Haarlem is a town of about a hundred and sixty thousand people twenty minutes west of Amsterdam by train, and it is the answer to a question many visitors to the Netherlands work out too late: where to stay instead. It has a market square as good as any in the country, two first-rate museums, a canal ring, a working windmill on the river, and a North Sea beach twenty minutes further on, and it has perhaps a tenth of Amsterdam's visitors.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
It is older than Amsterdam and was the more important town for much of the medieval period, which is why the scale of the church on the Grote Markt is out of proportion to the place. It was also the centre of Dutch painting in the generation of Frans Hals, and of the tulip trade whose seventeenth-century speculative collapse remains the standard example of a financial bubble; the bulb fields are still immediately south of here. The photographs are the Molen de Adriaan on the Spaarne, the Grote Markt, and a canal.
What Is Here
The Grote Markt is one of the finest squares in the Netherlands and the Grote Kerk on it is enormous. St Bavo's church, finished in the early sixteenth century, is a vast late Gothic cruciform building whose Muller organ of 1738 has five thousand pipes and was played by a ten-year-old Mozart and later by Handel and Liszt; it is still used for recitals and hearing it is the best hour in Haarlem. Frans Hals is buried in the church. The square around it holds the fourteenth-century town hall, the former meat market with a Dutch Renaissance front, and the cafes everyone sits outside in.
The Frans Hals Museum holds the largest collection of his work anywhere, including the enormous civic guard group portraits that are the reason he matters: paintings of militia companies at dinner, loose-brushed and alive in a way nothing else of the period is. The museum is in a former almshouse a few streets from the square and is small enough to see properly.
The Teylers Museum is the oldest museum in the Netherlands and is the strangest and best thing here. Founded in 1778 by a silk merchant's bequest, it has never been modernised: the Oval Room is its original double-galleried hall with the original cabinets, the collection is fossils, minerals, scientific instruments, physics apparatus and drawings by Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Raphael, and the whole thing is lit by daylight from above. It is an eighteenth-century idea of what a museum is, preserved intact, and there is nothing else like it in Europe.
The Molen de Adriaan is the windmill in the hero photograph, a reconstruction on the original 1779 base on the Spaarne river, open for tours. The Spaarne itself is the town's river and the waterfront along it, with the Waag and the old warehouses, is the best walk in Haarlem.
Two more. The hofjes are Haarlem's particular pleasure: more than twenty almshouse courtyards hidden behind street doors around the centre, founded from the fourteenth century onward, still occupied and quietly open to visitors who knock during the day. Finding them is a genuine small pleasure. And Zandvoort is twenty minutes away by train, a North Sea beach resort with a long sand beach, beach clubs, and the motor racing circuit; the dunes between Haarlem and the sea are a national park with excellent cycling.
When to Go
April to June and September, with the bulb fields the specifically local reason for late April. Haarlem sits at the northern end of the bulb region and the Keukenhof gardens are about twenty minutes south, so from mid-April to early May this is one of the best bases in the Netherlands for the flowers and one of the busiest.
Summer runs eighteen to twenty three degrees and brings the Zandvoort beach season and the terraces on the Grote Markt. King's Day on 27 April is a street party here as everywhere. The Haarlem Jazz and More festival in August and the flower parade, the Bloemencorso, which passes through in April on its way from Noordwijk to Haarlem, are the two local events.
Winter is three to eight degrees, grey, damp and windy off the sea, and Haarlem is a good winter town because the Teylers and the Frans Hals and the organ recitals are all indoors and all excellent. The Christmas market is modest and the town is quiet.
Getting There
Haarlem is twenty minutes from Amsterdam Centraal and about forty from Schiphol, with trains every few minutes. That is the practical argument for the town: you can stay here at perhaps two thirds of Amsterdam's accommodation prices, with a better square and no crowds, and be in Amsterdam in the time it takes to cross Amsterdam. The station is a 1908 Art Nouveau building and is itself worth a look, ten minutes' walk from the Grote Markt.
