Rotterdam is the largest port in the world, the second city and the industrial heart of the Netherlands and the economic, social and cultural centre of the Rijnmond (‘Rhine Estuary’) region. In addition, Rotterdam is a city of modern architecture, events, leisure and recreation.This city that is so unlike Holland's other cities.
It is a city with outstanding architecture and delightful culture; an abundance of attractions, festivals and museums. A swinging, young city culture and excellent shopping facilities, restaurants and cafes. Whatever your interests are, whatever you want to do, Rotterdam is sure to pleasantly surprise you!
Cultural life is vibrant in Rotterdam. There is a broad selection of museums in Rotterdam. From modern art to historical treasures, from architecture to photography, from historical ships to exotic animals - just about anything you can imagine is displayed in a museum in the city.
Places to See...
Wereldmuseum Rotterdam:
The World Arts Museum centres around encounters and cross-cultural inspiration. The museum stimulates and surprises its visitors with contemporary and historical cultures from both far and near, through unusual exhibitions and events.
Note: this museum is closed for renovation until August 2008.
Kunsthal Rotterdam:
An exhibition hall that houses some 25 expositions annually. The Kunsthal displays culture in the broadest sense of the word: traditional art, new art, design and photography.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen:
The museum, founded in 1849, houses a rich, broad collection that can be generally grouped into four wings: Old Art, with masterpieces such as Breughel’s Tower of Babel. The collection of prints and drawings and the collection of Applied Arts and Design with their international allure. And the Modern Art wing has an important collection of Surrealism, mostly featuring Margritte and Dali.
Euromast & Euroscoop:
The Euromast in Rotterdam is the highest lookout tower in the Netherlands.
The new high-speed automatic elevators take you up to the platforms, which are an experience all on their own. Then take the Space Cabin to experience the sensation of a rocket launch, slowly spinning in orbit up to a height of 185 meters.
Pannenkoekenboot / Pancake Boat:
Take a pleasant sail along the Rotterdam harbour while enjoying delicious pancakes. In a relaxed setting you can eat as many pancakes as you want. Plain, apple and bacon pancakes are on the menu and there are all sorts of foods available for garnishing your pancakes, including cheese, ham, fruit, jam and chocolate sprinkles. Reservations are recommended for this day trip.
Netherlands Architecture Institute:
The Netherlands Architecture Institute is more than just a museum. The NAi owns one of the world’s largest architectural collections, offers educational programmes and has its own library and study hall. There is a bookshop with an extensive selection of books on architecture and a cosy museum café.
Eating out:
Rotterdam is a city of many flavours. From Dutch and French cuisine to Chinese, Moroccan and Turkish you can find it here in Rotterdam. There are many reasonably prized restaurants but the city also offers luxurious dinner venues if you are willing to spend up big.
Nightlife:
Rotterdam is the 'Clubbing city' of the Netherlands. It is a title that Rotterdam has won for itself by the massive growth of the number of cafés, restaurants, clubs and discotheques over the last twenty years. Rotterdam is full of nightclubs. The famous locations for parties include club Maassilo, and the trendy in-crowd go to clubs like Off_Corso and Herr Zimmerman.
Getting Here: Rotterdam can be reached in a variety of ways: by car, boat, train, bus and by air. At Rotterdam Airport, flights regularly land from the major cities of neighbouring countries. Inside the city, a network of buses, trams, water taxis and metro offer excellent access.
By Air:
Rotterdam Airport is a relatively small airport located just north of the city and mainly operated by low-cost carriers and some charter flights. Transavia fly between Rotterdam and London Stansted, Geneva, Hamburg, Nice, Faro, Rome and a few other smaller destinations.
Bus number 33 travels from the airport to Central Station, leaving every 10 minutes, with a journey time of 20 minutes.
By Rail:
Rotterdam’s Central Station is one of the major points on the Dutch railway network and services to here are good. The journey from Amsterdam takes about 1 hour and there are regular trains (around six each hour) throughout the day. There are a similar number of services from The Hague (15 minutes) and Utrecht (45 minutes).
There are also good connections internationally to Rotterdam, with regular services from Belgium and France. The journey from Brussels is around 2 hours and from Paris about 3 hours on the Thalys high-speed service.
By Bus:
From Amsterdam, there is a direct shuttle bus between Rotterdam Airport and Amsterdam Central Station. Travel time is about 70 minutes, with tickets being purchased from the driver on the bus.
Rotterdam is on the Eurolines coach route, with coaches stopping at Kruisplein, in front of Central Station. There are two services a day to and from London with a journey time of 9 hours.
By Ferry:
Rotterdam is accessible by ferry from the UK ports of Harwich and Hull. Services here are operated by P&O and Stena Line. From Hull, the service is operated by P&O, with one service leaving at 21:00 every day, with a journey time of 11 hours. From Harwich, Stena Line operate four services a day and travel times range from 5 to 8 hours according to the type of vessel; the 10:40 and 19:20 crossings are the quickest.
By Car:
Rotterdam has excellent road links in all directions. From Amsterdam, the 50-mile journey should take around 1 hour; take the A4 to The Hague and then connect with the A13 to Rotterdam. Utrecht is marginally closer than Amsterdam; if coming from here, take the A12 and connect with the A20 for Rotterdam, just after Gouda. From Eindhoven, take the A2 and A58 towards Tilburg and then the A16 will connect to the A20 just outside Rotterdam.
Note: If you are driving from Rotterdam to Amsterdam take careful note of the ringroad exit otherwise it is a round trip of half an hour to start again!
Photo courtesy of Rotterdam Tourism
