Doorn

Langbroekerweg 10, five minutes' walk south-east of the Dorpsstraat. The interiors are as Wilhelm II left them in 1941; the ticket is about €14 and includes the walled garden, the Orange Hall exhibition and the domed mausoleum where he is buried. Allow ninety minutes, and check the season before travelling.

Enter from the Woestduinlaan or the car park off the Arnhemse Bovenweg, a kilometre north of Doorn centre. A wooden tower on the highest dune gives a flat green horizon broken by the Amerongen church spire. The marked mountain-bike loop and the wheelchair-accessible forest path both start from the same clearing.

Velperengh 13, on the eastern edge of the village toward Leersum. A University of Utrecht collection of some 8,000 woody plants across 27 hectares, strongest in conifers, rhododendrons and maples. Entry is around €6, cash-free, and it is at its best in late May and again in mid-October.

Off the Gooijerdijk between Doorn and Langbroek, a former sand quarry with clear water, a shelving beach and no facilities worth the name. Free, unsupervised, and busy on the two hot weekends the Netherlands gets each summer. Bring your own everything; the nearest coffee is back on the Dorpsstraat.

Head south-east from Doorn on the Langbroekerdijk toward Langbroek and Cothen. Within eight kilometres you pass Kasteel Sterkenburg, Walenburg, Lunenburg and Sandenburg, a ribbon of medieval tower houses on a drainage ditch dug in the twelfth century. Most are private; the gardens at Walenburg open on limited days in summer.

Six kilometres west via the Woudenbergseweg, an earth pyramid heaped up by Napoleonic troops in 1804 and topped with an obelisk. Around €4 to climb it, with a café at the base. Combine it with the sand drifts of the Leusderheide and the Wageningse Berg cycle route back to Doorn.

From Schiphol take the train to Utrecht Centraal, about 35 minutes, then bus 50 from the bus deck above the station toward Wageningen: it runs along the N225 through Zeist and Driebergen and reaches Doorn Dorpsstraat in roughly 35 to 40 minutes, two to four times an hour by day. Tap in and out with an OV-chipkaart or contactless bank card; the fare from Utrecht is a few euro. The alternative is a train to Driebergen-Zeist, ten minutes from Utrecht, then the same bus 50 for fifteen minutes. By car it is exit 22 off the A12, then the N227. Inside Doorn everything is walkable, and village parking is free.

Yes, if you are happy on a bus and a bike. Bus 50 from Utrecht Centraal stops in the middle of the village and runs until mid-evening, and both the Kaapse Bossen and Huis Doorn are within twenty minutes on foot. For the arboretum, the Doornse Gat or the castle lane you want a bicycle — most hotels lend or rent them for around €12 a day. After about 22:00 you are reliant on a taxi.

No, and this catches people out. The house museum works to a season that broadly runs from mid-March to the end of October, closed on Mondays, with occasional winter openings around Christmas. The park, the tea pavilion and the mausoleum are accessible on more days than the house itself. Check the current calendar before you build a day around it, because Doorn has no wet-weather backup.

The Doornse Gat off the Gooijerdijk is the local answer: a spring-fed former sand quarry with genuinely clear water, free and unsupervised, about three kilometres from the village. There are no changing rooms, no lifeguard and no kiosk. For a supervised beach with a café you would drive twenty-five minutes north-west to the Henschotermeer near Woudenberg, which charges for parking in summer.

Twenty kilometres, which is 35 to 40 minutes on bus 50 or about 30 minutes by car outside rush hour. By bicycle it is a pleasant 90 minutes on the Kromme Rijn route via Bunnik and Amelisweerd, almost entirely off-road. Coming back after an evening in the Binnenstad is the weak point: plan on the last bus or a €40 taxi.