Holland, Michigan is a city of about 30,000 in Western Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is best known locally for its popular beaches and more widely for its Dutch immigrant heritage, showcased each spring in Tulip Time, a festival featuring countless flowers lining the city's streets.
See
Windmill Island, 7th Street at Lincoln Avenue, by the Macatawa River. Features an antique carousel, an Amsterdam street organ, acres of gardens (with, of course, tulips) and the 240-year-old working De Zwaan windmill, the last to be dismantled and moved out of the Netherlands.Veldheer Tulip Gardens12755 Quincy Avenue, . Adjacent to the DeKlomp Factory. Open from April to mid-October. Along with over four million tulips, the gardens also feature daffodils, hyacinths and other spring flowers. Bulbs and perennials are offered for sale. Admission to the gardens is $6.The DeGraaf Nature Center, 600 Graafschap Road, . An 18-acre botanical preserve with an interpretive center and lots of trails to explore.Lake Michigan, with its popular white sand beaches and tall dunes, is a short drive to the west. Big Red lighthouse, in Holland State Park on the north shore of Lake Macatawa, can be reached by Douglas Avenue / Ottawa Beach Road.Do
The Dutch Village theme park, 12350 James Street, . Comprises a number of Dutch-style buildings (including a windmill) housing souvenir and gift shops, restaurants, a wooden shoe factory and a costume museum, reached by meandering paths that wind through formal gardens and over a small stream.In May, the week-long Tulip Time Festival celebrates the region's Dutch heritage with a community street-cleaning parade, a children's traditional-costume parade, a music parade, over 1,500 teenagers dancing in wooden shoes, and lots of activities for the entire family.In December, the two-week Dutch Winter Fest includes a children's lantern parade and a visit by Sinterklaas. Visitors can browse the Kerstmarkt, an open-air Christmas market of decorative booths featuring handcrafted souvenirs and local food, open for three consecutive weekends at the Eighth Street Market Place. For one day, the market is also host to an ice-sculpting contest in which local teams attack 150-pound ice blocks armed with chainsaws, hot irons and delicate crafting tools, and visitors can vote on their favorite sculpture.Buy
Downtown Holland, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, includes eight blocks of more than 100 shops and restaurants housed in Victorian buildings. The sidewalks are heated by underground hot-water pipes, making shopping a pleasant experience even in winter. Most shops are open until 9 pm during the week.
Two characteristically Dutch handicrafts can be purchased at the
DeKlomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory, 12755 Quincy Avenue, the only factory of its kind in the United States. You can watch the artists producing both delftware, a traditional blue-and-white pottery originally produced around the town of Delft in the Netherlands, and wooden shoes, on machines that were imported from the Netherlands.
Eat
When visiting a town that emphasizes its Dutch heritage, you may naturally wish to sample some Dutch food. Perhaps unfortunately, there aren't a...
