The Hague
The Hague is the seat of government, the courts and the King while Amsterdam keeps the title of capital, with five major museums inside a twenty-minute walk and eleven kilometres of North Sea beach fifteen minutes away by tram. One night or one very full day, the Mauritshuis at opening, and never on a Monday.
The Hague in a nutshell
The Hague: what to expect
The numbers below come from 124,000+ planned stops in the Netherlands on Stippl, and the rest from the guides we cross-check.
One night or one very full day in The Hague, and the museums are the reason. The Mauritshuis holds Girl with a Pearl Earring and the Goldfinch in a seventeenth-century palace, Panorama Mesdag is the largest painting in the country viewed from inside a mock lighthouse, Escher's prints hang in a former royal palace, the Kunstmuseum holds the world's largest Mondrian collection, the Peace Palace is the seat of the International Court of Justice, and Scheveningen is the beach at the end of a tram line. Most travellers give The Hague 1 night on Stippl.
The Hague is the quietest of the big Dutch cities by a distance, and the one done on a whim. 62.2% of stops here run a single night, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, 23.4% are planned inside a fortnight, the highest of the Dutch cities, and 34.0% of the trips it appears on stay inside the Netherlands, because it is reached by train by people doing the country rather than crossing it.
Choose the centre for the museums or Scheveningen for the beach, arrive at Den Haag Centraal rather than the other station, go to the Mauritshuis at opening or in the cheap last two hours, and take the tram to Delft for the canals. Skip a Monday, since two of the five museums are shut and a third opens after lunch, and skip the Binnenhof tour, because it is a building site for years yet.
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Art-lovers
Five major museums inside a twenty-minute walk, including a Vermeer, the world's largest Mondrian collection and a nineteenth-century panorama.
Families
Madurodam, the beach, the pier and a museum bill that is free for under-nineteens at the two biggest institutions.
Day-trippers from Amsterdam
Fifty minutes each way, one very full day genuinely works, and 26.14% of Stippl stops here are no night at all.
Beach and city travellers
Eleven kilometres of North Sea sand fifteen minutes by tram from the parliament building, with the sea warmest in September.
Law and diplomacy travellers
The Peace Palace, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court are all here, and two of them can be visited.
People Amsterdam wore out
The quietest of the big Dutch cities by a distance, with 34.0% of its Stippl trips staying inside the Netherlands.
Maybe not for you: anyone wanting canals and gabled streets, which is Delft half an hour away by tram; and anyone visiting on a Monday, when two of the five main museums are shut and a third opens after lunch.
The best time to visit The Hague
Spring
April to May
The bulb fields, King's Day and the first beach days, and April is unusually strong here on Stippl, among the top three months for starts.
Summer
June to August
The coast fills and the city does not, with Scheveningen a different place in July than in March and 52.3% of Stippl starts between June and September.
Autumn
September to October
The value season, with the sea at its warmest in September, the beach empty and Prinsjesdag on the third Tuesday.
Winter
November to March
Wet, windy and cheap, with the museums the reason to come and the New Year bonfires on the beach the one spectacle.
- Most travellers give The Hague 1 night on Stippl, and 62.2% of stops are exactly that. One very full day covers four museums and the beach; two nights add Delft and the Peace Palace tour.
- July is the busiest month on Stippl, and September is the better one. The sea is warmest, the beach is empty and the museums are quiet, which is the opposite of July.
- Prinsjesdag is the third Tuesday of September. The King rides to open parliament, and with the Binnenhof under renovation the route and the venue move, so the year's arrangements are checked.
- Holi Phagwa colours the city in March. The Hindustani-Surinamese community holds one of the largest celebrations outside South Asia, in the Transvaal district, and it is a street festival rather than a ticketed one.
- Most travellers plan The Hague about 54 days ahead on Stippl, and 23.4% inside a fortnight. The highest last-minute share of the Dutch cities, because the day trip is decided the evening before.
- Mondays are the closed day. Two of the five main museums are shut all day and the Mauritshuis opens after lunch, so the museum morning goes on any other day.
