A rainy day in The Hague

At Hoek van Holland, the nearest coastal weather station to The Hague, measurable rain falls on about 187 days a year and adds up to 872 millimetres.

That sounds like half your life indoors.

The second number is the one that matters: it is actually raining only 7.3 per cent of the time.

Roughly one day in two has rain in it, and almost none of them is a day of rain.

So the correct plan is not a whole day indoors.

It is a two-hour bolt-hole you can reach without getting soaked, and the confidence to walk out again when it stops.

The coast is also measurably brighter than inland: Hoek van Holland records 1,886 hours of sunshine a year against 1,752 at Rotterdam, fifteen kilometres away.

The wind is the real Hague weather story and it is in the weather and the wind.

The cinemas, and which one to pick

Filmhuis Den Haag at Spui 191 is the best wet-afternoon building in the city and the reason is the café rather than the films.

The box office runs 10.00 to 22.00 every day of the week and the café from 10.00 until midnight, it takes no reservations, and you do not need a ticket to sit in it.

Breakfast, coffee, cake, lunch and a vegetarian dinner, six screens, and 340,000 visitors a year.

Tickets are 12.50 euro standard, 11 euro on weekdays before 16.00, 10 on a CJP or if you are 26 or under, 8 for a children’s film up to age 11, 6.25 on an Ooievaarspas, and free on Cineville.

Student Night on Wednesday evenings from 17.00 is 5 euro.

A ten-film card is 100 euro and it is not tied to one person, which makes it the obvious thing for a household.

Films over 180 minutes, 70mm prints and 3D cost 15.

Flora Filmtheater at De Constant Rebecquestraat 55 is the newest, on the sixth floor of a former telephone-exchange canteen, two small screens of 50 and 49 seats and a restaurant.

It opens Monday to Thursday 14.30 to midnight, Friday and Saturday noon to 01.00 and Sunday noon to 22.00.

Standard 12 euro, 8.50 for 15 to 26 and students, 6.50 for children up to 14 and on an Ooievaarspas, free on Cineville.

Pathé has four cinemas inside the city, not two: Buitenhof 20, Spuimarkt at Spui 65, Scheveningen at Kurhausweg 2A and Ypenburg at Guldenlaan 3.

The IMAX and ScreenX screens are at the Spuimarkt, not the Buitenhof, which people get wrong constantly.

Pathé publishes no standard ticket price at all.

Its own tariff page says the price “varieert afhankelijk van de weekdag, het tijdstip van een voorstelling of de Pathe bioscoop die je bezoekt”, with a further premium for IMAX, Dolby, 4DX and ScreenX.

You find out what it costs when you get to the checkout.

The subscriptions are fixed and published: Explorer at 9.95 euro a month for one film, Unlimited at 23 and Unlimited Gold at 32, each pausable once a calendar year.

Unlimited pays for itself at roughly two visits a month and not before.

One practical note for anyone new: adult films run in the original language with Dutch subtitles, but children’s animations are often listed twice, and the “Nederlands gesproken” version is dubbed.

Check the tag.

Cinemas in The Hague all sit within a few tram stops of each other, so pick on programme rather than on distance.

The dome theatre at Omniversum on the President Kennedylaan is the other screen in the city, and its fulldome films run from 10 euro.

The museum attached to it stays open until 21.00 from Thursday to Sunday, which is covered in the museums, ranked.

Six euro, three floors and five hundred games

The Boardroom at Torenstraat 142 is the best value indoors in The Hague.

Six euro a person buys as many games as you like for as long as you like, plus 10% off anything you buy in the shop; groups of eleven or more and anyone under 16 pay 4.50.

There are three floors and around 500 games in the lending library.

The catch is the week.

It is closed on Mondays and it shuts at 18.00 on Tuesdays, opening 11.00 to 23.00 from Wednesday to Saturday and noon to 19.00 on Sunday.

You can book up to 60 days ahead and no later than four hours before, and they are explicit that walking in to see whether there is space is fine.

