Scheveningen and the coast, season by season

The beach season in The Hague is written into the zoning plan.

Article 1.9 of the bestemmingsplan Strand defines it as “de jaarlijkse periode vanaf 1 maart tot en met 31 oktober voor seizoensgebonden strandbebouwing”, and the city’s 2025 to 2035 beach vision gives the same window as 1 March to 1 November.

Most of what stands on the sand in July is legally required to be gone by winter, which is why the same eleven kilometres are three different places across a year.

Four businesses hold permits to stay open all year.

The zoning plan creates exactly two year-round categories, a jaarrond horecapaviljoen and a jaarrond watersportpaviljoen, each capped at 500 square metres of floor area and 5.50 metres in height, and designates them individually on the map.

The rest must in principle stay shut from November to February.

The council’s current position is that it sees no case for increasing or reducing the number.

March to mid-May: the best months, and nobody is there

The pavilions go back up from 1 March.

For roughly ten weeks after that the beach is fully built, fully open and almost empty, and everything that is restricted in summer is still allowed.

Dogs may run off the lead anywhere on the Hague coast from 1 October to 15 May.

So may horses, all day.

Cycling on the beach is permitted all day over the same dates.

From 15 May all three of those close down, so if you have a dog, March and April are the months that belong to you.

The rules and the dog tax are in dog tax and park rules in The Hague.

The catch is the wind.

The mean annual wind speed at Hoek van Holland is 7.3 metres per second and the coast records over 150 days a year at force 6 or above, which is the subject of the weather and the wind.

A March afternoon on the Noorderstrand is beautiful and it is not warm.

15 May to 1 October: the summer rules

From 15 May the beach becomes managed.

Dogs are confined to named stretches: the whole Zuiderstrand between 21.00 and 07.00, and day and night from strandopgang 2 at the end of the Machiel Vrijenhoeklaan car park to the Westland boundary, and between strandopgang 9 at the Kwartellaan and strandopgang 10 at the Duivelandsestraat.

On the Noorderstrand, from the entrance at the end of the Zwarte Pad car park to the Wassenaar boundary.

Everywhere and always, you must carry a bag.

Horses may only be ridden between 19.00 and 07.00 in those months, and driving a horse and cart on the beach is never allowed at any time of year.

Cycling on the sand is likewise restricted to 19.00 to 07.00.

Sleeping or camping on the beach is prohibited outright.

If you meet a seal, put the dog on the lead at once.

The animal ambulance service reports seeing seals with dog bites increasingly often and says some of them die of it.

The number for a seal in distress is A-Seal Stellendam on 088 247 77 80.

Lifeguards are present from May to September. The Haagse Vrijwillige Reddingsbrigade has run the Hague beaches for over a hundred years, works from two beach posts with more than 120 volunteer lifeguards across the eleven kilometres, and the council also runs a reception point for lost children and hands out wristbands.

Take one for a small child on the first day and stop thinking about it.

Rip currents are the real danger and the advice is counter-intuitive: do not swim against the current, let it carry you, swim sideways out of it when it weakens, and signal for help with your arms.

Water quality is published live at zwemwater.nl, which lists Kijkduin and classifies each site from good down to a swimming ban.

Check it on the day rather than trusting anything written months ago.

The four naturist beaches, which most guides get wrong

There is not one nudist beach in The Hague.

The council designates four: the Zwarte Pad stretch of the Noorderstrand between poles 96.5 and 98, between the Zwarte Pad and Meijendelseslag entrances; the Westduinpark stretch between poles 104 and 105; the Zuiderstrand at strandslag 8, the Laan van Poot; and Kijkduin from pole 108 towards Monster, at strandslag 1 Kijkerduin.

The council adds a practical warning of its own: some of these stretches have pavilions, and you may not sit naked on every terrace.

Which bit of coast to go to

The eleven kilometres split officially into the Noorderstrand and the Zuiderstrand, with access points numbered as strandopgangen and distances measured in beach poles.

The stretch in front of the Boulevard and the Kurhaus is where the pavilions, the crowds and the attractions are, and it is the part everyone means by Scheveningen.

The Zwarte Pad end of the Noorderstrand is where dogs are allowed all summer and one of the naturist stretches sits, so it is the least managed.

Kijkduin is the quiet alternative at the southern end, described in Loosduinen and Kijkduin, and the harbour side is a working fishing port rather than a beach.

The residential half of all this is in Scheveningen and Duindorp.

The Pier, which needs a phone call

Two things to get right.