Trains also reach Zandvoort in twenty minutes, Leiden in half an hour and The Hague in forty minutes. Buses serve the dunes and the smaller coastal places.
Locally everything is flat, compact and walkable, and Haarlem is a cycling town where the ride out through the dunes to Zandvoort is the thing to do: about twelve kilometres each way on separated paths through a national park, and one of the best short rides in the country. Hire bikes are available at the station. A car is pointless in the centre, which is largely pedestrianised with a low emission zone.
Is Haarlem Safe for Women Travelers
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in the Netherlands. Its safety advice is nonetheless more substantial than most people expect of a country this orderly, and it states that terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in the Netherlands and that attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreign nationals.
Haarlem is a very safe, prosperous and settled town and is among the easiest destinations in this batch for a woman travelling alone. The centre is compact and well lit, the square is busy into the evening, English is universal, and violent crime against visitors is rare. The relevant hazards are the canals, the bicycles and, if you go to Zandvoort, the sea.
The FCDO is unusually specific about where and how theft happens here, and the detail is the useful part. Pickpocketing and bag-snatching are common, particularly in central Amsterdam and around Amsterdam Central Station, and thieves often operate in gangs on the trains and trams to and from Schiphol airport, where one distracts you while another takes your bag. It names sleeping on trains as something that makes you an easy target, and it names a second method: thieves entering restaurants on the pretext of selling something or looking for someone, and taking bags while people are distracted. The resulting rules are concrete. Keep sight of your luggage especially while checking into a hotel, keep valuables on your person, do not hang a bag or a jacket on the back of a chair in a restaurant, and do not fall asleep on public transport.
The part of that advice which applies here is the train. The advisory names thieves working in gangs on the services to and from Schiphol, and the Haarlem line is one of them; it also names falling asleep on a train as what makes you a target, which on the short run back from Amsterdam after an evening out is the realistic version. In Haarlem itself the risk is low. Bicycle theft is endemic in every Dutch town and is the one thing you should actually expect: use the lock provided and the paid station parking.
People drown in Dutch canals every year and the FCDO says explicitly that it happens in Amsterdam and in canals elsewhere in the Netherlands. Its account of the cause is the part that matters: the majority of drownings happen after heavy drinking or smoking cannabis. Canal edges in the older Dutch towns typically have no railing, the stone is slippery, the water is deeper and colder than it looks and the walls are sheer with nothing to climb. Take care walking beside a canal at night, and note that in Amsterdam swimming in the canals carries a 160 euro fine, as does urinating in them.
Haarlem's canals are the unfenced kind. The Spaarne has quays and railings in places and the smaller canals in the old centre do not: the water sits level with the street behind a low kerb or nothing at all, the walls are sheer, and the lanes beside them are narrow. The FCDO's note that the majority of Dutch canal drownings follow heavy drinking describes the walk home from the Grote Markt precisely, and the mitigation is simply to walk on the house side of the lane after dark.
The real daily hazard in a Dutch city is the bicycle, and the rules are not the ones a visitor assumes. The FCDO states that cyclists and mopeds have right of way over motor vehicles and often ignore road traffic rules and red lights, and that trams have priority over everything, with a legal requirement to stop when a tram or bus halts in the middle of the road to let passengers off. Cycle paths are busy, they are a road rather than a pavement, and standing in one to take a photograph is the single most common way a visitor gets hit. Look for cyclists, mopeds and trams when crossing, especially at zebra crossings, and note that you can be fined for jaywalking if you cross away from a marked crossing.
The dune cycle path to Zandvoort has its own small set of rules. It is busy with fast road cyclists as well as visitors on hire bikes, it has blind crests, and the dunes are a national park where you must stay on the marked paths both for the vegetation and because the terrain is steeper and more disorienting than it looks. There is also no shade and no water on the route.
And if you go to Zandvoort, it is a North Sea beach rather than a Mediterranean one. Cold water in every month, a strong longshore current, rip currents around the groynes, lifeguarding in season only and within posted hours, and offshore winds that take inflatables out. The flags mean what they say and the red flag means do not go in at all.
