Amsterdam gets all the attention from visitors to The Netherlands, but The Hague, a city steeped in history just 45 minutes from Schiphol Airport, has far fewer tourists stepping on its ancient roads. For couples seeking a romantic retreat, a visit to The Hague offers a combination of seaside and city life with old stone palaces just minutes from a bustling modern core.

Coming from Vancouver, you cannot help but be struck by the short distances in Holland. The beach is 10 minutes by tram or bike from the city centre, and public transit works like clockwork, making The Hague easily and affordably navigable.

We started our visit in Scheveningen, the beach district that no foreigner can pronounce with ease. The time to come is in the summer, when locals laze on the long stretch of beach and the outdoor restaurants do brisk business on the pier. Lovers walk hand-in-hand along the promenade, kids play in the surf and at night there are casinos, fine dining or quiet strolls by the ocean.

Once a small fishing village on the Black Sea,  Scheveningen still has its yesteryear charm. Step into the Kurzaal Restaurant at the centuryold Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel, and you’re surrounded by an old-world ambience. With massive domed ceilings, walls boasting intricate paintings and sculptures, elegant balconies and a pianist at the ivories, it’s a place that has seen performances by many an artist over the years. Marlene Dietrich performed here, as did Maria Callas and the Rolling Stones
We sampled breakfast beneath those stately domes, a European-style meal complemented by Holland’s legendary, creamy cheeses, freshly baked brioche and an endless selection of hot entrees. Our fellow diners were businessmen in town for meetings and conferences; as foreign travellers, we had the place to ourselves.

The Hague has many attractions to keep the days busy. We stopped in at Madurodam, miniature version of Holland with models 25 times smaller than they are in reality. The whimsical place has some 66,000 miniature inhabitants, 4,500 cars and trucks and 50,000 lights. There are tiny trees, trams, and a harbour, in which one of many miniature ships is “on fire”.

Like most places in Holland, Madurodam has its share of history. The funds for its creation in 1952 were donated by the parents of a war hero and resistance fighter, George Maduro, who perished in a concentration camp in 1945, just months before liberation.

On a walk in the city centre, we pass a children’s park with an odd-looking structure: group of chairs composed of steel bars in a circular platform. Come closer and you see that the first names of children are inscribed on each steel bar of the chairs. “One thousand seven hundred Jewish children from The Hague didn’t return from the war,” an inscription reads. “Many of them played here and went to school. Let us not forget them.”

Memory is important in this city, and many buildings that adorned its streets hundreds of years ago are still intact and even in use to this day. The Noordeinde Palace, whose lush green gardens border the Park Hotel in the heart of The Hague, is the working palace of Queen Beatrix, and a flag blowing in the breeze is the only evidence that she’s in at the palace on the day we walk by. The Lange Voorhout Palace, on the street of the same name, was the residence of Queen Emma until 1891, but functions as a museum today.

The Hague has always been the venue for politics in The Netherlands, the place where the country’s future is determined. The red stone walls of the Beinnenhof parliament buildings and the prime minister’s office towers are stately landmarks in the city, with guided tours available for the curious.

We were content to browse the narrow streets of The Hague, though, absorbing the marvelous foreignness of this country and its definitively Dutch character. Getting lost was part of the fun as we strolled through the city, marveling at the statues, peeking into quaint boutiques tucked into ancient buildings and trying to translate the Dutch on the menus of the many romantic restaurants we passed. 

It took just nine hours to get there from Vancouver. But once we arrived, The Hague set us on a path hundreds of years in the making, one with all the grandeur of kings, queens and historical political figures accessible in a city of beauty, beach and charm.

If You Go:

- Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel (www.kurhaus.nl) is a landmark in Scheveningen, but rooms are much smaller and less luxurious than the hotel’s exterior would lead you to expect. In the historic city centre check into the Parkhotel Den Haag (www.parkhoteldenhaag.nl), a great location for savouring the sights of downtown.
- For information on The Hague visit www.denhaag.com