The website depier.nl no longer belongs to the Pier: it redirects to a holiday park in Uden, in North Brabant.

The Pier’s site is pier.nl, and it is at Strandweg 150 to 154.

The Pier is being redeveloped by RE:BORN.

The published plan has the renovation starting in early 2026, the walkway reopening a year after the start and full reopening expected in 2028, adding a four-star hotel, a smaller family hotel, a spa and a 500-person events space, with the developer promising that “het iconische reuzenrad blijft centraal”.

Its attractions still appear bookable online.

Telephone before you make a special trip, on 06 10386859.

The ferris wheel stands 50 metres above sea level with 36 enclosed, climate-controlled gondolas taking six to eight people for a flight of 12 to 15 minutes, and claims to run 365 days a year.

The bungy tower is 60 metres and the zipline runs 350 metres at speeds up to 70 kilometres an hour; both are TUV and ERCA certified.

A jump is 120 euro, 190 with photographs, video and a t-shirt, or 220 for a duo jump; photographs alone are 25 euro and a GoPro video 30.

The indoor attractions, for the fortnight it rains

SEA LIFE at Strandweg 13 is 20 euro online against 25 at the door, open 10.00 to 17.00 with the till closing at 16.00; an annual pass is 49 euro and the VR experience starts at 24.50.

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre is next door, from 21 euro online, 17 for groups of ten or more and 59 for an annual pass, open 10.00 to 17.00 but with entry closing at 14.30.

It is explicitly built for children of 4 to 12, so check the ages before you buy.

A combined ticket for the two is 36 euro instead of 48.

Museum Beelden aan Zee at Harteveltstraat 1, Tuesday to Sunday 10.00 to 17.00, is the grown-up option: sculpture in a sand-coloured Wim Quist building dug into the dune, and it is ranked against the city’s other collections in the museums, ranked.

Museums and attractions in The Hague are otherwise mostly in the centre.

Surfing and the water

Hart Beach at Strandweg 3b is open 365 days a year from 08.30 until sunset.

Its shop has traded since 1971 and calls itself the oldest surf shop in the Netherlands; the surf school has run since 1990.

It does not publish lesson prices on its own site, so ask.

Beach and water sports in The Hague run year-round here, not just in summer, which is the thing that surprises people.

On kitesurfing, be careful what you read.

The council’s published beach rules page does not mention kitesurfing at all.

Zones are signposted locally and set through the APV, so follow the signs and the schools rather than a forum post.

The pavilions themselves are the other half of the coast.

Aloha’s kitchen runs from a 12.50 euro breakfast to a 35 euro deluxe dinner and serves gluhwein in winter, which tells you which of the four year-round permits it holds.

Beach clubs and strandtenten are a Hague category that Amsterdam simply does not have.

October to February: what is left

From 1 October the dogs, the horses and the bicycles come back, and the seasonal pavilions start coming down.

Between November and February the beach is four pavilions, the boulevard, the wind and a great many walkers.

Two fixed points in that season.

The Nieuwjaarsduik takes the sea on 1 January, with the details published each December rather than a year ahead.

And the fireworks festival is not coming back: the last edition was held in 2018, and it was cancelled in 2019 on safety grounds, in 2020 for covid, in 2022 for lack of police capacity and in 2023 over cost and sponsorship, with nothing since.

Guides still listing it are years out of date.

The dates that matter

Vlaggetjesdag, the herring festival in the harbour, ran on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 June in 2026.

It sits in mid-June each year and the following year’s date is not published far ahead, so check vlaggetjesdag.com in spring.

The fish it celebrates is sold year-round by Simonis, which has four sites around the harbour and boulevard, in the international and specialist food shops.

Do not go looking for Simonis op de Hoek; it has gone and Beach House Scheveningen stands on the spot.

The International Kite Festival is on the beach on 26 and 27 September 2026, and it is free.

It is the best single reason to be on the sand in autumn.

Getting there, and the parking trap

Tram 9 runs from the city to Scheveningen Noord and trams 1 and 11 also reach the coast; the ride from the centre is a matter of fifteen or twenty minutes rather than an expedition.

Details are in the trams and buses.

Do not drive, and if you must, know what changed.

From 1 April 2026 five streets nearest the beach, the Seinpostduin, Jongeneelstraat, Pellenaerstraat, Harteveltweg and Gevers Deynootweg, moved to a progressive tariff: 35 cents a minute for the first 20 minutes, which is 7 euro, rising every ten minutes after that, and capped at 50 euro in total beyond 90 minutes.

