Kinderdijk
Nineteen eighteenth-century windmills along the polders, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most iconic postcard view of the Netherlands.
The city that reinvented itself.
18 museumsOn 14 May 1940 the centre of Rotterdam was destroyed by bombing. Instead of rebuilding the old city, Rotterdam chose something new. That is why it is the architecture city of the Netherlands today.
Cube Houses, the Erasmus Bridge, the Markthal: you walk from one icon to the next. Rotterdam is also a port city, the largest in Europe, and you see and feel it everywhere. The museums match that character: bold, big and innovative. From the mirrored Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen to Fenix, the museum about migration in an old harbour warehouse.
One day, four moments. How to get the most out of your visit.
Six places to complete your museum day.
Eat under a huge, colourful ceiling artwork, and across the street Piet Blom's tilted Cube Houses.
The world's first publicly accessible art depot. Look behind the scenes of a museum and end in the forest on the roof.
Walk over "The Swan" to Kop van Zuid, past Hotel New York, the former head office of the Holland America Line.
A museum about migration in a renovated harbour warehouse, with the spectacular Tornado staircase on the roof.
A piece of old Rotterdam that survived the bombing. The Pilgrim Fathers set sail from here in 1620.
The fastest and most fun way to get from one riverbank to the other.
Buy your tickets online and plan the rest of your day around them.
All museums in Rotterdam. Click a museum for the route.
Rotterdam sits between water, windmills and old towns. By waterbus or a short train ride you are there in no time.
Nineteen eighteenth-century windmills along the polders, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most iconic postcard view of the Netherlands.
The city of Vermeer and Delft Blue, with a market square between the city hall and the Nieuwe Kerk.
The oldest city in Holland, with harbours, wharves and grand merchants' houses.
Travel times are indicative. Live times on 9292.nl.
Rotterdam is the perfect base. By train you are in Delft or The Hague in no time, and the waterbus takes you to Kinderdijk and Dordrecht. Hotels for every budget, from design hotels on the Maas to the historic Hotel New York. Out and about by day, back in the city at night.
Restaurants, shops and hotels near the museums, picked for museum visitors.