The Hague Travel Guide

Updated October 2026

Overview and Things to Consider

The Hague runs the Netherlands without being its capital. Amsterdam has the title, and The Hague has the parliament, the government, the Supreme Court, the king's working palace and more than half a million people, making it the third-largest city in the country. Add the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and roughly 200 other international organizations and you get a city of embassies, lanyards and wide 19th-century avenues. Wikivoyage calls it wealthy, conservative and somewhat sedate, and that's fair. It's also the only big Dutch city that sits on the open sea, with Scheveningen's beach a tram ride from the Mauritshuis.

You'll love The Hague if you want Vermeer and Rembrandt without Amsterdam's crowds, if you like a city you can cover by tram in a day and a beach you can reach in the evening, or if Indonesian food is a reason to travel. You'll hate it if you came to the Netherlands for canal-house postcards and late nights. The center has 18th-century mansions and government blocks rather than gabled canal rows, and the bars on the Grote Markt close at 1 or 1:30 AM.

The 2026 moment is a strange one. The Binnenhof, the 13th-century court complex that is the reason the city exists, has been closed for renovation since October 2021 and won't reopen before December 2028 at the earliest. Parliament meets in a temporary building nearby, renovated for the purpose between 2018 and 2021. Since April 10, 2026, every non-EU visitor also meets the EU's new biometric border checks. What a visitor gets now is a city with its centerpiece wrapped in scaffolding and nearly everything else open and uncrowded.

Some of the famous stuff is overrated. Madurodam, the miniature Netherlands, is a children's attraction that listicles send adults to. Scheveningen's promenade lost its 19th-century grandeur long ago, so go for the sand and the harbor. And the Peace Palace is mostly an exterior unless you book one of the weekend tours inside, which run only from May to October.

How The Hague Got Here

The Hague started as a hunting lodge. Count Floris IV of Holland bought a court by a pond, the present Hofvijver, in 1229, and his son William II turned it into a palace after he became King of the Romans in 1248. Parts of that palace, the Binnenhof, were finished under his son Floris V. The counts made it their main residence in 1358, and in 1588 it became the permanent seat of the States General of the Dutch Republic. Yet it stayed a village on paper. To keep control of the place, its rulers never gave it city rights, and it only got them in 1806, from Louis Bonaparte. The official name, 's-Gravenhage, first recorded in 1347, means the count's enclosure.

Two things shaped the city you'll visit. The first was law. The 1899 peace conference set up the Permanent Court of Arbitration here, and Andrew Carnegie paid US$1.5 million for the Peace Palace that opened on August 28, 1913, which is why the world's courts ended up in a Dutch provincial town. The second was empire. Officials from the Dutch East Indies spent their long leaves in The Hague, streets were named after Indonesian islands, and after Indonesian independence a large Indo community settled here. They still call The Hague the Widow of the Indies, and that history is why the city's best restaurants serve rendang and sambal rather than stamppot.

The war left a gap you can still see. The Germans ran the Atlantic Wall through the city, and on March 3, 1945, the Royal Air Force, aiming at V-2 launch sites, bombed the Bezuidenhout neighborhood by mistake, killing 532 people and leaving about 30,000 homeless. The Bezuidenhoutseweg there now holds ministries and, at number 67, the temporary parliament.

Getting There and Around

Most travelers arrive by train from Rotterdam. From Rotterdam Centraal there are six trains an hour to Den Haag Centraal. A full-fare second-class single costs €6.40 (about $7.20) under the NS 2026 price list, a 23-fare-unit trip, or €6.20 if you get off one stop earlier at Den Haag Hollands Spoor. Tap a contactless bank card on the gate and you pay that fare. Buy a single-use paper chip ticket at a machine and NS adds a €1.60 surcharge. RandstadRail metro line E also links Rotterdam Centraal and Den Haag Centraal, usually slower than the train, but it's the better choice if you're staying near a Rotterdam metro stop.

Schiphol (AMS) is the main long-haul airport. Direct trains run several times an hour to Den Haag Centraal in about 30 minutes, and the fare is €11.10 (about $12.45) for 44 fare units. Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM) is the small airport on the north edge of Rotterdam. From there, RET bus 33 runs to Meijersplein metro station, where metro line E reaches Den Haag Centraal in about 30 minutes. On weekdays the first metro and bus connection reaches the airport at 5:48 AM. A taxi rank sits next to the terminal.

Entry is the standard Schengen deal. Citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom need no visa for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen area, and EU citizens can stay as long as they like. Since April 10, 2026, the EU's Entry/Exit System has been running at every Schengen border, which means a photo and fingerprints the first time you cross and no more passport stamps. ETIAS, the €20 online travel authorization, is not running yet as of October 2026 and is expected in 2027.

