‘Typical' Dutch food tends to be wholesome and hearty, rather than elegant. Large towns, however, have a wide range of restaurants specialising in international dishes. Indonesian cuisine, a spicy legacy of Dutch colonisation in the East Indies, is particularly good in the Netherlands.

National specialities:
• A Dutch breakfast usually consists of fresh bread, cheese, cooked meats and sausage, butter and hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles), jam or honey and often a boiled egg. Lunch is generally similar.
• Broodjes (sandwiches) are a common daytime snack, served in the ubiquitous sandwich bars - broodjeswinkels. 
• Poffertjes (pancakes) served with butter and sugar are a teatime favourite.
• Matjes (salted herring) is widely available from street stalls, and smoked eel is another seafood speciality.
• Holland is famous for its cheeses, among them the Gouda, Edam and Leiden varieties, also obtainable with flavourings such as caraway seed and cumin.

National drinks:
• Coffee, tea, chocolate and fruit juice are drunk at breakfast.
• The local spirit is jenever (Dutch gin), normally taken straight and chilled as a chaser with a glass of beer, but it is sometimes drunk with mixers. It is available in numerous flavours.
• The most popular beer brands in Amsterdam are Amstel and the ubiquitous Heineken, which is also produced in the city. There are also a number of smaller breweries producing specialist beers and ales for the connoisseur, including the Trappist Brouwerij De Koeningshoeven.
• Dutch liqueurs are excellent and include Curaçao, Parfait d'Amour, Triple Sec (similar to Cointreau) and Dutch-made versions of crème de menthe, apricot brandy and anisette.

Legal drinking age: 16 to drink beer and wine, 18 to drink spirits.

Tipping: All hotels and restaurants include 15% service and VAT. It is customary to leave small change when paying a bill.

The Dutch like to have fun, and have a reputation for an open-minded approach, so a night out in The Netherlands can be something of an eye-opener for the first time visitor. Large cities are well-supplied with sophisticated nightclubs and discos, but the late-opening bars and cafes are just as popular. There are no official licensing hours, so it is possible in the big cities to get a drink more or less at any time.

There are theatres and cinemas in all major towns - the arts are popular in Holland and play a big role in life.  Amsterdam is a cosmopolitan city, with some of the liveliest nightlife in Europe. The brown cafes are an institution - Holland's equivalent of the local pub. Its famous (or infamous) red light district, de Wallen, is a magnet for visitors, and there are numerous bars, clubs and ‘coffee' shops (for those in search of a different sort of stimulant, namely marijuana) in the vicinity. Interestingly, although tobacco smoking is now banned in enclosed public spaces, joints rolled purely with marijuana can still be consumed in these places, which are also evident in most other Dutch cities.

Rotterdam has an excellent selection of nightclubs, and a lively harbourside café and restaurant scene, while The Hague leans heavily on theatre and dance. University city Utrecht offers a large casino and the lively nightlife scene associated with a large student population.

Another popular option is a dinner cruise through the canals and harbour aboard a glass-topped boat. There are legal casinos in several main towns and cities.

Special purchases include Delft (an area between The Hague and Rotterdam) blue pottery and pottery from Makkum and Workum, costume dolls, silverware from Schoonhoven, cheese from Gouda, glass and crystal from Leerdam and diamonds from Amsterdam.

Shopping hours: Mon 1100-1800, Tues-Fri 0900-1800 and Sat 0900-1700. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other big cities, supermarkets are open 0800-2000/2100. In large city centres, shops are open Sunday 1200-1700. Shopping malls are also open on Sunday. Some city centres also have late-night shopping on Thursdays or Fridays until 2100.

Note: Bulbs and plants may not be exported except by commercial growers, or by individuals with a health certificate from the Plant Disease Service. A reasonable number of bulbs for personal use are allowed.