8-Day Tulip Tour Premium by Boat and Bike

Day 1: Amsterdam – Spaarndam | Spaarndam – Haarlem (6 km or 14 km)
You are welcome on board in Amsterdam from 2 p.m., where the crew will greet you with coffee and tea. At 2.30 p.m. the barge leaves the harbour and, while it sails towards Haarlem, your tour leader will run through the week ahead: the route, the cycling, the safety briefing. From Spaarndam you can take a short test ride to get the feel of the bike. After dinner on board the tour leader will walk you through the beautiful old centre of Haarlem.

Day 2: Haarlem – Keukenhof – Leiden (38 km)
Today you will ride through the oldest tulip fields in Holland, with a visit to the Keukenhof gardens. This is the most beautiful bulb park in the world, the place where spring breaks open: seven million flowering tulips across eighty acres of traditional and modern garden design, with hyacinths, daffodils and countless other flowers alongside them. In the afternoon you will cycle on to Leiden. Dinner is on board, and afterwards you can join the walk through town.

Day 3: Leiden – Gouda (37 km or 43 km)
After breakfast you will cycle out of Leiden and into the green heart of Holland. Near Zoeterwoude you will stop at a cheese farm, where you will see how the cheese is made and taste the result. In the afternoon you reach Gouda, the town that gave its name to the cheese. Its compact centre holds a pretty market square and a Gothic town hall, and the church of St John is famous the world over for its stained glass windows. After dinner you can join the walk through town.

Day 4: Gouda – Alphen aan den Rijn | Alphen aan den Rijn – Kudelstaart or Oude Wetering (20 km or 44 km)
The morning is yours in Gouda: time for some shopping, for the market square with its cheese weigh house, or for a visit to St John's church. Around noon the barge casts off and a light lunch is served on board. From Alphen aan den Rijn you will cycle along the Aar-Drecht channel to Kudelstaart or Oude Wetering, where the ship moors for the night.

Day 5: Kudelstaart/Oude Wetering – Aalsmeer flower auction | Amsterdam – Zaanse Schans (32 km)
An early cup of coffee is served at 6.30 a.m., and then you will cycle to the flower auction of Aalsmeer, the largest in Europe, where enormous quantities of flowers arrive, are sold and are sent on across the continent every single day. You will be back on board around 9 a.m. for a late breakfast while the barge sails to Amsterdam, cruising right through the city. From Amsterdam today's ride takes you to Zaanse Schans, a hamlet where people still live and work among original houses and windmills from the river Zaan. The oldest mill dates from 1673, and they grind mustard, spices, paint and oil and saw timber into planks. Walking through the village you will pass a clock museum, an old-fashioned grocery, a house furnished in period style, a clog maker and a cheese farm. The Princesse Royal moors in Zaandam tonight, a 5.5 km ride from Zaanse Schans. The Aalsmeer auction is closed at weekends and on public holidays, and on some departures the visit may not be possible; entrance is included when it is.

Day 6: Zaanse Schans/Zaandam – Alkmaar (40 km)
This morning you will cycle to the Hortus Bulborum, a garden museum devoted to preserving rare and historic bulbs, where more than four thousand tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are planted. From there the route continues to Egmond on the North Sea and then through the dunes to Alkmaar. Alkmaar is one of the Dutch cheese cities, and its old town is a surprise: well-preserved seventeenth-century houses and narrow, winding canals. Tonight's dinner is not included — you will eat in town.

Day 7: Alkmaar – Amsterdam (37 km or 54 km)
After breakfast your ride leads to the old windmill complex of the Schermer polder, where you will visit the Schermerhorn Windmill Museum, and then on to De Rijp, a beautiful little town whose wooden facades, church, lock and town hall still carry centuries of history. From there you will ride back to Amsterdam. In the late afternoon or evening there is time for a boat trip through the famous canals of the city.

Day 8: Amsterdam
End of your tour: disembarkation after breakfast, until 9.30 a.m.