Giethoorn, the village without roads

Giethoorn has no roads, only canals, footpaths and 176 bridges. It is a two-hour drive from Amsterdam through the polders and across the former Zuiderzee, and worth every minute of it. Your chauffeur arranges a private whisper-boat so you can glide past the thatched farmhouses at your own pace, then a table for lunch by the water. On the way back we stop at Elburg, a perfectly preserved fortified town that almost nobody visits.