the tower up to the second gallery. The top of the tower offers a magnificent view of the city. Make sure you also visit Martini Church, the largest church in Groningen. Established around 1230, the church includes frescos from the 13th century.

Prinsenhof en Prinsentuin

Prinsenhof en Prinsentuin is another fine example of Groningen architecture. The place was originally used as a monastery. In recent years, the Prinsenhof is home to the channel called Radio/TV Noord. They moved a short while ago and the authorities are looking for a suitable function for this complex.
Right behind the Prinsenhof, there is the Prinsenhoftuin or the Prince’s Court Garden. The garden includes a rose garden and herb garden along with a footpath covered with foliage. The garden is surrounded by a wall and is one of the best available specimens of a Renaissance Garden in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Comic strip Museum

If you are a lover of comic books, you must visit the Het Nederlands Stripmuseum or the Dutch Comic Museum. The Dutch Comic Museum in Groningen is home to the works of renowned cartoonists. Virtual reality setups here will allow visitors to experience the adventures of the comic heroes and enable them to create simple animated cartoons. It’s the key attraction for the children. Here you make a journey through time, from the favorite comic characters of the yester years to the most recent comic figure. The Dutch Groningen Strip introduces you to famous Dutch comic heroes like Eric the Norseman, Agent 327 and Ollie B. Bommel.

Groningen offers a lot more. Shopping in Groningen means tantalizing fun. The city has diversity and small-scale shops, including numerous design shops with the latest trends and novel accessories. It also has ample opportunity for entertainment. There are no less than 160 pubs and discotheques with dozens of outdoor cafés in the city centre. No matter you are on a business tour or personal holiday, travelling alone or with family, Groningen has always something for you to see, hear, or do.

The Amsterdam museums are home to vast artistic wonders and historic treasures and very tourist should try to visit at least a few of them. They are among the prime tourist attractions. There are more than fifty museums in Amsterdam and they attract millions of visitors each year. With a varied range of museums dedicated to art, film, press, sex, torture, science and technology or kids, Amsterdam is sure quench everybody’s thirst. During the colder months in Amsterdam, visitors are likely to spend more time indoors and museums are the best places to go. But long queues for ticket outside these museums can be boring, particularly in weekends and summer. Buying a ticket online from the museums’ respective website would be a smart move. According to some reports, even where there is no need to buy a ticket, tourists still may have to wait long if they have a free access card like “Museumkaart” or “Iamsterdam Card”. Almost all museums expect ‘Anna Frank House’ accept these cards.

The Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is located at Paulus Potterstraat 7 and it is right next to the Rijksmuseum. This museum gives a tough competition to Rijksmuseum as the most significant museum of Amsterdam, if not of Netherlands. This museum owns nearly 260 original paintings of Van Gogh and a large number of these works is donated by Theo Van Gogh, the younger brother of the great painter. Van Gogh was influenced by different art genre and the museum holds sample of them all. His works influenced by ‘Expressionism’, ‘Post-impressionism’ and other genres are all present here. One of his famous early works, ‘Potato Eaters’, can be seen in this museum. Here you can also find the paintings created during the last few days of his life when he went insane and started using more and more dots in the primary colors of blue, red and yellow. Along with Van Gogh, the museum also exhibits works of some of the greatest impressionist painters like Jozef Israëls, Paul Gauguin, Maurice Denis and Claude Monet. The visitors can book tickets online to visit this museum.

The Rijksmuseum

If you want to know about the culture and history of Netherlands, a visit to The Rijksmuseum, the national museum of Netherlands is a must. The museum exhibits the famous 17th century paintings by the “Dutch Masters”, Rembrandt, Jan Steen and Vermeer, along with a few exhibits from the 16th and 18^th century artworks. The museum is going through a massive renovation process and the museum, therefore, is partly opened these days. But all the highlights of the museum are exhibited in a very sophisticated manner. The Rijksmuseum exhibits 20 artworks by Rembrandt, which includes famous works like ‘The Jewish Bride’ and ‘The Night Watch’. The museum also showcases Vermeer’s finest paintings like ‘The Love Letter’ and ‘The Kitchen Maid’. There are 4 paintings of Vermeer in this museum. You will find great creations of other painters on the display like Frans Hals’ ‘The Merry Drinker’ or Ferdinand Bol’s ‘Portrait of Elizabeth Bas’. Silverware, furniture and paintings from 17th century artists are also in display here. The museum is open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. on Fridays.

Anne Frank House

With nearly a million visitors each year, Anne Frank House is one of Netherlands most popular museums. Located at Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, the museum is dedicated to Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who maintained a diary when she along with her family hid from Nazi persecution. This is the house where Anne wrote her famous diary which is on permanent display in this house. There are temporary exhibitions on Anti-Semitism, Anti-Racism that caused greatest tragedies to the human race. Waiting behind long queues are almost confirm while visiting this museum. Tourists should buy online tickets or need to go early. This museum doesn’t accept the ‘Museumkaart’ or ‘Iamsterdam Card’.

