If you are in The Hague area and you are looking for some advice about what to do in The Hague and surroundings, you might find some hints in this post.

There are several sites where to find tips about outings of every kind: the Haagsuitburo or Binnenstad Den Haag, Den Haag dagjes-uit, Uit met korting and the Underground help you to find plenty of “uitstapjes” (outings).

If you’re interested in culture, you can visit musea in Rijswijk (Museum Rijswijk), or Delft (with the Botanical Garden, Gereedschapsmuseum Mensert, Het Prinsenhof, Medisch Farmaceutisch Museum De Griffoen, Museum Lambert van Meerten, Museum Nusantara, Museum Paul Tetar val Elven, Royal Delft, Science Centre, Tabaks Historisch Museum Delft, Vermeer Centrum).

In The Hague, the Mauritshuis (closed at the moment for renovation, but will open again in mid 2014), the Gemeentemuseum, and the Museon (where you can visit the permanent exhibition Your world, My World and discover how life came into being on Earth, what your ancestors might have looked like; but also changing interactive exhibitions) are usually on top of the lists. The Book-Museum with a private collection Meermanno (Huis van het Boek) and the Kinderboekenmuseum, are for those who like books. In the Letterkundig Museum you can dive into the Literary world of 1000 years of literature. The museum of Photography (Fotomuseum), the M.C. Escher Museum (Escher in het Paleis), the museum Beelden an Zee with Man – the human image – as leitmotiv of the collection that holds nearly one thousand sculptures and several hundreds of medals are also advisable. In the Haag Historisch Museum you can learn something about the story of The Hague about its government and inhabitants. The Gevangenenpoort “tells the thrilling tale of crime and punishment in days gone by. Since 1882, the mediaeval prison has operated as a museum. It lies on the Hofvijver, close to the Binnenhof in The Hague.”

For those who like cars, there is the Louwmans Museum, the world’s oldest private collection of motor cars, compiled by two generations of the Louwman family.

In Leiden you can visit the Botanical Garden, the museum of Natural History, Naturalis, the National Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde) is the world’s oldest ethnographical museum, or the The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden), the national centre of archaeology where you can appreciate the cultures of ancient Egypt, the Near East, the classical world and the early Netherlands.

A Museumkaart (www.museumkaart.nl) enables you to have free or reduced access to about 400musea in the Netherlands and even in some places in Germany.

All these musea are great to visit with kids too (only the Gevangenenpoort is more suited for children of 8 years upwards). You can find precious informations about what to do with kids here: http://www.tips4kidsgids.nl/ and here: http://www.jmouders.nl/kidsgids.htm.

There is much more to add to this short list. Please feel free to suggest more!

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