The swimming pools, which is the right answer with children

A public swim in a gemeente pool is 4.90 euro, or 4.20 if you are under 14 or over 65.

A twelve-visit card at 49 euro means you pay for ten, it lasts two years and it works at every Hague pool.

An Ooievaarspas halves all of it.

For a wet afternoon with children there is one answer: Het Hofbad in Leidschenveen-Ypenburg, which the city calls its most modern and which has the slide, the diving tower, the whirlpool and the wild-water creek.

Het Zuiderpark has a 40-metre slide.

De Houtzagerij is the nearest to the centre and is a plain swim: deep pool, shallow pool, toddler pool.

Do not turn up at Escamphof, which is a supervised therapeutic pool and not open swimming.

Swimming pools in The Hague and the lesson system are in The Hague with children.

On spas, be realistic.

The Hague has no large thermen of its own.

The nearest serious ones are Thermen Holiday in Schiedam and Elysium in Bleiswijk, both about half an hour away by car, and neither is in this city.

Spas and saunas in The Hague are small hotel and club operations rather than day-long destinations.

Everything under one roof at De Uithof

De Uithof at Jaap Edenweg 10 is an ice rink, a real snow ski slope, a kart track, a climbing and bouldering hall, padel courts, indoor golf, laser game, an F1 simulator and karaoke, in one complex.

Public skating on the summer ice in the hockey hall is 9.50 euro, a twelve-trip card is 128 and a season card 435, with skate hire from 8.50 to 16.50 and a helmet at 4 euro.

The trap is the opening week: it is closed Monday and Tuesday, and runs Wednesday to Friday 13.00 to 22.00, Saturday 09.00 to 22.00 and Sunday 09.00 to 18.00.

Prices for the karting, the ski slope and the padel are not published on the site, so ask.

The rest of the indoor list, with the days they are shut

Unlock Scheveningen at Schokkerweg 44 runs three escape rooms of 60 minutes in Dutch or English, priced by group size: 35 euro a head for two, 30 for three, 25 for four, 20 for five or six, 17 for seven and 15 for eight or more.

Go with a crowd.

Its own page contradicts itself on closing times, so telephone.

Bowling. Ockenburgh Active at Wijndaelerduin 25 charges 28 euro a lane per hour on Wednesday and Thursday and 31.50 from Friday to Sunday, with a bowl-and-grill deal at 34 or 37.50 a head.

It is closed Monday and Tuesday.

Bowling Scheveningen at Gevers Deynootweg 990 has 24 lanes and opens seven days, from 13.00 or 15.00 depending on the day, but publishes no prices at all.

Planet Jump, a trampoline park in a converted church at Stadhoudersplantsoen 28, is five minutes from the Kunstmuseum and charges 9.50 euro an hour for ages 4 to 12, 6 euro for under-4s, with parents free and a twelve-trip card at 95.

Read the opening days carefully: closed Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, open Wednesday 12.00 to 17.00, Friday 12.00 to 18.00 and weekends 10.00 to 18.00.

Peakz Padel at Van Hogenhoucklaan 35 in Benoordenhout has three genuinely indoor courts alongside three outdoor, open every day from 07.00 to midnight, with racket hire at 5 euro and a set of balls at 7.95.

Court prices vary by time of day and are shown when you book.

mudlab at Gevers Deynootweg 126 is ceramic painting for 48 euro a head, including the glazing, the tools, the professional finishing, drinks and either two small pieces or one medium one.

Walk-ins are welcome, alone or in a group.

Closed Monday and Tuesday, open Wednesday and Thursday 10.00 to 21.00, Friday to 18.00 and weekends to 17.00.

More of this sort of thing is in hobby groups and evening classes.

The rainy Monday problem

Count them up.

The Boardroom, Ockenburgh Active, De Uithof, Planet Jump and mudlab are all closed on Mondays, and the first four plus mudlab are closed on Tuesdays too.