The FCDO names drink spiking as a risk and names who it happens to. Its words are that there is a risk of drink spiking particularly for young women and solo travellers, that you should not leave your drink unattended, and that a group should stay together. If you think your drink has been spiked, it says to seek immediate medical help and contact the police rather than trying to get yourself home.
Everyone aged 14 or over in the Netherlands must be able to show identification at all times, and for a British national that means the passport itself. The fine for failing to identify yourself is 100 euros for anyone 16 or over and 50 euros at 14 and 15. This catches visitors who leave the passport in a hotel safe out of caution, which is the sensible instinct and the wrong one here.
Dutch drug law is far narrower than the country's reputation and the distinctions are legal rather than cultural. The FCDO states that tolerance applies only in designated premises in the major cities, that buying or possessing prohibited substances outside those premises is illegal and can result in a prison sentence including when transiting an airport, and that smoking soft drugs in public places is illegal. On mushrooms the distinction is exact: the sale of dried and fresh psychoactive mushrooms is illegal, while the truffle form is not covered by the Opium Act and is still sold in regulated smart shops. The advisory then gives a warning that is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing, because it concerns a combination people treat casually: mixing alcohol, cannabis and wild mushrooms can be fatal.
The Haarlem Packing List
A flat, damp, windy Dutch town with a beach and a dune ride attached, so the list is wind protection, layers and shoes for wet brick.
Merino base layers, for the wind off the sea
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the foundation from October to April. Haarlem is ten kilometres from the North Sea across flat country, so the wind arrives undiminished, and twelve degrees in it feels considerably colder. Wool also handles the cycling pattern that defines a day here: you work on the way out to the dunes and then stand about at the beach, and a damp cotton layer makes the second half unpleasant. A merino base layer bottom is worth having from December to February.
A fleece from October to May, and for the dunes in any month
A Columbia Fast Trek fleece. The beach and the dune path want a mid layer even in July, and over a wool base layer this covers a Haarlem winter without anything heavier.
A windproof rain shell, which is the key item
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket. Dutch rain is frequent, light and windy, an umbrella will invert on the first bridge, and the shell's main job here is cutting wind on the dune ride and the beach. A hood that stays up is the requirement, and on a bicycle it is the only thing that works.
Shoes for wet brick and sand
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX shoes with Darn Tough merino hiking socks. The centre is brick and set stone that is slick when wet, the canal edges are unfenced which makes grip a safety matter, and the dune paths are sand and boardwalk. Waterproof is the useful feature.
The small things, and the first is a legal requirement
Your passport, carried on you, because Dutch law requires identification from age fourteen and the fine is a hundred euros; leaving it in the hotel safe is the common and wrong instinct. A hat that stays on in wind and gloves from November to March. A reusable bottle, since Dutch tap water is excellent and there is none on the dune route. Lights if you hire a bike for the evening. Swimwear and a towel between June and September for Zandvoort. And check the organ recital schedule at St Bavo's before you come, because it is the best thing in the town and it is not daily.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Haarlem
Emergency numbers: 112 for all emergencies and 0900 8844 for non-emergency police, which is also the number the advisory gives for checking whether a supposed plain-clothes officer is real. English is universal in the Netherlands including among emergency services. For anything in the sea at Zandvoort the KNRM lifeboat service is reached through 112, and in season the lifeguard posts on the beach are faster.
US State Department travel advisory: the Netherlands advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/netherlands, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: the Spaarne Gasthuis has emergency facilities in Haarlem and Hoofddorp, with the Amsterdam UMC and the OLVG in Amsterdam twenty minutes away by train as major tertiary centres and the Leiden University Medical Center half an hour south, which makes this an exceptionally well covered area. Dutch healthcare is of a very high standard. Note the Dutch GP gatekeeping system: for anything non-urgent you go through a huisarts or the out-of-hours huisartsenpost rather than an emergency department, and arriving at A and E with a minor complaint means a long wait or a redirection. A UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EHIC covers necessary state treatment and covers neither repatriation nor private care.
