Christmas Under the Hills, and a Fairytale Forest in the Snow
Every December the far south of the Netherlands takes its Christmas underground. In Valkenburg aan de Geul, in the hills of Limburg, the Christmas markets open inside tunnels cut into soft yellow stone since Roman times. Two hours north, a fairytale park opened in 1952 puts snow on its mushrooms and lights along its lake. Between 27 November and 27 December 2026 we join the two in a four day journey, and it may be the most cheerful thing we have designed this winter.
Maastricht, and the stone beneath it
The journey begins with a Storykeeper walk through Maastricht, timed to end as the lights come on over the Vrijthof. Saint Servatius, a fourth century bishop, lies in the basilica on the square, and his grave brought the city its first pilgrims, so Maastricht has been welcoming winter visitors for about sixteen centuries. The walk ends inside Dominicanen, a bookshop set in a thirteenth century church, a few steps from the mulled wine and the Ferris wheel.
The next day follows a single stone. Limburg sits on marl, soft enough to cut with a saw. At Apostelhoeve, the oldest vineyard in the Netherlands, the vines grow on it. At Château Neercanne, a castle built from it, lunch is served above cellars dug into it. And in the caves of Valkenburg, the largest underground Christmas market in Europe sells nativity scenes carved from the walls around them. Two thousand years of a region, told through one material.
Then, the fairytale
After a morning at the Bonnefanten, the car heads north to Efteling and the Wonder Hotel, with its four towers and a lobby dressed as the engine room of a castle in the clouds. The Fairytale Forest, first drawn by the illustrator Anton Pieck, wears its winter decor, there is skating on the Warme Winter Weide, and the evening closes on the lake with Aquanura. The last day starts as the gates open, with Symbolica, Droomvlucht and Danse Macabre before the queues, and ends with the drive to Amsterdam, ninety minutes away.
A surprise for friends, and for families
For a group of friends, the first two days look like a grown up December of churches, wine and lunch in a castle. Then comes the theme park, and adults who arrived with an ironic smile end up queuing twice for Symbolica and debating whether Danse Macabre counts as Christmas.
For families with children, the journey works the other way round. A city walk is easy when a Ferris wheel waits at the end, a market inside a cave feels like a secret, and the park arrives on the third day as the reward everyone has been counting down to. Either way, it tends to be the story people are still telling in January.
OUR WAY OF DOING THINGS...
Our Storykeepers turn a museum into a story your clients will retell forever. The painter, the history few people know, the room to linger in, the dot that connects the history with the now. Art, told by people who love it and know how to make it fun. On this journey the museum is a whole region, from a bishop's grave in Maastricht to a stone that became a church, a castle and a wine cellar.
Good to know for travel advisors
This is a Limited Edition, available from 27 November to 27 December 2026, while the three festive seasons overlap. A weekday start on Wednesday 2 or Wednesday 9 December brings the calmest caves. The André Rieu weekends in Maastricht and the school holidays from 21 December are the busiest moments.
Combining it with the season
The journey ends ninety minutes from Amsterdam, where Yayoi Kusama at the Stedelijk and Willem de Kooning at the Rijksmuseum run until 17 January, Chez Matisse at H'ART Museum until 14 February, and the Amsterdam Light Festival lights the canals from 26 November, best seen from a private boat over dinner served by three chefs. The Hague hosts the Thyssen Bornemisza masterpieces at the Mauritshuis, and the Kröller Müller hangs all 88 of its Van Goghs until 3 January.
For music, the opera, ballet and concert seasons of Amsterdam, Brussels and Antwerp run through December, and clients who love André Rieu can time their nights in Maastricht to one of his concerts at home. We shape each departure around the travellers, their dates and their appetite for roller coasters.
In Limburg, Christmas goes underground. In Brabant, it walks into a fairytale. Four days are enough for both.
