The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and of international justice, and the only major Dutch city with a beach of its own. It is a city of embassies and quiet squares rather than canals, holding one of the world's great small museums in the Mauritshuis, the Peace Palace and, fifteen tram-minutes away, eleven kilometres of North Sea coast at Scheveningen. It sits half an hour from Rotterdam and Leiden and under an hour from Amsterdam.
A 17th-century palace on the Plein holding over 250 Dutch and Flemish masterpieces, including Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson and Fabritius's The Goldfinch. It is a ten-minute walk from Den Haag Centraal.
Book a timeslot, and check the site first: the museum closes for maintenance in late summer.
Official siteThe 13th-century parliament complex has been closed to visitors since 2021 for a full renovation, and the government confirmed in late 2025 that people will not walk the Binnenhof again until 2031. A free information centre at Plaats 22 shows the archaeological finds, the crypts and models of the new entrance.
Free, and open Wednesday to Sunday. The outside and the Hofvijver can still be walked at any time.
Official siteHome of the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Hague Academy of International Law. The Visitors Centre explains the building and its institutions with an audio tour in ten languages.
Free, and the audio tour is included, but this is the gatehouse exhibition: the palace interior is not on general public view.
Official siteA 360-degree painted panorama of Scheveningen as it looked in 1881, around 1,680 square metres of canvas wrapped around a viewing rotunda, painted in four months by H.W. Mesdag with help from Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, Breitner and De Bock.
Open daily; allow about 45 minutes. Closed 25 December and 1 January.
Official siteM.C. Escher's graphic work in Queen Emma's former winter palace on the Lange Voorhout, with the impossible staircases and a set of deliberately oversized chandeliers.
Tuesday to Sunday, and Mondays in the school holidays. The desk closes half an hour before the museum.
Official siteThe Hague's seaside district: eleven kilometres of coast, the landmark Pier with its Ferris wheel, the Kurhaus, and Museum Beelden aan Zee's sculptures set into the dunes. The stretches differ sharply, from the busy Zwarte Pad to the quiet Noordboulevard.
Trams 1 and 9 run there from the centre in about 15-20 minutes.
Official siteThe Hague together with another city, in one tour.
Walk it at your own pace, on your phone. Works offline.
Official sources, so you can check today's hours and prices rather than trusting ours. All open in a new tab.
The city keeps reserved coach bays for setting down near the sights, the main ones on the Prinsessegracht, the Hofweg and in Scheveningen, with separate long-stay coach spaces. No fee on the reserved bays, but vehicles over 6 m may only use ordinary streets on weekdays between 07:00 and 18:00.
Official coach informationBoth Den Haag Centraal and Den Haag HS have NS lockers, from about €7.50 for 24 hours, kept for a maximum of three days. Centraal is the easier one, being right beside the museum quarter.
Locker sizes and pricesNo, Amsterdam is the official capital, but The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, and royal family, which is why it's often called the political capital.
You can see the Binnenhof complex from the outside as part of a walking tour. Interior access depends on parliamentary session schedules and security, so check current visiting rules if you specifically want to go inside.
Yes, the Mauritshuis sits right next to the Binnenhof, so it combines naturally with a walking tour of the surrounding streets and squares.
