Things to Do in Netherlands in August

August evenings are tailor-made for gliding along Amsterdam's 17th-century canals when the stone bridges glow amber and the air cools to a comfortable 18°C (64°F). The light lingers long enough that you can start at 7 pm, loop past Westerkerk and the skinny bridge, and still be back for Indonesian rijsttafel by 9:30. Locals ride one-handed with a plastic cup of rosé from the Albert Cuyp market. Follow their lead. But keep an eye out for tram tracks.

The tides in late August are gentler, exposing vast gray plains of silt where you can walk 3 km (1.9 miles) from the Frisian coast to tiny barrier islands. Guides point out lugworms spitting spirals of sand and let you taste a sprig of sea lavender that tastes like the ocean distilled into a leaf. The mud is cool and silky under bare feet, and the only sound is the distant clink of masts in nearby harbors.

August skies are clear enough that the 9 km (5.6-mile) Oostersheldedekering barrier looks like a steel blade slicing blue water. Inside the concrete piers you smell diesel and damp granite while engineers explain how the sluice gates sank during the 1953 flood. The North Sea breeze is salty and sharp. Perfect natural air-conditioning after sticky mornings in Rotterdam.

South Limburg's heather turns violet-purple in mid-August, carpeting the hills around Valkenburg with a color you can smell. Warm honey drifts from bees working the blossoms. The route from Valkenburg to Maastricht rolls past half-timbered farmhouses where farmers still scythe the heather by hand. Temperatures hover at 21°C (70°F) in the shade. But the hills give you breeze.

August humidity makes a cold glass of barrel-aged jenever taste like liquid juniper bread. In Schiedam, where windmills once powered grain mills, distilleries like the 1777-built Nolet still copper-still grain in small batches. You'll nose whiffs of coriander and licorice root before the first sip burns gently, cutting through damp air.