For the perfect Midwest spring and summer destination, go Dutch to Holland, Michigan. Our Tulip Time Festival is renowned, but what happens after the klompen go back on the shoe rack and the tulips go back in their bulbs?
Plenty! With a bustling downtown at one end and breathtaking Lake Michigan at the other, Holland offers acres of activities for the whole family.
Holland’s Lake Michigan beaches provide not only a great way to spend the day, but also a spectacular place to watch the gorgeous sunsets. Holland State Park is known for its expansive white-sand beaches, and for its bike and hiking trails, dune walk stairways, boating activities, and beach volleyball. And if you want to stay right at the beach, there are two campgrounds on the property.
Tunnel Park gets its name from its spectacular entrance: a tunnel through a sand dune that opens out onto an extensive beach and the splendor of Lake Michigan. Besides the magnificent beach, Tunnel Park offers picnic areas and shelters, four sand volleyball courts, a children’s playground complete with a dune climb, and a dune stairway with spectacular views of Lake Michigan.
Done with your beachcombing and suntanning? Then head to downtown Holland for a whole season of fun. At the Holland Farmer’s Market, you’ll find the freshest produce, heartiest plants, tastiest baked goods, and the most wholesome cheeses, eggs, and meats—all produced and sold by the friendliest people! In the summer, Wednesdays bring kids’ activities to the market, and Saturdays feature the Market Chef Series at which local chefs show how to make sumptuous dishes from farmers market items.
Summer in downtown Holland bursts with entertainment on Thursday evenings, during the Street Performer Series. Acrobats, singers, musicians, magicians—even fire eaters—thrill and charm the strolling audience. Friday evenings provide the Summer Concert Series, with a variety of local groups delighting the crowd.
Later in the summer, Holland is still kicking with downtown sidewalk sales, Art in the Park, and Tulipanes—the Latino Film, Art, and Food Festival.
On those rare days when there are no events, Holland still has plenty to offer. At the Nelis’ Dutch Village shops, you can find everything from tasty stroopwafels to a traditional Dutch ensemble for your Barbie doll—complete with tiny klompen! Right outside is an extensive theme park where you can ride the Zweefmolen (Dutch chair swing ride), find out if you’re guilty of witchcraft, hand crank an Amsterdam street organ, and become an honorary Dutch dancer for a day.
Windmill Island Gardens not only features DeZwaan, the authentic Dutch windmill brought over from the Netherlands, but also thirty-six acres of manicured gardens, dikes, and canals, and a hand-painted Dutch carousel.
And even when the five million tulips are gone from Veldheer’s Tulip Farm, you can still enjoy other plantings as well as the adjacent DeKlomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory. It’s one of the rare places outside the Netherlands where authentic blue and white porcelain Delftware is fired and hand-painted.
Source: Downtown Holland
