"Scheveningen - the Netherland's most famous beach" Scheveningen by Airpunk

Scheveningen is a popular and well-known tourist destination. Its beach is most probably the most famous in the country and can become very crowded in summer. OK, its not the Caribbean, but still nice! This part of The Hague is only 20 minutes away from the city center (by tram) and offers you a good chance to escape the busy cities of Zuid-Holland. The most important place to see is the Kurhuis, but there are also other places worth a visit. You can also expect some larger festivals at the beach from time to time.

A popular fact about Scheveningen is its hard pronunciation. In the second world war, the word “Scheveningen” was used to distinguish the dutch population from german soldiers who gave themselves out as dutch. The germans weren’t able to pronounce the name properly. So don’t try to pronounce out the name unless you are trying to learn dutch or want to make other epople think that you are a german soldier…

When I was making travel plans for the Netherlands in 2005, scheveningen was on my list. I was in Rotterdam for five days and one of them was planned for Scheveningen. However, I needed a day with good weather to enjoy some time at the beach and these were very seldom in early August of 2005. I asked the staff of my Rotterdam hostel, if they knew about the weather forecast for the first day. But the guy didn’t believe in the forecast from radio and TV and so he looked out of the window and told me that we were going to have a beautiful day, although air humidity was quite high. That guy should become a meteorologist – hew as right! I arrived around 10:00 a.m. in Scheveningen and the weather was still a little cold. I spent some time at the pier, looking into the wide open sea and writing a couple of postcards for my friends and colleagues in Germany. Afterwards, I started to walk along the beach. The air became warmer and warmer and I finally looked for a place to catch some sleep. Fortunately, the beach was not so crowded (thanks to the cold and foggy morning :) ) so that I enjoyed some hours of sleeping, reading and listening to some music. I kept on walking afterwards and started to look for something to eat. There were many restaurants along the beach boulevard and I really enjoyed the smell of grilled fish and exotic food. However, it was quite expensive and I finally ended up eating a burger :(. At least, I tried a typical dutch haring with onions afterwards – heerlijk.

After a day at the beach, I went to Madurodam in The Hague. I didn’t take the tram as I love to walk and so I went through some streets and a big park. Madurodam, a park with miniature buildings and monuments from the whole country was nice to see (see my travel tips in The Hague). Anyway, I went back to the beach afterwards, so I spent some more hours in Scheveningen. When I was back in Rotterdam, it was quite late.

Scheveningen is a nice place to relax and is quite near to other attractions as well as to the city center of The Hague. You just should be aware that pirces can be quite high. I will return to the Netherlands next year and probably I will need a day to relax. In this case, Scheveningen will be among my choices.

• Pros:nice beach, many facilities, good restaurants, near to The Hague
• Cons:expensive!