A beach day parked there costs 50 euro and it is meant to.

Elsewhere in the consumer zones the first and second hours are 1 euro each and every hour from the third is 2.75.

The permit system is in parking permits in The Hague.

The rest of the city, when you have had enough sand, is in twenty things to do in The Hague, the free half of it is in free things to do, and the version with small children in tow is in The Hague with children.

Sources

• Bestemmingsplan Strand, article 1.9 (planviewer.nl, NL.IMRO.0518.BP0334ZStrand): “de jaarlijkse periode vanaf 1 maart tot en met 31 oktober voor seizoensgebonden strandbebouwing”; articles 1.48 and 1.49 creating the “jaarrond horecapaviljoen” and “jaarrond watersportpaviljoen” categories, each capped at 500 square metres and 5.50 metres in height
• Strandvisie Den Haag 2025-2035, “Meer Strand Natuurlijk”, as quoted by strandweer.nu: “Tijdens het strandseizoen (1 maart-1 november) is er ruimte voor seizoensgebonden bebouwing op het strand” and “Wij zien dan ook geen meerwaarde om het aantal (jaarrond)strandpaviljoens te beperken of uit te breiden”. The gemeente’s own press page for the strandvisie currently returns a 404
• Omroep West, 13 July 2023: “Er zijn nu vier zaken die een vergunning hebben om het hele jaar open te mogen op het strand op Scheveningen” and “wel moeten de strandtenten in principe tussen november en februari dicht blijven”. The four are not named on any page reached, so they are not named here
• Gemeente Den Haag, honden, zeehonden en paarden op het strand (denhaag.nl/nl/natuur-en-milieu/honden-zeehonden-en-paarden-op-het-strand/): dogs and horses free “van 1 oktober tot 15 mei”; from 15 May to 1 October dogs only on the Zuiderstrand between 21.00 and 07.00, day and night from strandopgang 2 at the end of the Machiel Vrijenhoeklaan car park to the Westland boundary and between strandopgang 9 (Kwartellaan) and strandopgang 10 (Duivelandsestraat), and on the Noorderstrand from the Zwarte Pad car park entrance to the Wassenaar boundary; “u bent verplicht een opruimmiddel (zoals een zakje) bij u te hebben”; horses “in de zomermaanden, van 15 mei tot 1 oktober, mag u alleen paardrijden tussen 19.00 en 7.00 uur” and “rijden met paard en wagen (mennen) is nooit toegestaan”; on seals, “de dierenambulance ziet steeds vaker zeehonden met hondenbeten. Soms overlijden ze daaraan” and the A-Seal Stellendam number 088 247 77 80; “deze regels gelden voor de volledige 11 kilometer Haagse kust”
• Gemeente Den Haag, regels op het strand van Scheveningen en Kijkduin (denhaag.nl/nl/vrije-tijd-en-recreatie/regels-op-het-strand-van-scheveningen-en-kijkduin/): cycling “van 1 oktober tot 15 mei mag u de hele dag fietsen” and “in de zomermaanden, van 15 mei tot 1 oktober, mag u alleen fietsen tussen 19.00 uur en 7.00 uur”; “kamperen of ‘s nachts slapen op het strand is niet toegestaan”; the four naturist areas at “Zwarte Pad (paal 96,5-98), Noorderstrand Scheveningen”, “Westduinpark (tussen paal 104 en 105)”, “Zuiderstrand Scheveningen, opgang strandslag 8, Laan van Poot” and “Kijkduin (vanaf paal 108 richting Monster), opgang strandslag 1 Kijkerduin”, with “u mag niet bij alle paviljoens naakt op het terras zitten”; and “van mei tot september is een reddingsbrigade aanwezig”, with the lost-children reception and wristbands. The page makes no mention of kitesurfing
• Haagse Vrijwillige Reddingsbrigade (hvrb.nl): “2 strandposten”, “11 km strand”, “meer dan 120 vrijwillige lifeguards”, and “de Haagse Vrijwillige ReddingsBrigade zorgt al ruim 100 jaar voor de veiligheid van strandbezoekers”. Rip current advice from scheveningenbeach.com: “probeer niet tegen de stroming in te zwemmen”, “laat u meevoeren met de stroming”, “zodra de stroming minder wordt: probeer er omheen te zwemmen”, “probeer met handgebaren om hulp te roepen”. Water quality: zwemwater.nl, the national register, listing “Den Haag Kijkduin, Kijkduinsestraat” with status “goed” when checked on 11 September 2026. Status changes, so the register is cited rather than a reading
