Rotterdam

Rotterdam's beach is Hoek van Holland, a wide, sandy North Sea strand at the mouth of the harbour, reached by metro from the centre in under an hour. The dunes behind it and the huge ships passing close offshore give it real character, and on a warm summer weekend it fills with locals.

The sea is the problem. It peaks at around 17-18°C in August, the wind is constant and the season is short, so most visitors walk the beach rather than swim. The seaside resorts near The Hague are similar. Nobody plans a stay here around the beach.

Eating in Rotterdam reflects a port city with a large immigrant population more than any Dutch tradition. Surinamese roti and broodje shops, Turkish bakeries, Cape Verdean, Moroccan and Indonesian kitchens sit next to modern bistros and cafés in converted harbour buildings. The Markthal, with its painted vault over a hall of food stalls, and the open-air market on the Binnenrotte are the easiest places to start.

The Witte de Withstraat and the Nieuwe Binnenweg have the densest run of restaurants and cafés, and Katendrecht and the old warehouse quarters across the river add terraces with views of the water. Local craft beer is good. Classic Dutch food is limited to herring, chips and bitterballen, and fine dining exists but is a small tier.

The bombing of 1940 destroyed most of the old centre, and Rotterdam rebuilt itself as the Netherlands' laboratory of modern architecture. People come to look at buildings: the Erasmus Bridge, Piet Blom's tilted Cube Houses, the horseshoe-shaped Markthal, the mirrored bowl of the Depot Boijmans van Beuningen art depot, and the towers of the Kop van Zuid across the Maas. The Euromast gives the overview.

The museums are good rather than great: the Kunsthal for changing shows, the Maritime Museum, and the Boijmans collection of old masters and modern art. Historic Rotterdam survives in fragments, chiefly Delfshaven, where the Pilgrim Fathers set out, the Old Harbour and the restored liner SS Rotterdam. Two or three days cover it.

Rotterdam goes out on a smaller, more local scale than its size suggests. The Witte de Withstraat and the Oude Haven around the Cube Houses are the main bar streets, with terraces that fill on summer evenings, and the Nieuwe Binnenweg has a run of brown cafés and later bars. Students keep weekday nights from going completely dead.

The club scene is the stronger part. The city was the birthplace of gabber and hard electronic music, and warehouse and harbour venues hold techno and house nights that draw crowds from across the country. Outside weekends and festival dates the centre empties early, and few visitors come here mainly to go out.

This is flat, man-made land, and the outdoors means cycling and water rather than hills. The Kralingse Bos park and lake on the eastern edge has woods, sailing and running paths, and the Het Park by the Euromast is the green space in the centre. Bike paths lead straight out into polder country along dykes and rivers.

The Biesbosch, a national park of freshwater tidal creeks and willow islands, is about forty minutes away and good for canoeing and birdwatching. The dunes at Hoek van Holland offer coastal walks and kitesurfing. Watching the vast harbour from a boat is its own experience. There is nothing dramatic, though, and walkers looking for real hiking will need to go far.

Day trips are one of Rotterdam's real strengths, because it sits in the middle of the Dutch rail network. Delft, with its canals and Vermeer associations, is a quarter of an hour away, and The Hague, with the Mauritshuis and the parliament buildings, is not much further. Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden and Haarlem are all within about an hour by fast train.

Closer in, the UNESCO-listed windmills of Kinderdijk can be reached by water bus, and Gouda, with its cheese market and town hall, and Dordrecht, the oldest town in Holland, are short rides. To the south, Antwerp is about an hour by train, and Bruges and Ghent are just within reach for a long day.

Rotterdam is an easy city with children: flat, safe, well served by trams and metro, with wide pavements and cycle lanes everywhere. Diergaarde Blijdorp is one of the best zoos in the country and includes a large ocean section. The Maritime Museum has a hands-on harbour area made for children, and the Euromast, a harbour boat tour and the water taxis are a hit with most ages.

Plaswijckpark in the north has playgrounds and animals, and there are many playgrounds across the city's parks. Madurodam's miniature Netherlands in The Hague is a short train ride away, and the Efteling theme park can be reached by car in about an hour. The weather is the main limit outside summer.

Getting around is straightforward. The metro, trams and buses run on one tap-in system, Rotterdam Centraal is a short walk from the main shopping streets, and the metro reaches as far as the beach at Hoek van Holland. Water taxis and water buses cross the Maas and serve Kinderdijk, which makes the river part of the transport network as well as the scenery.

The postwar centre is spread out, with wide roads and some long, windy walks between the sights, so most visitors combine walking with the tram or a bike. Cycling is the local way to get around, with separate paths almost everywhere. A car is never needed.

Rotterdam shops at high-street level, and does it well. The Lijnbaan was one of Europe's first pedestrian shopping streets and remains the core, joined to the sunken Beurstraverse and the Bijenkorf department store in a postwar building. The big Dutch and international chains are all here, close together and easy to walk.

The more interesting shops lie on the Meent, the Nieuwe Binnenweg and the Witte de Withstraat, with independent fashion, vintage, record and design shops. The Tuesday and Saturday market on the Binnenrotte is large and lively. Luxury labels are thin, and there are few crafts unique to the city.

Rotterdam is an expensive city by European standards, but its hotels are easier on the budget than the Netherlands' best-known destinations. Rooms are plentiful, many are in business districts that empty at weekends, and the city is not under the kind of tourist pressure that pushes prices up. Eating out and drinking are a different matter: restaurant meals, beer and coffee cost what they do across the country, which is on the high side.

The cheaper options are the market stalls on the Binnenrotte, the Markthal counters and the Surinamese and Turkish snack shops, which keep a simple lunch reasonable. Public transport fares are moderate, and many of the sights are buildings seen from the street. Trains to the rest of the Randstad are inexpensive next to a hotel night in those cities, which makes Rotterdam a sensible base for the region.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is among the best in the country and plays a full season at De Doelen, the city's concert hall, which also hosts jazz and world music. The Rotterdamse Schouwburg presents theatre and dance, and a large theatre in the city stages touring musicals, mostly in Dutch.

The big event is the North Sea Jazz Festival each July, one of the world's major jazz gatherings, filling a long weekend with hundreds of acts. Through the year there are good small jazz and pop venues, helped by the city's music conservatory. There is no resident opera house, and much of the theatre needs Dutch.

Rotterdam is a working port city with a brisk, practical pace, and it is not a place people come to slow down. What it does have is the Dutch sauna tradition: large wellness complexes with saunas, steam rooms, outdoor pools and quiet gardens on the edge of the city and in the surrounding towns, most of them textile-free in the sauna areas, which surprises some visitors.

In the centre, wellness comes down to hotel spas and a few day spas. For calm, locals go to the Kralingse Bos or the terraces along the water rather than to any bathing institution.