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Things to do in The Hague
Photo by Artem Shuba via Unsplash
Photo by Michael Fousert via Unsplash
Photo by Den Harrson via UnsplashThe Mauritshuis
A seventeenth-century palace holding Girl with a Pearl Earring, the Anatomy Lesson and the Goldfinch, small and dense in one to two hours, and cheapest in the last two hours of the day.
Panorama Mesdag
The largest painting in the Netherlands, a full-circle seascape of Scheveningen in 1881 viewed from inside a mock lighthouse with sand, props and gull sound.
Escher in the palace
Escher's prints in a former royal palace with the chandeliers left in place, around a hundred and twenty of them, and an interactive floor upstairs.
The Kunstmuseum
Berlage's building, the world's largest Mondrian collection at about three hundred works, and a ticket that also opens the photography museum next door the same day.
The Binnenhof and the Hofvijver
The complex itself is a building site for years yet, but the thirteenth-century exterior and the reflecting pond are still the picture, with a viewpoint on the square.
The Peace Palace
Seat of the International Court of Justice, the only principal UN judicial organ outside New York, with a visitor centre most afternoons and tours inside on set days.
The neighbourhoods of The Hague
Centrum and Binnenhof
The political core
The Mauritshuis, Escher in the palace, the Hofvijver and the Passage arcade around the parliament complex, with the shops and the station a short walk away. For first-timers.
Every museum on foot and the station ten minutes away, though the evenings are quiet.
Lange Voorhout and Hofkwartier
The prettiest streets
Lime-tree boulevards and small palaces, with Prinsestraat, Oude Molstraat and Noordeinde the streets to walk and the King's working palace at the end. For couples.
The boulevards and the best small restaurants, at the highest room rates in the centre.
The museum quarter
Grand and green
Zorgvliet, with the Kunstmuseum, the photography museum, Panorama Mesdag and the Peace Palace among embassies and parkland north-west of the centre. For art-lovers.
The museums and the palace at the door, but a tram or a long walk to dinner.
Statenkwartier
The diplomatic side
Embassies, quiet residential streets and the walk to both the beach and the museums, between the centre and the coast. For longer stays.
Quiet streets within reach of both, though nothing to do in them.
Scheveningen
The seaside resort
Eleven kilometres of beach, the pier, the ferris wheel and the dunes either side, a fifteen-minute tram ride from the centre and a different place in July than in March. For families.
The beach at the door and the pier, but a tram to every museum and a ghost town in winter.
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Where to stay in The Hague
The decision is centre or coast, and it is the only accommodation decision that matters here: the centre puts you inside walking distance of every museum, and Scheveningen puts you on the beach and fifteen minutes by tram from them. Most travellers give The Hague 1 night on Stippl, and the rooms are cheaper than Amsterdam's on every line.
Centrum and Binnenhof
Chains, boutique hotels and a hostel around the parliament, €60 to €200 a night.
Lange Voorhout and Hofkwartier
Grand hotels and small palaces on the boulevards, €150 to €400 a night.
The museum quarter
Guesthouses and apartments among the embassies, €80 to €180 a night.
Statenkwartier
€100–180
Apartments and small hotels in the residential streets, €70 to €160 a night.
Scheveningen
€100–220
Seafront resort hotels and beach apartments, €70 to €280 a night.
What to eat in The Hague
An Indonesian rice table of fifteen to twenty-five small dishes, shared
Surinamese flatbread with curried chicken, potato and long bean
Battered fried fish, and raw cured herring with onion
Crumbed deep-fried beef ragout balls with mustard
The first herring of the season, from late May or June
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The Hague customs and what not to do
Check the day before the museum
The Mauritshuis opens after lunch on Mondays and Escher and the Kunstmuseum close all day, so the museum morning goes on any other day.
The Hague or Den Haag, both
The English name is the one most visitors write and the Dutch one is on the signs, with the formal 's-Gravenhage on the paperwork.
The King does not live there
Noordeinde is his working palace and normally closed, though the palace garden is open, and the residence is elsewhere in the city.
The most formal Dutch city
Quieter, cleaner and more reserved than Amsterdam or Rotterdam, and the diplomatic corps sets the tone in the restaurants.
