51.92° N · 4.48° E
Architecture you will not see in any other European city, Europe's biggest port by boat and the WaterShuttle to the Kinderdijk windmills. About 40 minutes from Amsterdam.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Market · 1 h · A covered market under an arch of apartments with a ceiling painted with giant fruit. Free entry; open every day.
Boat · 1 h 15 · The Maas, the quays and De Hef from the Erasmus Bridge, with audio guide. €18.75 adults, €10.55 children; all year.
Visit · 45 min · Piet Blom's tilted houses, with one of them furnished for visitors. €3.50; €1.50 for children up to 12; open daily.
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
All year round: it is a city of museums, architecture and a covered market. From March to October the harbour boats leave every 45 minutes and the WaterShuttle to Kinderdijk sails daily; in winter, fewer departures.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Rotterdam has its own airport, Rotterdam The Hague, with direct flights from Barcelona, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia, Seville and the Canary Islands depending on the season, a few kilometres from the centre. From Madrid and the rest of Spain the usual route is to fly to Amsterdam Schiphol and take the Intercity Direct from the same airport, which reaches Rotterdam Centraal in under half an hour. You don't need a car.
Rotterdam is a big city, but it is easy to get around without a car: the centre around the Markthal and the cube houses can be done on foot, the metro and tram go everywhere, and by boat you reach the port and Kinderdijk. The budget per person per day includes accommodation, food and one activity.
Rotterdam's luxury is not marble but harbour history: sleeping in the headquarters of the shipping line that carried emigrants to America or in a customs house with whirlpool-bath suites. From both, the river is right in front. The budget per person per day includes hotel, meals and activities.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Children like Rotterdam more than you might expect: houses that look as if they are falling over, a market with giant painted fruit on the ceiling, a boat among the cranes and a tower with a rotating cabin. And the Kinderdijk windmills are half an hour away by boat.
With young children, Rotterdam works in short stretches: the market, the cube house, the boat and the tower, with the metro or tram in between.
Rotterdam is probably the Dutch city that most impresses a teenager: skyscrapers, strange architecture and a museum that is a mirrored warehouse. They can easily get around on their own by metro and tram.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: 72 rooms in the former Holland America Line headquarters, at the tip of the Wilhelminapier, with towers turned into rooms and views over the Maas.
Why we like it: A hostel inside Piet Blom's cube houses, with private rooms, a cube studio, a bar and a terrace beside the Oude Haven. Opposite the Markthal.
Why we like it: Small hotel in a former customs house in Kop van Zuid, with wellness suites, parking and the water taxi stop at the door. Green Key Gold since 2010.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: fish or seafood of the day at midday; or the breakfast buffet if you are staying nearby.
What to order: the bal, the meatball that gives the place its name, with bread or chips.
Takeaway and markets
Map
The places to stay and services on the map are the ones for the way you travel. Turn on the layers you want and tap a point to see its details.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
Tips
It is the fastest train from Amsterdam, with a small supplement.
From November to March, Spido leaves at 14:00 on weekdays and four times a day from Thursday to Sunday.
It is not sold at the door. Closed on Mondays.
The WaterShuttle leaves from the Erasmus Bridge; in winter, only from Friday to Sunday.
Rotterdam was bombed in May 1940 and lost almost all of its historic centre. Instead of rebuilding it as it was, it decided to do something different, and today it is the most interesting contemporary-architecture city in the Netherlands: a covered market shaped like a giant arch, tilted cube-shaped houses, a white bridge everyone calls the Swan and a museum storage depot covered in mirrors. And beneath it all, the river Maas and the biggest port in Europe, best seen from a boat. It is the perfect counterpoint to Amsterdam: if everything there is 17th century, here everything is 21st.
By train. The Intercity Direct, the fast train on the high-speed line, takes about 40 minutes from Amsterdam Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal and calls at Schiphol; it carries a small supplement on top of the normal ticket. The regular intercity trains, via Leiden and The Hague, take a little over an hour and carry no supplement. The central station is a building worth seeing in itself, and from it you reach the centre on foot in ten minutes or any district by metro and tram. By car it is about 75 kilometres, but the train is faster than the traffic into the city.
Start at the Markthal, the covered market under an arch of homes with a ceiling painted with giant fruit and vegetables, and cross the street to the cube houses by Piet Blom: one of them, the Kijk-Kubus, can be visited inside. Then go down by the Oude Haven to the Willemsplein, at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge, and board the Spido harbour tour, an hour and a quarter among cranes, docks and ocean liners.
In the afternoon, cross the Erasmus Bridge on foot to Kop van Zuid, the skyscraper district of the old port, and have a drink at the Hotel New York, the former headquarters of the shipping line that carried emigrants to America. If you like art, go to the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, the first museum storage depot open to the public, with a rooftop viewpoint; if you want the view from above, go to the Euromast, at 112 metres. Finish in Delfshaven, the only old corner that survived the war.
They are half an hour away by boat. The WaterShuttle leaves from the Erasmus Bridge and drops you at the entrance to Kinderdijk, the 19 windmills of the 18th century declared a World Heritage Site. In summer it sails daily; in winter, from Friday to Sunday. There is a combined ticket with admission to the windmills. It is the best way to do both in one day: Kinderdijk in the morning, Rotterdam in the afternoon.
Yes, and it is cheaper than Amsterdam. You can sleep in one of the cube houses, which houses a hostel with private rooms; at the Hotel New York, with rooms in the green towers of the old shipping line, or at the Pincoffs, a small hotel in a former customs house. From Rotterdam, The Hague and Delft are 15–30 minutes away by train and Kinderdijk half an hour by boat.
Any month. Rotterdam lives on interiors (the Markthal, the Depot, the museums) and does not suffer from rain the way a canal village does. From late March to October the Spido boats leave every 45 minutes and the WaterShuttle sails every day; from November to March there are fewer departures, so check the timetables. The Depot is closed on Mondays.
Questions
About 40 minutes on the Intercity Direct, with a supplement, and a little over an hour on the intercity trains that stop at Leiden and The Hague.
The Markthal, the cube houses, the harbour boat trip, the Erasmus Bridge with the Hotel New York, the Euromast or the Depot Boijmans, and Delfshaven at the end of the day.
On the WaterShuttle from the Erasmus Bridge, about 30 minutes, or on bus 489 from Kralingse Zoom metro station, about 35 minutes.
Yes, in the Kijk-Kubus, a furnished museum house, open every day from 10:00 to 18:00 for €3.50.
The Spido trip lasts 75 minutes and costs €18.75 for adults and €10.55 for children.
Yes: it is cheaper than Amsterdam and 15–30 minutes from The Hague, Delft and Kinderdijk.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/the-netherlands/rotterdam
