Windmill cruise from Leiden
Description
From the city center of Leiden we will sail you to the beautiful lakes in less than 30 minutes. Once you arrive at the 'Amsterdam lakes' you can enjoy the Dutch polder landscape. This area is characterized by shallow lakes and islands. The islands are polders and are still being drained by 18 restored polder mills in operation. Most of these mills can be seen during the cruise. We will sail along polders with cows in the meadow, islands with historic windmills, colorful bulb fields and beautiful views. The lakes are littered with sailing boats and small boats, it cannot be more Dutch!
Tour Options
Itinerary
After the embarkation has been completed, we sail off from the historical city of 'Leiden' for a beautiful cruise through the Green Heart, characterized by shallow lakes and islands. The islands are polders and are still being drained by 18 restored polder mills in operation. Most of these mills can be seen during the cruise. This is Holland in its entirety: polders, cows, windmills, lakes, beautiful views and beautiful Dutch villages. The Green Heart is a national landscape. The different areas within the Green Heart of Holland have their own character and appearance. Each area is unique in terms of location, landscape and cultural history. Together they make the Green Heart of Holland a special landscape. The captain informs you about all the sights during the trip. Our employees are available when it comes to a drink, a snack or a simple lunch.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(15)
Lovely boat ride! However, it was a bit hard to know what we were looking at. There is an app which gives some limited information in English. I wish the Captain had given his narrative in both Dutch and English, rather than sticking to Dutch. He asked if the group spoke Dutch and the answer was no in many cases. His English was excellent.
Being on a boat in always fun. We saw wide open fields and a few windmills. Canal tours will generally bring you through the city but this cruise takes you out near the farmlands and beautiful house boat communities. Would have preferred English speaking guide but you can listen on your phone so battery up before departure. On board service was excellent and friendly- love the hard working ladies. They put their soul into to the tour
The cruise is relaxing, informative, and fun. The staff was welcoming and friendly. We enjoyed our trip and recommend it!
The boat was lovely, clean and well piloted, the weather was chilly but bright. Sadly the guide only spoke dutch (the majority of passengers were very nice Dutch). Truth is we found it a bit boring, Leiden is a lovely town but being so low in the water meant there was'nt much to see- an hour would have sufficed.
Lovely place would have liked to explore further but stopped there on route from a fantastic day in Keukenhof to The Hague for dinner. Loved the windmill on the canal so Dutch! Stopped and had our first Kapsalon ( loaded fries) delious! Well worth stopping and having a wonder.
This was a really great cruise as we had family visitng from South Africa, they really wanted to see windmills and thats what was delivered.
Gorgeous day on the canals. Clean boat with nice indoor and outdoor seating options. Really enjoyed seeing more of the Netherlands from the water and talking with folks from around the globe.
The description is purposely misleading. For the language of the tour it says “English - tour guide” which leads you to believe that the tour will be spoken in English. It was only spoken in Dutch. And I did ask the captain and he said that we can connect to the Wi-Fi and there’s an audio tour in English. That was correct however you can barely hear the audio tour because whenever it plays/speaks in English the boat guide is speaking over the loud boat microphone in Dutch….So you can’t even hear the audio your anyway. This was disappointing.
Dear, I am very sorry to hear that you did not hear the audio guide. The captain was correct; there is an audio guide in different languages (also in English) Because the largest part of the guests during your cruise was Dutch, the captain has decided to speak in Dutch. The non-Dutch speaking guests can indeed connect to the audio guide via our free WiFi network. It is of course not the intention that the speakers are so loud that you can no longer understand the audio guide, we will discuss this with the specific captain. We apologize for this inconvenience. We hope that despite missing the explanation you still enjoyed a nice cruise.
Amazing trip well worth it. Great crew, good commentary. Bonus was them negotiating the Lake with 300 boats full of scouts having a regatta, well done 👏
I went on several canal cruises during my two weeks in The Netherlands, and this was my favorite. It is different because you get to go through lakes, get a fascinating history on polders and the beautiful windmills, and the crew were so accommodating, welcoming, and friendly. The boat itself was incredibly clean with a nice bathroom, a spacious open deck area in the back, and the bar was clean pouring fresh Heineken on draft. Also had a slice of apple pie with a cup of coffee. I loved it, will recommend to all my friends back in America, and let my local friends in Den Haag know it's a great tour for them and their kids.
