Bars in The Hague: Where to Drink

Every good night in this city starts the same unglamorous way. A chair scrapes back on a terrace, someone says “zullen we er eentje pakken” (shall we grab one?), and the first round arrives sweating in the glass. The Hague doesn’t rush its drinking. Before the clubs and the cellar bars comes a whole civilised ritual of where you sit for hour one, and that choice tells you a lot about who you’re drinking with tonight.

Grote Markt: the loud, cheap, unavoidable start

Sooner or later everyone lands on Grote Markt, often against their better judgment and usually glad they did. It's the densest stretch of terraces and bars in the city, lined with awnings that fill up from late afternoon, and by Thursday night the square belongs almost entirely to students and twenty-somethings from the nearby university buildings and language schools. A glass of pils will set you back roughly €3 to €4.20 (check the board on the day), a basket of bitterballen is always somewhere nearby, and the noise level is what you'd expect from groups of friends warming up for a bigger night out. Nothing about it is subtle or romantic, but it's genuine, and if you want to see how The Hague really parties on a Saturday, this is where the night starts revving up. Head somewhere else first if you're after conversation, and come here once you're ready for noise.

Het Plein: suits, ministries, and the after-work unwind

A five-minute walk away, tucked beside the Binnenhof and the Dutch parliament buildings, Het Plein is a different animal entirely. It’s a leafy, formal square lined with terraces that fill from around 5pm with civil servants, lobbyists, journalists and lawyers loosening their collars after a day in the political machinery next door. This is The Hague’s power-drink square. You feel it in the prices, since a beer here can run a euro or more above Grote Markt, and in the conversation, which tends to be hushed, pointed, and occasionally overheard in ways that make you wish your Dutch were better. Go for the terrace theatre as much as the drink: watching a government city relax in real time, tie loosened, phone finally face-down, is its own kind of entertainment.

Denneweg: where the evening slows down on purpose

If Grote Markt is the shout and Het Plein is the murmur, Denneweg is the slow exhale. This narrow street, lined with boutiques, small galleries and antique shops by day, runs toward the Royal quarter. By evening it turns into a run of wine bars and cosy lounges that draw an older, more settled crowd, the kind of people who order a glass of something specific rather than “whatever’s on tap.” Portions are smaller, prices reflect the attention paid to the pour, and nobody’s in a hurry. It’s the right first stop for a date, a reunion with an old friend, or any night when you want to actually hear the person across from you. Come dressed a little better than you think you need to.

Zeeheldenkwartier and Nieuwe Schoolstraat: the craft-beer locals

Just outside the centre, the Zeeheldenkwartier (its streets are named after Dutch naval heroes) has quietly become the neighbourhood where The Hague’s beer geeks and natural-wine converts actually live and drink. Around Nieuwe Schoolstraat you’ll find small, owner-run bars with rotating taps and Dutch and Belgian craft brews you won’t see on Grote Markt’s menus. The clientele skews local rather than touristic: nurses, designers and teachers who live three streets over and treat the bar like an extension of their living room. It’s unpretentious despite the beer knowledge on tap, and it’s the area to pick if you want a first round that feels like being let in on a local secret rather than sold a night out.

The brown café and the jenever ritual

Underneath all the newer bars sits an older Dutch institution worth understanding before you order: the bruine kroeg, or brown café, named for the nicotine-and-varnish patina on decades of wood panelling. These places are unhurried, dimly lit and often family-run, and they’re where jenever, the Dutch spirit that gin descends from, gets taken seriously. Order it the local way: a small tulip glass filled to the brim, no ice. The custom is to bend at the waist and take the first sip before lifting the glass off the bar, so you don’t spill a drop. A jonge (young) jenever is lighter and closer to vodka; oude (old) is maltier and fuller, and it’s the one regulars tend to order. Pair it with a beer chaser and you’ve done your first round the properly old-fashioned way.

Scheveningen: the seasonal sunset round

From late spring through early autumn, a lot of locals skip the centre for the first drink and head straight to the coast. Scheveningen’s boulevard and pier are lined with beach bars and pavilions where the sun going down over the North Sea is the real entertainment. Order a beer or a gin-tonic, kick off your shoes, and watch the light turn orange over the water before anyone mentions moving on to a club. It’s more expensive than the centre and absolutely packed on the first hot weekend of the year, but it’s close to non-negotiable if you’re here in July. Outside beach season, most of these places cut their hours drastically or close altogether, so don’t plan a February pilgrimage.

Etiquette and honest practical notes

• Rounds: Dutch drinking groups do buy rounds (“rondje”), but bill-splitting is equally normal and nobody will blink if you ask for separate tabs.
• Tipping: optional, since service is included, but rounding up or leaving 5–10% at a table with table service is common and appreciated.
• Terrace hours: outdoor seating is licensed and policed for noise. Don’t be surprised if a terrace visibly empties or quiets around 10–11pm on residential streets like Denneweg or in the Zeeheldenkwartier, even if the bar itself stays open.
• Smoking: banned indoors everywhere. Most bars have a small outdoor or semi-covered smoking area, sometimes just the terrace itself.
• The tourist mistake: arriving at a “hot nightlife bar” at 8pm and finding it half-empty. The Hague’s first round genuinely starts around 5–6pm as a wind-down, and the energy only tips into nightlife after 10 or 11.