Delft is a relaxed and walkable city we visited during tulip season, and the things to do in Delft Netherlands felt much slower paced compared to Amsterdam. It has the canals and historic buildings people love in Amsterdam, but without the same crowds, noise, and constant bike traffic stress that occasionally makes your survival instincts kick in.
If you’re looking for slower days filled with cafés, canals, pottery shops, bakeries, and wandering around pretty Dutch streets, Delft works very well for that.
The city is best known for Delft Blue pottery, Johannes Vermeer, and its historic market square, but I also thought it was one of the easiest Dutch cities to simply wander around without needing a huge itinerary.
We spent about a day here, which felt like a good amount of time to explore the main areas while still having time to eat our way through multiple cafés along the way. Which is our entire Netherlands strategy.
If you’re planning a larger Netherlands trip, Delft works very well combined with Best Day Trips from Amsterdam or as part of a longer spring itinerary like 7 Day Netherlands Tulip Season Itinerary: The Ultimate Spring Trip.
Delft is one of the prettiest historic cities in the Netherlands and is especially known for:
The center of Delft is built around a large market square lined with restaurants, shops, churches, and historic buildings. It feels lively and charming. Compared to Amsterdam, Delft felt significantly calmer and easier to navigate. Compared to Gouda, Delft felt more centered around pottery and historic architecture while Gouda leaned much more heavily into cheese everything.
Visually, Delft honestly reminded me more of Amsterdam than Gouda did because of the canals and narrow historic buildings, just on a much smaller scale.
You could comfortably visit Delft as a half-day trip, a full-day trip, or even an overnight stay during a larger Netherlands road trip depending on how slowly you like to travel and how much time you want for cafés, shopping, and wandering around the canals.
If you mainly want to see the square, canals, pottery shops, and grab lunch, half a day is enough.
If you enjoy slower travel days with cafés, shopping, wandering side streets, and stopping constantly for snacks like we did, I’d plan for a full day.
Delft works especially well if you want a quieter break from Amsterdam while still getting that classic Dutch canal-city feel.
If you’re driving around the Netherlands like we were, having your own car made it much easier to combine Delft with nearby towns and tulip field stops. I recommend using Discover Cars rental cars to find the best pricing.
We started our day with lunch at Stads-Koffyhuis. The menu had a lot of creative sandwiches, but we ordered two of their most popular ones after seeing they were voted among their top sandwiches. Excellent decision honestly.
The first was the Burrata Di Vega on a multigrain roll with arugula, grilled zucchini, creamy truffle burrata, sweet tomatoes, pecans, capers, and balsamic dressing.
The second was called Knol It A Day with celeriac carpaccio, arugula, lava cheese spread cream, miso apple syrup, aged cheese, and hazelnuts.
Both sandwiches tasted super fresh and much more flavorful than I expected from what initially looked like “just sandwiches.” The flavor combinations were interesting. The burrata sandwich was creamy and rich while still feeling light enough to keep walking afterward instead of immediately needing a nap in the town square.
If you go there, I’d absolutely recommend looking for the number one voted sandwiches on the menu because those completely lived up to the hype.
After lunch, we spent a while walking around the main square and wandering into different shops throughout the city center.
This was honestly one of my favorite parts of Delft.
There were tons of cafés, little bakeries, pottery stores, cheese shops, and side streets that all somehow looked postcard-level Dutch without feeling overly touristy.
The square itself is surrounded by historic buildings and churches, and there are a few churches you can pay to visit if you want to go inside.
Nieuwe Kerk is the big landmark most people recognize, and you can climb the tower for views over the city if you want a higher viewpoint over the canals and rooftops.
Even without going inside everything, Delft was just enjoyable to walk around.
If you enjoy this style of smaller Dutch city, I also really liked Best Things to Do in Gouda Netherlands and Best Things to Do in Haarlem Netherlands for similar slower-paced days.
One of the biggest things to do in Delft Netherlands is seeing the famous Delft Blue pottery.
There were pottery shops all over the city center ranging from small souvenir-style pieces to extremely expensive hand-painted ceramics that looked like they belonged behind glass.
I liked seeing the hand-painted versions because you could literally see where the artists were working upstairs painting them by hand. That made the higher prices make a lot more sense once you realized someone was carefully painting all those tiny details instead of a machine mass-producing them somewhere.
Even if you don’t buy anything, it’s still fun to walk through the stores and see how detailed some of the pottery pieces are.
