Find Luxury Hotels in Netherlands

• 'Koninginnedag' (queen's day) is held every year at april 30 (except sundays, when it will be held the next monday) all over the country. In every village and town, you will find frollicking Dutch, freemarkets and authentic Dutch games. In several larger cities (notably The Hague and Utrecht) the festivities start in the evening of the 29th.
• Three-day Pinkpop popfestival every year with Pentecost ("Pinksteren") in Landgraaf, Limburg.
• Lowlands popfestival - every last weekend of August at Biddinghuizen, Flevoland.
• SummercarnavalA big parade through the center of Rotterdam. One of the biggest events in The Netherlands.
• Heineken Dance Parade - A big dance parade through Rotterdam. Much in the spirit of the popular Love Parade in Germany.
• Northsea Jazz Festival - Big summer jazz festival, held in the Ahoy stadion, Rotterdam since 200. as it moved there from The Hague. Around 1800 jazz, blues, funk, soul, hip Hop, latin and r&b acts play during this 3 day event.

In the big cities you can eat good Thai food (on the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam for instance) for a bargain price, and in the Chinese quarters you can get authentic Chinese food, though of a basic nature. You will also be able to find a restaurant from every corner of the world (especially in Amsterdam).

Every bigger village has its own Chinese restaurant where you can eat a lot for a little money, but the taste is aimed at the Dutch citizen with little 'taste' for adventure (no herbs, a lot of sugar). They have been influenced by the Dutch-East Indies from the times as they were a colony of the Netherlands, like the famous 'Dutch Indien Ricetable' with a variety of small dishes. It is also a bit comparible with Chinese or Eastern take-away-shops in other countries. These restaurants often advertise as "Chin.Ind." for "Chinese/Indien (Indonesian)". They mosttimes have a sit-in area and a counter or seperate entrance for take-away with lower prices. Some restaurants do have a separate menu with specialties from a specific region, like Schezuan.

Also around every corner in a city centre, near public transportation areas or even in more quiet quarters is a 'friture', also known as 'snackbar' or 'cafetaria', which mainly sells french fries (also known as "Patat" or "Friet" (pommes-frites)). You can have a lot of things added to your french fries: mayonaise ('frites sauce'), (tomato-)ketchup, curry, pinda sauce (heated 'peanut'butter' sauce or sateh sauce), cutted raw onions, cold apple sauce etc. They also sell all kinds of other fried snacks, like "kroketten" ('croquette') and "frikandellen".
Snacks you could try there, are: "Broodje Kroket" (a breadroll with a ragout-filled, crispy covered kroket snack), "Frikandel speciaal" (a long cylinder of spiced meat, cut open and adorned with mayonaise, ketchup or currysauce, and optionally sprinkled with raw onion) and "patatje/frites oorlog (=war)" or sometimes called '-Feest' (=Party or Fiesta) or '-Vrede' (=Peace) (i.e. french fries, mayonaise, pinda sauce , optionally sprinkled with onion). Note that "mayonnaise" in the context of french fries is distinctly different from french mayonnaise, and is more accurately described as "frietsaus" (fries sauce); it is firmer, sweeter and contains less fat, whilst remaining just as unhealthy. The snacks listed here are very much the antithesis of high cuisine, but among with other "typically dutch" foodstuffs some of the things Dutch expats miss most about their country.

Modern Dutch restaurants and cafés serve better food lately, mostly meat, vegetables, served with fries/fried potatoes and salad. If you eat in a café then food is affordable, you can also go to upscale restaurants where prices go up equally. Most of the time profit is made from the drinks, so be careful there if you're on a budget.

Expect service in restaurants to be pretty slow, especially if you are American. This is not because you're being treated differently, but because the Dutch, like most Europeans, tend to live at a much more relaxed place. There is not as much emphasis on fast or overly-attentive service.

Traditional highlights are:

• Herring eaten raw ('haring'). New herrings ('Hollandse Nieuwe') is a special treat available around june.
• sweet ("zoet") or ... ("hartig") Pancakes in variety of tastes like with apple, syrup, cheese, bacon etc. ('pannenkoeken' available in 'pannenkoekenhuizen')
• small or miniature pancakes ('poffertjes' available in 'poffertjeshuizen')
• Mashed potatoes with onions, carrots and bacon (hotch-potch 'hutspot')
• Pea soup ('erwtensoep' or 'snert') made of green-peas
• Stroopwafel. Two thin layers with syrup in between. Available packaged from any supermarket or made fresh on most street markets.

Other "typically dutch" foodstuffs are;

• Chocolate sprinkles ("Hagelslag"), used to sprinkle on top of buttered slices of bread (much like jam),
• Chocolate spread on bread,
• Bars of unadorned chocolate,
• Dutch peanut butter on bread, which is considerably different from e.g. US peanut butter. (And sometimes extra topped with chocolate sprinkles to make it not so 'dry' to eat)
• A bread roll with butter and a slice of cheese for lunch, rather than more elaborate lunches,
• Dutch coffee (dark, high caffeine grounds, traditionally brewed),
• Oranjebitter (orange, bitter liquor drunk only on Koninginnedag), jenever (a sort of gin), Dutch beers
• Rookworst (literally "smoked sausage"), available to go from HEMA ou