The best tips for The Hague – according to me.

The Hague is the third biggest city in The Netherlands. These are the best tips for The Hague – according to me.

Why you’ll love The Hague

The Hague is an amazingly versatile city: some great bars and restaurants, amazing museums, the beach of Scheveningen, beautiful old parts of the city. Lesser known than Amsterdam, Rotterdam and probably even Utrecht for city trips, the city is truly amazing.

Its Gothic-style Binnenhof (or Inner Court) complex is the seat of the Dutch parliament, and 16th-century Noordeinde Palace is the king’s workplace. The city is also home to the U.N.’s International Court of Justice, headquartered in the Peace Palace, and the International Criminal Court.

My best omakase experience in The Hague

The Japanese habit of omakase (お任せ) when you’re ordering at a restaurant pretty much means, “I’ll leave it up to you”, inviting the chef to be innovative and surprising in the selection of dishes. I try to do it in every city I visit, and apply the idea behind to everything between how I pick my runs, how I pick my food, how I plan activities with my kids, how I explore cities and how I travel in general. So, I tried this in The Hague as well.

I had my best omakase experience in The Hague at Little V, a Vietnamese restaurant, where we had some amazing Vietnamese dishes, selected by the chef.

The best restaurants in The Hague – according to me

• Little V is a really good Vietnamese restaurant in The Hague.
• Zebedeüs serves open sandwiches, toasties, pastas and soup all day, and a limited menu of more elaborate mains at night. Much of the produce used is organic. Cold-pressed raw veggie juices and freshly squeezed fruit juices are offered alongside coffee and alcohol. In fine weather, the best seats are at the chestnut-tree-shaded tables outside.

The best bars in The Hague – according to me

• Have a beer with bitterballen (fried meat ball-kind-of-thingies) on Plein square and have a serious change to run into Dutch politicians.
• The piano bar in Scheveningen, Crazy Pianos is not for everyone, but for those who love piano playing wannabe rockstars (in a good way) turning regular evenings into memorable sing-a-long evenings.

The best hotels in The Hague – according to me

• Hotel Indigo The Hague – Palace Noordeinde is one of my favorite IHG brands (like the Indigo hotel in Antwerp). Indigo tries to bring the neighborhood into its hotels, which means that this specific hotel -opposite a royal palace and once a bank – is decorated with royal portraits, Art Deco stained glass, brass lamps and marble columns (referring to the luxury world of private banking).
• I once had a great stay at the Park Hotel Den Haag. Nice location right in the city center, beautifully renovated.

The best things to do in The Hague – according to me

• Whether it is summer or winter, it really pays off to go to the Scheveningen beach area. Have a stroll along the boulevard and have drinks and dinner at one of the many beach bars.
• Mauritshuis, home of the royal collection. Masterpieces in this 1640-built palace and new wing include Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. Rubens and Steen are among the old masters represented at the Galerij Prins Willem V, a five-minute walk southwest.

The best places for coffee in The Hague – according to me

• Dudok is the place for apple pie and you might as well have a coffee then.

The best places to work in The Hague – according to me

• Coffee Company at Korte Poten is a coffee place where I spent quite some time getting some work done.