The tulips are real, but they are on a schedule. Keukenhof, the great flower park south of Amsterdam, opens roughly mid-March to mid-May, and the famous striped bulb fields around it peak in a window of about three weeks in April that shifts with the weather. Book the first entry slot of the morning; by eleven the paths are shoulder to shoulder.

In the city itself, skip the line culture entirely: reserve the Anne Frank House weeks ahead or accept you will not go, and give the saved hours to the canal ring at dusk, when the bridges light up and the boats slow down. A canal-side table, a plate of bitterballen, and no agenda is the best hour Amsterdam sells, and it costs almost nothing.