In town, HTM runs the trams and buses, and you don't need a ticket. Tap a contactless debit or credit card, or your phone, on the reader when you board and again when you get off, and you pay a €1.16 base fare plus €0.201 a kilometer. Forget to tap out and you're charged €4. Cash doesn't work on board. If you'll ride a lot, the HTM day ticket costs €8.60 and the three-day ticket €22. The Tourist Day Ticket, €17.50, covers trams, buses, metros and water buses across South Holland, including Rotterdam and Delft, but not NS trains. The center is walkable, Den Haag Centraal and Hollands Spoor are a single fare unit apart, and the OV-fiets rental bikes at the stations need a personal OV-chipkaart, which short-stay visitors rarely have.

What's Changed Since 2016

The Binnenhof closed in October 2021. On October 1, 2021, the government moved out of the complex for a renovation planned to take about five years. It now won't finish before December 2028 at the earliest, and by April 2024 the budget had risen from €475 million to at least €2 billion, because the buildings were in worse shape than expected and asbestos complicated the work. The courtyard and the Ridderzaal are off limits. The House of Representatives sits in a temporary home with its visitors' entrance at Prinses Irenepad 1, and ProDemos runs a 60-minute English tour of it for €7.50. Register online beforehand and bring a passport.

The Gemeentemuseum became the Kunstmuseum in September 2019. The Berlage building, finished in 1935, still holds the world's largest Mondrian collection and his last painting, Victory Boogie Woogie, but the name changed and so did the visit. The Kunstmuseum Den Haag now sells timed slots, asks even pass holders to reserve, charges €22 at full price, and is closed on Mondays. A combined ticket with Escher in The Palace costs €30 at the box office.

Amare opened in November 2021. The old Lucent Danstheater and Dr Anton Philipszaal on the Spuiplein were demolished, and Amare now houses the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Residentie Orkest and the Royal Conservatoire under one roof. In a city that goes to bed early, a dance or orchestra ticket here is the obvious night out.

The Tong Tong Fair went bankrupt in May 2024. Europe's biggest Indo festival had run in The Hague since 1959 as the Pasar Malam Besar. On May 14, 2024, a Hague court declared its operating companies bankrupt, and as of October 2026 the Tong Tong Fair site still carries the notice and a line about the receiver looking for a restart.

Passport stamps ended in April 2026. The EU's Entry/Exit System started on October 12, 2025, and became fully operational at every Schengen border on April 10, 2026. First-time arrivals from outside the EU now give a face photo and fingerprints at the border instead of getting a stamp, so allow extra time at Schiphol on your first entry.

Vlaggetjesdag moved back to the harbor in 2026. Scheveningen's flag day, the party that opens the new herring season, returned to the harbor for its Saturday, June 20, 2026 edition, with a herring party on the Friday night before. It's the one day of the year the old fishing village outdraws the beach.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Start at the Binnenhof and see the Ridderzaal and the Torentje." The Binnenhof has been closed since October 1, 2021, and won't reopen before December 2028 at the earliest. You can walk the Hofvijver side and look at the scaffolding. For the political story, take the ProDemos English tour of the temporary House of Representatives, €7.50 for 60 minutes, starting at Prinses Irenepad 1.

"Tour the Peace Palace while you're in town." Tours inside the palace run only on weekends from May to October, around the courts' schedule, cost €17.50, require the original passport or ID card, and make you leave your phone and bag in a locker. Most visitors get the free Visitors Centre, open Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 5 PM, with an audio tour and a view through the gate. The guided walk outside the palace is the realistic upgrade.

"Trains from Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris all come into Den Haag Centraal." Centraal is a terminus. Intercity trains running straight through between Amsterdam and Rotterdam stop only at Den Haag Hollands Spoor, as do the four daily trains to Brussels via Antwerp. Eurostar doesn't call at either Hague station, so from Paris or London you change at Rotterdam. Book to the station nearest your bed, because the two are a tram ride apart.

"Time your trip for the Tong Tong Fair, the giant Indonesian night market." Its operating companies were declared bankrupt on May 14, 2024, and as of October 2026 there is no fair on the calendar. Eat Indo food in the restaurants instead. Waroeng Padang Lapek on Schoolstraat serves Sumatran nasi Padang, Tuesday to Sunday.

"Buy a paper ticket or an OV-chipkaart at the station before you ride." A contactless bank card works on every HTM tram and bus and at NS gates, at the regular fare, and NS charges €1.60 extra for a single-use paper chip ticket. The one thing to remember is to tap out, or HTM bills you €4.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about riding tram 1 end to end? It starts at Scheveningen Noord, runs past the Kurhaus and Beelden aan Zee, turns inland past the World Forum and the Peace Palace, cuts through the center at Kneuterdijk, stops at Hollands Spoor, and finishes in Delft. That's the beach, international law, the old town and a second city on one ride, all on a tap of your card.