The beach is a season
Scheveningen in February and Scheveningen in July are not the same place, and the winter version is a walk in the wind rather than a resort.
Do
- Check the day before you plan a museum morning; Monday is the closed day
- Take the tram to Delft rather than the train, if you have the half hour
- Treat the beach as a season, not a fixture
- Go to the Mauritshuis in its cheap last two hours if the morning is full
Don't
- Plan to tour the Binnenhof; it is closed for years
- Call the city Den Haag and expect the signage to match everywhere
- Assume the King lives in the palace you can see
What a The Hague trip costs
Budget
€55–85
A hostel dorm, a tram day card, one museum and the beach.
Mid-range
€90–140
A modest double room shared, a sit-down meal a day and two museums.
High-end
€200+
A centre or seafront hotel, restaurant dinners and all five big museums.
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Fun facts about The Hague
The Binnenhof in The Hague has housed political assemblies since 1446. The oldest parliament building still in continuous use, and closed for renovation until the next decade.
The Hague hosts about 200 intergovernmental organisations. More per head than any other city, with the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court among them.
The International Court of Justice is the only principal UN organ outside New York. It sits in the Peace Palace, built with Carnegie money before the First World War.
Panorama Mesdag, painted in 1881, is the largest painting in the Netherlands. One of the few nineteenth-century panoramas still in its original building, with the sand and the props in front of it.
The Kunstmuseum in The Hague holds about 300 works by Piet Mondrian. The largest collection of his work anywhere, ending with the unfinished Victory Boogie Woogie.
23.4% of stops in The Hague on Stippl are planned inside a fortnight. The highest last-minute share of the Dutch cities, because the day trip is decided the evening before.
Local tips for The Hague
Two stations, one right answer
Den Haag Centraal is a ten-minute walk from the museums, and Hollands Spoor is fifteen to twenty minutes out or a tram ride, so the train is booked to Centraal.
Walk the centre, tram the rest
The centre is walkable and the tram covers the rest, in particular the fifteen minutes to Scheveningen and the half hour to Delft.
Tap a bank card on the tram
Contactless cards are tapped directly on trams and buses, and a one-day travel card costs about the same as two singles.
A Eurostar break from London
Under four hours door to door with one same-platform change at Rotterdam, which is why the city fills with British weekenders.
The North Sea has rip currents
Scheveningen is a surf beach, patrolled in season, and the sea is not warm even in August, so the swim stays between the flags.
One night, decided late
62.2% of Stippl stops here are a single night and 23.4% are planned inside a fortnight, the highest last-minute share of the Dutch cities.
The Hague questions, answered
For the Mauritshuis, Panorama Mesdag and a beach fifteen minutes from the centre, yes, and it is much quieter than Amsterdam. Most travellers give The Hague 1 night on Stippl and 62.2% of stops are exactly that, with the day trip from Amsterdam the other common shape.
No. The complex has been closed for renovation for years and the work is expected to run into the next decade, having slipped from its original target. The thirteenth-century exterior and the Hofvijver pond are still the picture, with a viewpoint and an information point on the square.
Both. The Hague is the English name and the one most visitors write; Den Haag is the everyday Dutch name and 's-Gravenhage the formal one, and all three appear on signs and tickets. The station names use Den Haag, which matters when booking the train.
The Mauritshuis at opening, Escher in the palace, lunch on Noordeinde, Panorama Mesdag, the Peace Palace and then either Madurodam or the beach. Put that order into Stippl for any day but Monday, then ask people in subreddits like r/Netherlands whether they made it to the sand.
By train in fifty minutes, roughly every ten minutes and no reservation needed, arriving at Den Haag Centraal rather than Hollands Spoor. 26.14% of stops here on Stippl are no night at all, and the day trip is the usual version.
Administratively yes, and in practice it behaves as a separate stop: a fifteen-minute tram ride, its own hotels and its own season, with the beach a resort in July and a walk in the wind in February. 34.0% of The Hague trips on Stippl stay inside the Netherlands, and the beach is often why.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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