Netherlands 25: Riding from Duinrell to Den Haag

As the closest big city, Den Haag is a regular visit when we’re staying at Duinrell. Being just 13 km away on bike, it’s a fairly manageable ride, with multiple routes to choose from. With us staying at Duinrell for two weeks, we’d end up going there a couple of times on this trip.

Den Haag (The Hague) is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. It serves as the country’s administrative centre and its seat of government. The formal name of the city is s-Gravenhage. This name means “the count’s enclosure.” It refers to the hunting grounds that once made up the area.

Some of the old hunting grounds still exist in Haagse Bos. However, the city is now part of a larger conurbation. This includes Rotterdam and Delft, as well as the seaside town of Scheveningen.

Den Haag is home to many international judicial bodies. One of these is the International Criminal Court (ICC), which uses the nearby Scheveningen Prison. It also has many embassies, giving the city a very international feel.

Like Rotterdam, it doesn’t feel like a typical Dutch city, such as the likes of Amsterdam, Utrecht or Delft. Those cities are compact, with lots of canals and narrow streets. While Den Haag does have some canals, the city sprawls, with many wide roads and large towers.

Riding to Den Haag

We had a farewell lunchtime pancake at Restaurant De Zonnehof with the other half of our group. They were heading back to the UK. So after lunch, we decided to ride into Den Haag for an afternoon wander.

We most often do the dune route to Den Haag, usually stopping off at Madurodam or Scheveningen. These are both close to the end of the dune route. In a change to the usual, we arranged to go through Haagse Bos, the old hunting grounds.

We set off from Duinrell and made our way through Wassenaar on the local streets towards the N44. We passed through the woods around Kasteel de Wittenburg. From there, we carried on along the excellent bidirectional path running parallel to the N44 and then S101.

We then took the underpass under the S101 and made our way into Haagse Bos. As well as being the location of the Royal Palace ‘Huis ten Bosch’., Haagse Bos is also one of the oldest remaining forests in the Netherlands.

Taking the underpass under the S101 Benoordenhoutseweg

Riding through Haagse Bos is a great way to get to Den Haag, even on a rainy day like this. There’s a decent shared use path through the forest and it’s nice to be riding under the trees. There’s things to see and do in there too, like water features and adventure playground.

It wasn’t long before we were coming out the other side of Haagse Bos and arriving in Den Haag. We continued along Korte Voorhout and passed the Hofvijver lake to arrive at Buitenhof. There, we parked our bikes in the cycle parking.

On the path around Kasteel de Wittenburg — Riding along Bremhorstlaan

Wandering round Den Haag

We didn’t have massive plans for our day in Den Haag, mainly just a wander and see what we find. We started by going up the Uitzichtpunt Binnenhof tower, to enjoy views across the city. This was something I did in 2024, and I was keen to show the others what it was like.

After we got down from the tower, we made our way through the central shopping area and down Grote Marktstraat. Grote Marktstraat is Den Haag’s equivalent of London’s Oxford Street, but a thousand times better.

There’s no motor traffic on Grote Marktstraat and the associated noise and air pollution that comes with it. This creates space for people to walk and cycle. There are wide pavements here and a dedicated lane down the middle for cycling.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t always like this. Grote Marktstraat was once choked with traffic and trams, like main streets in most cities. As part of a redevelopment completed in 2004, the traffic was removed. The trams were also sunk into a tunnel beneath the street.

All of this creates a space you want to spend time in. You can browse the shops and admire the artwork on the street. Alternatively, stop for a hot dog from the cargo bike equipped hot dog stall.

Trams passing into tunnel under Grote Marktstraat, from our 2024 trip

We continued our wander around the centre of Den Haag until it was time to eat. After finding that a restaurant we’d been to in 2015 had shut down, we looked for somewhere to go to. This saw us returning to Grote Marktstraat to eat at a fantastic Greek restaurant, Irodion.

We really enjoyed our meal here and the casual, friendly atmosphere in Irodion. Fancying something sweet after that, we made our way to Qookies for some amazing chocolate bar milkshakes and waffles.

We were now feeling pretty stuffed. The weather was brightening up from the earlier showers. So we made our way back to our bikes to ride back to Duinrell.

Riding back to Duinrell

We collected our bikes and made our way back towards Haagse Bos. We took a slightly different route out of the centre. This involved riding along Fluwelen Burgwal and Kalvermarkt, where we once stayed, as part of our 2015 trip.

We then continued onto Herengracht, a street which once had a canal, but has since been filled in. We stopped briefly at the front of Den Haag Centraal, where currently large towers are being constructed.

Development in front of Den Haag Centraal

These are being built on top of a large underground cycle parking facility, with around 8,500 parking spaces. The ever wonderful Bicycle Dutch reported on the cycle parking previously. It was built and opened before the construction of the buildings above.

The construction has made access to the cycle parking quite difficult, but it has remained open. I wanted to stop for a look around. However, I sensed that the others wouldn’t be too impressed!

We set off back into Haagse Bos and followed the route we came on. The weather was much better now as the sun had come out in the early evening. We made our way back to Duinrell.