Our private driving tours are how you see the Netherlands beyond Amsterdam. Your driver guide collects you directly from your hotel, cruise port or Schiphol Airport, and the day begins without a train timetable, a hire car or a single wrong turn. Every tour runs in a luxury car or, for groups of four or more, in a spacious Mercedes Vito.
The car is what gets you there. Once you arrive, you park and you explore on foot, the way these places are meant to be seen. A day might take in windmills at Zaanse Schans, Vermeer’s Delft, the canals of Giethoorn or the cheese market at Alkmaar. One car, one guide, and only your own party on board.
Browse our private driving tours below, or tell us what you have in mind and we will put together something bespoke. And please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Every tour below is a full private day with your own driver guide, and every one can be adjusted. Think of them as starting points rather than fixed routes.
If it is your first visit, the windmill and countryside days are the ones to beat, and in spring you add Keukenhof to that. If you have done the classics already, Giethoorn and the Hanseatic towns are the quieter, stranger, more rewarding option. History travellers head for Arnhem, Nijmegen and Westerbork. And if none of it fits, tell us what you are curious about and we will build the day around it.
Worth being clear about this, because the name can mislead.
A driving tour is not a tour you take from a car. The car is simply how we get you between places. The places themselves you explore on foot, with your guide beside you.
So the day goes like this. We drive, your guide talks, and the countryside goes past. We park centrally, and then you walk the town properly. Then we drive on to the next place and do it again.
Compared with a coach tour, you leave when you want and stay as long as you like. Compared with a hire car, you arrive relaxed, you can have a beer with lunch, and you get the stories.
That is not a compromise, it is the only way these places work. Dutch city centres are medieval. Amsterdam, Utrecht, Delft, Gouda, Haarlem: narrow, cobbled, full of cyclists, desperately short of parking and in places closed to cars altogether. You would see almost nothing of them through a window, and you would spend half your day hunting for a space.
It is also why we do not run driving tours inside Amsterdam, or inside Utrecht, Delft or Gouda for that matter. These cities are built for walking, cycling and boats, and a car in the centre is a slow, expensive way to see very little. If Amsterdam itself is what you are after, take a private walking tour, a bike tour or a canal cruise instead.
Driving tours are for reaching everything that lies beyond your front door. It is also the most comfortable way to travel if walking is difficult: we park as close to each entrance as the rules allow, and your guide paces the day around you rather than the other way round.
Your driver and your guide are the same person. That sounds like a small detail. It is not.
It means the stories start the moment you close the car door, not when you arrive somewhere. It means the drive between Kinderdijk and Gouda is part of the day rather than dead time. And it means one person knows your day, your interests and your plans, instead of a chauffeur in the front and a guide who met you in a car park.
Our guides come from all sorts of backgrounds, and each has their own way of telling the story of this country. Some lean into the history, some into the art, some into the food and the gossip. What they have in common is that they are good company. You are not being lectured at from the driving seat. You are spending the day with someone who lives here, who is genuinely interested in you, and who will happily go off-script when a conversation gets interesting.
By the end of it, it feels less like a tour and more like a friend showed you around. Tell us what you are into and we will match you with the guide we think fits your day best. You can meet the team here, and you will notice our guests tend to name their guide personally in the reviews.
Every private driving tour runs in a comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle, matched to the size of your party.
– One to three guests – a luxury car. Comfortable, discreet and easy to park in the smaller towns.
– Four or more guests – a Mercedes Vito. Plenty of headroom, proper luggage space, and everybody gets a window.
– Larger parties and special occasions – tell us what you need and we will arrange it.
Whatever you travel in, it is clean, it is modern, and there is room for your coats, your camera bag and the tulip bulbs you were not planning to buy.
Your driving tour can start almost anywhere in the Netherlands.
– Your Amsterdam hotel or apartment – the most common starting point, at a time that suits you.
