Free audio walk in Den Haag
The historic beaches of Scheveningen
- 59 min
- 3.1 km
- 11 stops
- Free
Starts at Strandweg 128
About this walk
A fishing village that never belonged to itself, a grand hotel that burned down and rose again within a year, and the beach where a prince came ashore to become a king.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
Welcome to Scheveningen
A fishing village that never belonged to itself, and that gave The Hague the one thing a seat of government cannot build for itself: a coastline.
- 2Stop 2
The Working Beach of Scheveningen
For centuries this sand was a workplace rather than a beach. Scheveningen had no harbour, so the fleet came ashore right here.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
Kurhaus Scheveningen
A wooden bathing shed put up by a Scheveningen man in 1818 grew into the grandest hotel on the Dutch coast, and then burned to the ground.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
The Pier That Burned in 1943
A wooden walkway on 318 piles, reached by a private bridge from the Kurhaus, and gone in a single fire in 1943.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
Beelden aan Zee Museum
A royal summer pavilion buried in the dunes, a museum built around it, and a crowd of bronze figures that children climb on.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
The Fisherman's Wife
She has been watching the horizon since 1982, standing in for every woman in this village who waited for a boat.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
The Prince Lands at Scheveningen
A prince stepping off a British warship onto a windswept beach, returning to a country that had reinvented itself twice without him.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The Stranding of the SCH 102
A trawler four weeks at sea, a crowd waiting on the quay, and a current that put the ship on the rocks in front of everyone.
Read the story - 9Stop 9
Simon Stevin's Sailing Chariot
For two hours in 1602, the fastest vehicle in Europe was a ship on wheels, running up this beach with a prince and a future father of international law on board.
Read the story - 10Stop 10
Ostrich Rides on the Scheveningen Boulevard
In the summer of 1935 the boulevard offered something the Dutch coast had never seen before: carts pulled by ostriches.
Read the story - 11Stop 11
The Pier That Came Back
Eighteen years after the first pier burned down, Scheveningen built another one, and then spent half a century deciding what to do with it.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk The historic beaches of Scheveningen with ROODS.
11 stops through Den Haag, about 59 minutes. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