Give the Mauritshuis a morning. It's a house built between 1636 and 1641 on the Plein with almost 800 paintings, and the ones people come for are Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. It's small enough to see properly in two hours. Then walk a few minutes to Lange Voorhout for Escher in The Palace, the museum of M.C. Escher's prints and optical illusions. A combined ticket with the Kunstmuseum costs €30, sold only at the box office.

Eat Indonesian. The Hague's Indo community is the reason, and Sumatran cooking is where the heat is. Waroeng Padang Lapek at Schoolstraat 35 serves nasi Padang, rice with a spread of Sumatran dishes, from noon to 9 PM, Tuesday to Sunday, for eating in or taking away. Wikivoyage's Indonesian listings cluster on the Wagenstraat and Schoolstraat, but restaurants change hands often, so check a place is still open before you cross town for it.

Go to the Haagse Markt on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday. It sits on the Herman Costerstraat between the Hobbemaplein and the Hoefkade, has around 500 stalls and claims to be one of the biggest outdoor markets in Europe. The stock reflects the city's mixed population, from produce and fabric to tools, and it's where Hagenaars shop rather than a show for tourists.

Come in June for herring. The first Hollandse Nieuwe of the season, lightly brined raw herring, is celebrated on Vlaggetjesdag in Scheveningen, which in 2026 fell on June 20 at the harbor. Scheveningen's harbor, built in 1904 after centuries of flat-bottomed fishing boats being hauled up the beach, makes a better afternoon than the promenade, and the Beelden aan Zee sculpture museum sits in the dunes nearby.

Make Delft a half day. Tram 1 gets you there without a train ticket, or the NS train from Hollands Spoor costs €3.00 for the short hop. Delft was Vermeer's town, it's where Delftware blue-and-white pottery was made, and the Nieuwe Kerk holds the tombs of the House of Orange, a tradition that started with William the Silent. Leiden, the university city to the north, is 15 fare units, €4.60, from Den Haag Centraal.

Book a night at Amare. The Nederlands Dans Theater shares the building on the Spuiplein with the Residentie Orkest and the Royal Conservatoire, and in a city where the Grote Markt bars close at 1 AM, a performance is the best thing to do after dark.

The Part Most Guides Miss

Panorama Mesdag is the best room in The Hague, and most visitors skip it for the Mauritshuis. Hendrik Willem Mesdag painted it with a team that included George Hendrik Breitner, and it was finished in 1881. It's a cylindrical painting more than 14 meters high and 120 meters around, and from a viewing gallery in the middle you look out over the sea, the beach and the fishing village of Scheveningen as they were in the 1880s. The company that commissioned it went bankrupt in 1886, Mesdag paid its losses himself and kept it, and it's now the oldest surviving panorama still in its original location. See it, then take the tram to Scheveningen to see what the village became.

Where to Base Yourself

Centrum. The pick for a short stay. The Mauritshuis, the Hofvijver, Lange Voorhout and the Grote Markt are all on foot, trams 1 and 9 head to the beach, and Hostelworld lists central hostels such as Will & Tate City Stay and Pink Flamingo with dorms from about US$31 to $38. The catch is weekend noise around the Grote Markt, where the bars run to 1:30 AM on Thursdays to Saturdays.

Zeeheldenkwartier. The best base for a week. Laid out between 1870 and 1890 around the Anna Paulownaplein and the Prins Hendrikplein, it sits between the center and the Scheveningse Bosjes woods, with shops, cafes and bars along the Piet Heinstraat and Prins Hendrikstraat. You can walk to the Peace Palace and the center and cycle to the beach. It's a residential neighborhood first, so you'll be renting an apartment or a small hotel room rather than choosing among big hotels.

Scheveningen. For a summer trip built around the sea. The Noorderstrand, the pier and the beach clubs are outside the door, and tram 1 runs to the center and on to Delft. The catch is the setting. The resort lost most of its 19th-century grandeur after the Palace Hotel burned in 1979, and 1970s and 1980s blocks now line the promenade. In summer the beach clubs stay open until 2 or 4 AM on Thursday to Saturday nights.

Around Hollands Spoor. For a trip with lots of train days. Hollands Spoor, opened in 1843 and the oldest station in the city, has the Intercity trains to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the four daily trains to Brussels and tram 1 to Delft and the beach. You give up the beach and the old center being on your doorstep, and Wikivoyage reports regular begging around the station, though mostly from homeless people who take a plain no.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Budget roughly €75 to €95 (about $85 to $105) a day if you're in a dorm, eating market food and nasi Padang and riding on a day ticket; €170 to €230 for a mid-range hotel room, a museum or two and sit-down dinners; and €300 or more for comfort. Add the tourist tax, which in 2026 is a flat €6.20 per guest aged 13 and up per night in hotels, B&Bs and other lodging. The Museumkaart, €75 for adults, gets you into the Kunstmuseum free and pays off quickly if you're touring Dutch museums.

