Leiden is a town of about a hundred and twenty five thousand people between Amsterdam and The Hague, with the oldest university in the Netherlands, founded in 1575 as a reward for holding out against a Spanish siege, and more canal frontage per head than any Dutch town except Amsterdam. It is also Rembrandt's birthplace, the city where the Pilgrim Fathers lived for eleven years before sailing for America, and the place where the tulip was first cultivated in Europe.
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That is a great deal of history for a town this size and Leiden carries it lightly. What you actually experience is a compact grid of canals with gabled houses, in the photograph at the top of this page, a hill in the middle with a fortress on it, a student population of about thirty thousand, and poems painted on walls all over the centre. The third photograph is the thing people remember: canalside tables with people sitting at them, which is what Leiden does.
What Is Here
The canals are the town and the best way to see them is from the water. The Rapenburg is the grandest, a wide canal lined with university buildings and merchant houses, and the Oude and Nieuwe Rijn meet in the centre at the Hooglandse Kerkgracht. Boat tours run from several points and renting a small electric boat yourself is a normal thing to do here and is the single best afternoon in Leiden.
The Hooglandse Kerk is in the second photograph and the Burcht beside it is the oddity. The church is a big late Gothic building whose nave was never finished, and the Burcht is an eleventh-century circular shell keep on an artificial mound in the middle of the town, free to enter, with a walkway around the top that gives the only elevated view in Leiden. It is the oldest structure here and almost nobody climbs it.
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeology museum and is better than its profile. A substantial Egyptian collection including the Temple of Taffeh, reassembled indoors as a gift from Egypt for Dutch help with the Aswan rescue, plus Dutch, Greek and Roman material. Naturalis, the national natural history museum, holds Trix, one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus skeletons in the world, and is excellent. And Museum De Lakenhal covers the city's cloth-trade wealth and holds early Rembrandt and Lucas van Leyden.
The Hortus Botanicus is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands and one of the oldest in the world, founded in 1590, where Carolus Clusius planted the first tulips grown in Europe and from which the entire Dutch bulb industry descends. The Clusius garden has been reconstructed to its original plan. It is a short walk from the station and is quiet, small and genuinely significant.
Two more that are specifically Leiden. The wall poems, a project begun in 1992, have put more than a hundred poems in their original languages on walls around the centre, from Shakespeare and Marina Tsvetaeva to Chinese and Arabic verse, and hunting them is a real pleasure with a map from the tourist office. And the Pilgrim Fathers lived here between 1609 and 1620, worshipping in a building beside the Pieterskerk; the small Leiden American Pilgrim Museum covers it and the Pieterskerk holds John Robinson's grave.
The Molen de Valk is the windmill in the hero photograph, a seven-storey tower mill of 1743 near the station, open as a museum. And Leiden's Saturday market along the Nieuwe Rijn is one of the largest in the country.
When to Go
April to June and September, with the bulb fields the specifically Leiden reason for late April. The Keukenhof gardens and the main bulb-growing area are about fifteen minutes from here, which makes Leiden the closest city base to them and fills its accommodation from mid-April to early May.
Summer runs eighteen to twenty three degrees and the canalside terraces are the point of it. The 3 October festival is the one date to know about: it commemorates the lifting of the 1574 Spanish siege, it is the town's own holiday, it is enormous, it involves a funfair across the whole centre and a great deal of herring and white bread, and it fills every room in the city. Either plan for it or avoid it.
The academic year matters here as much as in Leuven: term time means thirty thousand students and everything open, and July and August mean a quiet town. Winter is three to eight degrees, grey and damp, and Leiden is a good winter destination because the museums are first rate and the canals look their best in low light.
Getting There
Leiden Centraal is fifteen minutes from Schiphol by direct train, which makes it the single easiest arrival in the Netherlands. Trains run every few minutes. Amsterdam is about thirty five minutes, The Hague fifteen, Delft twenty five and Haarlem thirty. The station is about ten minutes' walk from the centre, past the windmill.
That proximity is the practical case for Leiden as a base: it is nearer the airport than Amsterdam, cheaper, prettier and within half an hour of everything in the Randstad.
