Things to do in Utrecht
Utrecht has the tallest church tower in the country, a canal built on two levels, and about a quarter of Amsterdam's crowds. It is forty-five minutes from Amsterdam and it is the easiest good day out in the Netherlands.
- About 45 minutes ab Amsterdam
The city Amsterdam was, before Amsterdam
For most of the Middle Ages Utrecht was the biggest and most important city in the northern Netherlands. It was the religious capital, the Dom was the country’s cathedral, and Amsterdam was a fishing settlement on a dam. The balance shifted in the seventeenth century and never shifted back, which is lucky for anyone visiting now: Utrecht kept the medieval street plan and lost the crowds.
The canal is the thing
The Oudegracht is worth understanding before you see it, because it is not another pretty canal. It runs about a storey below street level, and along both banks there is a stone wharf at the height of the water with brick cellars vaulted back underneath the houses above.
That was a working arrangement — a boat pulled up, goods went straight into the cellar of the merchant who owned the house. It survives more or less intact, and today those cellars are cafes and the wharf is a terrace. You end up eating with the water at your elbow and the traffic somewhere above your head.
Planning the day
The Dom, the Oudegracht, Museum Speelklok and the Centraal Museum are all inside a fifteen-minute walk of each other, so the centre needs no transport at all. The two things that do are the Rietveld Schröder House, on the eastern edge, and Kasteel de Haar, twenty minutes west.
If you only have half a day, stay in the centre. If you have a full one, the castle is the better addition — it is the sort of building the Netherlands otherwise does not have.
Was Sie sehen sollten
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The Dom Tower
At 112 metres it is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, and it stands alone — the nave that once joined it to the cathedral was brought down by a storm in 1674 and never rebuilt. You can still see where the church was, marked out in the square between the two halves.
Tipp vom Fahrer: The climb is by guided tour and it is steep. If anyone in the group is unsure about it, the view from the cathedral cloister garden costs nothing and is quietly one of the best corners in the city.
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The wharf cellars on the Oudegracht
Utrecht's main canal runs at two levels: the street above, and a stone wharf at the waterline with vaulted cellars cut back under the houses. They were built to unload boats straight into storage. Now they are cafes and restaurant terraces at water level, which exists nowhere else in the country.
Tipp vom Fahrer: Eat down on the wharf rather than up on the street. Same canal, completely different afternoon, and usually the same money.
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Museum Speelklok
Self-playing musical instruments in a former church — musical clocks, fairground organs, street organs, an orchestrion the size of a wall. The guides start them up as you go round, so it is an hour of being played at rather than looked at.
Tipp vom Fahrer: Better with children than almost anything else in the city, and rather better with adults than they expect.
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The Rietveld Schröder House
Gerrit Rietveld's 1924 house on the edge of the centre: red, blue and yellow planes, sliding walls that turn the upper floor from one room into four. It is on the UNESCO list and it is the clearest thing De Stijl ever built.
Tipp vom Fahrer: Book well ahead. Visits run in small timed groups because it is a real house, and turning up on the day does not work.
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Kasteel de Haar
The largest castle in the Netherlands, twenty minutes west of the city — a ruin that Pierre Cuypers rebuilt around 1900 into something closer to a fantasy of a castle than a surviving one, with a park and formal gardens around it.
Tipp vom Fahrer: The park is the underrated half. Even if the interior is closed, the grounds are worth the drive.
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The Centraal Museum and nijntje
The city museum holds the Rietveld collection and the archaeology, and directly opposite is the small museum for nijntje — Miffy — whose creator Dick Bruna lived and worked in Utrecht his whole life.
Tipp vom Fahrer: The nijntje museum is built for under-sixes and makes no apology for it. If that is your group, it is the best thing on this page.
Wo liegt das?
Anreise ab Schiphol
Flughafen Schiphol Utrecht Ab € 80Häufige Fragen
Is Utrecht worth a day trip from Amsterdam?
It is the shortest good day trip from Amsterdam — about forty-five minutes each way — and the centre is small enough to see properly on foot in an afternoon. It is also a working Dutch city rather than a tourist one, which is the main reason to go.
How is Utrecht different from Amsterdam?
Older, smaller and much less busy. The canals are the biggest visible difference: Amsterdam's sit level with the street, Utrecht's run a storey below it with wharves and cellars at the waterline.
How long do I need in Utrecht?
Half a day covers the Dom, the Oudegracht and one museum. A full day lets you add Kasteel de Haar, which is twenty minutes outside the city and needs a car to be worth doing.
Can you drive us to Utrecht?
We run a fixed-price transfer between Schiphol and Utrecht, shown below, and we quote the towns around Utrecht on request. For anything else, message us on WhatsApp and we will tell you the price before you commit to anything.