Netherlands

The Netherlands is more than Amsterdam, though the capital is a genuinely great city — canals, museums, and a human scale that rewards walking and cycling. Beyond it, Rotterdam brings bold modern architecture, Utrecht and Haarlem offer the charm without the crowds, and the tulip fields peak for a few weeks each April. Flat, compact, and the easiest country in Europe to get around by bike and train.

This is a train-and-bike trip: tap in with a contactless card and every city worth seeing is under an hour from Amsterdam. Book the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum well ahead, then spend the rest of your time the Dutch way — cycling the canal rings, long sits in brown cafés, herring stands and stroopwafels between stops. Day-trip to Utrecht, Haarlem, or Delft and you get the canal scenery without the crush. Hotels are the budget-killer; everything else is manageable.

The honest part: central Amsterdam is overrun — the stretch from Centraal Station to the Red Light District is a slow-moving crowd most of the year — and hotel prices are among Europe's worst. The weather runs grey and damp outside high summer, and Dutch food has never been the reason anyone visits. There is no wilderness and no drama here. What you get instead is the most frictionless city trip in Europe, and that ease is worth a lot.