Locally the centre is flat, compact and almost entirely walkable, with the canals making it slightly maze-like in a pleasant way. Cycling is the normal mode and the ride out to the bulb fields or to Katwijk on the coast, about fifteen kilometres through the dunes, is excellent. Hire bikes are at the station. A car is a liability: the centre is largely pedestrianised with a low emission zone and limited expensive parking.
Is Leiden 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.
Leiden is a very safe town and among the easiest places in this batch for a woman travelling alone. It is prosperous, compact, flat and well lit, the student population keeps the streets populated into the small hours, English is universal, and violent crime against visitors is rare. The two things that matter here are the canals and the bicycles, and both are genuinely the dominant risks rather than token ones.
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.
Leiden has more canal frontage per head than anywhere in the Netherlands except Amsterdam, and almost none of it is fenced. That is the single most important sentence on this page. The Rapenburg, the Oude Rijn, the Nieuwe Rijn and the smaller grachten run flush with narrow streets, the water sits a short drop below the kerb, the walls are sheer brick with ladders only occasionally, and the water is deeper and colder than it looks. Now add thirty thousand students, a dense bar quarter around the Pieterskerk and the Beestenmarkt, and the FCDO's observation that the majority of Dutch canal drownings follow heavy drinking, and you have the precise situation this town presents on a Thursday night. It happens here. Walk on the house side of the lane after dark, which is what residents do without thinking about it, and do not take a canalside shortcut after an evening out.
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.
In Leiden the bicycle situation is at the Dutch extreme. This is a student town where essentially everyone cycles, the lanes are busy and fast, students ride unlit at night and through red lights as a matter of routine, and the pedestrianised streets are shared rather than car-free. Standing in a cycle lane to take a photograph of a canal, which is an almost irresistible thing to do here, is the commonest way a visitor gets hurt. Look along the lane before stepping off any kerb, and if you hire a bike, use lights, because the police do fine for riding without them.
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.
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 that applies here is the Schiphol train and the bicycle. Leiden is on the airport line the advisory names, and falling asleep on a short train after a long flight is the specific temptation. Bicycle theft is endemic in every Dutch town and in a student city it is industrial: use the lock supplied and the paid station parking, never a canal railing.
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 Leiden Packing List
A flat, damp, canal-laced university town where you will walk and cycle everywhere, so the list is wind and rain, layers and shoes with grip.
Merino base layers, for the damp and the cycling
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. Dutch winter damp at five degrees with a sea wind across flat country is more penetrating than the number implies, and the Leiden day makes it worse: you cycle somewhere, work up heat, and then sit still outside a cafe on a canal. Wool moves moisture where cotton holds it and chills you. A merino base layer bottom is worth having from December to February, particularly for cycling.
A fleece from October to May
A Columbia Fast Trek fleece. Over a wool base layer this covers a Leiden winter, and it is what makes an April evening on a canalside terrace possible, which is when the town is at its best.
A windproof rain shell, which an umbrella cannot replace
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket. Dutch rain is frequent, usually light and almost always windy, and an umbrella inverts on the first canal bridge. A hood that stays up is the requirement, and if you cycle at all it is the only thing that works.
Shoes for wet brick beside unfenced water
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX shoes with Darn Tough merino hiking socks. The centre is brick and set stone, slick when wet, and the canal edges have no railing, which makes grip a safety feature here rather than a comfort one. Waterproof matters because wet feet by eleven ends a day in this climate.
The small things, and the first is a legal requirement
Your passport, carried on you, because Dutch law requires anyone fourteen or over to be able to show identification and for a foreign visitor that means the passport itself, with a hundred euro fine for failing to. Leaving it in the hotel safe is the common instinct and the wrong one. Add a reusable bottle, since Dutch tap water is excellent. A warm hat and gloves from November to March. Lights if you hire a bike for the evening. A map of the wall poems from the tourist office, which turns an afternoon of wandering into a treasure hunt. And a bag that closes for the airport train.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Leiden
Emergency numbers: 112 for all emergencies and 0900 8844 for non-emergency police, which is also the number the advisory gives for verifying whether a supposed plain-clothes officer is genuine. English is universal in the Netherlands including among emergency services, which makes this one of the easiest countries in the world in which to have a problem. The university runs its own student support and security services, which are a practical resource in the centre at night even for visitors.
