See the Netherlands’ most iconic sights and the earliest colours of the season, all in one day. We begin at Zaanse Schans, home to the country’s best-known windmills, before continuing to a working greenhouse for a private, guided look behind the scenes at how tulips are grown and cared for year-round, a side of tulip season most visitors never see.

Lunch follows inside the greenhouse itself, surrounded by flowers. From there, we visit family-owned flower fields, away from the crowds, to see the blooms that arrive first: hyacinths, daffodils and crocuses, the earliest arrivals of the Dutch flower season. Guests have plenty of time to see and smell the flowers up close, with the season’s very first tulips sometimes making an appearance depending on the flowering period.

It’s a rare glimpse of Dutch spring before the main tulip season begins, on real working farms, with plenty of time to take in the open landscapes and capture unforgettable photographs.