The best things to do in Leiden include world-class museums, typical Dutch architecture, impressive monuments and cool hotspots. Experience Leiden, a stunning historic city and one of the must-visit destinations in the Netherlands! Sebastiaan resided alongside its canals for three years, while Maartje frequents the city for its incredible museums. With its captivating architecture, vast selection of museums, delightful hotspots, and enchanting streets, Leiden is the ideal place to explore when in the Netherlands. Use this blog to discover the top local-recommended activities in Leiden!
Where to stay in Leiden
Do not stick for just a day, but make a weekend trip to the canal city in South Holland. Leiden has boutique hotels in beautiful buildings. Completely in line with the ancient city center, these hotels have impressive rooms in historical and monumental style.
- The Barones van Leyden & Huys van Leyden are small-scale boutique hotels, in which you imagine yourself in historic Leiden.
- Boutique Hotel Steenhof offers luxurious suites with authentic beamed ceilings and modern chandeliers.
- ExLibris Boutique Hotel offers king-size beds and ultimate comfort near the Museum of Antiquities.
- Hotel d’Oude Morsch opened its 18 rooms in 2016 in the old guard building of the Morspoort barracks, with a view of Rembrandt’s birthplace.
- Hotel Minerva has 35 unique themed rooms. From Delft Blue to Rembrandt, but all in old Dutch style.
Leiden to do: museums, monuments and hotspots
The Leiden museums
After Amsterdam, Leiden has perhaps the largest selection of museums. In Leiden you can admire Egyptian mummies, prehistoric dinosaurs, exotic world treasures, the human body, the universe and also tropical plants. This is a selection of our favorites:
- The Archaeological Museum of Egyptian Mummies, Greek Vases and Roman Statues.
- Naturalis for prehistoric dinosaurs and impressive natural treasures.
- Corpus for a journey through the human body.
- Museum of Ethnology for exotic world treasures.
- Hortus Botanicus for tropical and unique plants.
- Old Observatory for a historical observatory of the universe.
If you are willing to leave the center of Leiden, you can also visit great museums in the area. Maartje’s favorite is Duivenvoorde Castle near Voorschoten, the earliest history of which dates from the thirteenth century. You can visit the castle with a tour of the historic interior. The castle garden is always open.
For modern art you should go to Voorlinden in Wassenaar. This private museum has the coolest contemporary art in the Netherlands. How about a huge, but lifelike artwork of an older couple on the beach? Or Leandro Erlich’s Swimming Pool where you can go underwater without a wet suit? On a beautiful day, don’t forget to take a walk through the beautiful park.
Historical Leiden
The center of Leiden is packed with historical monuments, characteristic canals and secret courtyards. Leiden is actually a large open-air museum: in the center there are about 2800 monuments! From city gates to bridges and from churches to university buildings.
One of the historical highlights is the ancient fortress. The round structure was built high on an artificial hill in the heart of the city. So from these high walls, you’ll have a great view of Leiden and you can see the beautiful diversity of church towers. It’s also a popular spot for picnics in the sun in the summer. The entrance is free.
Tip: rent a boat for a cruise through the canals of Leiden!
On the visitor site of Leiden you will find an overview of the most important monuments. Combine a city walk along these sights immediately with the courtyards of Leiden. Of the 35 picturesque inner gardens, some are always open to visitors. Check this overview of almshouses to visit and this overview map.
Leiden hotspots: eating, drinking and shopping
The monumental city is full of coffee bars, lunch spots, vintage shops, concept stores, gift shops, breakfast spots and restaurants. At Chummy they serve the best coffee, Roast and Toast serves delicious toasties, ROOS has the most instagrammable breakfast, De Waag is a beautiful location, Lot & De Walvis has a wonderful living room atmosphere and Logica is a must for vegetarians and vegans.
Leiden is also the place for vintage shopping and scoring living items at beautiful concept shops. KOSi has unique clothing items, Lucies sells jewelry according to her own design, at Wonderful Nature you can browse between natural items (yes, also a stuffed lion), Flamingo, VNTG and Hartendief are the best vintage shops and Eduard is a beautiful concept store in a monumental building.
And so we have dozens of other favorites. Check our map below for the best spots!
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