Amersfoort
The province's other historic city: a water gate, a ring of wall houses, Mondriaan's birthplace and a 98-metre tower, fifteen train minutes from Utrecht.
The Koppelpoort water gate in Amersfoort reflected in the Eem with a rowing boat passing
Why people stay in Amersfoort
Amersfoort is the city people mean when they say Utrecht province has more than one old centre. It has 160,000 residents, a compact medieval core wrapped in two rings of canal, and the single most photogenic structure in the region: the Koppelpoort, a 1425 combined land-and-water gate where the Eem runs through under portcullises that were once raised by men walking inside a treadwheel. Fifteen minutes by intercity from Utrecht Centraal, four to six trains an hour, and the platform is a seven-minute walk from the historic Hof square.
The clever thing here is the Muurhuizen — the wall houses. When the first city wall was demolished in the fifteenth century, residents built directly on its foundations, so an entire street ring of houses now traces the old defensive line and is named after it. Walking it takes forty minutes and it is the best single introduction to how a Dutch city grew outwards. Inside that ring: the Sint-Joriskerk, the Havik canal with its terraces, the Krommestraat full of independent shops, and the Onze Lieve Vrouwetoren, the 98-metre 'Lange Jan' whose church blew up in 1787 and left the tower standing alone.
Evenings are the real argument for basing here. At 9pm on a Friday the Hof and the Groenmarkt are properly busy, kitchens serve to ten and bars run past one, and there is a genuine music circuit — the city's jazz festival at Whitsun takes over the whole centre. Prices sit noticeably below Utrecht: €90 to €140 for a good central double, against €150 upward for the equivalent on the Oudegracht. Mondriaan was born on the Kortegracht and the house is now a small, sharp museum about his path from Amersfoort trees to abstraction.
Come for two or three nights if you want a historic base with real evenings and Heuvelrug and Veluwe woods on both sides. Skip it if your trip is entirely about Utrecht's museums and canals — the fifteen-minute train is easy but it is still a train, twice a day. And be honest about the outer districts: Vathorst and Schothorst are perfectly decent modern housing, but a hotel out there leaves you with a bus ride to every dinner.
Sleep inside the Muurhuizen ring or immediately outside it. The area around the Hof, the Havik, the Langestraat and the Krommestraat is where the good rooms are: canal-side small hotels and apartments at €95 to €150, rising to €180 in festival weeks. The Zuidsingel and Westsingel edge, near Museum Flehite, is quieter and about €15 cheaper for a five-minute walk. The Eemplein district north of the centre is modern, has the library and cinema, and puts you two minutes from the Koppelpoort. Station-side hotels are convenient and cheap, €75 to €110, but the walk into the old town crosses a stretch of 1970s ring road that is dull after dark. Avoid Vathorst and the business parks along the A1 unless you are here for work — they are twenty minutes and a bus fare from anything you actually came to see.
Things to do in Amersfoort
The 1425 water gate at the north-west of the centre, where the Eem passes through the wall, is the city's emblem and is best seen from the Kleine Spui bank in early light. Guided climbs inside show the treadwheel mechanism that raised the water doors; book through the tourist office on the Hof.
Start on the Zuidsingel side and follow the street that circles the old town, built on the foundations of the demolished first wall. Roughly 2 km of continuous fifteenth-to-eighteenth-century facades, each with a name plaque. It is free, always open, and the single best hour in Amersfoort.
The Lange Jan on the Lieve Vrouwekerkhof stands 98 metres and is the third tallest church tower in the country; the church itself vanished in a gunpowder explosion in 1787. Guided climbs run in season, cost around €10, and end with a view across to the Veluwe and the Heuvelrug.
Piet Mondriaan was born at Kortegracht 11 in 1872, and the house now runs a compact museum tracing him from local landscape painting to the grids. Entry is roughly €12; allow an hour, and pair it with Museum Flehite on the Westsingel for the city's own history.
On the Leusden edge of the city, off the Loes van Overeemlaan, the former transit and detention camp is now a national memorial with a reconstructed watchtower, an underground visitor centre and the execution ground preserved in woodland. Entry is free; it is sober, well done and about 25 minutes by bus.
The city brewery on the Kleine Spui, in sight of the Koppelpoort, has been making beer since 1989 in a restored building and serves it in a taproom with a canal terrace. A glass runs about €4.50; brewery tours are available and Amersfoort's own beers turn up all over town.
What to see
Hotels in Amersfoort
No hotels are listed in Amersfoort yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Every hotel we cover in Amersfoort
- Veld En Bosch 4★ · 4.7/5
- Duynparc Soest 3★ · 4.5/5
- Hotel Pension Randenbroek 2★ · 4.5/5
- Long John s Hotel 2★ · 4.5/5
- Landgoed Isvw 3★ · 4.4/5
- Leerhotel Het Klooster 3★ · 4.4/5
- Mercure Hotel Amersfoort Centre 4★ · 4.3/5
- NH Amersfoort Hotel 4★ · 4.3/5
- Hotel de Gaaper 3★ · 4.3/5
- Van der Valk Hotel Leusden Amersfoort 3★ · 4.3/5
- Bastion Hotel Amersfoort 4★ · 4.2/5
- Van Der Valk Hotel Amersfoort A1 4★ · 4.2/5
- Hotel Keistad 3★ · 4.2/5
- Conferentiehotel Kontakt der Kontinenten 3★ · 4.1/5
- Amrâth Berghôtel Amersfoort 4★ · 4/5
- Fletcher Hotel Restaurant De Klepperman 4★ · 4/5
- Hotel de Tabaksplant 3★ · 4/5
- Fletcher Hotel Het Witte Huis 4★ · 3.9/5
- Fletcher Hotel Restaurant Amersfoort 4★ · 3.9/5
- Campanile Amersfoort 3★ · 3.4/5
- 't Eekhoornnest 4★
- Guest House Amersfoort Center 4★
- Saya Loft 4★
- Sfeervol Overnachten in de Kerk 4★
Getting around Amersfoort
Amersfoort Centraal is a major junction: intercity trains reach Utrecht Centraal in 15 minutes, Amsterdam Centraal in about 35, Schiphol in roughly 50 with one change or direct at some hours, and Zwolle and the north directly. Four to six trains an hour on the Utrecht line. From the station it is a seven-minute walk to the Hof, or take a city bus one stop. Inside the old centre, walk — it is 900 metres across and largely car-free. Sprinters also serve Amersfoort Schothorst and Vathorst for the outer districts. Parking garages under the centre cost about €2.50 an hour with cheaper evening rates.
Questions about Amersfoort
Fifteen minutes on the intercity, with four to six trains an hour from early morning until late, and a single around €5.50. It is one of the busiest commuter corridors in the country. Sprinters take a few minutes longer but stop at Bilthoven and Den Dolder if you want the woods on the way.
Worth a night or two. The daytime sights fit into four hours, but the evening is the point: the Hof, the Groenmarkt and the Havik have a real bar and restaurant scene that keeps going past midnight, which most of the province does not. Rooms also cost €40 to €60 less than equivalent ones in Utrecht's Binnenstad.
Yes, on guided tours arranged through the tourist office on the Hof, which take you up to the mechanism where men once walked inside a treadwheel to raise the water gates. Tours run regularly in season and cost around €7 to €10. The exterior and the Eem bank are free and open at all hours.
A lot. The Utrechtse Heuvelrug woods start south of the city near Leusden and Den Dolder, and the Veluwe begins to the east across the valley. Closer in, Park Schothorst and Park Randenbroek are both proper landscape parks reachable by bike in fifteen minutes, and the Eem towpath runs north into open polder.
