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.
Save this for later on Pinterest so you don’t forget it.
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 DIY Amsterdam Food Tour are both helpful for planning logistics.
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If you’ve only ever seen the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge side of the Smokies, Townsend is going to feel like a completely different state. 🌲 No neon signs. No traffic. No crowds fighting for the same overlook.
🥾 Middle Prong Trail | River views, small waterfalls & fresh air the whole way. Hike as little or as much as you want.
⛰️ Tuckaleechee Caverns | Start underground with massive cave rooms, waterfalls & guided tours. Go early, beat the rush.
🍕 Peaceful Side Social | Made-from-scratch food, craft beer & mountain views. Fair warning: you’ll stay longer than planned.
🚗 Scenic Drive to Tremont | Slow down. Stop. Take it in. The drive itself is part of the experience.
Summer swap? Ditch the hike for River Rat Tubing — same vibe, more splash.
Townsend calls itself the Peaceful Side of the Smokies. After one full day there, I completely understood why. Entire itinerary linked in bio.
@peacefulsidesocial is what happens when someone builds exactly the restaurant a mountain town deserves. Made-from-scratch food. Craft beer brewed on site. A kids’ play area outside, & mountain views from the patio. ⛰️
It’s casual in the best way, the kind of place where you sit down for lunch and suddenly it’s two hours later and you don’t care.
@cityoftownsend | 📍Townsend, TN
I walked through the gates and immediately understood why people fly back to Curaçao just for this place. 🌴
23 rooms. Private beach. A Balinese-inspired resort built stone by stone by the owners themselves. Buddha statues next to conch shells. Candles lit everywhere at night. Beachfront dining that eats like fine dining but feels like you’re just having dinner on the sand.
It’s currently the #1 resort in the Caribbean and after spending time there, I get it completely.
Full review linked in bio
#travelling #curaçao #visitcuraçao #luxuryresort #travelvlog
I walked down to the beach and immediately noticed how calm the water was. 🐚
It sits in a small cove, so there’s really no waves pushing in. You just walk right in without thinking about it. I grabbed my snorkel (they actually rent them for free at the resort, which I didn’t expect) and went out near the pier and stayed way longer than I planned, because the water was that clear.
Honest caveat: if you need a lot of energy and activity at a beach, this probably isn’t it. It’s quiet, it’s calm, and you’re mostly just... sitting there. Which for me was exactly the point.☀️
Full Baoase review linked in bio. 🔗
#curaçao #travel #luxuryresort #privatebeach #visitcuraçao
Dinner at Baoase in Curaçao isn’t just a restaurant, you’re walking into a full resort setting where everything feels intentional. The table is right by the water, the food is French-inspired with tropical and Asian flavors woven in, and the whole thing moves slowly in the best way. We sat there for hours and didn’t want it to end.
✨ Culinary Beach Restaurant, oceanside tables, candlelit ambiance
✨ French-inspired menu with tropical and Asian influences
✨ Service that’s attentive without being over the top
✨ The kind of dinner you’re still thinking about days later
Fair warning: this isn’t a casual grab-a-table kind of spot. You’re making a reservation, thinking through your outfit, and blocking off the whole evening and it’s worth every bit of that.
If you’re celebrating something or just want one dinner that feels a little extra, this is where to do it. Full Baoase resort review linked in bio. 🔗
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