Things to do in Haarlem
Haarlem has a medieval market square, the oldest museum in the Netherlands and the largest collection of Frans Hals in the world, all in a centre you can walk across. It is twenty minutes from Amsterdam and a good deal calmer.
- About twenty minutes from Amsterdam
Getting your bearings
Haarlem is built round one square. The Grote Markt is ringed by St Bavo’s, the town hall and the old meat hall, and almost everything on this page lies within a quarter of an hour’s walk of it: Teylers Museum and the Spaarne river just to the east, the Frans Hals Museum to the south, the hofjes down the side streets in between. The town itself needs no transport at all. On Mondays and Saturdays the square is a market, with cheese, flowers, bread and clothes, so come then for the noise and on any other day for a clear view of the church.
If you have a morning, do the square and the church, then the Frans Hals Museum, and walk back through the hofjes for lunch. If you have the afternoon as well, add Teylers and the river. The one thing that needs planning in advance is the Corrie ten Boom House, which takes visitors only on booked tours.
The painters’ town
In the seventeenth century Haarlem was where painters came from. Judith Leyster was born here, Jacob van Ruisdael learned his trade here before moving on to Amsterdam, and Frans Hals spent most of his life here painting the people who ran the place: the officers of the civic guards, and the regents and regentesses of the almshouses. Many of those almshouses survive as hofjes, and the Hals museum is in one of them.
Hals died in 1666 and was buried in St Bavo’s, in the grave of his first wife’s grandfather. He did not get a gravestone of his own until 1962, by which time painters from Manet to Van Gogh had long since made a hero of him. The town has also been Amsterdam’s easy day out since 1839, when the first railway in the Netherlands opened between the two, and Harlem in New York is named after it.
Pairing it with something else
Haarlem is one of the closest towns to Amsterdam, about twenty minutes by road, so it works as half a day with room for a second stop: the North Sea at Zandvoort, the bulb fields of the Bollenstreek in spring, or Zaanse Schans a short drive to the north-east. We are based in Amsterdam and run day trips and fixed-price transfers. Message us on WhatsApp with what you have in mind and we will tell you the price before you commit.
What to see
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The Frans Hals Museum
The largest collection of Frans Hals anywhere, hung in a seventeenth-century almshouse for old men on Groot Heiligland. It has his civic guard portraits and the two group portraits of the almshouse's regents and regentesses that he painted in 1664, in his eighties. Manet came to Haarlem in 1872 and copied the regentesses.
Driver’s tip: The paintings are in the old almshouse on Groot Heiligland, about ten minutes' walk from the Grote Markt. Stand close to the 1664 portraits, then step back across the room: up close the faces are a few loose strokes, and from a distance they snap into focus.
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The Grote Markt and St Bavo's
The medieval market square, ringed by the Gothic Grote Kerk (St Bavo's), the town hall and the Renaissance Vleeshal, the old meat hall. The statue on the square is Laurens Janszoon Coster, whom Haarlem credits with inventing printing, a title most of the world gives to Gutenberg. Inside the church are the grave of Frans Hals and the Müller organ of 1738, which Mozart played in 1766 at the age of ten.
Driver’s tip: There are two St Bavos in Haarlem. This is the medieval church on the square; the domed Catholic cathedral of the same name is on the Leidsevaart, a quarter of an hour's walk away. Be clear which one you mean when you give anyone an address.
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Teylers Museum
The oldest museum in the Netherlands, founded under the will of the banker Pieter Teyler in 1778 and open to the public since 1784. It still shows fossils, minerals, scientific instruments and art together, as the Enlightenment liked to, and its Oval Room of 1784 is the centrepiece. Martin van Marum's electrostatic generator, in its day the largest in the world, is on show with the other instruments.
Driver’s tip: Go for the Oval Room and the instruments, which are why the museum exists. Michelangelo, Raphael and Rembrandt are all in the drawings collection, but only a selection is on show at any time, so do not plan around a particular sheet. Parts of the building close from time to time for restoration, so check what is open.
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De Adriaan windmill
A windmill on the Spaarne, built on the foundations of a medieval defence tower. It burned down in 1932 and was rebuilt, reopening in 2002, seventy years to the day after the fire. It is now a small museum of the mill and the river.
Driver’s tip: Check its opening times before you walk over; it is a small museum, not an all-day attraction. From outside it is the landmark on the Spaarne skyline, and the Amsterdamse Poort, built in 1355 and the only one of the city's twelve medieval gates still standing, is a short walk away.
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The hofjes
Haarlem has around twenty hofjes: almshouse courtyards built round a garden behind a gate, where wealthy citizens housed the poor, mostly elderly women. The Hofje van Bakenes, founded in 1395, is the oldest in the Netherlands, and the Frans Hals Museum itself is a converted one.
Driver’s tip: These are still people's homes. Go in only through a gate that is open, keep your voice down and keep the camera off the windows and doors. Hofje van Bakenes, Hofje van Oorschot and the Teylers Hofje are all within ten minutes' walk of the Grote Markt.
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The Corrie ten Boom House
The ten Boom family's watch shop and home, where they hid Jews and resistance workers during the German occupation, in a narrow space behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom, until they were betrayed in 1944. Corrie survived the camps and told the story in The Hiding Place.
Driver’s tip: It can only be visited on a guided tour, which is free and limited to small groups, and the museum itself recommends booking online several months ahead. Do not turn up and hope. It is two minutes from the Grote Markt.
Where is it?
Frequently asked questions
Is Haarlem worth a day trip from Amsterdam?
Yes, if you would rather see an old Dutch town than another big city. It is about twenty minutes away by road, the centre is compact enough to cover on foot, and it has a major museum, a medieval square and the hofjes without needing much planning. It also pairs well with the coast or the bulb fields.
How long do I need in Haarlem?
Half a day covers the Grote Markt, one museum and the Spaarne. A full day adds a second museum, the hofjes and, if you have booked it, the Corrie ten Boom House. Everything on this page is within about a quarter of an hour on foot of the Grote Markt.
Is Haarlem near the beach and the tulip fields?
On both counts, yes. The North Sea beach at Zandvoort is a short drive west, and Haarlem sits at the northern end of the Bollenstreek, the bulb-growing belt that runs down to Leiden and includes Keukenhof. In spring the two combine well in a day.
Can you drive us to Haarlem?
Yes. We are based in Amsterdam and drive anywhere in the Netherlands, and Haarlem is only about twenty minutes away. Message us on WhatsApp with what you have in mind and we will tell you the price before you commit to anything.