Dordrecht

Explore the Enchanting Charms of Dordrecht

You would really enjoy Dordrecht, a beautiful historic town that is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, and for a while, one of the richest. It is considered the oldest city of Holland, a province in the west part of the country which includes North and South Holland. With its authentic Dutch charm, pedestrian streets, and fascinating history, this picturesque and often overlooked gem is waiting to be discovered by avid travelers and curious wanderers.

The city's medieval charm is evident in its well-preserved architecture, with winding streets lined by picturesque buildings that showcase a blend of Gothic, Renaissance, and Dutch Golden Age influences.

In the old days, Dordrecht was the main entry port for all trade goods coming into the Netherlands, because it is located at the confluence of three major rivers, including tributaries of the Rhine, which has been called the busiest river junction in Europe.

This setting enabled Dordrecht to collect taxes on all of the goods coming through the city, making this place the richest town in all of Holland for several centuries, until 1618, when Rotterdam took over the trade.

That strong economy created many of the wonderful historic sites we now see in Dordrecht, which were constructed during that golden age. Some buildings in the city center date back to the Middle Ages and have been remarkably preserved. Historic harbors are now marinas, and old streets buzz with a modern vibe.

Dordrecht has some unique narrow streets lined by ancient buildings, along with all the great architecture and flower gardens to enjoy. The most outstanding building is the Grote Kerk, or "Great Church," a stunning example of Gothic architecture built in the 13th century. You'll see some modern shopping areas, but the main attractions are the beautiful old historic buildings and canals.

Dordrecht is located in the southwest part of the country, in the region called South Holland, at the junction of those three major rivers: the Oude Maas, the Merwede and the Noord. Dordrecht is one of the oldest towns in the Netherlands, officially made a city in the year 1220.

Getting here

You could easily visit Dordrecht as a day trip from Rotterdam and come down by boat. It helps to get an early start so you can pack a lot of action into this one big day. While leaving Rotterdam, you'll enjoy the sights of bridges and modern buildings in the busy harbor.

In 30 minutes you arrive at Kinderdijk, where, you could get off to look at the windmills and then continue to Dordrecht on another 30-minute boat ride. See our Kinderdijk page for more information, and the official website for Kinderdijk.

At Kinderdijk you could get off and have a look at the windmills for a couple of hours, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Or you could just stay on board for  30 more minutes, enjoying the scenery and interesting boat traffic, then arrive in Dordrecht. Or you could take a 20-minute train ride from Rotterdam directly to Dordrecht. Perhaps do it both ways, take the boat to get here and the train to get back to Rotterdam, with boat departures every 30 minutes.

Arrival

The Dordrecht boat dock is conveniently located on the edge of the old town, and the train station is on the other side ot town. It's easy to see everything on foot because the old town is small, just one kilometer long.

You'll soon have a fine view of one of the marinas that had been a significant historic harbor called Wijnhaven (Wine Harbor), named for wine, one of the main products shipped through here. Wijnhaven had been a major commercial harbor, now a recreational marina, as you'll see later on the boat tour. Take a walk across Boombrug, a bridge that brings you to a nice part of the old town.

The impressive brick structure  on the waterfront is called the Groothoofdspoort and was the main city gate entrance into Dordrecht, located at the riverfront arrival dock for visiting ships. This part of the river is still a busy dock for cruise ships, tugboats and barges.

The gate was first built in Gothic style during the 14th century and later reconstructed in the Flemish Renaissance style in the early 17th century. Above the gate is an impressive sculpture of the city arms of Dordrecht, held up by two griffins. On the other side, facing the river, there's a relief of the Dordrecht Virgin holding the city shield in her right hand and a palm branch in her left hand, surrounded by 16 shields of allied cities. A plaque on the building describes how Dordrecht repelled an attack in 1418.

From here, follow the signs to Wijnstraat, one of the city's most attractive streets. In the mid-17th century, this Renaissance-style building was home to a mayor who also built the structure next to it called Onbeschaamde, which means shameless. There's a naked little boy in the pediment, often referred to as the Mannequin Pis of Dordrecht. The house is a prime example of Dutch classicism.

Cross the harbor on Nieuwbrug to the east side, where you will arrive at  Voorstraat, the longest shopping street in town. There is a bit of traffic, but not bad -- it's a very pedestrian-friendly town. It is easy to miss Zakkendragersstraat, one of the town's narrowest alleys. In the past, dockworkers would walk this route, carrying heavy loads on their shoulders and leaning against the wall for support.

Just beyond that alley, you'll see a beautiful building with some baroque flourishes. It houses Wereldwijven Ateliers, a social enterprise that employs over 80 women from diverse backgrounds. The women create beautiful handmade products like cushions, scarves, and bags made from sustainable textiles.

A nearby historic building hosts an art gallery called Pictura, which is the oldest artists association in the Netherlands. It was also home to the Master of the Mint, which is next door to the mint, or in Dutch, the munt, which served as the place where coins for the province of Holland were produced from 1367 to 1806. It was later used as a wine warehouse and clothing warehouse; today, it functions as a music school.

