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The Binnenhof seen across the Hofvijver — a long row of red-brick façades, slate roofs, turrets and spires reflected in the dark water under a sky of white clouds
Netherlands

The Hague: things to do

Sights, food and festivals, and the traps to skip
Checked 2026-09-29
Where to parkCar towed?
Photos: Vazgen / Unsplash
3 min read

Driving in? Where to park

Best parking bet

Park+Beach: €6.50 for 24 hours with a return tram to the beach for one person, €1 per extra person up to five, from central garages including Malieveld. On the street the centre and Scheveningen are €7.15 an hour. Free all year: P+R Mariahoeve, tram 6 into town.

Watch out

Since 1 April 2026, 22 streets charge by the minute on a rising scale: 20 minutes €7, an hour €25, 90 minutes €50. Seventeen are in the old centre around the Grote Kerk and the canals, five in Scheveningen. Check the street name before you tap start.

Parking in The Hague: the full guide →

First look

A seat of government with a beach at the end of the tram line

Parliament, ministries, embassies and the international courts sit here, and at the end of tram 1 is a North Sea beach. The Hague never had the old city rights its neighbours had; the Haags Gemeentearchief records that the States of Holland refused them, and that it took Louis Napoleon in 1806 to grant the rank of city.

What I notice is the space: wide avenues, trees, lawns like the Malieveld in the middle of town. It feels like a capital that forgot to get crowded.

Tourist traps

The Binnenhof you cannot see, and a summer kerb that fines on the spot

The Binnenhof, the parliament complex, has been under renovation since 2021, and the last Ridderzaal tour ran that autumn. The House sits temporarily on Bezuidenhoutseweg, and ProDemos runs a €7.50 tour there with photo ID required from 14. I would walk the Hofvijver pond for the view and skip planning a day around the inside.

The other trap is the beach kerb in summer. Scheveningen is tariff zone I at €7.15 an hour, the city runs extra checks there in summer and fines on the spot. Park+Beach is the answer.

Local pick

Five hundred stalls, four days a week

The Haagse Markt calls itself the largest open-air market in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe, with more than 500 stalls, on this site since 1938. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 09:00–17:00. I go on a Wednesday morning, eat standing up at the stalls, and buy fruit by the bowl.

Survival rule

Read the street name before you press start

Payment is by app: you enter the four-digit zone code shown on the machine and pay afterwards for the time used. On most central streets that is €7.15 an hour with a 120-minute maximum. On the 22 per-minute streets the same app quietly runs up to €50. The fine for not paying at all is €82 plus the tariff, so the €50 street is barely better than the fine. Check the street sign, then the app.

01 · Sights

A girl with an earring, and a painting you stand inside

Mauritshuis is €21, and Girl with a Pearl Earring is always on display unless on loan. Closed Monday mornings, open from 13:00.

Panorama Mesdag is €17.50: a circular painting of the Scheveningen dunes from 1881 that you view from a platform in the middle. It is the one thing here I send everyone to.

Escher in Het Paleis hangs Escher in the former winter palace of Queen Emma, Tuesday to Sunday 11:00–17:00.

The Peace Palace visitors centre is free, with an audio tour in ten languages; the palace itself is a working court.

Scheveningen pier and the Kurhaus behind it, built 1884–85, are the beach end of the tram line.

Open in Google Maps ↗

02 · Food

A baron's coffee, and the most tokos in the country

Haagse hopjes are the local sweet. The city history museum tells it straight: Baron Hendrik Hop liked coffee with sugar and cream, and in 1792 had the confectioner Theodorus van Haaren on the Lange Voorhout turn it into a sweet.

The Hague also has more Indonesian tokos than any other Dutch city, according to its tourist board, a legacy of families from the former Dutch East Indies. Toko Frederik and Garoeda are the names locals give; I would order a rijsttafel at one and a takeaway nasi at the other. In June comes the Hollandse Nieuwe, the new-season herring, eaten raw with onion at the harbour.

03 · Festivals

A king in a carriage, and a half marathon in March

NN CPC Loop, the half marathon, is on Sunday 14 March 2027. King's Day is 27 April. Prinsjesdag falls on the third Tuesday of September — 21 September 2027 — when the King rides through the centre to open the parliamentary year and the route closes. Vlaggetjesdag, the herring flag day in Scheveningen harbour, is in June; the 2027 date is not yet announced.

