Blog:

Do you say the Netherlands or Holland or Dutch?

You might have come across either 3 of these options when preparing your trip to come cycle in the Netherlands. Actually the country is part of “the Kingdom of the Netherlands”. Though the name for the country used internationally is the Netherlands. In Dutch we say Nederland. A big difference as the “s” in Netherlands reverses to several lands. Though Nederland in Dutch means just one single land. Confused yet? Let’s talk about the other options Dutch and Holland.

“Dutch” is mainly used as the name of the language and the name of what the inhabitants of the Netherlands are called.
Holland is the name of two provinces in the west part of the Netherlands called, North- and South Holland. Most of the international known parts of the Netherlands are in one of these two provinces such as; Amsterdam, The Hague but also the Tulip gardens Keukenhof, The windmills at Kinderdijk and Zaanse Schans, and much more. Due to Holland sounding more user friendly many people now use Holland to refer to the whole of the Netherlands.

Holland Bike Tours is located in Haarlem. That is in North-Holland. Many of our routes run through the provinces North- and South Holland, though also the rest of the Netherlands is beautiful and included in our cycling tours.

Even though understanding everything so far is pretty impressive, it does even get way more difficult than this. The best way to learn is by watching this video: