Going Dutch? These are the highlights in the Netherlands in 2026
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Subtract Amsterdam from the Netherlands and what's left would comprise a beautiful, diverse and cultured nation. I've been singing the praises of second city Rotterdam for many years. Sandra Ishmael, Director UK at the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, has been telling me about the opportunities in 2026.
I can't wait to explore more of North Brabant, which confusingly is in the south of the country. One word of warning: hotel rates rise by 11% on 1 January due to an increase in tax.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Porter. It's Tuesday the 2nd of December. |
| 0:06.9 | Advent, time and looking ahead to 2026 with some of the stars of the travel industry, and they include |
| 0:14.8 | Sandra Ishmael, who is the director for the UK for the Netherlands Board of Tourism. |
| 0:21.5 | So tell us what are you particularly looking forward to in 2026 regarding British |
| 0:27.8 | travellers going to the Netherlands? |
| 0:30.3 | The main things that I'm looking forward to are showcasing cities that are outside of, |
| 0:35.8 | well, everybody knows Amsterdam, but showcasing the other |
| 0:38.5 | cities that are in easy travel distance from the capital and just are so unique and diverse |
| 0:45.7 | and will offer a lot for British travellers. Well, my personal thought on the Netherlands and |
| 0:51.0 | I love the country and I think, yes, if you subtracted Amsterdam from it, |
| 0:55.3 | people would suddenly open their eyes and think there's a fast amount going on. Well, from the |
| 1:00.0 | 15th of December, there's a fifth daily train going from London to Pankras International to |
| 1:06.2 | Amsterdam, but it's also going to Rotterdam. It definitely is, and we're very happy about that. |
| 1:13.0 | Part of our strategy is to promote travel by train to the Netherlands from the UK and within |
| 1:18.9 | the Netherlands. |
| 1:20.4 | And I'm very happy that it stops in Rotterdam as well because it opens up a whole other |
| 1:25.7 | side to the country. |
| 1:27.2 | One of the things that's actually going on is, I believe in February, the Netherlands |
| 1:32.8 | photo museum, the National Museum of Photography, is going to move into an amazing new location, |
| 1:39.5 | the Santos Warehouse. And that will make it actually very close to Phoenix, an extraordinary |
| 1:46.0 | museum of migration that opened this year. Yes, I'm glad you mentioned that, Simon. Rotterdam |
| 1:53.3 | really has a lot happening in 2026 in terms of art and culture. It's easily accessible by Eurostar, which is wonderful. |
... |
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