Travel to the Netherlands

Netherlands Trip “Dutch Collections from “The Golden Age” to Today”

Soak up highlights of major and less-known Dutch art collections

Led by art historian Giulia Bernardini, steep yourself for eight days in the Netherlands in iconic artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Van Gogh, Mondrian and countless more at world-class institutions from the famed Rijksmuseum to the cutting-edge Boijmans van Beuningen. Enjoy close looking at private viewings of prints and drawings normally unavailable to the public thanks to Wonderfeast's collaboration with Dutch scholar Hilbert Lootsma. Get a feel for this rich, small country with excursions by train and private bus to Haarlem, The Hague, the windmills at Kinderdijk, and other destinations

• Stay at two centrally located, locally owned hotels: the enchanting Hotel Estheréa in historic Amsterdam and at the chic, streamlined Morgan & Mees in innovative Rotterdam

• Delight in a variety of culinary experiences from Indonesian-inspired rijsttafel to a relaxed apéritif in a private home to an exquisite, locally sourced haute cuisine lunch in a national park

• Feast your senses on a symphonic concert at De Doelen, a canal tour in Amsterdam, the innovative architecture of Rotterdam, and more.

Tour cost includes: 4 nights in Amsterdam, 4 nights in Rotterdam, 8 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners, private transfer from Amsterdam airport to hotel, admission to all museums and attractions listed on itinerary, tips and gratuities, transportation during scheduled activities, museum visits with Giulia, Hilbert, and local guides, insider list of recommendations for your free time, and a recommended reading list. Does not include: flights, meals not included in itinerary, alcohol beyond what is served at events, airport transfer at end of trip, required medical and cancellation insurance.

More on “Dutch Collections from "The Golden Age" to Today”

For eight rich and stimulating, art-, food-, and conversation-filled days, we will visit major and less-known museums and art collections in bustling cities and charming towns of the Netherlands.

We will learn how the inhabitants of this water-logged land put their differences aside to rise up against the Spanish Crown in the 16th century, proudly creating the Dutch Republic, and how they went on to create the redoubtable East India Company that brought back inestimable wealth through colonization and the trade of spices, textiles, and... enslaved human beings.

We will see how the immense, tainted wealth of the so-called "Golden Age" of the Dutch republic led to a boom in the production and trade of luxury goods and to a concomitant rise of major 17th-century artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Hals, Leyster, van Ruisdael and others in the open art market and how the art reflected Calvinist values of austerity and spiritual rectitude on the one hand while paradoxically displaying buyers' wealth and social standing on the other. At the Van Gogh Museum, Kröller-Müller, and others, we'll see how Dutch puritanism, industriousness, and love of the land shaped modern art and the collections where we find it. And finally, throughout our stay in The Netherlands, we'll continue to probe how centuries-old values continue to shape - and at times clash with - contemporary society.

All of this will be accompanied by relaxing and memorable meals and restorative drinks in restaurants and cafés in the numerous historic city and town centers we'll encounter.

I hope you'll join me for this unmissable experience.

I look forward to seeing you at the feast!

- Giulia