The Geographic Mistake Most Americans, Including Rick Steves, Are Guilty Of Making In The Netherlands

For many American visitors, what's known of the Netherlands is canal-filled cities, windmills, and the best destinations to witness bursting tulips. This charming aesthetic is largely tied to the region historically known as Holland, but calling the entire country "Holland" is a common faux pas. In fact, Holland only refers to two of the country's 12 provinces — North and South Holland. Using the term to address the whole nation is a bit like calling the entire United Kingdom "England."

Travelers can't really be blamed for mixing up Holland and the Netherlands. As travel expert Rick Steves, who admits to making the faux pas himself, explains on his website, "most of our iconic images of the Netherlands come from the region properly referred to as Holland." The North and South Holland regions include the well-known Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague. The world's largest tulip field, Keukenhof, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kinderdijk, renowned for its 19 historical windmills, are in South Holland. The windmills and levees of the Netherlands were most prominently built in Holland, where they were designed to prevent flooding and pump out water from this low-lying, marshy region.

It is true that, in promoting itself for tourism, the Netherlands once used Holland as an overarching name, only officially rebranding itself as the Netherlands starting in 2020. Even the official tourism site for the country is called Holland.com, as of this writing. The country decided to ditch its nickname to prevent overtourism in the Holland regions and "more clearly show what the Netherlands has to offer to the world," according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

If this is your first time learning that the Netherlands comprises more than just Holland, take this as your cue to consider exploring some of its overlooked provinces. On Steves' Netherlands explore page, he suggests, "Be sure to venture beyond Amsterdam — take advantage of the efficient train network, which puts nearly every Dutch destination within an easy day trip." For starters, one of the Netherlands' lesser-known but beautiful canal cities is Utrecht (in the eponymous province). The beautiful medieval city is home to the Dom Tower, the country's tallest church tower, and has a reputation as a student city, owing to the prestigious Utrecht University. You can get to Utrecht from Amsterdam in under 30 minutes by train.

Those interested in seeing the untamed side of the Netherlands should head to the province of Gelderland. It's home to one of the Netherlands' most famous nature reserves, De Hoge Veluwe National Park. The park is full of biking trails winding through forests, heaths, and sand drifts, where you're likely to spot deer and mouflon sheep. Within the park's boundaries is also the Kröller-Müller Museum, with a massive Van Gogh collection. Meanwhile, Gelderland's biggest city, Arnhem, has a stellar open-air museum, a historic battle site, and a prominent fashion district. It's about an hour by train from Amsterdam.