Start from 33 curated places around Holland, MI, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
The Biscuit
This small cafe on Washington Avenue does exactly one thing with relentless focus: creative scratch-made breakfast and lunch, built around house biscuits paired with gravies, fried chicken, seasonal hashes, and housemade quiche. The menu is short and changes with what's fresh. It's consistently ranked near the top of Holland dining and the line forms before the door opens.
Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant
Boatwerks sits on the north shore of Lake Macatawa with a wall of windows facing the water and a dock that sees active boat traffic all summer. The menu leans toward fresh seafood and premium proteins with a solid wine program — nothing flashy, but reliably well-executed. On a clear summer evening with boats at anchor across the channel, the setting does the heavy lifting.
Trails & outdoors
Saugatuck Dunes South Trail
The South Trail at Saugatuck Dunes State Park is the most rewarding hike within the service area — 5.1 miles of varied terrain through forested ridges and coastal dunes before descending to an isolated stretch of Lake Michigan shore. The elevation gain (475 feet) is real, mostly compressed into sandy dune climbs that reward the effort with panoramic lake views. With nearly 1,900 AllTrails reviews at 4.7 stars, it earns the reputation.
Mount Pisgah Dune Boardwalk
This half-mile boardwalk and stairway in Holland State Park climbs 85 feet to a viewing platform 157 feet above Lake Michigan, with simultaneous views of both Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa plus the Big Red Lighthouse below. The climb is steep and the steps can be slippery, but the payoff is immediate. It's the accessible version of the classic Michigan dune summit experience.
Things to do
Tulip Time Festival
For ten days every May, Holland plants more than five million tulips across the city and fills the calendar with Dutch dance performances, wooden shoe demonstrations, street parades, and evening fireworks over Kollen Park. The Volksparade down 8th Street draws tens of thousands; the evening Drone Show has become a newer anchor event. If you're visiting in early May, this is the entire context of the city.
New Holland Brewing Company
New Holland has grown from a small Holland brewpub into a nationally recognized craft brewing and spirits operation while keeping its original pub on 8th Street as the hospitality home base. Brewery tours run regularly and cover both the brewing and distilling sides — Dragon's Milk bourbon barrel stout and Beer Barrel Bourbon are the flagships worth tasting at the source. The campus has a genuine industrial energy that feels earned rather than staged.
Landmarks & sights
Windmill Island Gardens
DeZwaan, a 1761 Dutch windmill imported from the Netherlands, turns on 36 landscaped acres along the Black River. Spring brings dense tulip plantings around its base, but the hand-painted antique carousel, street organ gifted by Amsterdam, and scale model of Dutch village life make this worth a stop in any season. The island park setting—accessed by a drawbridge—gives it a genuine remove from the rest of downtown.
Holland State Park Beach
Holland's stretch of Lake Michigan shore draws more than two million visitors a year with good reason: the sand is fine and white, the water turns brilliant blue-green on clear days, and the channel pier extends toward the Big Red Lighthouse with unobstructed sunset sightlines. The park's Lake Macatawa unit connects via the Black River Boardwalk where you can watch sailboats pass through the channel.