The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and the royal family, and home to the international courts, yet it feels like a green, low-rise city with a beach resort attached. The Netherlands page already covers the Mauritshuis and the Binnenhof.
The old centre around the Binnenhof and the Lange Voorhout holds the Mauritshuis and Escher in Het Paleis. To the north-west, the embassy district runs past Panorama Mesdag and the Peace Palace to the Kunstmuseum and Madurodam, and on to the dunes and the beach at Scheveningen.
Trams link it all, and the beach is a short ride from the centre.
See the whole of the Netherlands at 1:25 scale in Madurodam
Scheveningse Bosjes
2 to 3 hoursBook ahead
Dutch landmarks, old town centres and big infrastructure shrunk to 1:25 scale in a park that opened in 1952.
What it is
Madurodam is a miniature park of Dutch landmarks, historic towns and big infrastructure, all built at 1:25 scale. It opened on 2 July 1952 and is named after George Maduro, a law student from Curaçao who fought the German occupation as a soldier and in the resistance and died in 1945.
How to do it
It sits at George Maduroplein 1, between the city centre and Scheveningen, and opens every day; the last entry is one hour before closing. You buy a dated ticket or a Flexticket online, with no time slot to pick.
Good to know
Allow a couple of hours to walk the whole route. It is almost all outdoors, so pick a dry day, and go early on weekends and in school holidays.
Stand at the gates of the Peace Palace, home of the World Court
Carnegieplein
1 hour, more with a guided tourFree
The palace Andrew Carnegie paid for in 1913 still houses the International Court of Justice and a library of international law.
What it is
The Peace Palace opened on 28 August 1913, built with money from the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie to house a court of arbitration and a library of international law. Today it is home to the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law and the Peace Palace Library.
How to do it
The Visitors Centre by the gate opens Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 17:00. Entry is free and donations are welcome; it has an exhibition on the building and the courts. The palace itself and its gardens can only be seen on guided tours, which run on set dates and are booked through the Peace Palace website.
Good to know
Tours run on only some dates, so check them well ahead. Without one, the Visitors Centre and the view through the gates still make a good half hour, and the Kunstmuseum and Madurodam are nearby.
Time needed
1 hour, more with a guided tour
Best time
Wednesday to Sunday afternoon, when the Visitors Centre is open
Stand inside the 120-metre painting of Panorama Mesdag
Zeestraat
1 hourNo booking needed
Climb a fake dune and the sea, the beach and the village of Scheveningen in 1881 wrap all the way around you.
What it is
Panorama Mesdag is a cylindrical painting more than 14 metres high and 120 metres around, finished in 1881. The marine painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag painted it with his wife Sientje Mesdag-van Houten and a few students, among them George Hendrik Breitner. You climb a stair to a viewing platform built as a dune, and the North Sea, the beach and the fishing village of Scheveningen surround you on every side.
How to do it
It is a short walk from the centre, and opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00; it is closed on Mondays except public holidays. Adults paid €17.50 on the English ticket page at the time of writing. You do not need to book ahead.
Good to know
Give your eyes a few minutes on the platform: the line between the real sand in front and the painted beach behind gets harder to find. Go early to share the platform with fewer people.
Find Mondrian's Victory Boogie Woogie at the Kunstmuseum
Stadhouderslaan
2 to 3 hoursBook ahead
Berlage's yellow-brick museum holds the collection that runs from Mondrian's early landscapes to his last, unfinished canvas.
What it is
The Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the old Gemeentemuseum, fills a building by Hendrik Petrus Berlage near the Peace Palace. It holds the world's largest collection of Mondrian paintings, which follows him from Dutch landscapes to the grids of De Stijl and ends with Victory Boogie Woogie, the canvas he left unfinished.
How to do it
The museum is at Stadhouderslaan 41. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 and closes on Mondays. Book your ticket online before you go. Besides Mondrian, look for the silver, the Delftware and the fashion collection.
Good to know
Head for the Mondrian rooms first, before the groups arrive. Panorama Mesdag and the Peace Palace are close enough to pair with it on the same day.
Get lost in M.C. Escher's impossible worlds at Escher in Het Paleis
Lange Voorhout
1.5 hoursGo alone or with a tour
Staircases that loop, hands that draw each other and birds that turn into fish, hung in an eighteenth-century palace.
What it is
Escher in Het Paleis shows the prints and drawings of M.C. Escher, the Dutch artist of impossible buildings, tessellations and mirrored spheres, in a former palace on the Lange Voorhout that has been a museum since 2002. The rooms follow him from early landscapes of Italy to the optical puzzles he is known for.
How to do it
The address is Lange Voorhout 74, a short walk from the Binnenhof and the Mauritshuis. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00, with the cash desk closing at 16:30, and is closed on Mondays except in school holidays. There are no time slots; tickets bought on the museum website stay valid for a year.
Good to know
Give the later prints time: the loops and impossible staircases reward slow looking. Pair it with the Mauritshuis, a short walk away, for an art day in the centre.
The Hague's beach is a tram ride from the centre, with a 1961 pier, a ferris wheel over the waves and a bungee jump.
What it is
Scheveningen is The Hague's seaside, a long sandy beach backed by a boulevard and the grand Kurhaus hotel. The pier in its current form opened in 1961 and runs 382 metres out to sea. Its upper deck has a bungee jump and a restaurant, the lower level has food stalls, and the SkyView ferris wheel, opened in August 2016, turns over the water beside it.
