This itinerary assumes the warmer half of the year, roughly April to September, mainly because the direct Waterbus to Kinderdijk on Day 4 only runs in those months and Royal Delft keeps its full daily hours then. Rotterdam is a walking and cycling city out in the open, so pack for wind and the odd shower whenever you come. Many UK travellers now take the Eurostar straight into Rotterdam Centraal (a little over three hours from London), which drops you in the middle of the city under one of its boldest modern roofs; if you fly instead, Rotterdam The Hague Airport is about 20 minutes out by bus, or Schiphol is around 25 minutes away by frequent train. Book flights →

Base yourself in the central area between Rotterdam Centraal, the Cool district and Blaak, so the icons are on foot and the metro covers the rest. Rotterdam was flattened in 1940 and rebuilt as a deliberately modern city, which is exactly why staying central here means sleeping among the architecture rather than away from it. Search hotels →

Piet Blom's Cube Houses (Kubuswoningen), built 1982 to 1984, tilt 45 degrees on their stalks above Blaak like a forest of tipped-up homes, with the slim hexagonal Het Potlood ('the pencil') tower rising right beside them. One cube, the Kijk-Kubus museum house, is fitted out and open to the public daily from 10:00 to 18:00 (later in July and August), so you can see how anyone actually lives at that angle. Start here to set the tone for the week: this is a city that treats buildings as ideas.

A minute's walk from the cubes, MVRDV's Markthal is a giant horseshoe of apartments arched over a covered food market, its inner ceiling painted with the vast 'Horn of Plenty' mural. It is open until 20:00 most days (Fridays until 21:00, Sundays 12:00 to 18:00), so it doubles as a first grazing dinner — cheese, stroopwafels, Surinamese and Indonesian stalls, and a glass of something while you crane your neck at the ceiling.

Wander down to the Oude Haven, Rotterdam's old harbour basin, where the waterside terraces look across to the Witte Huis — an 1898 art-nouveau tower that was briefly the tallest office building in Europe and one of the few structures in the centre to survive the 1940 bombing. It is a relaxed spot for a first proper drink and dinner, with the cubes lit up behind you.