The Kunstmuseum, Panorama Mesdag, Beelden aan Zee, Escher, the Louwman and Museum Beelden aan Zee all close on Mondays as well.

The Atrium of the city hall is shut on Sundays.

What is open on a wet Monday: the Mauritshuis, the Gevangenpoort from 11.00, Museon-Omniversum from 09.30, the swimming pools, the cinemas, the library from 10.00, De Passage from 11.00, and Madurodam, which opens 365 days a year.

Plan accordingly rather than discovering it at the door.

Warm, dry and free

The Atrium in the city hall at Spui 70 is the most underused room in The Hague.

It opens at 07.00 on weekdays and runs to 19.00, to 21.30 on Thursdays and 09.30 to 17.00 on Saturdays, closed Sundays and public holidays.

It puts on around 50 free exhibitions a year plus music, dance and theatre, takes more than 4,000 people a day, and holds Jan van Goyen’s 4.6-metre Gezicht op Den Haag on long loan.

Through October 2026 it shows an exhibition on the history of the city’s swimming baths, which is a very Hague thing to find in a town hall for nothing.

The central library at Spui 68 opens 10.00 to 21.00 on weekdays and 10.00 to 18.00 at weekends, and is one of 18 branches.

Membership is 40 euro a year for an adult, 28 for over-65s and for 18 to 26-year-olds who are not students, 10 for students and scholieren, 19 for a small pass that lends six items a fortnightly cycle, and free for everyone under 18 and for Ooievaarspas holders.

If you only want a computer, the first two and a half hours a year are free to non-members and a PC pass beyond that is 5 euro.

Libraries in The Hague are the default answer for a free warm afternoon.

The Nationaal Archief runs a free exhibition, Opstand & Vrijheid, alongside its ticketed one.

Its own page says the free display can be seen seven days a week and then lists the building as closed on Monday, Saturday and Sunday, which cannot both be true, so check before you go.

And De Passage is a covered nineteenth-century street you can walk down for nothing: Monday 11.00 to 18.00, Tuesday to Saturday from 09.30, Thursday until 21.00, Sunday noon to 17.00.

It is in the shopping streets and what each is for, along with the malls, which are the other obvious dry option.

So are the nine kringloop shops, most of them open on Sundays, in second-hand, vintage and kringloop.

Where to sit it out with something hot

Chocolate Company on the Turfmarkt is directly opposite Den Haag Centraal, which means you can get to it without getting wet, and opens at 07.00 on weekdays, 09.00 on Saturday and 09.30 on Sunday.

Its Hotchocspoon comes in more than 60 flavours.

For something local: the Haagsche hopje dates from 1792, when Baron Hop asked Theodorus van Haaren, a sugar baker on the Lange Voorhout, for a coffee-flavoured sweet.

They were sold as Bonbons van Baron Hop and had been renamed Haagsche hopjes by the end of the nineteenth century, and a facade stone at Lange Voorhout 92 marks the spot.

‘t Bakkertje at Oude Molstraat 38, founded in 1838 and the oldest bakery in the city, sells them in a bag and in a tin, Monday to Saturday 07.30 to 17.00, alongside a saucijzenbroodje at 2.65 euro and its own speculaas at 5.75.

The Haagsche Hopjesfabriek Baron Hop on the Bezuidenhoutseweg is a working museum in a former family bakery, but it opens only on the first Sunday of the month from 11.00 to 16.00, or by appointment, so it is not a solution to a random wet Tuesday.

Bakeries in The Hague and the cafes are the low-effort version of all of this.

One last thing not to do: do not go and look at the Japanese Garden.

It is open only a few weeks a year and the gemeente states plainly that in heavy rain it closes.

The dry-weather version of this list is in twenty things to do in The Hague, the free version in free things to do, and if the forecast is genuinely hopeless, a day trip within an hour gets you to a museum in another city for the price of a tram fare and a bit more.