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 Leiden University Medical Center, the LUMC, is one of the leading hospitals in the Netherlands and is in the city a few minutes from the station, with the Alrijne hospital also local and Amsterdam's and The Hague's centres half an hour either way. For a town of this size the medical provision is exceptional. Note the Dutch GP gatekeeping system, which catches visitors out: 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. THE LEIDEN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER is one of the leading hospitals in the Netherlands and is in the city, which makes a town of this size exceptionally well provided. 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
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in The Hague.
Official tourism authority: the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions. LEIDEN CENTRAAL IS FIFTEEN MINUTES FROM SCHIPHOL BY DIRECT TRAIN, which makes it the easiest arrival in the country and a cheaper, prettier base than Amsterdam while being nearer the airport. Two local notes: the 3 OCTOBER FESTIVAL, commemorating the lifting of the 1574 siege, is the town's own holiday, is enormous and fills every room in the city, so plan for it or avoid it; and the KEUKENHOF AND THE BULB FIELDS are about fifteen minutes away, which fills accommodation from mid-April to early May
Leiden's canals are unfenced and the town has more frontage per head than anywhere but Amsterdam. Walk on the house side after dark.
Carry your passport. Dutch law requires identification from fourteen and the fine is a hundred euros.
Look along the cycle lane before stepping off a kerb. Stopping in one to photograph a canal is how visitors get hurt here.
Leiden Centraal is fifteen minutes from Schiphol. It is the easiest arrival in the Netherlands and a better base than Amsterdam.
Solo women safety assessment: Leiden is a very safe town and among the easiest destinations in this batch for a woman travelling alone: prosperous, compact, flat, well lit, with thirty thousand students keeping the streets populated into the small hours, 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 THE ADVISORY NAMES OUR READER DIRECTLY, describing a risk PARTICULARLY FOR YOUNG WOMEN AND SOLO TRAVELLERS, and instructing that a drink not be left unattended, that a group stay together, and that a suspected spiking means immediate medical help and the police rather than making your own way home. In a university town with a dense bar quarter that is the most applicable line in the advisory. THE CANALS ARE THE DOMINANT PHYSICAL RISK AND LEIDEN IS THE WORST CASE IN THIS BATCH FOR IT. The FCDO states that people drown in Amsterdam's canals and in canals elsewhere in the Netherlands and that the majority of drownings follow heavy drinking or cannabis. Leiden has more canal frontage per head than any Dutch town except Amsterdam and almost none of it is fenced: the water sits a short drop below the kerb beside narrow streets, the walls are sheer brick with only occasional ladders, and the water is deeper and colder than it looks. Combine that with thirty thousand students and a bar quarter around the Pieterskerk and the Beestenmarkt and you have exactly the circumstance the advisory describes. Walk on the house side of the lane after dark and do not take a canalside shortcut after an evening out. THE BICYCLE IS AT ITS DUTCH EXTREME HERE: everyone cycles, the lanes are fast, students ride unlit and through red lights routinely, the pedestrian streets are shared rather than car-free, and standing in a lane to photograph a canal is the commonest way a visitor is hurt. Bicycle theft is industrial in a student city. There is a national fake police scam and the tell is that Dutch police do not have shiny badges; 0900 8844 reaches a real station. Carry your passport.
Reading On
Leiden is fifteen minutes from Schiphol and half an hour from everything in the Randstad. The The Hague packing list covers the seat of government fifteen minutes south, with the Mauritshuis and the beach at Scheveningen. The Delft packing list covers Vermeer's town twenty five minutes south. The Haarlem packing list covers the other great Dutch canal and museum town half an hour north, and the Amsterdam packing list covers the capital thirty five minutes away. 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 somewhere and then sitting still on a canal, 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.
