Lady’s Guide to One Day in The Hague

If you only had one day to explore a city, what would you do? Start with the big attractions? Get off the beaten path? Eat? Drink? Shop? This is the challenge I’m facing in the Netherlands, where I have three days to explore three cities and a million ideas for how to spend my time. Today it’s one day in The Hague.

How to Get from London to The Hague

I arrived in the Netherlands this morning after an early flight from London to Amsterdam Schiphol airport.

I flew out to explore The Hague, Rotterdam, and Utrecht for three days, and I’m excited to see a few cities in Holland that I’ve never been to before.

From Schiphol it was an easy direct train connection to The Hague, the first of the cities on my Netherlands travel itinerary. And now that I’m here, I have to decide what to do with my one day in The Hague.

One Day in The Hague

Lucky for me, it’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining, and the fresh air invites me out for a walk. I start my day in The Hague by wandering through the streets and squares to get a feel for the city.

I love the historic architecture of the Binnenhof government buildings and the Peace Palace, a solidly grand building from 1913 housing the International Court of Justice and other legal institutions.

I quickly discover how walkable the city is, although if I really wanted to travel like a local I would get myself a bike and cycle through the streets.

But even on foot I can cover ground quickly, and I find there’s a lot I can do in one day in The Hague.

Museums in The Hague

The museums, for example. My love of art draws me to the Mauritshuis, an impressive collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings by the likes of Dutch Masters like Rembrandt.

In addition to a number of his works, I see Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring and Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch, both popularized in recent years by films and books of the same names.

From the Mauritshuis I visit the Panorama Mesdag, a small museum famous for its seaside panorama painting by Hendrik Willem Mesdag.

The painting isn’t as impressive as its neighbors in the Mauritshuis and the perspective gives me a bit of a headache.

But downstairs I discover a photography exhibition called New Horizons that contains a selection of photos of The Hague’s coast chosen from pictures shot hourly over the period of a year.

I serendipitously run into the creator of the project, Bruno van den Elshout, who tells me that “the experience is greater than the 23 individual photos” on display. And it is.

I never imagined that a single vantage point could yield such a diverse range of colors and light, and the exhibition is a great way to experience a part of the city I don’t have time to visit.

Restaurants in The Hague

Beyond the museums, I spend my one day in The Hague exploring the food scene. Breakfast is at a cafe called Hometown Coffee & More, which is conveniently located right by the Binnenhof.

It has a hipster feel to it, with eclectic wooden furniture and a comfy old sofa in the front.

It feels surprisingly local for being in the heart of what I would expect to be a touristy area, and I could sit forever sipping my latte.

A few hours later, I eat lunch at a cafe called Bij Hem on a little side street in the city center.

Purple chairs and larger-than-life orange lamp covers add a nice splash of color, and the huge picture windows are great for watching life cycle by outside.

Not far from there, my one day in The Hague gets sweeter when I stop for an afternoon tea and cake break at the luxurious Hotel Des Indes.

The sumptuous red velvet interiors transport me to a faraway time and place as I eat a delicious raspberry and white chocolate pastry and sip on lemon tea.

Evening

Refreshed, I continue my one day in The Hague by meeting up with a local blogger, Daphne.

She takes me to the huge Het Plein square for cocktails at Barlow, a trendy bar and restaurant, explaining that locals fill the bars in the area after work on weeknights.

From there we head to dinner at Lapsang Wijnbar, an intimate restaurant with a rustic ambiance and more of those great floor-to-ceiling windows. The restaurant is packed, and we’re lucky to get the last table in the room.

We order everything from octopus to venison, enjoying good food and friendly service until our appetites are sated and we head back out into the night.

One Day in The Hague and Beyond

My one day in The Hague has been a great one, and as excited as I am to move on to Rotterdam, I can’t help feeling like I could use more time to explore the city.

I didn’t make it to the seaside or some of the areas outside of the city center, but at least I managed to see enough to know that I want to come back someday and explore more.

And given its proximity to Delft, I’d love to come back and do a day trip. Which is always my problem. The more I travel, the more I realize how much there is to see. I’ll just have to keep going forever. I don’t think I’ll mind.

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