Established in 1949 by the mayor of Lisse, Keukenhof, literally ‘kitchen garden’, was conceived as a place where growers from all over Holland and Europe could exhibit their flowers as a boost to the Dutch export industry. An included full-day excursion visits world-renowned Keukenhof Gardens, which are ablaze with colourful flowers during springtime. It's the largest bulb flower park in the world covering 32 hectares, with 4.5 million tulips and over 87 different varieties of tree.

Home to one of only four remaining traditional Dutch cheese markets, held weekly on Friday mornings between April and September, Alkmaar also has a Beatles Museum as John Lennon’s first guitar was made in the city.

Enkhuizen is a delightful town in the province of North Holland. In its heyday it was an important overseas trade port with the East Indies. The picturesque harbour is still busy today, and is a fantastic place to sample the local herring delicacies from one of the surrounding traditional herring houses.    

Exciting and vivacious, Amsterdam is a fascinating city to explore, famous particularly for its canals, museums and bicycles, the number of which in the city far outnumbers the population.