Randstad towns Travel Guide

The string of towns known as the Randstad , or "rim town", situated amid a typically Dutch landscape of flat fields cut by canals, form the country's most populated region and recall the seventeenth-century heyday of the provinces of North and South Holland, of which they are now a part. Much of the area is easily visited by means of day-trips from Amsterdam, but it's more rewarding - and not difficult - to make a proper tour. Haarlem is definitely worth an overnight stop, while to the south, the university centre of Leiden makes a pleasant detour before you reach the refined tranquillity of The Hague and the seedy lowlife of Rotterdam . Nearby Delft and Gouda repay visits too, the former with one of the best-preserved centres in the region.