Hi. I'm Dutch myself, so I this might be a weird question. But I have some friends from abroad coming over and I want your opinions on places (preferably cities) to take them that aren't Amsterdam. I can thing of a few, but I want to hear a it from non-Dutch tourist's perspective. Where did you go and what did or didn't you like.
I have a car, so everything is in driving distance.
>>1081394
I guess it's sort of a tourist trap, but I found Giethoorn pretty wonderful. I also had a good time doing some medium long-distance bike trips along the coast, and I'm not even a serious cyclist (my wife is, which is why we did it... helps that your country has no discernible hills).
>>1081394
Of the cities I visited in the Netherlands, I liked Den Haag the best. In general the area felt a lot less hectic than other areas like Rotterdam or Amsterdam and the atmosphere in general was more welcoming.
Den Haag has the Mauritshuis and the Escher museum which I particularly enjoyed, and also to the north past Vredespaleis is Scheveningen where you can check out the beaches of the North Sea among other things.
>>1081394
avoid Maastricht, it's a shithole
>Hi. I'm Dutch myself, so I this might be a weird question.
Yes, it is weird.
I liked Utrecht. It is like a small version of Amsterdam (which is my favorite city in the world), without noisy tourists, weird souvenir stores and less people, but still have the beautiful Dutch architecture and cozy atmosphere.
>>1081394
How's Groningen? I live in Germany and it's the one sizeable Dutch (ok, Frisian!) city I've never been to.
Is Breda & Tilburg any good?
I'm Belgian and want to visit this weekend
>>1081394
I spent a week in the Netherlands but it was about a decade ago now. I went with my cousin.
We spent 5 days in Amsterdam but the last day we did a couple of trips outside of town, Spent about 7 hours in Utrecht and then after coming back to Amsterdam we decided to take another train to Haarlem. We spent 2 days in The Hague, including half a day in Delft. Then on the way to Antwerp we stopped in Rotterdam only to walk around the city for a couple of hours and take a boat to Kinderdijk.
I really liked Delft, barely any tourists around, beautiful little city, lots of history. Utrecht was also very nice, it feels like a smaller more compact version of Amsterdam without the hordes of tourists. Kinderdijk is great to visit as well if you're not tired of windmills yet, even though it's very touristy it's one of those places where you won't find another one of them anywhere else in the world.
If you want something similar to Amsterdam but without all the fucking tourists, go to Utrecht. imo one of the greatest cities of the Netherlands.
I never was a big fan of the Hague but being there last week I changed my mind. That city is actually comfy as fuck and really fun to go out.(also for a 1 day activity it may be fun to check out all the political stuff there which include countless embassies, one of the main Palaces of the royal family, and the seat of the dutch parlement)
Groningen is somewhat similar to Utrecht, in a way that they are both cities with a very comfy, village like atmosphere. Problem with Groningen is that it is pretty far away from all the other stuff in the Netherlands(But if you live close to the border in Germany you should be alright)
Rotterdam has some nice places to go but I think you really need to plan that stuff out, because huge parts of that city is just a general shithole...
Delft and Leiden are very similar to Utrecht(and perhaps a bit to Groningen), in that they are both small cities very much focussed on students. I, as a student, really like that, and going out in those cities is crazy.
I have never spent too much time in Breda(or any of the other southern cities for that matter), but I hear Breda is a lot of fun.
Giethoorn is okay for a day of chilling on the water, drinking a couple of beers and smoking a joint with some friends. Other than that I'm not a huge fan of the place. Filled with Chinese tourists btw, funny to see that a lot of the restaurants and stores actually use both Dutch and Chinese text to lure in customers.
For all cities(with the exception of Amsterdam) though you must realize that Dutch cities are generally speaking not as big as cities in other countries, so you'll be done pretty quickly.
>I'm Dutch btw, so I'm not really answering OP more general info on Dutch cities
>>1081394
hahahahhahaha letterlijk nog nooit buiten geweest.
Zet je computer uit
>kneus
Ok en naast shitposten: Madurodam
In het zuiden zijn veel middelgrote gezellige steden (behalve Eindhoven, Tilburg en Heerlen dan maar ook daar zijn leuke kroegen). Maastricht is wel leuk in tegenstelling tot wat >>1081416 zegt.
