I’m currently working my notice, and notice that more and more people are visiting places outside of Amsterdam in The Netherlands, so I thought I’d make a thread giving some hints and tips based on what I know.
Accommodation
Expensive as fuck. There are a limited number of hotels in the centre, but they’re quite small and very expensive. My advice if you’re looking to do things a bit cheaper, is to check out the NS Spoorkaart to see places that are near Utrecht that are connected well by train, and then check 9292 to see if they have trains / buses running during the hours that suit the type of visit you want. I know that people visiting for Le Guess Who? in the past have stayed in Zeist and caught direct buses back at 2am, for example. Extra bonus that Zeist and the surrounding areas are beautiful too.
Transport
Bike is without doubt the best method of transport. The Netherlands in general is set up well for cycling, and Utrecht has won awards for its cycling infrastructure. Hire a bike as soon as you arrive and keep it as long as you’re there. I used to live 16km from Down The Rabbit Hole festival and happily cycled to and from the cycling venue each day because The Netherlands is flat. Don’t overestimate how tiring it can be, cycling in The Netherlands is so fun. Other than that, you can use your debit card to use all public transport methods with no problem. What’s even more convenient is to get a personal OV-Chipkaart, but you’ll need someone with a Dutch bank account to help with that. Then you can start using NS Flex discounts etc. and only takes 5 days to arrive. I personally do this whenever someone visits, since it makes a big difference in costs. If you’re travelling with kids, you can then get free travel for them with their own OV-Chipkaarts, which is a bit of a faff but worth it if possible.
Trains and buses are great to use, and cars are surprisingly useful, though that is changing. Currently very few places around the city have paid parking, you can park for free less than 2km from the centre, but over the next two years that is changing massively, and soon everywhere in the city will be paid parking for painfully expensive prices. Most transport initiatives around the city are intentionally making things more difficult for cars and forcing them to the ring-roads for simple journies. Often it is actually quicker to cycle than drive, even for journies of 6km or so.
Things to eat
I think Utrecht is the worst of the big cities in The Netherlands for mid-level food, mainly because it’s a city where the university is a big deal, so people are mostly on the look out for cheap eats.
Lunch places
- Broodje Mario - Most famous sandwich shop in the city, been running for decades. Cash only, decent sized, filling sandwich, recommended.
- Broodje Carlo - Competitor of Mario, in my opinion a bit better too, ongoing beef for Utrechters about which is best.
- Farina - Paninis that are fucking amazing. Not so cheap, but salivating just thinking about them.
- Casa Ferreira - Best Portuguese food outside of Portugal, according to my wife who is usually brutal about judging Portuguese food sold elsewhere.
- Bigoli - Decent sandwiches in an Italian delicatessen. Utrecht are big on their Italian sandwiches, as you can tell.
- Visjes - Only place to get kibbling other than in the temporary markets I think. They do it well too. Think fish & chips but better (controversial).
- Bond en Smolders - Bakery that sells desserts. Just get one of their eclairs, even if you don’t like eclairs. The vanilla ones are the most boring, but even they are indulgent, so fucking good.
- Roberto Geltato - Award winning ice cream, a bit out of the city in Wittevrouwen which is very pretty and worth wandering around. Not worth the trip in my opinion as it’s just ice cream, but it is good ice cream.
Dinner
Note that most places in Utrecht are in small buildings so booking ahead is crucial on weekends unless you go to one of the places which is bigger.
- Krishna Villas - Great vegitarian Indian food, really nice menu, nice people.
- Anjappar - Great non-vegitarian Indian food.
- Takumi - Not selling tacos as I originally thought when I heard of it. German ramen chain that always has queues coming out the door, like a Wagamamas that’s not shit.
- GGULMAT / SONMAT - Korean BBQ food that people go nuts for. Nowhere to eat inside, but this place is renowned for being so good. Somehow I have yet to eat there.
- Albert Heijn Neude - Looking for a cheap but good enough pizza? Go to Albert Heijn Neude between 16:00 - 19:00 and get any pizza cooked in a pizza oven for €5. It’s in the cafe bit right inside the entrance. Nice option for some grub on the cheap.
- KOUNOSUKE - Cute expensive Japanese food, but worth the price.
- Tante Lien / Toko Pedis - If you’re in The Netherlands, you’ve got to have some Indonesian food, and this is a great place to get something to take out.
Not so many options in the dinner list because we’ve mostly been to places that are underwhelming, so this list is currently quite short.
Nightlife
- EKKO - All the hipster indie bands touring play here, DiS paradise.
- Tivoli Vredenburg - The big one, with multiple venues on multiple floors in one building.
- 't Oude Pothuys - If you fancy going to a place which lets you get on stage and jam with the house band on most nights, then this is the place to go. Quite unique in that sense, like a band karaoke.
- dB’s - Where more of the metal gigs happen, and further out. On an industrial estate, so only worth travelling to if you planning on popping by De Nijverheid too.
- De Nijverheid - Industrial art complex on an industrial estate that has a bar and multiple “venues” with different types of events on including storytelling, live music (going to see Bug Club there soon), nude drawing, temporary art exhibitions etc.
- Bunk - Converted church that’s very pretty on the inside. You can stay there too if you have the money.
- Olivier - Another converted church that’s ridiculously popular and the bar is Delerium stocked, so some good beer varieties there too.