Sources

• KNMI climate normals 1991 to 2020, station 330 Hoek van Holland (cdn.knmi.nl klimtab_9120_330.pdf): annual precipitation 871.8 mm, precipitation duration 635.8 hours or 7.3% of the time, 186.8 days with 0.1 mm or more and 132.2 days with 1 mm or more, 1,886.5 hours of sunshine at 40.0%, mean annual temperature 11.0 degrees. Station 344 Rotterdam (klimtab_9120_344.pdf): 881.5 mm, 670.5 hours or 7.6%, 187.2 days with 0.1 mm or more, 1,752.0 hours of sunshine at 37.1%, mean 10.7 degrees
• Filmhuis Den Haag (filmhuisdenhaag.nl): Spui 191, 2511 BN; “Met zes filmzalen, studio’s, een tentoonstellingsruimte en een sfeervol filmcafe”; “Jaarlijks bezoeken meer dan 340.000 mensen het Filmhuis”; “Van maandag t/m zondag is de kassa van 10.00 tot 22.00 uur open en ons cafe van 10.00 tot 00.00 uur”; “We nemen geen reserveringen aan”; prices “Standaard tarief-12,50”, “Dagtarief (ma t/m vr tot 16.00 uur)-11,00”, “Cineville-gratis”, “CJP-10”, “Jongeren t/m 26 jaar-10”, “Kinderfilm (t/m 11 jaar)-8”, “Ooievaarspas-6,25”, “Lange film (>180 min)-15”, “70MM film-15”, “3D film-15”, “Student Night-woensdagavond vanaf 17.00 uur studentenkorting 5,00”, and “Een rittenkaart voor 10 voorstellingen naar keuze kost 100. De rittenkaart is niet persoonsgebonden”
• Flora Filmtheater (florafilmtheater.nl/praktische-info): “De Constant Rebecquestraat 55, 2518 RC Den Haag”; Monday to Thursday 14:30 to 00:00, Friday and Saturday 12:00 to 01:00, Sunday 12:00 to 22:00; “Standaard: 12,00”, “15-26 & studenten: 8,50”, “Kinderen t/m 14: 6,50”, “Cineville: gratis”, “Ooievaarspas: 6,50”; two screens of 50 and 49 seats, on the sixth floor of a former KPN telephone-exchange canteen
• Pathe (pathe.nl/nl/bioscopen/stad/den-haag): “Pathe Buitenhof-Buitenhof 20”, “Pathe Spuimarkt-Spui 65”, “Pathe Scheveningen-Kurhausweg 2A”, “Pathe Ypenburg-Guldenlaan 3”; the IMAX and ScreenX headline appears on the Spuimarkt page. Tariff page (pathe.nl/nl/info/tarieven-informatie): “De ticketprijzen van Pathe varieren afhankelijk van de weekdag, het tijdstip van een voorstelling of de Pathe bioscoop die je bezoekt” and a separate tariff for “3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, Dolby Atmos, 4DX, ScreenX”. Subscriptions (pathe.nl/nl/abonnementen): Explorer “1x per maand naar de bioscoop… 9,95”, “UNLIMITED… 23,00”, “UNLIMITED GOLD… 32,00”, each pausable for one month per calendar year. Dubbed children’s titles are listed as “Nederlands gesproken” on the film listing
• Gemeente Den Haag, kosten zwemactiviteiten and zwembaden en voorzieningen (denhaag.nl/nl/sport/zwemmen-en-zwembaden/): 4,90 per visit for 14 and over and 4,20 for under-14s and over-65s; “12-badenkaart… 49… 42”; “Deze badenkaart is 2 jaar geldig en kunt u gebruiken in alle Haagse zwembaden. Heeft u een Ooievaarspas? Dan krijgt u 50% korting”; Het Hofbad “is het modernste bad in Den Haag met veel baden, een glijbaan, duiktoren, whirlpool en wildwaterkreek”; Het Zuiderpark “recreatiebad met een glijbaan van 40 meter”; De Houtzagerij “heeft een diep, ondiep en peuterbad”; Escamphof “is een therapeutisch zwembad… niet voor vrij zwemmen”