• The Pier: depier.nl issues a 301 redirect to sandberghe.nl, a holiday park in Uden. The Pier’s own site is pier.nl, “Strandweg 150-154, 2586 JW Den Haag”, 06 10386859. Redevelopment plan reported by denhaag.com, 11 September 2024: developer RE:BORN, renovation starting early 2026, walkway reopening one year after the start, full reopening expected 2028, a four-star hotel, a smaller family hotel, a luxury spa and a 500-person multipurpose space, and “het iconische reuzenrad blijft centraal”. Ferris wheel specification from skyviewdepier.nl: 50 metres above sea level, “36 closed gondolas”, six to eight persons, “12 tot 15 minutes flights”, Strandweg 156, running “365 days a year”. Bungy Scheveningen (bungy.nl): tower “60 meter hoog”, zipline “350 meter” at “tot 70 km/u”, TUV and ERCA certified; “JUMP 120”, “JUMP & FOTOS/VIDEO + T-SHIRT 190”, “DUO JUMP 220”, “FOTO’S 25”, “GO-PRO VIDEO 30”, “T-SHIRT 25”
• SEA LIFE Scheveningen (visitsealife.com/scheveningen/): Strandweg 13, 2586 JK; “online vanaf 20 in plaats van 25 ter plaatse”; VR “online vanaf 24,50 per volwassene”; annual pass “online 49 per persoon”; combo “online vanaf 36 in plaats van 48”; “vandaag geopend vanaf: 10:00-17:00 (kassa sluit om 16:00 uur)”. LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Scheveningen (legolanddiscoverycentre.com/scheveningen/): “de ultieme LEGO binnenattractie voor gezinnen met kinderen van 4 tot en met 12 jaar”; “online vanaf 21”; schools “8 per persoon”; groups of ten or more “17 per persoon”; annual pass “59 per persoon”; 10.00 to 17.00 with “entree sluit om 14:30”
• Museum Beelden aan Zee (beeldenaanzee.nl): Harteveltstraat 1, 2586 EL Den Haag, “dinsdag t/m zondag: 10:00-17:00 uur”, building by architect Wim Quist
• Hart Beach (hartbeach.nl): “Strandweg 3b, 2586 JK Scheveningen”; “365 dagen per jaar geopend”, “dagelijks: 08:30-zonsondergang”; surf school “al sinds 1990” and the shop banner “Since 1971, Oldest Surf Shop in NL”. Lesson prices are not published on the site and are not quoted. Aloha (alohasurf.nl) menu prices: “Mini Brekkie 12,50”, “Diner Deluxe, 35,-“, with gluhwein listed
• Vuurwerkfestival Scheveningen: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuurwerkfestival_Scheveningen, last edition 2018, cancelled in 2019 “vanwege de te grote belangstelling” and the safety requirements, in 2020 “vanwege de coronapandemie”, in 2022 “wegens onvoldoende politiecapaciteit” and in 2023 “vanwege de hoge kosten en de moeilijkheid bij het vinden van sponsors”; corroborated by Omroep West and Dagblad 070
• Vlaggetjesdag (vlaggetjesdag.com): “vrijdag 19 Juni” and “Vlaggetjesdag op zaterdag 20 juni” for 2026. No 2027 date is published, so none is given. Simonis (simonisvis.nl): “op de plek van het oude ‘Simonis op de Hoek’ verrijst nu Beach House Scheveningen”
• Vliegerfestival Scheveningen (vliegerfestivalscheveningen.nl): “26 en 27 september 2026”, “strand van Scheveningen”, “gratis toegankelijk voor iedereen”. Times and programme are on the organiser’s own agenda and are not quoted here
• Gemeente Den Haag, nieuwe parkeerkosten oude centrum en Scheveningen (denhaag.nl/nl/nieuws/nieuwe-parkeerkosten-oude-centrum-en-scheveningen/), in force from 1 April 2026: on the Seinpostduin, Jongeneelstraat, Pellenaerstraat, Harteveltweg and Gevers Deynootweg, “eerste 20 minuten: 35 cent per minuut”, “daarna wordt het elke 10 minuten duurder”, “langer dan 90 minuten: 50 in totaal”; elsewhere “1e en 2e uur: 1 per uur” and “vanaf het 3e uur: 2,75 per uur”
• Deliberately not asserted: tram journey times from Den Haag Centraal could not be read on an HTM page and are given as approximate; the four year-round pavilions are not named because no page naming them was found; and no Blue Flag status is claimed for either beach