- Kafé België - Place to go if you’re going for the beers. Has a tiny bit of seating outside to sit by the canal, but people are usually going there for the huge variety of beers they have.
- ACU - Anarchist LGBTQ+ friendly place which puts on some great events, check if it’s open before you got though, it’s not open all of the time.
- 't Taphuys - Get a card when you get in, top up your card as much as you like, pour your own beer / wine from whichever tap you want, using your card to pay for as much as you drink.
- Beers & Barrels - Nice place inside one of the cellars by the canals. Very good atmosphere.
- De Ping Pong Club - Massive club place that is also a table tennis place, not sure how much longer this will stay there though as the whole area around it is being massively gentrified.
- Any of the terrasje places where you can sit out and just stare at people - So many of these in and around the Oudegracht. They might not do the best food or drink, but it’s the quintessential Dutch experience to sit outside in any weather above 2 celcius that’s not raining and drink beers while staring at people.
Stuff to do
- Dom Toren and Dom Under - The dom is the epicentre of Utrecht, gotta do a bit of history stuff and see it.
- Doloris Anoma - Weird adult playground art thing which is hard to explain, but it’s a sort of maze, immersive experience thing that I can’t think of a comparison to? I enjoyed it a lot, best to know as little about it beforehand as possible and just explore.
- The Train Museum - Primarily aimed at kids, but worth a visit regardless in my opinion. Lots of trains, if you don’t like trains don’t go. If you like trains, get fucking excited, there’s even an underwhelming ride.
- Nijntje Museum - ONLY go if you have kids. Dick Bruna explicitly wanted it to be a kids playground rather than focus on him and so it’s a sensory overload for kids, but it has very little for adults and you’ll feel awkward af if you visit alone.
- Spellenwinkel Subcultures - Board game shop with some zany furniture arrangements, fun to pop into.
- Creepy abandoned bookshop - Just north of the Dom, on Domstraat, is a creepy bookshop that was abandoned decades ago and has been left exactly like it was ever since. Faded gnarled books in the window and just looks spooky as a result. Apparently the original owner died and the children have had ownership rights disputes ever since, but even this is not known for certain, but it’s spooky either way.
- Walk around the whole fucking city - The Oudegracht is the epicentre, but the centre is not so big. The part nearest the train station is the least interesting and even that is nice. The whole part around the central canals is worth exploring. One thing unique to Utrecht is that there are a lot of hidden gardens that aren’t signposted but you’ll see some alleyway just wide enough for one person, walk down it and suddenly be in a pretty little garden. I’m still finding new ones even now.
- Go on some form of boat-like transport along the canals - Self-propelled is the best I reckon, so either a canoe, a pedalo or soemthing like that. The Oudegracht is quite unique in the sense that it has two tiers and people sit right along the water level on the canal. When you go through that bit on a boat it’s very cool with all the people around you.
- Het Utrechts Archief - It’s only little and only costs like €5 entry, but I really like this mini-museum about the city itself. It also has this ambitious 3D animation thing at the start which is elaborate for a museum of this size.
- Sonnenborgh Observatory - If you’re visiting in the winter, definitely try to attend one of the stargazing nights. I’ve been twice, and tickets to them sell out fast. Nice to look around in the day I guess, but even nicer to get to use the equipment to see other planets.
- The mini-botanic garden as part of the University museum - Haven’t been in yet, keep timing it badly, but it looks really cute from the outside!
- Go on a big bike ride - Cycling around the Netherlands on a big ass bike ride is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Get out of the city, stop off at some random pancake place and get the one that they set on fire for some reason. Go towards Hilversum, head southeast towards Bunnik. I’m not talking MAMIL style cycling, I’m just talking about getting on your bike, heading somewhere and stopping when you see something you like. Worst case scenario, you can even take your bike back on the train if you get a puncture or get tired or whatever.
Other things
- Every Saturday morning there is a very cute fabric market on Breedstraat which has been running for over 200 years. My wife loves it, get cheaper fabric and a wide variety there compared to other places. Good for an ogle too.
- The way people in Utrecht traditionally show appreciation at sports games or concerts is to make an OOOOOOOOOOO sound (UUUUUUUU in Dutch, as in UUUUUUUUtrecht). This sounds like they’re booing. They are not booing.
- Nijntje / Miffy is everywhere here, including the Miffy road crossing. Leave your Hello Kitty merch at home. Dick Bruna sued those assholes for copying Miffy years ago, and rightly so.
- Cafe Ten Beste (kebab house) sell a “Pizza Marjolein” which is two croquettes wrapped in a Turkish pizza. Proper dirty food, unique to Utrecht, and some people swear by it, but I was a bit underwhelmed.
- Public toilets are very rare in The Netherlands. Download the app HogeNood to show you where the nearest free (or paid) ones are.
- The best tourist guides to Utrecht are the two illustrated kids books written by Ellen de Bruijn (1) (2). They’re really cute too. Most places sell at least the first one, and it’s really nice seeing all the hidden details that are mentioned as part of it.
I’ll add more to this thread if I think of anything, and happy for it to be an AMA, or for others to contribute too, but wanted to get it written down.
I really liked there and Olivier, would also add Cafe DeRat (there’s usually a cat chilling somewhere) and De Drie Dorstige Herten for beer wankers.