Personalized Experience: Unique Tour of Haarlem

Every morning, trains bring thousands of tourists who rush through the standard tourist route consisting of 4-5 streets in the old town, eager to move on to the next destinations. However, the city has much more to offer beyond the typical tourist path.

What to Expect:

• From the train station, we will descend to the picturesque riverside of the Spaarne, where you can see a working and still operating flour mill, surrounded by many small yachts and boats. If the tour falls on a Saturday, we will meet the miller and learn about the intricacies of his work.
• We will see a beautiful drawbridge next to a very unusual building of the recently closed city prison. On the riverside, we will feed ducks and geese.
• We will stroll along the riverside, admire historic buildings like the Weigh House, the merchant Teijlers' house museum, which stands out prominently among other Dutch houses. Learn about their history.
• Enjoy the best coffee in Haarlem at a cafe on the riverbank with a wonderful view of the river and drawbridges. If we are lucky, we might witness the unusual bridge-lifting mechanisms in action.
• Explore quiet picturesque courtyards, and learn more about this Dutch tradition.
• Along the way, we will encounter many interesting street sculptures, some of which are hidden in the most unexpected places.
• While everyone knows about Amsterdam's 'Red Light District', Haarlem's equivalent is less known and not found in guidebooks. Let's try to discover it.
• Discover the works of Frans Hals - one of the most famous and talented Dutch painters. After the tour, you can independently visit the museum where his works are exhibited!
• Arrive at the main square Grote Markt. On Saturdays, it looks especially atmospheric: here, beneath the walls of the majestic cathedral, unfolds Haarlem's main food market, where you can taste delicious homemade cheeses, bread, chocolate, fruits, and of course, Dutch herring.
• Visit the cathedral where the most powerful organ in Europe is located. Mozart played this organ when he was 12 years old. This cathedral is also the final resting place of the famous Dutch painter Frans Hals.
• Surrounding the square is a complex of prestigious modern art museums. After immersing yourself in the old city atmosphere, you can visit one of them.
• Head towards the slightly more modern part of the city, dotted with night bars featuring live music, designer clothing stores, cute thrift shops filled with vinyl records. Pop in a 'brown bar', where locals gather in the evenings to have beer, chat, and listen to classic rock performances.
• In this area, we will visit an old pharmacy where wooden heads in turbans gaze from all sides at visitors, vintage bottles display colorful pills, and the air is filled with the scent of licorice.
• We will also stop by a designer lighting store. Each of these lamps is displayed in design museums in London, Amsterdam, and Paris. The names of the authors are a pride of the design profession.
• Conclude our tour in one of the most atmospheric beer bars in the Netherlands, located in an old church building, where you can taste a variety of beers.

What We Will See:

• Train station building
• Picturesque courtyards
• Teijlers Museum (optional visit)
• Weigh House
• Prison building
• Windmill (visit on Saturdays)
• Red Light District
• Frans Hals Museum
• Grote Markt (Saint Bavo Cathedral, Butchers' Guild, Town Hall, Monument to the Dutch first printer, Modern Art Museum (optional visit))
• Old pharmacy
• Designer lighting store
• Beer bar in an old church

Additionally:

• Learn about the miller's work secrets
• Try Dutch herring
• Feed ducks and geese
• Taste various types of Dutch cheese
• Discover numerous charming street sculptures
• Visit the main weekend market beneath the cathedral's walls (Saturday)
• Taste different varieties of Jopen Dutch beer