Our Mission
Our mission is simple: to experience and taste the essence of Dutch culture with you.
The Netherlands has made unique and often unknown contributions to the world. From its unlikely formation as a nation, to its solution-oriented ingenuity, it is at once an under-appreciated country and one of the most influential in the world. We believe that an authentic Dutch experience should be felt and seen beyond Amsterdam.
Henk Tieman, 1956 · Royal Delft
Our Story Begins
The name found us in a museum in Delft
On a wall at the Royal Delft museum hangs a ceramic relief made in 1956 by the designer Henk Tieman — Mercurius, made in the same ceramics tradition utilised since the seventeenth century. The plaque beneath it reads god of travellers and trade. We had been searching for a name for weeks. We stopped searching.
Mercurius carried messages between worlds. He crossed borders, moved between languages, and was at ease in places he did not come from. That seemed the right patron for a company built for people who have spent their whole lives crossing borders of their own — and who have earned, by now, the simple luxury of arriving somewhere that is welcoming.
Beyond Amsterdam, amongst friends.
Two promises, in four words
Beyond Amsterdam
The country is bigger than its capital
Amsterdam is wonderful, and Amsterdam is not the Netherlands. Ask anyone who lives here and they will tell you so, usually within a minute of meeting you. The country worth the journey lies past the bustling capital: the water and the silence of Friesland, the Hanseatic towns strung along the IJssel, the light over Zeeland, the old harbour at Hindeloopen, a warm kroket eaten standing up in a café where nobody is in a hurry.
Amongst Friends
And the second promise matters more
You will not travel as a stranger being moved through a country. You will travel with someone who calls this place home, who has visited all twelve provinces — and who understands, without needing it explained, what it costs to visit places quietly wondering whether you are welcome.
Who This Is For
A generation that has been brave for a very long time
Mercurius exists for all travellers seeking a friendly and knowledgeable companion. That said, we are deeply proud to work with LGBTQIA+ travellers in their later years, and with the partners, friends and chosen family who travel alongside them.
Some of us have been out long before it was safe to be. Some are only out now. Many have seen a good deal of the world carefully — choosing destinations by risk rather than by desire, editing themselves at hotel desks, running the small constant arithmetic of who to tell, and where, and how much.
The premise here is simple. On this journey you do not run that arithmetic. It has already been run for you, in advance, everywhere we go.
Founders · Mercurius Concierge Travel
The Founders
A life that turned out to be preparation
We are a family that is part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Besides travelling throughout the Netherlands, we have travelled to over seventy different countries.
We understand the anxiety of standing at the customs desk wondering what questions might be asked, and why. We understand wondering about the security at a hotel, or whether a tour guide is safe. And we know the difference between a place that tolerates you and a place that is glad you came — we can usually tell within a minute, and those welcoming places abound in the Netherlands.
There is a second thread to that preparation. James is a nurse and Alex is a therapist. On these journeys we are your hosts rather than your clinicians — we do not provide care in either of those roles — but a working life spent in healthcare means that very little about a body, or a mind, is unfamiliar to us, or awkward, or in need of explanation. It is not something we sell. It is simply who is standing next to you.
What We Hold To
Four commitments, kept on every journey
Pace before itinerary
Days are built to be flexible and unhurried, and we go at your pace. There is always time to sit at a canal-side terrace over a coffee, watching people pass by.
Everywhere vetted first
Hotels, restaurants, guides, drivers — we do our research, and most places we have visited ourselves. We make sure every destination can accommodate your needs, dietary or accessibility, and that you will always feel comfortable being yourself.
Prices in plain sight
Every rate is made clear from the beginning. No figure arrives later as a surprise.
Small numbers only
Private journeys and small groups. Never a coach, never a name badge, never a flag held up over a crowd.
Beyond Amsterdam, Amongst Friends
Every journey begins with a conversation.
Tell us who is travelling, roughly when, and what you would like the days to feel like. The rest is our work, not yours.