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At some point during all the walking and shopping, we stopped at Blue Heart Brew for dessert and hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate was one of those real chocolate versions where they melt actual chocolate into the drink instead of the thinner powdered versions you sometimes end up getting at cafés.
We also ordered fresh carrot cake, which was outstanding.
Everything tasted fresh, rich, and homemade without feeling overly heavy. That little café stop honestly became one of my favorite parts of the day.
One of the coolest things to do in Delft Netherlands was visiting Windmill De Roos.
It’s the last remaining windmill of the original 18 mills that once operated in Delft, and it’s still fully working today.
The mill still uses wind power to grind organic grain into flour each week, which it feel much more interesting than just looking at an old windmill from outside for five minutes and leaving.
Visitors can climb inside the mill for free during opening hours, and there’s also a bakery and shop connected to it selling fresh bread, pastries, flour, and baked goods made using grain milled on-site.
Outside, there’s a small volunteer-maintained garden filled with herbs, flowers, and grain patches, plus a café in the old miller’s house serving coffee, tea, rolls, and fresh bread during warmer months.
This wasn’t in the main square so it felt like a little tucked away oasis.
A huge part of visiting Delft is honestly just wandering around.
The side streets were filled with little cafés, bridges, murals, bakeries, canal views, and random storefronts that had us stopping every few minutes.
Delft is calmer than Amsterdam, which makes it easier to slow down and enjoy the city without feeling like you need to navigate crowds, bikes, trams, and tour groups. It still had the classic Dutch canal-city atmosphere, just at a much more manageable pace.
If you’re trying to decide between Delft, Gouda, or Amsterdam, they all feel pretty different despite sharing some similarities.
Amsterdam is much larger, busier, louder, and far more crowded than either Delft or Gouda. There’s significantly more to do there overall, but it also feels much more hectic. I still absolutely recommend visiting though.
Gouda felt more centered around cheese culture, smaller local streets, and market experiences.
Delft felt more focused on pottery, canals, historic architecture, cafés, and slower wandering days.
Out of the three, both Delft and Gouda felt very easy to casually explore without needing a huge plan, while Amsterdam took a little more strategy and energy.
If Amsterdam is also part of your trip, Things to Do in Amsterdam for First-Time Visitors and Self-Guided Amsterdam Food Tour are both helpful for planning logistics.
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Every 6 minutes a new round unlocks, and you can eat your way around the world for two hours. 🌍🍽️
Masons in Kaiserslautern: Korean BBQ, Jamaican jerk chicken, raclette potatoes, crispy baked ricotta from Monaco, and the Belgian cookie cheesecake you’ll still be talking about the next day. €39-45 per person. Bring a group and pace yourself, because they charge for leftovers.
Save this for your next trip to Germany
Sedona got me again 🌵
This was my second trip, and somehow I liked it even more. Every visit adds another trail, viewpoint, or restaurant to the list, and the list keeps getting longer. This time I stayed near Airport Mesa, with sunsets right outside my door and none of the crowds.
My Substack has everything I’d tell a first-time visitor: the lodge I’ve now stayed at twice, the experiences I’d do first, and the restaurants I’d plan my days around.
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YES is always the answer... ✈️
I’m Wendy, and yes, I travel for a living (still pinching myself). After 15 years teaching middle school math, I traded the whiteboard for a passport and never looked back. Knoxville is home base, but Arizona sunsets are on another level, and if it’s been sitting on your list, this is your sign to finally say yes and book it. City guides, hotel reviews, and foodie spots are all on the blog. So glad you’re here 🌵☀️
A café, bakery, market, and wine shop all in one Phoenix stop 🍊
At La Grande Orange, order the crepes first, they’re the thing I’d go back for. The chicken salad sandwich is perfect if someone wants lunch while you’re still on breakfast, and the red velvet mini cupcake and a chai latte round it out. The sea salt chocolate chip cookie is heartier than gooey, so it’s best for dunkers. It’s counter service with easy parking, and the market has quirky gifts you won’t find elsewhere. Leave time to browse, because you’ll stay longer than planned.
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“Outside Terminal 3” is not a pickup location at PHX.
Before your driver pulls in, text them four things: your terminal, north or south side, door number, and inner or outer curb. Grab your bags first, then call them in. Drivers can wait free in the cell phone lot instead of circling. Getting through security is easy; getting picked up is the hard part.
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