• The Boardroom Den Haag (the-boardroom.nl): “Voor 6,- per persoon per bezoek kun je zoveel spellen spelen als je wilt EN krijg je ook nog eens 10% korting op jouw spelaankopen. Vanaf 11 personen betaal je 4,50 per persoon. Kinderen tot 16 jaar betalen ook maar 4,50”; “Drie verdiepingen en duizenden spellen”; “In onze Library zitten rond de 500 spellen”; “Reserveren kan maximaal 60 dagen vooraf en minimaal 4 uur voor aanvang… Je kunt natuurlijk altijd gewoon langslopen om te zien of we plek hebben”; hours closed Monday, Tuesday 11:00 to 18:00, Wednesday to Saturday 11:00 to 23:00, Sunday 12:00 to 19:00; Torenstraat 142
• De Uithof (deuithof.nl and deuithof.nl/ijsbaan/schaatsen/tickets-en-tarieven/): “Jaap Edenweg 10, 2544 NL Den Haag”; ice rink, snow slope, kart track, climbing and bouldering, padel, indoor golf, laser game, F1 simulator and karaoke; “Zomerijs | IJshockeyhal 9,50”, twelve-trip card 128, season card 435 for 3 October 2026 to 19 March 2027, skate hire 8,50 to 16,50 and a helmet at 4; site hours closed Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday to Friday 13:00 to 22:00, Saturday 09:00 to 22:00, Sunday 09:00 to 18:00. Kart, ski, climbing and padel prices are not published and are not quoted
• Unlock Scheveningen (unlockscheveningen.nl): “Schokkerweg 44, 2583 BJ Den Haag”; per person 35 for two, 30 for three, 25 for four, 20 for five or six, 17 for seven and 15 for eight or more; three rooms, “60 minuten spanning en plezier”, in Dutch and English. The page gives two conflicting sets of opening hours
• Ockenburgh Active (ockenburghactive.nl/prijslijst/): “Wijndaelerduin 25, 2554 BX, Den Haag”; “28,00 per baan per uur” Wednesday and Thursday and “31,50 per baan per uur” Friday to Sunday; “Bowl en grill arrangement dinsdag t/m donderdag 34,00 p.p.” and “Vrijdag t/m zondag 37,50 p.p.”; closed Monday and Tuesday. Bowling Scheveningen (bowlingscheveningen.com): “Gevers Deynootweg 990, 2586 BZ Den Haag”, “24 bowlingbanen”, opening from 13:00 to 15:00 depending on the day, with no prices published
• Planet Jump (planetjump.nl): “Stadhoudersplantsoen 28, 2517JL Den Haag”; “Jump & Play (4-12 jaar): 9,50 p.p. uur”, twelve-trip card 95, “Play (onder 4): 6,00 p.p. uur”, parents and supervisors free; closed Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, Wednesday 12:00 to 17:00, Friday 12:00 to 18:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
• Peakz Padel Den Haag Benoordenhout (peakzpadel.nl): “Van Hogenhoucklaan 35, 2596 TA Den Haag”; “3 binnen- & 3 buitenbanen”; open daily 07:00 to 00:00; racket hire 5 and a ball set 7,95; “Bij het reserveren van een padelbaan zie je precies hoeveel de baan op de verschillende momenten van de dag kost”, so no flat hourly rate is quoted here
• mudlab (mudlab.nl/workshop-ceramic-painting): “Gevers Deynootweg 126 C-E, 2586 BP Den Haag”; “48,-p.p.” including “glazuren, tools, professionele afwerking, koffie/thee/fris en wat lekkers” and “2 kleine keramiek items of 1 medium”; “Je mag alleen komen en aanschuiven, met z’n twee of met een hele groep”; “Wo-Do: 10:00-21:00 uur, Vr: 10:00-18:00 uur, Za-Zo: 10:00-17:00 uur”, “Maandag en dinsdag gesloten”
