Den Haag travel tips

Oct 16, 2024 • 6 min read

With its beautiful cities and countryside of polders, dykes, windmills and canals connected by superb, sustainable infrastructure, the Netherlands is one of the easiest places to travel. As a visitor, you won’t find too many potential pitfalls, but there are still a few things to be aware of (starting with getting its name right!). Having written about this charming and fascinating country for almost two decades (and experienced it over a lifetime), these are my key tips for a smooth trip.

Hearty meat, mashed vegetables and huge wheels of cheese are just the start of the Dutch culinary story. The country has a natural larder of lush fields, pastures, coastline and waterways, and tens of thousands of acres of high-tech greenhouses. 

There are train journeys where one just gazes at hills rolling by beyond the carriage window. I love such routes, be they in the Alps, Iberia or the Balkans. Things are different in the Netherlands, where pancake-flat landscapes dominate. Yet even in the flatlands there is often visual drama. The rail routes skirting Dutch heathlands around Apeldoorn are wonderful. And there is a subtle beauty, especially at low sun angles, to the secondary railways which follow the River IJssel downstream from Zutphen to Zwolle.

Thanks to the Netherlands' compact size and superb transport links, visitors to Amsterdam are spoiled for day trip choices that complement a city break in the Dutch capital.