VacationSelector

The Hague or Amsterdam?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

The Hague
57
match

Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.

Amsterdam
✓ Best match
65
match

Wins on nightlife and museums & heritage with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose Amsterdam if you want the denser city: more museums, more places to eat and drink, and more of it inside walking distance of the centre.

Choose The Hague if the coast is the point of the trip. The sea is 3km from the centre rather than 24km, there is far more park space close in, and 7 theme parks within reach for a family week.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

The HagueAmsterdam
Beaches & swimming. The Hague leads by 20 points.20
The HagueAmsterdam
Score6040
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km3433
Coast distance3 km24 km
Water distance3 km24 km
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 13 points.13
The HagueAmsterdam
Score7083
Restaurants within 2 km of centre7981,957
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km4344
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 18 points.18
The HagueAmsterdam
Score6280
Museums within 10 km4698
Museums within 2 km of centre2669
Share of museums within 2 km %5770
Unesco sites within 50 km45
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 24 points.24
The HagueAmsterdam
Score4670
Drinking venues within 4 km5111,543
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre2881,078
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %5670
Nightclubs within 4 km19114
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 6 points.6
The HagueAmsterdam
Score5460
Protected land share 50 km %821
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %5682
Park area within 2 km159 hectares49 hectares
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 12 points.12
The HagueAmsterdam
Score5668
Tourist attractions within 2 km1074
Park area within 2 km159 hectares49 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km73
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 14 points.14
The HagueAmsterdam
Score5468
Notable places within 2 km86196
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. The Hague and Amsterdam are level on 58.
The HagueAmsterdam
Score5858
Price level global79.279.2
Daily budget€181€181
Year-round weather. Amsterdam leads by 3 points.3
The HagueAmsterdam
Score5457
Monthly daytime high6.1 °C to 21.3 °C6.1 °C to 23.1 °C
Monthly rainfall42 mm to 85 mm42 mm to 85 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Amsterdam has about three times as many places to drink and many times as many nightclubs, most of them near the centre, while in The Hague about half of them are. It also has roughly twice as many museums, twice as many restaurants near the centre, twice as many notable places within walking distance, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 4.

The Hague puts you at the coast: the sea is 3km from the centre against Amsterdam's 24km, with 34 beaches nearby against 33, though neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more.

Where they are alike

The weather is close to identical. Both have 1693 sunshine hours a year, the same rainfall month by month, and January highs of 6°C. Amsterdam runs slightly warmer in summer, but both share wet autumns at 78-84mm.

Nature and day trips are close too, in different ways: more protected land around Amsterdam, 21% against 8%, and about three times as much park space near The Hague's centre. Both offer a similar range of kitchens.

Which traveller are you?

If you are travelling to eat and drink, take Amsterdam: about twice the restaurants near the centre, three times the drinking places and many times the nightclubs, most of them walkable from wherever you stay.

Families lean towards The Hague: 7 theme parks within reach against Amsterdam's 3, about three times as much park space near the centre, and the sea 3km away rather than 24km.

Museum-first travellers should choose Amsterdam: roughly twice as many museums, sitting tightly around the centre, twice as many notable places within walking distance, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value comparison between these two cities carries no information. The price level here is national, so it is identical for both by construction, and the €181 daily budget beside it is one country-wide estimate rather than a measurement of either city.

The Hague's beach advantage is about proximity rather than bathing: the sea peaks at 19°C in August and never reaches 21°C. And the months that rate best in both cities, July and August, are also the wettest at 84-85mm, so a summer trip here is warm and wet rather than dry.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
The Hague
6
7
9
13
16
19
21
21
18
14
10
7
Amsterdam
6
7
11
15
18
21
23
23
20
15
10
7
Sea temperature, °C
The Hague
6
5
6
9
12
15
18
19
18
15
11
8
Amsterdam
6
5
6
8
12
15
17
19
17
15
11
8
Rainfall, mm
The Hague
71
63
58
42
59
71
85
84
78
81
80
84
Amsterdam
71
63
58
42
59
71
85
84
78
81
80
84
Daylight, hours per day
The Hague
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Amsterdam
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
The Hague
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2
Amsterdam
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. The Hague: 1991-2020 normals, Valkenburg (13.6 km from centre). Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Amsterdam is the warmer city through summer, with July and August highs of 23°C, though these are also the wettest months at 85mm and 84mm. April is the driest month in both at 42mm, and Amsterdam reaches 15°C then against The Hague's 13°C.

The Hague peaks at 21°C in July and August, and its case is late summer by the water: the sea reaches 19°C in August and holds 18°C into September. Rainfall is identical in both cities, so it never separates them.

Getting there

Flying fromThe HagueAmsterdam
DublinDUB
1 h 35 m
€69-96
AMS · 40 km
1 h 35 m
€69-96
AMS · 12 km
MadridMAD
2 h 25 m
€160-183
AMS · 40 km
2 h 25 m
€160-183
AMS · 12 km
CopenhagenCPH
1 h 25 m
€171-212
1 stop
AMS · 40 km
1 h 25 m
€171-212
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 10 m
€178-300
AMS · 40 km
1 h 10 m
€178-300
AMS · 12 km
ManchesterMAN
1 h 15 m
€145-187
AMS · 40 km
1 h 15 m
€145-187
AMS · 12 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 35 m
€512-556
1 stop
AMS · 40 km
7 h 35 m
€512-556
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 45 m
€318-346
1 stop
AMS · 40 km
6 h 45 m
€318-346
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 5 m
€159-284
RTM · 16 km
1 h 5 m
€93-112
AMS · 12 km
CuracaoCUR
9 h 55 m
no fares
AMS · 40 km
9 h 55 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
11 h 10 m
no fares
AMS · 40 km
11 h 10 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureThe HagueAmsterdam
Official languageDutchDutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 911112 or 911
Elevation1 m-2 m
Main airportRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)16 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureThe HagueAmsterdam
City population548,320921,468
People per km²5,5894,208
Museums within 10 km54101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km45
Distinct cuisines in the centre7798
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow The Hague or Amsterdam somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-09-01. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.