• Atrium Den Haag (atriumcityhall.nl): “Spui 70, Den Haag”; Monday to Wednesday and Friday 7:00 to 19:00, Thursday to 21:30, Saturday 9:30 to 17:00, “Zondag & Feestdagen: gesloten”; “jaarlijks gemiddeld 50 culturele, educatieve en maatschappelijke gratis toegankelijke tentoonstellingen”; “De ruimte wordt dagelijks door meer dan 4.000 mensen bezocht”; the agenda listing “Haagse zwembaden door de tijd heen” for 1 to 31 October 2026. Jan van Goyen’s Gezicht op Den Haag, 4.6 metres wide, on display there because the Haags Historisch Museum is closed
• Bibliotheek Den Haag, Centrale Bibliotheek (bibliotheekdenhaag.nl): “Spui 68, 2511BT ‘s-Gravenhage”; Monday to Friday 10:00 to 21:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00 to 18:00; 18 branches listed. Membership page: Basispas 40 euro a year, Pluspas 50, Sterpas 72, “Kleine pas… voor slechts 19 euro per jaar! Je mag dan 6 stuks per 3 weken lenen”, students and scholieren “10 euro”, 18 to 26 non-students “28 euro per jaar in plaats van 40 euro”, 65 and over 28, under 18 free, free with an Ooievaarspas; “PC pas… kost 5 euro” for non-members using the computers more than two and a half hours a year; reservations 0,25
• Nationaal Archief (nationaalarchief.nl/beleven/tentoonstelling/opstand-vrijheid): the exhibition is “zeven dagen per week gratis te bezichtigen”, while the same page states “Maandag, zaterdag en zondag: gesloten / Dinsdag t/m vrijdag: 10.00-17.00 uur”. The contradiction is the archive’s own and is reported rather than resolved
• De Passage (depassage.nl): Monday 11:00 to 18:00, Tuesday to Saturday 09:30 to 18:00, Thursday to 21:00, Sunday 12:00 to 17:00, with “individual stores may maintain different hours”; “the oldest covered shopping center in the Netherlands”, opened 4 May 1885
• Chocolate Company Den Haag (chocolatecompany.nl/nl/locaties/den-haag/): “Turfmarkt 254, 2511 DJ Den Haag”; Monday to Wednesday 07:00 to 18:00, Thursday to 19:30, Friday to 19:00, Saturday 09:00 to 19:00, Sunday 09:30 to 19:00; the Hotchocspoon “available in more than 60(!) different flavors”. Prices are not published on the page
• Haagsche hopjes: Haags Historisch Museum (haagshistorischmuseum.nl/ontdek/verhalen-over-den-haag/haagse-hopjes/) on Baron Hop asking Theodorus van Haaren, a sugar baker on the Lange Voorhout, for a coffee-flavoured brok in 1792, the sweets sold as Bonbons van Baron Hop and renamed Haagsche hopjes by the end of the nineteenth century, and the facade stone at Lange Voorhout 92. Haagsche Hopjesfabriek Baron Hop (haagschehopjesfabriek.nl): “Bezuidenhoutseweg 108 B, Den Haag”, “Geopend: iedere 1e zondag van de maand van 11.00 uur tot 16.00 uur en op aanvraag”. ‘t Bakkertje (hetbakkertje.nl): “Oude Molstraat 38, Den Haag”, Monday to Saturday 07:30 to 17:00, founded 1838 and described on its own site as the oldest bakery in Den Haag, selling Haagsche hopjes in a bag and a tin, with “Ambachtelijke speculaas: 5,75” and “Saucijzenbroodje: 2,65”
• Gemeente Den Haag on the Japanse tuin (denhaag.nl): “Bij slecht weer, bijvoorbeeld tijdens harde regenval, kan de tuin tijdelijk worden gesloten”. Sauna: no large thermen exists inside The Hague; the nearest, Thermen Holiday in Schiedam and Elysium in Bleiswijk, are outside the city, and no operator price could be read on an own site, so none is quoted