Getting Around The Hague
The Hague is the administrative heart of the Netherlands and the core of a large urban area on the North Sea coast, with the seaside resort of Scheveningen among its coastal districts. For a visitor, the city is compact enough to explore on foot in the centre, while a dense network of trams, light rail and buses links the centre with the beach, the main railway stations and the surrounding region.
Public Transport at a Glance
The city has an efficient and frequent system of light rail (known as RandstadRail), trams and buses, running mostly on tracks separated from other traffic, which allows for a fairly speedy ride. HTM runs the public transport system in The Hague and some of the surrounding area. Rotterdam-based RET runs a RandstadRail line (Metro Line E) between The Hague and Rotterdam through various suburbs, though reaching Rotterdam is often quicker by taking an Intercity train. Veolia provides regional bus services to the areas surrounding The Hague, and EBS operates the suburban bus routes.
Service usually runs from around 06:00 until around midnight, although service starts later on Saturday and Sunday mornings. On Friday and Saturday nights, HTMBuzz operates six night bus services; tickets for these are more expensive and only available from the bus driver, and all night services meet at Buitenhof in the city centre every hour.
Rail, Metro and Trams
The Hague has two main train stations serving domestic and international routes. Den Haag Centraal is the biggest station in the city and is within walking distance of the city centre and the Malieveld park. It has connections to Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, Utrecht, Groningen and many other cities throughout the Randstad and the Netherlands, and passengers coming from Rotterdam can also use that city's Metro line E to travel to Den Haag Centraal. International destinations such as Cologne, Berlin, Frankfurt, Prague and Basel can be reached via Utrecht. On arrival, the city centre is about a five-minute walk from Centraal: leave through the left side entrance (look for the tram stops), walk through the glass passageway and straight ahead. There are luggage storage lockers at the station.
Den Haag Hollands Spoor is about a 20-minute walk from Centraal Station. It has intercity connections to Antwerp and Brussels, as well as domestic connections to Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Leiden and Delft. Southbound trains from Den Haag Centraal always pass through Hollands Spoor. To get to the city centre, walk straight ahead from the main entrance and follow the Stationsweg road through Chinatown, and you will end up right in the middle of town.
Most visitors will use Centraal Station, as it is closer to the centre, the tourist attractions and the shopping, and it has the best local public transport links by tram and bus. It is also safer at night than Hollands Spoor, which is in a somewhat sketchy area of town. The main reason for using Hollands Spoor is to catch the international trains to Antwerp and Brussels. In addition to southbound trains from Centraal, tram lines 9, 15, 16 and 17 also cover the short distance between the two stations. Trains to and from Schiphol Airport leave from both stations.
Centraal Station has eight platforms for trams, split across a high level inside the station and a low level (Rijnstraat) on the south side. These platforms serve a wide range of destinations, including Loosduinen, the event centre De Uithof, Kraayenstein, Leyenburg via the Haagse Markt, Leidschendam, Zoetermeer, Scheveningen via Madurodam, the Statenkwartier, Nootdorp, Wateringen and Vrederust. Buses stop above the railway tracks, and signage indicates how to reach them. Hollands Spoor has four tram platforms at the front of the station, with buses stopping at the back; one more stop, Waldorpstraat/Station HS, is close by, reached by exiting the front of the station and turning left.
Buses and Other Public Transport
Alongside the trams and light rail, buses fill in the rest of the network, including the suburban routes operated by EBS and the regional services run by Veolia to the areas surrounding The Hague. Buses stop above the railway tracks at Centraal Station, and at the rear of Hollands Spoor. The night bus network, operated on Friday and Saturday nights, converges on Buitenhof in the city centre.
Tickets and Passes
To use public transport you need a valid ticket; the old strippenkaart is no longer valid. You can travel with the OV-chipkaart, a public transport smart card, which can be bought at the HTM offices at Central Station (upstairs at the bus terminal), Hollands Spoor and in Wagenstraat, among other places.
You can also buy a 2-hour ticket directly from the driver in normal trams and buses when boarding; these tickets are valid on all trams and buses run by HTM or HTMBuzz. RandstadRail trams (the blue-white ones) instead have a ticket machine that accepts coins and credit cards. If that machine is broken, you have to buy a ticket from the ticket inspector, if there is one.
- HTM travel cards: 2-hour and 1-day cards are available from the driver on buses and trams, from the machines in the RandstadRail tram (lines 3, 4 and 19) with coins only, and in the R-net trams (lines 2 and 11) with coins, a bank card (Dutch or most European cards) or a credit card. 1-day and 3-day cards can be purchased from machines at the HTM Service Points at Den Haag Centraal, Den Haag HS and Zoetermeer Centrum-West railway stations, as well as the VVV Den Haag (in the City Library on Spui). These passes are valid through The Hague, Delft, Zoetermeer, Leidschendam, Voorburg, Wateringen and Scheveningen.
- Tourist Day Ticket: valid in the South Holland Rotterdam and The Hague region with Arriva, Connexxion, HTM, HTMbuzz, RET, Veolia and Waterbus. It is not valid on trains, the Fast Ferry, the Driehoeksveer Ferry, small neighbourhood buses, night buses, public transport taxis, or on buses 195 and 295. It is available from service points of transport carriers in the region, tourist information offices (VVV) and some hotels.
Note that travelling without a valid ticket carries a fine.
Taxis and Ride-Hailing
The source material describes public transport taxis as a distinct category of transport in the region, and notes that the Tourist Day Ticket is not valid on them. For everything else, rely on the licensed taxi ranks you will find at the main stations and in the city centre.
Walkability
The Hague is a rewarding city to explore on foot. Den Haag Centraal is within walking distance of the city centre and the Malieveld park, and the centre itself is only about a five-minute walk from the station's left side entrance. From Hollands Spoor, a straight walk along the Stationsweg through Chinatown brings you right into the middle of town, roughly a 20-minute walk from Centraal. The two main stations are also linked by tram for those who prefer not to walk.
Getting from the Airport into the City
Rotterdam The Hague Airport is the closest airport to the city. Metro line E connects Den Haag Centraal station with Meijersplein, a station close to the airport, and the airport terminal is connected with the latter by bus line 33, which continues on to Rotterdam Centraal railway station.
Schiphol Amsterdam Airport is a bit farther away, but with several direct trains per hour from both Hollands Spoor and Centraal, plus an hourly night train from Hollands Spoor, it is more frequently used by people travelling to and from The Hague by air.
Arriving by Car
The Hague is connected by toll-free motorways to Amsterdam (A4 and A44), Rotterdam (A13) and Utrecht (A12). Access to the centre is via the A12, which penetrates the city centre and ends at a large traffic junction just north of the historic centre. Approaching or leaving the city on these motorways can take a long time during the morning and evening rush hours. On hot summer days, huge numbers of people try to reach Scheveningen beach by car, and very long traffic jams can cause delays of several hours; on such days, consider taking public transport instead. The park and ride facility P+R Hoornwijck, on the Laan van Hoornwijck by the Ypenburg interchange, is easily reached from the A4 (Exit 9) and A13 (Exit 7), and from there you can take tram 15 to the city centre.