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Number 20 of 20 in Amsterdam

Haarlem: the quiet sister of Amsterdam

Haarlem was a city before Amsterdam was, and while Amsterdam grew rich it stayed small and kept its old centre almost whole. It is a quarter of an hour away by train, and it feels like another century.

What it is
Day trip
Time to allow
A full day
Cost
Train, tickets for the museums
Best time
A Saturday, for the market on the Grote Markt

Amsterdam this week

    Why Haarlem is worth it

    Haarlem was given its town rights in 1245. It lies on the river Spaarne, about twenty kilometres west of Amsterdam, near the dunes and the sea, and is the capital of the province of North Holland.

    As Amsterdam took its trade in the Golden Age, Haarlem became a quieter place, and many of its medieval buildings survived. It was also a town of painters: Frans Hals worked here all his life, and so did Judith Leyster and, as a young man, Jacob van Ruisdael.

    The Frans Hals Museum, founded in 1862, is in the old men's almshouse of 1609, a court of small houses round a garden. Hals painted the almshouse's regents in 1664, in his eighties, and the portraits hang in the museum today.

    What to see

    1. The Frans Hals Museum

      More than a dozen paintings by Hals, among them his great militia banquets and the regents of the almshouse, in rooms round a garden courtyard.

    2. The Grote Markt

      One of the finest market squares in the country, with the old town hall on one side and the great church on the other.

    3. St Bavo's Church

      The Grote Kerk, with its organ of 1738, which the ten-year-old Mozart played in 1766. Frans Hals is buried in the church.

    4. Teylers Museum

      The oldest museum in the Netherlands, opened in 1784: fossils, scientific instruments and drawings by Michelangelo and Rembrandt, in its original oval room.

    5. Molen De Adriaan

      The windmill on the bank of the Spaarne, a few minutes' walk from the Grote Markt.

    How to do it well

    • Trains from Amsterdam Centraal to Haarlem run often and take about a quarter of an hour. The town centre is ten minutes on foot from the station.
    • The Saturday market fills the Grote Markt.
    • The Frans Hals Museum and Teylers are each worth a couple of hours. Choose one if your time is short.
    • The beach at Zandvoort is a short train ride further on.

    Where it is

    Address

    Haarlem, on the Spaarne, about twenty kilometres west of Amsterdam

    Nearest station

    Train from Amsterdam Centraal to Haarlem station

    Tickets and tours: Haarlem

    Haarlem: common questions

    How do you get from Amsterdam to Haarlem?
    By train from Amsterdam Centraal, about a quarter of an hour. Trains run often through the day, and the centre is a short walk from Haarlem station.
    Is Haarlem worth a day trip from Amsterdam?
    Yes. It has the Frans Hals Museum, Teylers Museum, St Bavo's church on one of the country's finest squares, and an old centre that is calmer than Amsterdam's.
    Where can you see Frans Hals's paintings?
    In the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, which has more than a dozen of them, and in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
    How much time do you need for Haarlem?
    Allow a full day. That is this site's estimate for an unhurried visit.

    What visitors say about Haarlem

    Rating from Google

    4.5

    3,402 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 19 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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