I’ll be in Den Haag for Rewire Festival at the start of April. While I’ll no doubt be busy with festival activities for a lot of the time, any other recommendations would be most welcome.
I’m no expert but a few things come to mind:
- All that area around the parliament buildings is very pretty, including the Peace Palace (if you want a tour you need to book in advance) and worth wandering around.
- The royal palace is understated by royal family standards. I know someone who went and didn’t even realise they’d walked past it until I told them afterwards.
- Hiring a bike or catching a tram out towards the coast would be nice if the weather is decent. I haven’t made it all the way to Scheveningen yet, but apparently that’s an interesting place to visit and a relic of the pre-cheap-flights era when Dutchies would go there for their summer holidays.
- The Japanese Garden in Clingendael Park is pretty, particularly in autumn.
- Noordeinde has lots of art shops and galleries.
- I’ve performed at Dudok a few times, fancy old-world looking restaurant, one of those old classical institution places.
- Kompaan Binnenhaven is a good brewery café.
- I’m no architecture expert, but there’s a lot of Art Deco architecture in Den Haag, right? At least that’s how it looks to me.
- Make sure to try some Indonesian / Surinamese food (New Meyva) while in NL (for the same awful reason people should try Indian food in the UK), I’ve heard good things about Poetri Ajoe or De Poentjak.
- Mauritshuis is a museum worth a visit, got some of the classics by some of the big names in there, not as busy as the Amsterdamse counterparts.
- The Escher museum is worth checking out too.
- If you have a little extra time, you’ve also got Rotterdam, Leiden and Delft around there too, they kind of blur into each other and each are worth a visit.
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Thanks! The Escher Museum in particular sounds right up my street.
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Just wanted to commend your services to the DiS Travel board recently 
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Like a latter day Judith Chalmers!
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Stuff that hasn’t already been mentioned:
- Museums are expensive without an annual pass but the Fotomuseum and Kunstmuseum are both really good and are right next to eachother.
- The beach at Scheveningen is a fun place to spend a few hours, the sculpture museum Beelden aan Zee there is also nice
- Lots of good bars on Oude Molstraat, e.g. Huppel the Pub. That’s also close to Grote Markt which is a nice big square full of pubs and restaurants. Dunne Bierkade also has some good bars on it alongside the canal e.g. Cafe de Paas
- Baladi Manouche is my favourite place to eat, it’s a Lebanese snackbar. Closes at 6 though so more of a lunch place. Can combine it with a trip to Florencia to have cheap coffee and ice cream with old Dutch men
- Lots of other good restaurants in DH including Suhumi (Georgian) De Vegetarische Toko (veggie Indonesian). Good Indonesian restaurants are everywhere in the city
- There are 2 English language bookshops really close to eachother on Lange Poten (ABC and Mayflower) and Paagman also has a decent English section
- Korzo is a good venue for theatre and dance. Nieuw Regentes is a cool old swimming pool that got converted into a cinema / theatre/ art space
- Haagse Bos is a really nice park, Paleistuin is also quite nice and central so good for chilling in if you have time to kill
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The Mauritshaus is possibly my favourite art gallery world. It’s a small, very beautiful building and every painting in it is a stunning masterpiece.
Most famous for Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring and View of Delft, Fabritius’s The Goldfinch and a couple of stunning Rembrandts
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