It’s time to get settled in the Netherlands: Enjoy!
Discover the remaining things you should take care of and start exploring the country more!
1Get active
If you live in the Netherlands for a while you might want to get back into your sports routine or meet some new people at the local gym. Most cities in the Netherlands offer a wide range of sports activities. If you live in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague or Utrecht a good opportunity to explore different studios and sports is OneFit or Classpass abonnement. Both allow you to exercise in a lot of different places with just one subscription. Depending on the city you live in, you pay between €49 and €59 per month. Watch out for promotional deals where you get a discount on your first month. You can quit or pause your abonnement every month.
GOOD TO KNOW: in the Netherlands a membership to the gym usually cost between €20 and €40 a month.
Like in any other country, there are a lot of different team sports in the Netherlands. Amongst students field hockey is quite popular. However, other common sports like soccer, volleyball, tennis, horse riding etc. are popular as well. You might want to google these to find a club nearby.
2Celebrate King's day
One thing you should not miss if you live in the Netherlands is King’s day. On 27th of April, the Dutchies celebrate the birthday of their King Willem Alexander. There are multiple activities on King’s night and day. You heard right, one day of a party would not be enough for the party-friendly Dutchies, so they start celebrating the night before. On King’ s night, in most cities, simply go to the city centre, and you’ll find enough to see and do. Especially in vivid cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Nijmegen, there are stages and stands throughout the whole town. Also, watch out for the flea market. On King’s night and King’s day, citizens are allowed to sell things on the street, and that’s just what people do. In most cities, the flea market is restricted to certain areas.
The most important thing to remember on King’s day is to wear something orange or dress up in the Dutch colours red, blue and white. Even though it might feel silly at home, as soon as you approach the city centre, you will feel left out if you don’t. On King’s night and day, there are multiple open stages and things to do on the street. Pack some beers, and off you go. If you prefer it a bit less casual, there are numerous festivals for King’s day as well.
3Visit festivals
The Dutchies love their (music) festivals, and they do like a good party. The biggest celebration day is the king’s day, which is the national celebration day and is celebrated with a lot of open stages and music throughout the whole country. Another nice country-wide festival you should not miss when living in the Netherlands is Bevrijdingsfestival on 5 May. On this day the Dutchies celebrate freedom and democracy in memory of the liberation from the Nazis in 1945 with free festivals throughout the country. And don’t miss gay pride in Amsterdam, one of the biggest gay events in the world and it’s canal parade with thousands of boats on the canals.
There are also many music festivals which last for several days. Check f.e. Lowlands, Best Kept Secret Festival, Pinkpop, Down The Rabbit Hole, We are Electric, Into The Great Wide Open, Into The Woods, Wildeburg and many more and make sure you buy your tickets early because most festivals in the Netherlands do sell out (fast).
A more local festival is ADE in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Dance Event is one of the biggest festivals for electronic music. In addition to ADE, there are many one-day festivals for electronic music in the Netherlands. Check for example DGTL in Amsterdam, Free your mind in Arnhem, Soenda in Utrecht and many more.
If you live in Nijmegen, you won’t and shouldn’t miss 4daagse, which is a four-day march accompanied by festivity throughout the whole city. As stated earlier: the Dutchies love their festivals. Even though the actual march lasts for “only” four days, the festivity around lasts for ten days straight. So even if you don’t live in Nijmegen, don’t miss Nijmegse 4daagse!
4Get a Dutch driver's licence
If you live in the Netherlands, you can continue to use your foreign driver’s licence for a certain period after arrival. The length of this period depends on the country where you obtained your driver’s licence. If your driver’s licence was issued in a European country before you registered in the Netherlands, you are allowed to use your driving licence for another 15 years after registering in the Netherlands. Check the website of the RDW (Dienst Wegverkeer) for more information regarding the length of the period.
However, if you plan to stay in the Netherlands for a more extended period, it might be beneficial to exchange your foreign driver’s licence to a Dutch one. E.g. in case of loss, it is much easier to apply for a new drivers licence if you already have registered your licence at your municipality. Check the website of the RDW for more information about how to exchange a foreign drivers licence when living in the Netherlands.
6Add the national holidays in the Netherlands to your calendar
If you work in the Netherlands, you might want to know the days you are officially off. In comparison to other European countries, the Dutch don’t have that many National holidays. The National Holidays in the Netherlands are:
- New Year’s Day (1st January)
- Easter Day & Easter Monday
- King’s day (27th April)
- Ascension day
- Whit Sunday & Monday
- Christmas Day & Second Day of Christmas (25th and 26th December)
- Liberation Day (5th May)
which in most companies is a (paid) day off every 5 years. The next time is in 2020.
In most cities, most supermarkets are open on Sundays throughout the whole year. However, on some national holidays, the supermarkets are closed (f.e. Christmas and New Year’s Day) or have shorter openings hours (f.e. Easter and Pentecost). Please be aware that supermarkets might have different opening hours in smaller cities and villages.
7Explore the Netherlands (and Europe)
8Change to Dutch app store without a credit card
If you own an iPhone, you probably still need to change the app store from your country of origin to Dutch after moving to the Netherlands. However, you may have noticed that some of the Dutch apps, like Buienradar (pretty essential if you live in the Netherlands) and Tikkie (maybe even more critical!), are only available in the Dutch app store and therefore can’t be downloaded in other countries than the Netherlands.
To download these apps, you need to change the app store (temporarily). There are two possibilities:
- Change your apple id region to the Netherlands to gain access to the Dutch app store. But be aware that you might not be able to update apps, which are only available in the app store of your origin country. Also, the possibility of changing the Apple ID region is limited to once every three months.
- Create an additional Apple ID with another email address and set the region to the Netherlands. Now you can (temporarily) link your iPhone with your new Dutch Apple ID and download all essential apps.
TIP: To create a Dutch Apple ID, you need to provide a Dutch payment method which you might still need to get. The solution is to buy an iTunes top-up card in the supermarket and use this as a payment method when changing the country of your app store.
TIP: By the way, to use Tikkie, you need a Dutch IBAN number. You can open expat-friendly accounts with ABN Amro and ING. You can find more information here.
The same applies to Android phones. You won’t be able to download Tikkie or Buienradar on an Android phone if your Gmail account is assigned to another country. If you don’t want to switch the country of your current Gmail account, you can create a second Gmail account and register your phone anew.
Do you still need a Dutch phone number? We created a list of all Dutch phone providers and figured out the best deals for you.
