Dutch towns/cities worth visiting for a day



I lived in Utrecht for 6 months, apart from 2 pubs that sell just about every type of Belgian beer available and a shopping centre that used to be the biggest in Europe there's not much to recommend it. That was 40 years ago mind so it might have changed a bit now :)
 
matt228 said:
I hear Utrecht is lovely but personally I’ve only been to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Apeldoorn. All nice in their own ways.
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Utrecht is the best of all those listed.

Tuono said:
I lived in Utrecht for 6 months, apart from 2 pubs that sell just about every type of Belgian beer available and a shopping centre that used to be the biggest in Europe there's not much to recommend it. That was 40 years ago mind so it might have changed a bit now :)
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It's a tremendous place.
 
Sounds like Utrecht's changed since I was there, skating in winter on the big lake near where I lived was a canny laugh mind.
 
Horley Chorley said:
When I was in Breda a good few years ago, it was a glorious day, everybody sitting outside eating and drinking.
Suddenly the sky turned black and there was an almighty cracking sound as a bolt of lightning hit the church steeple and travelled all the way down the front of the church and along the pavement.
People scattering all around, as a monsoon of biblical proportions then poured down.
Never seen nor heard owt like that bolt of lightning ever before.
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STUKA’S !!!
 
Delft and Utrecht already mentioned and both well worth a visit... I suppose it also depends a lot on your schedule and interests?

DElft can be done in a day and lies exactly half way on train between Den Haag and Rotterdam, with a lot of history (from Vermeer the artist to William of Orange, and pretty much all the Dutch Royals from past 500 years being buried under main cathedral in centre) and you can walk around centre easily. I lived there for about 2 years, and loads of good restaurants. They also used to have a night train running so you were not restricted in having to leave by midnight.

Utrecht is another historical City, has largest student population in NL, tons of bars/restaurants in centre, with bottom end of Oudegracht area being the coolest part that's walkable from main station.. they also have very healthy live music scene with the most amount of gig venues compared to other Dutch towns or cities

Tilburg is an old industrial town (textiles) that is being regenerated over recent years and has a really cool centre for going out

and then we have Eindhoven… my favourite Dutch location by far (resided over the years in Den Haag, Delft, Assen, Groningen) and spent lot of time in surrounding places (from Amsterdam and Rotterdam all the way down to Maastricht, Roermond in south, or Ede, Utrecht and Nijmegen in the east)... there is a reason that Eindhoven is considered by major news agencies to be the best city to live in Europe (quality of life) ;)

janiep said:
Eindhoven. It's like Sunderland as it should have been. Faced economic collapse when Philips stopped manufacturing there, but it has been rebuilt economically and is booming. So many lessons we could learn.
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I'm a huge fan of Eindhoven, but it had or still has a lot more than Philips Electronics ;)

Granted, Philips had a massive impact on the City since the 2nd world war, and the Philips museum in the city centre and Evoluon are still there, but Eindhoven is also home for other international heavyweights like DAF trucks, ASML, and in recent years the VDL group who make busses and even manufacture the Mini Countryman on behalf of owners BMW … also, Eindhoven has an airport.
 
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