Sex Museum (Venustempel)

One of the most exciting museums in Netherlands is surely the “Venustempel” or the Sex Museum in Amsterdam. Founded in 1985, it is the first and oldest museum of this kind on earth. Located at the Damrak, this museum offers some food for thought and is rather serious in approach than the Erotic Museum in the Red Light District. Based on the theme of love, the museum exhibits a huge collection of erotic paintings, pictures, objects, photographs, recordings and even attractions. The exhibits are gathered personally by the owners of the museum. The collections are displayed in two separate houses; one on the back of the building and one on the front, both connected by a specially designed stairwell. Tourists need to be at least 16 years of age. The museum is open every day from 9.30 a.m. to 11.30 p.m.

by Miek37

Rotterdam is the second largest city in Netherlands . It is one of the most significant port cities in the Netherlands. Trading activities carried out in Rotterdam is the highest in the world and the city boasts of an enormous industrial sector. Chief among these industries are shipbuilding and engineering. Today’s Rotterdam presents the scenario of a hugely modern and developing city with little remains of the past since it was destroyed in the air bombings during WWII.

Rotterdam is comparably cheaper than Amsterdam and provides accommodation options to tourists with varied interests. There are separate hotels both for business and pleasure lovers. While persons having cheaper budgets may rent rooms with two star hotels, those looking for luxury can opt for the five or four-star options. However, all of them are well maintained and very clean. One may board flights for Rotterdam from any of the major cities in the U.S. or in Europe or else travel by car from any of the European cities. Buses, Metro, trams, taxis, water-taxis and tuk-tuks carry you to all places within the city.

Sightseeing musts include the Euromast Tower; the tallest lookout tower in the country, mesmerizing Blijdorp Rotterdam Zoo that can bring you face to face with sharks underwater, historical tours aboard the tram has an old-world charm of its own. Besides you can have fun adventures in the cube Houses or while gliding through the wild rivers in the Tropicana. The wonderful architecture and displays within the Stadium Feyenoord can astound one. For the star-struck visitor a visit to the Walk of Fame can be a fulfilling experience. Another technological marvel within Amsterdam is the Maeslant Storm Barrier that protects Rotterdam from floods. Kids will surely have a field day in the Plaswijck Park that guarantees unadulterated fun on water-rides and a visit to the zoo.

Like any other city in the Netherlands, Rotterdam too boasts of its many wonderful museums. The Boijmans-Van Beuingenn and the maritime Museum should not be missed. The highlife of Rotterdam ensures that the city provides with the best and luxurious shopping markets in the world. The City Center, Alexandrium and the Zuidplein Mall are its major shopping destinations. Rotterdam also provides visitors with a unique view of the old windmills with which Netherlands is synonymous and the best place to view them is the Delfshaven historical center. The best modern attraction in Rotterdam however is its unrivalled master architecture. Montevideo, the main theater complex, the longest cable-stayed bridge, the exhibition center all stand proof to the marvels of modern technology and architecture.

Amsterdam, the capital of Netherlands, can undoubtedly be called a ‘visitor’s paradise’ as it offers amazing touring options to tourists of varied interests. The city has its origins as a fishing village as early as the 12th century and has ever since never stopped expanding or developing. Its rich cultural heritage and historical background lends it a special charm, which remains quite unparalleled even today. The concentric canals have highlighted the city’s aesthetics and made it synonymous with the beauty of Venice. The tolerance and diversity of practices and culture combined with easy accommodation and transportation makes Amsterdam one of the most-toured cities in the world.

The name Amsterdam inevitably reminds one of art galleries and famous museums and so obviously, these are the main tourist attractions in the city. Chief among these museums are the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum. The Golden Age paintings, modern art, film photography is sure to mesmerize all art lovers. Some fun adventures can be enjoyed in the Heineken, Ajax or the Houseboat Museum. Sex, Erotic, Hash or Torture Museums give tourists an insightful view into the heinous torture methods used in olden days and the location of these museums at the heart of the red light area allows for the ideal ambience to be created while enjoying erotic artworks. Be it history, lifestyle, art or science, Amsterdam has museums dedicated to all fields of human life. The best gift for children however is the NEMO, a futuristic science center where kids can touch and experiment with the gadgets on display. Amsterdam has dedicated separate museums to two of its greatest masters; Vincent Van Gogh and Rembrandt and these are a must visit. Apart from these one should definitely pay a visit to the Anne frank House where the highly popular diary was written during the torture days of the WWII.

There are innumerable activities to pursue in Amsterdam apart from visiting historical sites. One can take up canal rides or boat rides and explore the city across the waters. The more adventurous sort may find fun in exploring on bicycles, a trip to the tulip gardens in the countryside on bicycles can be a marvelous experience. Shopping in Amsterdam can be a unique experience with floating flower markets; the Nine Streets, the Haarlemmerdijk and the Beethovenstraat are some of the major shopping addresses in Amsterdam. Casinos, gay bars, pubs, clubs to live music, Amsterdam offers something for all. Therefore, it is only fair that visitors should enjoy here to the fullest.