Official health authority: the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. DUTCH HEALTHCARE USES GP GATEKEEPING: for anything non-urgent go through a huisarts or the out-of-hours huisartsenpost rather than an emergency department. A UK GHIC or an EHIC covers necessary state treatment and neither repatriation nor private care. Haarlem has its own emergency facilities with Amsterdam's tertiary hospitals twenty minutes away by train. If you go to ZANDVOORT, it is a North Sea beach: cold in every month, with rip currents around the groynes and seasonal lifeguarding only
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in The Hague.
Official tourism authority: the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions. THE PRACTICAL CASE FOR HAARLEM IS THAT IT IS TWENTY MINUTES FROM AMSTERDAM CENTRAAL and about forty from Schiphol, at roughly two thirds of Amsterdam's accommodation prices and with a fraction of the crowds. Local notes: the ST BAVO ORGAN RECITALS are the best thing in town and are NOT DAILY, so check the schedule; the TEYLERS MUSEUM is the oldest in the Netherlands and is unmodernised, lit by daylight; and the DUNE CYCLE PATH TO ZANDVOORT is about twelve kilometres each way with no shade or water on it
Stay in Haarlem and day-trip to Amsterdam. Twenty minutes by train, two thirds the price, a better square and no crowds.
Check the St Bavo organ recital schedule. The 1738 Muller organ is the best thing in the town and it is not played daily.
Carry your passport. Dutch law requires identification from fourteen and the fine is a hundred euros.
Walk on the house side of the canal lanes after dark. They are unfenced with sheer walls.
Solo women safety assessment: Haarlem is a very safe, prosperous and settled town and among the easiest destinations in this batch for a woman travelling alone: compact, flat, well lit, with a square busy into the evening, universal English and rare violent crime. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in the Netherlands, while stating that TERRORISTS ARE LIKELY TO TRY TO CARRY OUT ATTACKS and that attacks could be indiscriminate including in places visited by foreign nationals. ON DRINK SPIKING IT NAMES OUR READER DIRECTLY, describing a risk PARTICULARLY FOR YOUNG WOMEN AND SOLO TRAVELLERS, and instructing that a drink should not be left unattended, that a group should stay together, and that a suspected spiking means immediate medical help and the police rather than making your own way home. ON THEFT the advisory is specific about the Schiphol trains, where thieves work in gangs with one distracting and another taking the bag, and it names falling asleep on a train as what makes you a target, which on the short late run back from Amsterdam is the realistic version; bicycle theft, which the advisory does not mention, is the one crime to actually expect in any Dutch town. THE CANALS ARE THE PHYSICAL HAZARD: the FCDO says people drown in Amsterdam's canals and in canals elsewhere in the Netherlands, and that the majority of drownings follow heavy drinking or cannabis. Haarlem's smaller canals sit level with the street behind a low kerb or nothing at all, with sheer walls and narrow lanes beside them, so walk on the house side after dark. THE BICYCLE IS THE DAILY RISK, with cyclists and mopeds holding right of way over cars and, in the advisory's words, often ignoring the rules and red lights, trams having priority over everything, cycle paths being roads rather than pavements, and jaywalking being a fineable offence. The dune path to Zandvoort adds fast road cyclists, blind crests and no water or shade. And Zandvoort itself is a North Sea beach: cold in every month, with a longshore current, rip currents at the groynes, seasonal lifeguarding only, and offshore winds that take inflatables out. There is a national fake police scam and the tell is that Dutch police do not have shiny badges.
Reading On
Haarlem is twenty minutes from Amsterdam and is the better base. The Amsterdam packing list covers the capital twenty minutes east, which this town is the alternative to rather than a substitute for. The Leiden packing list covers the university canal town half an hour south. The The Hague packing list covers the seat of government forty minutes south with the Mauritshuis in it, and the Delft packing list covers Vermeer's town beyond it. For the country as a whole the Netherlands travel guide for women and the Netherlands packing list carry the trains, the cycling and the practical material in full. For why wool suits cycling out to the dunes and then standing on a beach, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
