Wild Weekend in The Hague

The Hague has some excellent bars and restaurants. The Maurithuis is entertaining for a few hours. Parliament Square is very attractive, surrounded by the parliament buildings. It is especially nice at night when it is lit up. To see some luxury living, behind the town centre there is a street where all the foreign embassies are. There are some wonderful old mansion buildings, though they are not open to the public. There are some nice beaches close by.

Quick Tips:

Accommodation here is very expensive. The main sights can be seen in a day, so unless you need to be based here, I would advise staying in Rotterdam (15 minutes by train) or Amsterdam (45 minutes by train). It will be much cheaper, even with the train fare! A train runs all night between Amsterdam-The Hague-Rotterdam, so you can still enjoy the nightlife.

Best Way To Get Around:

We used trams and also got around on foot. There are frequent trams connecting Holland Spoor station and Centraal Station. Centraal Station is where the shops are, plien 19, parliament square etc. The Hague is well served by trains to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden etc. They are reliable and cheap.

The hostel is just a few blocks from Holland Spoor station, from which there are frequent trains to a range of other destinations in the Netherlands. To get into the centre of The Hague (Den Haag in the Netherlands), get a tram from HS station, or it's about 10-15 minutes on foot. I stayed there for 1 night. The hostel has a canalside bar, with outdoor tables, internet access, cafe area and a well-staffed reception. There is some tourist information there but it is limited. Each guest is given a swipecard that allows them access to the front door, the lift and their own dormitory. There is no curfew. If you want to stay out after 1.00am, you need to get a night key from reception BEFORE you go out. Breakfast is served upto 9.30am. This was a buffet breakfast of cheese, meat, rolls, sugar strands etc. Check out is by 10.30am.

I stayed in a 4 person dorm. Each dorm has its own shower and toilet. The hostel was clean. Bedding is provided. The hostel has several two bedded rooms available. The long corridors give it an institutional feel. Dormitories are mixed sex, even the two person rooms. I would recommend it. However, at 26 euros a night with my HI card, it was considerably more expensive than any of the other hostels I stayed in whilst visiting the Netherlands. While the facilities were good, they were not better than anywhere else I stayed, and did not warrant the extra cost. Unless you need to be based in the Hague, you could stay nearby for a lot cheaper.

I went there as part of a group. We had reserved a table ahead, and on a Saturday evening it was busy.

The food was wonderful. There was an excellent vegetarian menu as well as a meat-eaters menu. The starter was hot and sour soup, which I can still taste yet. The main course was a selection of dishes, brought to the table, with rice. Coffee came next and biscuits, or you could have lychees instead. English language menus were available.

The service was good and the waiters were friendly. It was a relaxed informal restaurant. I would happily go there again.

The Panda is a Dutch restaurant near the seafront. It has a wide range of Dutch dishes. The menu is in Dutch only. I had a menu reader with me, but someone will help you if you're stuck. There is little for vegetarians. Otherwise, there is a range of Dutch dishes, including soups (watch out, even the vegetable soups are made with meat stock), meat, fish, pancakes and desserts. Vegetarians are limited to cheese and ham toasties without the ham, or pancakes. They are available with cheese or sweet pancakes. It is quite expensive, but if you want an authentic Dutch eating experience that is not for the benefit of tourists, this is the place to come.

The beach is very sandy and quite pleasant, especially the further along you go. There are sand dunes, and it is a lovely clean beach with soft sand. There didn't seem to be many tourists there - everyone I came across was mainly Dutch. It is a very pleasant place on a nice day, and a good place to relax. It didn't come across as being a hub of nightlife and there was little indoor activity. I don't think I would stay there, but it is a nice day trip from The Hague. The outdoor sculpture exhibition is well worth seeing.

The Maurithuis is a big grand mansion. The internal decor is worth seeing. The top floor had a collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings, including some by Rembrandt. I was impressed by the detail in the paintings. If you look closely, even things like tiny insects, patterns on fabrics, and stains can be seen. It certainly does not take a modern minimal detail approach. Other paintings showed Dutch life in times past. There were paintings of rich people on hunts, finely detailed portraits and family life at the top end of wealth. There were others of the lower end of life. People crowded into sparsely furnished houses, drunks, and lower class life. Whilst the artist can lie, it is about as close a portrait of life as you're ever going to see. There are also religious paintings. One of the temptation of Eve is especially good, with fine detail.

Each room has information sheets in different languages. Not all of the pictures have information on them; some do not.

The gift shop on the ground floor stocks a range of art postcards, crafts and books. There were limited posters etc.

According to the entry board, there is a student discount. However, ISIC cards are not accepted - we tried - so I assume it applies to local institutions only.

Madurodma is a minature town close to The Hague. There is a selection of some of the main buildings of the Netherlands in minature. Each building is 1/25th to scale. The park also has a fully working minature railway, with extensive track, model canal barges that actually run on water, and an extensive layout. You ideally follow the trail around the park. However, I ended up losing this - the numbers don't seem to be set in any logical order so I just relied on the photo in the guide to identify the buildings. There are all sorts here, like Rotterdam central station, the parliament buildings in The Hague, and Amsterdam canal streets, plus windmills, Schipol airpoirt, a model motorway, and working models that you can operate with coins. My advice here is don't bother. I put a coin in to operate a light, as proceeds go to the WWF, but it did not work. The musuem is cute but it got a bit twee after a while. I think it would be briliant for children though, who appeared to love the small scale models, village street and coin operated models. I enjoyed my visit but to be honest I would not go out of my way to go again. You can see the buildings anyway if you're going about the Netherlands. The 10 euro entry fee is quite steep for a short entertainment session. I strongly recommend it for children though, and I was impressed with the working railway.