Maastricht
"Where the Netherlands meets Belgium and France and keeps the best of all three."
Maastricht does not feel like the Netherlands — it feels like a place that has been trading influences with Belgium, France, and Germany for so long it has become something entirely its own. The Vrijthof square, surrounded by the twin churches of St. Servatius and St. Jan, fills with cafe terraces in summer and a Christmas market in winter that is among the most atmospheric in Europe. The food and drink culture here is Burgundian: rich, generous, and accompanied by local beers and wines from the nearby Limburg hills.
The city’s most famous landmark is Boekhandel Dominicanen, a thirteenth-century Gothic church converted into a bookshop so beautiful it routinely appears on lists of the world’s best. The St. Pietersberg Caves — a labyrinth of over twenty thousand passages carved by limestone quarrying over centuries — were used as shelters during wartime and now offer guided tours by candlelight. Across the Maas River, the Ceramique district has been transformed from an industrial zone into a cultural quarter with the Bonnefantenmuseum and architecture by Aldo Rossi. Maastricht is proof that the Netherlands extends well beyond windmills and canals.
When to go: March for Carnival — Maastricht’s celebration is the wildest in the Netherlands. May to September for terrace dining on the Vrijthof and along the Maas.