How to do it
From the centre, trams 1, 9 and 11 and buses 21 to 23 reach the Kurhaus stop in about 10 to 15 minutes. Walking onto the pier needs no ticket; the wheel and the bungee are paid separately.
Good to know
Parts of the boulevard are being renovated, so expect some fencing. Come for the sunset over the sea.
Walk through a century of cars at the Louwman Museum
Leidsestraatweg
3 hoursNo booking needed
More than 230 cars in a museum that Michael Graves designed for them, next door to the royal palace of Huis ten Bosch.
What it is
The Louwman Museum calls itself the oldest private car collection in the world. Pieter Louwman, a Dodge importer, started it in 1934 by buying a 20-year-old Dodge, and his son built it into more than 230 cars. Since 2010 it has filled a building designed for it by the American architect Michael Graves, on the edge of The Hague near Huis ten Bosch.
How to do it
The address is Leidsestraatweg 57, by the A44 motorway; parking costs €4.50 an hour. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00. Adults paid €20 and children aged 5 to 18 paid €10 at the time of writing, and online tickets stay valid for two years.
Good to know
Plan on about three hours: the collection is big. It is the best rainy-day choice in The Hague if you have any interest in cars.
More than 500 stalls on the Herman Costerstraat since 1938, selling fish, spices, baklava and fresh produce from half the world.
What it is
The Haagse Markt moved from the Prinsengracht to the Herman Costerstraat, in the Transvaal district next to the Schilderswijk, in 1938. Today it has more than 500 stalls: fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, herbs and spices, clothes and electronics, with Dutch cauliflower next to baklava and ingredients from the many communities around it.
How to do it
It is open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 to 17:00. Trams 6, 11 and 12 and bus 25 stop at Haagse Markt, and the Hoefkade stop is also a short walk away. There is no entry fee.
Good to know
Come hungry and buy small as you go; it makes a cheap lunch. Bring cash as a backup and a bag for what you buy.
Stand in front of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and View of Delft in a small 17th-century house by the Binnenhof pond.
What it is
The Mauritshuis holds a compact collection of Dutch Golden Age painting: besides the two Vermeers, Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp and works by Jan Steen. The rooms are small.
How to do it
Because of that, the museum strongly recommends buying a ticket with a time slot online, which guarantees entry. It opens daily, from 13:00 on Mondays and from 10:00 the rest of the week, until 18:00; last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Den Haag Centraal is a 10-minute walk away, and the Binnenhof is next door.
Good to know
It is a cashless museum, and the cloakroom does not take suitcases, trolleys or folding bikes, so do not come straight from the train with luggage.
See the Binnenhof while its renovation is under way
The Hague
1 hour with the information centreFree
Walk through the courtyard that has been the seat of Dutch politics for centuries, around the 13th-century Hall of Knights.
What it is
The Binnenhof is that courtyard complex, in the centre of The Hague, with the Ridderzaal in the middle. Adjust your expectations: a large-scale renovation started in September 2021 and the buildings are wrapped in scaffolding, so the guided tours of the Binnenhof and the Senate that ProDemos ran will only return once the work is finished.
How to do it
You can still walk or cycle through the courtyard. To see what is being done, go to the free Binnenhof Renovation Information Centre at Plaats 22, open Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00 and Sunday from 12:00.
Good to know
The Mauritshuis is next door, and the view of the whole complex across the Hofvijver pond is still the classic photo.
Time needed
1 hour with the information centre
Best time
Wednesday to Saturday, when the information centre opens from 10:00
Hidden gems suggested by travellers. We check each one before it goes up; the words are theirs, not ours.
No traveller picks for The Hague yet. Know a place most visitors miss?
Plan your trip
Getting there
Den Haag Centraal and Den Haag HS have direct trains from Amsterdam, Schiphol, Rotterdam and Delft. Rotterdam The Hague Airport is a short trip south.
Getting around
Trams cover the city and run out to Scheveningen in about a quarter of an hour. The centre is compact and easy on foot, and the long, flat avenues out to the coast suit a bike.
How many days
In must30's view, two: one in the centre (Binnenhof, Mauritshuis, Escher, Panorama Mesdag) and one out west (Kunstmuseum, Peace Palace, Madurodam, Scheveningen). Delft and Rotterdam are short train rides for a third.
When to go
May to September for the beach and the pier; the museums carry the city through the rest of the year. Most museums close on Mondays.
Where to base yourself
The centre near the Binnenhof for museums and restaurants on foot, or Scheveningen for the sea, with the tram into town.
Questions travellers ask
Is The Hague worth visiting?
Yes, for the Mauritshuis, Escher and Mondrian, the Peace Palace and a beach a tram ride from the centre. It pairs easily with Delft, which is a few minutes away by train.
Can you go inside the Peace Palace?
Only on guided tours, which run on set dates and are booked through the Peace Palace website. The free Visitors Centre by the gate opens Wednesday to Sunday afternoons.
How do you get from The Hague to Scheveningen beach?
Trams 1, 9 and 11 and buses 21 to 23 run from the centre to the Kurhaus stop in about 10 to 15 minutes.
Where can you see Mondrian in The Hague?
At the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, which has the largest collection of Mondrian paintings in the world, ending with Victory Boogie Woogie. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00.
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