By air: With a country as small as the Netherlands (the longest train journey, between Groningen and Maastricht, takes 4¼ hours), there is no need to fly anywhere. There is however the occasional flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to Eindhoven, and a number of daily flights between Amsterdam and Maastricht. They’re chiefly used by business passengers transferring to international flights at Schiphol, and flights are quite expensive

By rail: Dutch trains are efficient, fast and comfortable – most of the time. Trains are frequent and serve domestic destinations at regular intervals, sometimes five or six times an hour. Short-term visitors may be fortunate, but overall the network has been plagued by poor punctuality in recent years. Rush-hour periods around the Randstad seem to notch up the most delays.

By road: Dutch freeways are extensive but prone to congestion. Those around Amsterdam, the A4 south to Belgium and the A2 southeast to Maastricht are especially likely to be jammed at rush hours and during busy travel periods; a total length of 350km or more isn’t unheard of during the holiday season.

Smaller roads are usually well maintained, but the campaign to discourage car use throws up obstacles – you may find the road narrows to a single lane in sections, or an assortment of speed-bumps and other ‘traffic-calming schemes’

Buses: A special bus line around Amsterdam is the Zuidtangent, which has largely its own bus lane, with priority at crossings

Arnhem has a trolleybus system.

Bus companies include Arriva, Connexxion, Hermes, Syntus and Veolia

Car-hire: The Netherlands is well covered for car hire. However, outside Amsterdam the car-hire companies can be in inconvenient locations if you’re arriving by train. You can look for local car-rental firms in telephone directories under the heading Autoverhuur. You must be at least 23 years of age to hire a car in the Netherlands. Some car-hire firms levy a small surcharge (€10 or so) for drivers under 25. Most will ask either for a deposit or a credit-card imprint as a guarantee of payment.

Public Transport: Metros and trams are available in most cities and states and usually run from around 06:00 until midnight. There are night buses in a number of cities, but only on Friday and Saturday night in the smaller ones.

Some recommended dishes:

• Edam cheese
• Waterzooi (a stew)
• Snert (Dutch pea soup)
• Appeltaart (Dutch apple pie)
• Meatballs

• Hoge De Veluwe  National Park
• Amsterdam's Historisch Museum
• New Metropolis Science and Technology Center
• Heineken Reception Center
• Efteling
• Canal Bikes
• Woerden cheese market
• Koninlijke Porceleyne Fles
• Municipal Museum of Hague
• Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery

• Netherlands embassy
• Tourist guide
• Lonely Planet Netherlands