In de randstad heb je Kinderdijk, de Bollenstreek, bijna elke stad heeft kanaaltours, grote steden, madurodam (heb je hem weer!). Een beetje de dingen die op ansichtkaarten staan.
In het Noorden heb je Groningen en Friese steden zijn vooral historisch. Volgens mij wonen er niet meer zo veel mensen in Noord-Nederland toch? Alle jonge mensen vertrekken in elk geval naar de randstad.
En in het Oosten heb je Nijmegen wat super leuk (want historie en studentenstad) is.
Bron gerelateerd, buitenlandse vriendin en ik had een huisgenoot uit Venezuela naast buitenlandse toeristen waarvoor ik gidsje heb gespeeld als ze langskwamen.
>>1081487
Beetje jammer, gelijk gaan schelden. Zoals ik al zei, ik zou juist het perspectief van buitenlanders en toeristen. Dat heeft niet te maken met achter je computer weg komen, maar met op een andere manier naar dingen kijken. Maar goed, ik ben blij dat je je even weer superieur kon voelen door de internet badass uit te hangen. Good for you.
You should visit the cheese market in Alkmaar. I went there two times with my family and it was amazing.
I'm from Germany if that matters.
>>1081431
Breda is nicer
>>1081431
tilburg is one of the worst cities in the netherlands, despite being a student town. it's ugly and doesn't have a nice atmosphere at all.
breda and 's-hertogenbosch are probably the nicest places in noord-brabant to visit.
>great
amsterdam, utrecht, maastricht, groningen
>nice enough
rotterdam, the hague, breda, nijmegen
>charming
delft, leiden, haarlem, deventer, middelburg, (old part of) dordrecht
>avoid
arnhem, tilburg, anything in drenthe
>>1081525
Enschede?
As a German university student, I went there a couple times, mostly to smoke desu... I wouldn't want to live there, but it seemed like a comfy if dull/quiet place to live. In summer, the central squares were quite busy and lively.
>>1081416
I liked visiting Maastricht, but this guy could be the /trv/ meme that anyone who lives somewhere thinks it's a dump
>>1081489
10/10 als je zit te trollen
>>1081520
's-Hertogenbosch is really nice.
Right now there is an exhibition with 20 or something original paintings from Jeroen Bosch. This is really unique.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/arts/international/bosch-revolutionary-and-master.html?_r=0
Staying in Den Haag for a week in April
I was thinking abut making a trip to the old royal palace in Apeldoorn. Is it worth it?
>>1082748
Apeldoorn is pretty boring, especially for tourists(but even for Dutch people, Apeldoorn is little to no fun). Just go to the palace in The Hague
>>1083110
Love Central Behuur's funny ads.
>>1081394
What about Brussels? Not NL obviously but probably still driving distance from you.
>>1083576
Honestly BXL is quite poop.
Everything outside of the central pentagon of the city is shit, except for atomium & european quarter
>>1083582
>atomium
It's like I was doing a roadtrip in the midwest US and suddenly a portal opened and I was transported to a block in Brussels.
Literally wtf. It's just a big stupid atom structure.
>myfw in Belgium, and a Belgian Erasmus friend asks if I want to go inside
Yea nah, thanks, I'm good.
What about places worth visiting for an hour or so? I have two train passes for a full day and I want to take a mini tour with them in two runs, to and from a destination to decide where I can stay a night or two. I'm starting in Hilversum and the idea is to end up somewhere close enough to come back cheaply by train, preferably the Hague.
>>1083596
pyramids are literally a pile of rocks in the shame of a triangle reaching for the sky
>>1083602
>comparing the Pyramids with a lame out-of-place 1960s-era tourist trap
Why are Belgians so retarded?
>>1081394
Den Haag and Delft are definetly good. Delft is imo the most beautifull city in the Netherlands, less touristy than Amsterdam and equally as nice. Den Haag is also a good choice, ive lived there for about a year and the city never bored me. Theres definetly alot to do and its also a very international city (alot of cheap good restaurants).
>>1081430
I currently live in Groningen. The city is ok, alot of students and a very lively town i'd say. Nothing really special to see though imo.
>>1081561
Enschede is a total shithole imo. Literally nothing in enschede is appealing to tourists. The vibe in the city is not great, the city itself is outright ugly and theres not much to do. You could go to Zwolle, about an hour west of Enschede, which imo is a nice little town.
