About a ten-minute bicycle ride from the city centre, you'll find several large forests, one of them as part of Clingendael Landholding. Clingendael Landholding is holder of many things: ponds, playgrounds, a Japanese garden (great for wedding photos), a refurbished mansion (where colleagues at the Clingendael Institute, an international development-oriented NGO, meet to save the world), and my favourite thing about Den Haag, its military bunkers.
You'll find them all over the Bos, but the deeper you explore, the more interesting they get. One bunker holds an experimental radio station (I will admit I have never tuned in). Several are so big that their tops are covered in trees and grass, creating mini-forests of their own; climbing up the bunkers by tree roots is an adventure in itself. But it's the opportunity to explore the interior of the military bunkers that brings me the most joy. I'll play hide-and-seek with my daughters, and before I know it they have discovered some secret room where, in the darkness, there might be some electrical wiring and a fuse box left over from World War II. On the way home, my girls will ask where all that hi-tech, sci-fi gear came from, and I'll get to decide whether to tell them the truth, or simply weave this information into a fantasy story about monsters hiding under the mountains of "De Bos."
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Oma Toos, overlooking the picturesque harbour, gives you a delicious taste of Dutch cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere without paying “tourist prices”.
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I think it certainly makes for a cute and spontaneous photo opportunity.
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"Museum Rijswijk" in The Hague is a fine example of what makes Dutch museum often so worthwhile: it's a commitment to the local...
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"Spellenhuis Den Haag" is what I wish had existed when I was a kid: a games shop with a full slate of daily activities where you can play for hours on end!
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"O'Casey's Irish Pub" in The Hague brings together nations in a way that everyone feels at home. There's an intimate feeling I can't find elsewhere!
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"1646" in The Hague is a project space where you can view, and often participate in, art that runs towards the intellectual and the avant-garde...
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"Skatepark De Kuil" in The Hague is not just a playground for all ages and yes, a cool skatepark - it's an essential component of a vibrant community!
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"Clingendael Pet Cemetery" in The Hague has about a dozen headstones that mark the lives and deaths of pooches from the turn of the 20th century...
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"Het Balihuisje" is The Hague's attempt to keep up with the 21st-century version of urban chic. It aspires to be a hub of creativity as well as a cafe!
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This is The Hague's Holocaust Memorial - the way it's set up, once cannot avoid seeing it. History must be remembered or it will be repeated...
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"Maison Kelder" in The Hague is famous in the whole Netherlands for its sweets - tarts, cakes, cookies etc. But my favorite is the 'hazelnoot gebak'...
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117 Insider Tips from our local Spotters
Authentic Stories by Real People
Escape the crowd & travel slow 🐌
✓ 117 Insider Tips from our local Spotters