Safety is ordinary-city stuff. Wikivoyage warns about pickpockets in the main shopping streets, on trams and trains and at stations, and about begging around Hollands Spoor and the Grote Markt. The center is well covered by police cameras at night, and the commonest way to lose money here is the transit system, with HTM's €4 charge for not tapping out.

Pay by card. Visa and Mastercard work nearly everywhere, but Wikivoyage notes that about 5 percent of shops were card-only in 2025 and that some terminals reject cards issued outside Europe, so carry a backup. American Express is patchy. Service is included in Dutch prices by law, and 5 to 10 percent on a restaurant bill is a generous tip, not an obligation.

The Netherlands was the first country to recognize same-sex marriage, and openly gay travelers won't draw attention in The Hague. Dress is relaxed, but this is a city of civil servants and embassies, so expect suits on weekdays and a quiet center on Sunday mornings. The real crowds gather in one place, the beach on hot summer weekends, and on Vlaggetjesdag in June at the Scheveningen harbor.

If The Hague Is Part of a Longer Trip

The Hague works best as one stop on a Netherlands and Belgium loop rather than a day trip. Amsterdam Centraal is about 45 minutes away by direct Intercity, and Utrecht about 35. Rotterdam has six trains an hour, and it's the hub for going south. Eurostar doesn't call at either Hague station, so for Paris or London you ride to Rotterdam Centraal and board there.

For Belgium, four Intercity trains a day run from Den Haag Hollands Spoor via Rotterdam and Breda to Antwerp, Mechelen and Brussels, slower than the high-speed line but with no change. Bruges is an easy add from Brussels. Going east, the European Sleeper night train calls at Hollands Spoor three times a week on its run to Berlin, Dresden and Prague, which turns a long day of changes into a bunk.

If you're stringing The Hague into a longer trip, fly into Schiphol and out of somewhere else rather than booking a return. An open-jaw ticket, Schiphol in and Brussels or Paris out, saves you the backtrack to Amsterdam. If the trip spans several continents, AirTreks builds multi-stop routings that can put a Dutch stop in the middle.

Yearly Things to Consider

Weather sets the calendar more than crowds do. April is the driest month, with about 1.6 inches of rain, and May is mild and bright, so spring is the best time for walking the city and the dunes. July and August reach about 71°F (22°C), the only months the North Sea feels like beach weather, and Scheveningen fills on hot weekends. From September to November rain climbs to about 3.5 inches a month and the wind off the sea makes it feel colder than the numbers say.

The counterintuitive pick is June. Days are long, it's drier than late summer, Vlaggetjesdag brings the new herring to Scheveningen, and the warmest weeks of July and August are still ahead. Whatever month you pick, check opening days, because the Kunstmuseum and Escher in The Palace both close on Mondays.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in The Hague

Day one in the center: the Mauritshuis when it opens, a walk round the Hofvijver past the shut Binnenhof, and Escher in The Palace on Lange Voorhout in the afternoon. Have Sumatran food on Schoolstraat for dinner. Day two, take tram 1 to the Peace Palace Visitors Centre, then Panorama Mesdag, then ride on to Scheveningen for the harbor and the beach at sunset. Day three, the Kunstmuseum for Mondrian, booked for a time slot, and a half day in Delft by tram 1.

5 Days in The Hague

Do the three-day plan, then slow down. Book the ProDemos English tour of the temporary parliament on a weekday morning and spend the afternoon at the Haagse Markt, if it's a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday. Give a full day to Leiden, 15 fare units away, or to Rotterdam's architecture. On the last night, see the Nederlands Dans Theater or the Residentie Orkest at Amare, and eat beforehand in Chinatown on the Wagenstraat.

1 Week in The Hague

A week lets you treat The Hague as a base for South Holland. Spend four days in the city, splitting your nights between the center and Zeeheldenkwartier, and take three day trips: Delft and Leiden, each about 15 minutes by train, and Rotterdam, six trains an hour away. Buy the Museumkaart if you'll see more than three museums, since it covers the Kunstmuseum. Rent a bike for an afternoon along the coast, and keep one evening for Scheveningen's harbor if it's summer.

2 Weeks or More in The Hague

Two weeks suits a slow stay in Zeeheldenkwartier or the Statenkwartier, whose leafy avenues and 19th-century houses center on the Frederik Hendriklaan, Fred to locals, with its shops and restaurants. Settle into a routine of mornings working and afternoons at the market, the beach or a museum. Use weekends for Amsterdam, about 45 minutes away, Antwerp or Brussels on the direct Intercity from Hollands Spoor, or a night in Utrecht. A Museumkaart and a contactless card cover nearly everything you'll pay for.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

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