>>1083576
In belgium, gent or antwerpen is definetly worth visiting (Brugge and Brussel are decent aswell).
>>1083596
any reasonable basis for that criticism? it was actually pretty cool and i thought brussels was overwhelmingly a drag
>>1083717
I already said it. It's a big lame tourist trap, the kind you see advertised on billboards leading up to middle-of-nowhere towns in the US. That is exactly what it reminded me of, only a little larger. It might have been kinda cool in the 1960s... nowadays it is certainly nothing to rest laurels on. The organization that runs it are also copyright Nazis (taking a photo of it is stealing our copyright!! remove photo from internet now!)
Everyone likes different things, so sure fine, if you thought it was cool, whatever. There's no accounting for bad taste, after all.
Parties in Enschede are always great!
>>1083821
you fucking didnt go inside. of course it was kitsch as hell, hence rushing upstairs for a decent view
your post oozes real travel, down to not even being able to leave the phrase alone at "accounting for taste" but having to add on the word bad
theres no reason to be an assblasted douche at skipping something that is way more popular than nebraskas largest ball of floss
>>1083950
I've seen photos, I didn't miss anything. Wasn't interested in paying 12€ to look inside a big tourist trap. Get over yourself.
>shrug off a tourist trap
>HURR DURR YOU ARE LE REAL TRAVELLER MAYMAY!! START LIKING WHAT I LIKE!!
Sorry, buddy, you seem to be the only one assblasted here. Deal with it.
Apart from that, I actually had a fun time in Brussels the three times I've been there. Belgian girls are easy, for one thing. I like the art deco touches in many of the buildings. I bought two antique (ca. 1912, as it turns out) telephones for a few euros each at a flea market, which I have on my shelves. And since I grew up reading Tintin it was also a pleasure to see it's 'hometown' and visit the shop.
The Atomium, however, is very skippable.
>>1083962
Atomium looks quite cool from my office though.
>belgian girls are easy
teach me
>>1081394
Hello
I will be arriving in the Netherlands this weekend and wanted to know, do they let you buy at coffeeshops if you are not Dutch or is this a myth? Staying in Nijmegen
>>1084220
Good luck m8
>>1084220
The answer is easily googled.
Pretty much only in some southern cities do they enforce the 'Dutch Only' rule. Elsewhere it is a 'myth'. Nijmegen is fine, I've bought there myself.
>>1084220
was in rotterdam. only arabs outside and inside of coffeeshops so I wouldn't go in myself (i also don't smoke). I've seen that the clerks were behind bulletproof glass, and one coffeeshop had a metaldetector at entrance
>>1084350
don't go to coffeeshops in shitty neighbourhoods. What you described is not really the norm.
>>1084352
witte de witstraat (the street with hostel)
rotterdam is shit tho, literally nothing of culture except the broodje calamares for 2euro
Is Rotterdam worth checking out? It just looks like the Detroit of Europe from the photos I've seen.
>>1084425
It's not. It's a must-see city if you're into modern architecture
>>1084430
The only thing there that even slightly interests me near Rotterdam is the Maeslantkering but only because I'm a civil engineer.
I may check out the Delta Project instead.
>>1084442
hold up, it's not in Rotterdam and is super easy to get to via bicycle from Hoek von Holland.
Worlds largest robot, here I come.
>>1083601
Bumping this question.
>>1084430
dude it's poop. The brochure they hand out for tourists includes some corporate buildings.
m-muh culture
>>1081394
Lots of Germans I know (am German myself) occasionally travel to Venlo for shopping, though I guess it's not really a sightseeing place.
Also I went to Alkmaar once, pretty neat city imo
>>1081416
it's actually a lovely city, unless you're some douche who is mad he couldn't go into a coffeeshop
If it matters that much bring it with you, an hour away on the train you can buy some.
But as a foreigner who's lived here for 3 and a bit years I would really recommend 2 or 3 days in maastricht, especially when it is sunny, it is a beautiful city.
>>1084699
what's there to do for 2/3 days?
>tfw foreigner in tilburg on an internship and whenever I tell other Dutch they just shit all over the city and ask me to reconsider
>>1084632
Why can't corporate buildings be good architecture?
