The Hague City Canal Cruise

Bierkade quay and the southern city centre

Your cruise starts at the boat landing on the Bierkade, a tree-lined quay on the southern edge of the historic centre. In past centuries cargo boats unloaded peat, grain and building materials here, and the tall merchant houses facing the water still show the hoisting beams and wide doors of their trading days. Today the quay is calm and residential, a pleasant place to begin a boat trip away from the busy shopping streets.

If you are wondering how to get to the Bierkade, it is about ten minutes on foot from Den Haag HS railway station and a short tram ride from the city centre; the lively Chinatown streets around Wagenstraat are just around the corner. Please arrive fifteen minutes before the 12:00 departure so you can find a seat on the open boat, collect your bottle of water and settle in before the skipper casts off.

The historic ring canals of The Hague

Unlike most Dutch towns, The Hague never received city walls. Instead, in the early seventeenth century a ring of canals, known locally as the singels, was dug around the growing settlement to drain the marshy ground, mark its limits and offer some protection. Smaller canals branched inward, and for generations they were the main transport routes of the town, carrying vegetables, fish and fuel to the markets in the centre.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many inner canals were filled in to make room for streets and trams, which makes the surviving waterways all the more special. A boat trip through The Hague is the easiest way to see them as they were meant to be seen: from water level, gliding between quiet quays, leafy banks and the backs of old houses that stay hidden from the street.

Old bridges, locks and canal-side buildings

Much of the pleasure of this cruise comes from the details. The open boat slips under low arched bridges, some so close overhead that the guide will ask you to stay seated, and passes through a lock where the water level is adjusted between canal sections. Along the banks you see gabled merchant houses, former warehouses turned into apartments and elegant townhouses from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Your skipper steers while the live guide points out monumental buildings and explains how each district of the city grew. Photographers enjoy the reflections on calm days and the changing light on the brick facades. Because the boat is open, you get clear views and fresh air the whole way, which makes the cruise one of the most relaxing things to do in The Hague after a morning in the museums.

The story of The Hague told from the water

The live English commentary links what you see with the history of the city. The Hague began in the thirteenth century as a hunting lodge of the Counts of Holland beside a pond, the site that grew into the Binnenhof parliament complex. Although Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is the seat of the government and the parliament, and for centuries it proudly called itself the largest village in Europe.

Your guide also explains why The Hague is known as the international city of peace and justice, the base of international courts, organisations and many embassies. Is a canal cruise in The Hague worth it? For first-time visitors it is an ideal introduction: in about an hour and a half you understand the shape of the city, its main stories and what you want to visit next.

Making a day of it in central The Hague

The cruise leaves at midday, which keeps the morning and the afternoon open for the city centre. From the Bierkade it is a short tram ride to the Binnenhof and the Hofvijver pond, the Grote Markt square with its outdoor terraces, and the shopping streets around the Passage, an elegant covered arcade from the late nineteenth century.

The best time to visit The Hague for a canal trip is from late spring to early autumn, when the trees along the quays are green and the light is soft; on cooler days a warm jacket keeps the open boat comfortable. If you still have energy afterwards, Scheveningen beach is only a quick tram ride away for a breath of North Sea air before dinner.