I'll be staying in The Hague for 10 days for work. I anticipate being occupied from 9am to 6pm. Can you recommend some things to do in the evenings in The Hague, Rotterdam, Delft, or any other relatively nearby community? Music, bars, art, ambience...with 10 days I figure I can try it all

I figure I'll head to Amsterdam on the weekends.

The Hague is not exactly a hopping centre of night life. As you would expect from a city filled with politicians, jurists and dipolmats. Though you can certainly feel the money in the city.

I spent a long weekend in The Hague last year. It is mostly a pretty little city and is very walkable. The view of the Binnenhof buildings at night reflecting in the "Court Pond". Then strolling through the "Het Plein", "Grote Markt" and the "Buitenhof". Lots of little cafe's and bars will be found

If you stay there at all over the weekend then a wander round the Van Meers etc at the Mauritshuis or a walk along the nearby beach at Scheveningen

http://www.mauritshuis.nl/

Delft was the home town of Johannes Vermeer - a painter in the 17th century. He is justly fabled for his ability to capture natural lighting and colours. One of his paintings - Girl with a Pearl Earring - spawned a novel of the same title and subsequently a Hollywood movie.

http://www.vermeerdelft.nl/195.pp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer


Rotterdam is home to the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. They're pretty good but a little less famous than their cousins at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

http://www.rpho.nl/index.php?id=59


The Hague of course is the seat of many international organizations, particularly those to do with justice. Not sure what tours they have of the Peace Palace but I'm sure it's worth a visit.

There are a lot of Irish Pubs in The hague which I always like, for clubbing you don't want to go to the Hague, Rotterdam is the place to be.

For diner I would recommend "De zwarte Ruiter" but then again, I don't know what you like.

I used to work in the Hague for 2 years and I live in Rotterdam, if you need additional info please let met know.

Regards,

Decent casino in The Hague. Pales by Vegas standards but not bad by EU standards.

but The Hague is awful! So bad in fact that my day trip from Amsterdam turned into a 1 hour walk and then back on the train. Probably my least favorite city in all of Europe. I would never go back there again. I live in DC and we have diplomats, politicians, you name it...but still there is a lot of culture and things to do. The Hague fails by comparison. Just a drag of a town. Go to AMS as often as you can. Though, I must say, you should go to BRU. It's not a bad city. A day there is really cool. Get mussels, beer, and fries. What more can you ask for?

museums close at 5 so that';s not a good option except for the weekend. If you do have a chacne I highly recommend the gemeentemuseum (world class modern art - lots of mondriaan and escher), mesdag panorama museum (an impressive panorama painting from one of the hague's most famous painters - few similar panorama paintings still exist int the world), and the mauritshuis museum (old Dutch masters).

One day a week shops are open late (sho[pping is very good actually).

I would check the torusit informaton site for more particulars (called VVV Den Haag).

Don't miss the MC Escher museum:
http://www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/

Don't understand the poster who calls The Hague the worst city in Europe. The Binnenhof / Lange Voorhout area is quite pretty, there are decent bars, a couple of beaches (Scheveningen, Kijkduin, Wassenaar) nearby, good museums (Mauritshuis, Gemeentemuseum, MC Escher), etc.

In Holland they say: Work in Rotterdam, live in the Hague, play in Amsterdam.

First time traveler to Amsterdam and Holland.

We will be spending one night in the Hague next month. My plan is to head straight from AMS (we arrive around 2:00pm) by train. My understanding is we will need to take the airport train to Centrall station (about 3 Euros/ow) then purchase a seperate ticket to the Hague (IIRC 18 Euros/RT)

I need your help deciding how feasible/practical my plans are for this trip. Assuming all goes well with the flight I imagine we will arrive around 5:00pm and then have the entire evening in the Hague.

My concern is we will be arriving on a Friday night and plan to spend all day Saturday and would like to visit the Internaional Criminal Court and Dutch Parliament (Eerste Kamer). We will then spend two days in Amsterdam and return to the US on an 8:00am flight on Monday. I intend to stay in the same hotel in Amsterdam for two nights and take the airport express train Monday morning. Does this seem doable? All advice appreciated.

No need to go into Amsterdam Centraal, the trains to Den Haag stop at Schiphol and make one additional stop at Leiden Centraal.

There are several other threads here about buying train tickets at Schiphol that may be useful. Price for a return ticket Schiphol-Den Haag in 2nd class is EU14.40 and a one-way ticket is EU7.40. You will pay a small surcharge if you buy your ticket from an agent. No need to worry about buying in advance on this route, it is all open seating and you just get on the first train that appears.

Direct trains run about every 30 minutes at peak times and the trip takes 34 minutes. There are also intermediate trains where you need to transfer at Leiden, which is an easy transfer, but hardly worth the effort for a first-timer given the frequency of the direct trains.

If your flight is on time and things go well you should be at Den Haag well before 5:00pm. The optimistic train would be at 2:28, but a more likely option is the 2:58, which gets you into Den Haag at 3:32.