Sail Past Tulips in Holland & Belgium

The Real Deal: Round-trip airfare, a seven-night riverboat cruise, sightseeing tours, and meals from $1,499 per person.

When: Depart Mar. 30, 2007; add $100 for Apr. 6; $200 for Apr. 13, 20.

Gateways: New York City.

Details: Sightseeing and shore excursions, twenty meals, and unlimited wine with dinner are included. Airport taxes and fuel (?) are an additional $250 per person and port charges are an additional $125 per person. Based on double occupancy; single supplement $899. For general guidelines on evaluating deals, click here.

Book By: Feb. 23, 2007; afterwards, the price increases by $700 per person.

Contact: SmarTours, 800/337-7773, smartours.com.

The escorted tour includes round-trip airfare to Amsterdam on TK and a seven-night cruise in a main deck exterior cabin on the ms Bolero riverboat. (Upgrade to an exterior cabin with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors and balcony from $149 per person.) The trip begins in Amsterdam, with a free afternoon for exploring and a welcome dinner and reception. The next morning brings a guided city tour, with a stop at the Rijksmuseum, and a side trip to the village of Edam for a wine and cheese tasting. You'll travel by bus to the port town of Enkhuizen and board the riverboat for the overnight voyage to Nijmegen, where you'll spend a day.

The next stop is Antwerp, Belgium, where a guided tour takes you to the historic home of TK painter Rubens, the Grote Market, and the gothic Cathedral of Our Lady. The following morning, the ms Bolero docks in the medieval town of Ghent. The Castle of the Counts and the Cathedral of St. Bavon--famous for its panels painted by the Van Eyck brothers--are highlights of the afternoon guided tour.

Sailing back to Holland, you'll visit the Delta Works, a series of 13 dams used to stem flooding, and pull into the city of Zierikzee for a quick tour. A drive to the 19 windmills of Kinderdijk and a sail to the 13th-century town of Schoonhoven are also part of the day's packed schedule. On the last full day, you'll explore the Keukenhof Gardens and join the ship in Utrecht for the sail back to Amsterdam. A farewell dinner and a cocktail reception round out the trip.

An optional walking tour of Njimegen and a visit to its Open Air Museum is available for an additional $59 per person and a full day trip to Bruges and Ghent is $119 per person.

Before you go, check the weather forecast, exchange rate, and local time at BudgetTravelOnline.com.

What Makes This a Deal? You'll save $700 per person off the typical rate of the SmarTours package. If you were tried to book the elements of the package independently, consider for starters that the lowest round-trip fare we've found to Amsterdam in late March is $513 from New York City (American Airlines). For about $1,000 more, TourCrafters covers the airfare as well as the seven-night cruise, 20 meals, and sightseeing tours.

Related Stories