What's on

WhenWhat
14 March 2027NN CPC Loop, the city half marathon — expect closures on the course that Sunday
27 April 2027King's Day — a national holiday, with street markets across the city
21 September 2027 (the third Tuesday of September)Prinsjesdag, when the King opens the parliamentary year and rides through the centre in procession — expect the route to be closed
June 2027, date not yet announcedVlaggetjesdag in Scheveningen harbour, the flag day for the first Hollandse Nieuwe herring
04 · History

The morning the bombers missed

On 3 March 1945 British bombers aiming at V2 launch sites in the Haagse Bos dropped their bombs on the Bezuidenhout district instead. Haagse Tijden records about 500 dead and at least 4,500 homes and other buildings destroyed. It is one of the reasons that part of the city looks newer than the rest, and the reason I walk through it on the way to the station.

P

Prices, phone numbers and rules change. We check every page and date it, but always read the sign in front of you — the sign wins, not us.

Sources we checked

  1. Verordening parkeerregulering en parkeerbelasting Den Haag 2022, version from 1 January 2026: zone I €7.15, €10.75 from the third hour in designated areas, zone II €4.95, zone III €2.75
  2. New parking costs in the old centre and Scheveningen from 1 April 2026 — City of The Hague: 35 cents a minute, €50 over 90 minutes, the 22 streets
  3. Maps and parking costs — City of The Hague
  4. Aanwijzingsbesluit betaald parkeren en toepassing wielklem 2026 — paid hours per street, 120-minute maximum
  5. Parking rules in Scheveningen and Duindorp — City of The Hague: extra summer checks, fines on the spot
  6. Mobile payment for parking — City of The Hague: via a provider, four-digit zone code
  7. Parking fine — City of The Hague: €82 plus the tariff, within 17 days
  8. Towing vehicles — City of The Hague: Wegsleepbedrijf Nexus, Spiegelstraat 8, Nootdorp, 08:00–24:00, €306 then €25 a day, auction after 16 days
  9. Wheel clamp — City of The Hague: €306, towed if unpaid after 24 hours
  10. Smart parking: park and ride — City of The Hague: Mariahoeve free, De Uithof free, Victory Boogie Woogie, Ypenburg, Leidschenveen
  11. Park+Beach — HTM: €6.50 for 24 hours with one traveller, €1 per extra person, the garages and 2026 dates
  12. Park+Beach — City of The Hague: quoted at €7.50
  13. Charging points for electric cars — City of The Hague: €0.41 per kWh including VAT, paid parking applies, only while charging
  14. Applications for public chargers stop — City of The Hague, 1 July 2026, grid congestion
  15. Milieuzone for diesel cars — City of The Hague: below emission class 4, inside the Centrumring
  16. Museumkwartier — Interparking: €2.10 per 20 minutes, €45 per 24 hours, height 2.1 m, 321 spaces, 57 EV points
  17. Helicon — Interparking: €2.80 per 30 minutes, €35 per 24 hours, height 1.95 m, 226 spaces
  18. WTC The Hague — Interparking: €2.50 per 30 minutes, €1.50 evenings and weekends, €50 per 24 hours, 925 spaces, 94 EV points
  19. Boulevard Scheveningen — Interparking: €2.00 per 20 minutes, €38 per 24 hours, height 2.05 m, 686 spaces
  20. Q-Park garages in The Hague: Malieveld, Koningskade 64, 600 spaces, height 2.00 m
  21. Parking — Fletcher Hotel-Restaurant Scheveningen: own spaces €27.50 from 13:00 to 13:00
  22. FAQ — Mauritshuis: €21.00, open daily except Monday mornings, Girl with a Pearl Earring always on display unless on loan; parking advice
  23. Visit — Panorama Mesdag, Zeestraat 65: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–17:00
  24. Tariffs — Panorama Mesdag: adults €17.50
  25. Escher in Het Paleis — Lange Voorhout 74, the former winter palace of Queen Emma
  26. Visitors centre — Peace Palace: free entry, audio tour in ten languages
  27. Renovation of the Binnenhof and the temporary move of the House of Representatives — Tweede Kamer: Bezuidenhoutseweg 67
  28. Tour of the House of Representatives — ProDemos: €7.50, ID from age 14
  29. Opening hours — De Haagse Markt: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 09:00–17:00, the largest open-air market in the Netherlands
  30. Haagse hopjes — Haags Historisch Museum: Baron Hendrik Hop, Theodorus van Haaren, 1792
  31. The best Indonesian restaurants and tokos according to locals — The Hague tourist board: The Hague has the most tokos in the Netherlands
  32. City or village — Haags Gemeentearchief: the States refused city status; Louis Napoleon granted it in 1806
  33. The Bezuidenhout bombing, 3 March 1945 — Haagse Tijden: about 500 dead, at least 4,500 homes and buildings destroyed
  34. NN CPC Loop Den Haag: Sunday 14 March 2027