– Schiphol Airport – perfect for a long connection. See our private airport layover tours, where we watch your inbound flight and get you back with time to spare.
– Cruise ports – we regularly collect guests at Amsterdam PTA, IJmuiden and Rotterdam, and we plan the day around your all-aboard time.
– Elsewhere in the country – staying in The Hague, Utrecht or Rotterdam? We will start there.
– A private, air-conditioned vehicle for the day, for your party only
– Your driver guide, who drives you and shows you round
– All museum and attraction entrance tickets, pre-booked so you walk past the queue
– Pickup and drop-off at your hotel, Schiphol or your cruise ship
– All fuel, tolls, parking and road charges
– A route planned around your interests, adjustable on the day
Not included: lunch and drinks. Your guide will steer you somewhere good and book a table if you would like, so nothing eats into your day.
It is a full private day out with your own driver guide and vehicle. They collect you from your hotel, cruise port or Schiphol, drive you out to the places on your itinerary, park, and then explore each one with you on foot. Only your own party travels in the car.
We drive. You never touch a steering wheel, a parking meter or a satnav. That is rather the point.
Yes. One person drives and guides, so the stories run all day rather than only when you are standing somewhere, and there is one person who knows your whole day.
No, and we would talk you out of it if you asked. Dutch city centres like Amsterdam, Utrecht, Delft and Gouda are medieval: narrow, cobbled, largely car-free and short of parking. A car sees very little of them, very slowly. These places are best on foot, by bike or from the water. Our driving tours are how we get you to them, and to everything else beyond your front door.
No, and you would not want to. Dutch town centres like Delft, Gouda and Edam are narrow, cobbled and mostly closed to traffic. We drive you there, we park centrally, and then you walk the place properly with your guide. The driving is what happens between the good bits.
A luxury car for parties of one to three, and a Mercedes Vito for four or more. All vehicles are modern, air-conditioned and have proper luggage space. Larger parties can be arranged on request.
Most tours work best for one to seven guests, which is what fits comfortably in a Mercedes Vito. Larger groups are possible with a second vehicle. Just ask.
The price depends on the size of your group, because that determines the vehicle we bring and the tickets we book. Prices start from €780 for a full private day. Tell us how many of you there are and where you would like to go, and we will send you an exact price with no surprises in it. It is a price for your whole party, and it includes the vehicle, your guide, all museum entrance tickets, fuel, tolls and parking.
Most of our driving tours run for eight hours door to door. The Keukenhof tour is six hours, and our Wonderful Windmills of Zaanse Schans tour is a shorter half day. If you want a shorter or longer day, we can adjust it.
Your Amsterdam hotel or apartment, Schiphol Airport, the cruise terminals at Amsterdam PTA, IJmuiden and Rotterdam, or any other address in the Netherlands. If you are staying outside Amsterdam, we will start from there. Flying through with a long connection? See our airport layover tours.
Yes, and we do it regularly. We plan the day around your all-aboard time with a comfortable margin, and we track your ship’s actual arrival rather than the scheduled one.
Yes. It is your day and your car. If a village charms you and you want another half hour, take it. If the weather turns, your guide will reshuffle the order. The tours listed on this page are starting points, not fixed routes.
Yes. Museum and attraction entrance tickets are always included in the price of your driving tour, and we pre-book them so you walk past the queue at places like Keukenhof and the Kröller-Müller. Lunch and drinks are the only thing not covered. Your guide will steer you somewhere good and book a table if you would like.
Further than you would think. The Netherlands is compact and the motorways are good, so Giethoorn in the north east, Kinderdijk and Rotterdam in the south, and the Kröller-Müller in the middle are all comfortable day trips. Most are between one and two hours each way, which is time your guide fills rather than time you lose.
In most cases, yes, and we have a lot of experience with it. The car gets you as close to each entrance as the rules allow and your guide paces the day around you. Tell us what you need when you enquire so we can plan it properly.
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