Crossing back over the canal on Visbrug, a bridge that was widened in 1901, forming a little plaza with room for bicycles, pedestrians, restaurants, outdoor dining, benches to relax, and a view of the canal. Translated as fish bridge, it's the site of a former fish market. Coming up, we will be continuing on to the great church and around back on Voorstraat again, into the modern shopping area.

There is which a statue on the bridge honoring two important political leaders who were born in Dordrecht, Johan and his brother Cornelius DeWitt. Johan became leader of the country from 1650 until 1672.

Departing the bridge, we turn left, where Wijnstraat has become Groenmarkt, which had been one of the favorite places for the wealthy to live. It's still a quiet residential neighborhood.

Stadhuisplein

Further along that street, we find the picturesque setting of City Hall on Stadhuisplein. This location was the site of a fabric market back in the 14th century. City Hall was then built and later given a neoclassical facade in the mid 17th century. Now it's used mostly for events, weddings and visitors, with the government offices moved elsewhere. The building extends right across and over the canal.

Continuing along, that same street changes name again to Grotekerksbuurt, which means the neighborhood of the Great Church. So here we are between the City Hall and the main church, which had been the heart of the city, now filled with historical buildings and shops, offices and residences above, along with picturesque canal bridges that some people use for fishing.

The full name of the city is Dordrecht, but the locals just call it Dordt. It's a relatively small city with population about 120,000, annual visitor count about 100,000. So, this is not a crowded city filled with tourists by any means. As you look around, it seems to be pretty much all local.

Grote Kerk

We have now arrived at the Grote Kerk, the great church. Officially called the Church of Our Good Lady, construction began in the late 13th century in the Gothic style and was finished about 200 years later. It's the largest church in town, with a tower 79 meters tall and 275 steps to the top, which visitors can climb.

There are homes attached to the outside of the church. In the Netherlands, it was common to find houses built onto the exterior of the old Gothic churches, sometimes for church officials or communal dwellings for church members, occasionally used for shops. But even today, they are occupied by ordinary citizens.

An intersection near the front of the church has five streets coming together, one of which is Voorstraat, the longest street in the city center -- we saw a different part of it earlier. This section is a beautiful pedestrian zone. If you have limited time in your visit and wanted to see the most representative street, go to Voorstraat. Our route walking along Voorstraat shows many side lanes, some for pedestrians, and then we'll head around through the modern shopping area to the main plaza, Statenplein.

The historical architecture of these streets has been beautifully preserved, with many of the buildings dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries with a mix of architectural styles, including the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical.

The neighborhood was a bustling commercial center in the old days, home to merchants and traders who contributed to the city's prosperity. As we get more into the main shopping area, the streets get wider and they're not exclusively for pedestrians, but automobiles are restricted. The speed limit is only 15 kilometers per hour, so this is definitely a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly zone.

It's a lovely retail mix of shops, most of which are independent and privately owned, so you don't get the big, expensive chain stores coming into these little side streets, along with major brands and some department stores, as we get into the heart of this busy downtown shopping zone and retail complex, which has a much more modern appearance than the old streets that we've previously been walking through.

Statenplein

Statenplein is the core, the central heart of the city's shopping area, a fine example of urban planning where many of the historic buildings were preserved. The large fountain and many benches were installed, and then other new shops sprang up around the square, with those big chain stores and small specialty shops. Then Statenplein extends beyond the plaza as the busiest shopping street in the city, going for several more blocks in a protected zone where no cars are allowed. So this is paradise for pedestrians and bicycles, a great place to go shopping.

All of that is a result of major urban renewal that has gone on for decades and aroused quite a bit of opposition and demonstrations, but the result seems quite brilliant. There is a need for constant and ongoing upgrading and renovating, some of which happened while I was visiting, putting in some beautiful new paving stones with an attractive herringbone pattern and smooth surface that makes it easy to walk on.

By encouraging these modern developments in the shopping area of the city, Dordrecht has been able to preserve all of those historic streets that we've been walking on earlier. They developed a clever zoning plan facilitating development of the modern shops that everybody wants, with strict conditions and funding to protect the old buildings, creating the best of both worlds.

We have just one more historic site to consider to complete our walking tour.

Regenten- Of Lenghenhof is an old residential courtyard dating back to 1755. It was a home for elderly women and is still occupied today by 40 residents, with a sundial in the center. The original eight houses were supplemented with new homes in the 19th century. It's around the corner from the very busy and modern Johann De Witt street, lined with some fancy stores and a few historic buildings along the way.

Boat Ride

A visit to Dordrecht is incomplete without a leisurely boat ride, gliding past those ancient historic old brick buildings, especially rewarding in a well-preserced, historic place like Dordrecht. The enjoyable boat ride is an easy way to see the city, a good supplement to walking through the historic center.

The boat was pretty empty when I was there in the shoulder season in late September. During the summer, it gets busier, and you can even make reservations or buy your tickets online. Several companies offer boat tours that start right in the center of town, so it's quite easy to find a good ride with a local skipper, typically 10 euro for a one-hour ride.

The route goes underneath several bridges, where you get that tunnel-like feeling, and then emerges back onto the "canal." While it looks like a canal, rather narrow, with buildings along both sides, Dordrecht does not have actual canals. They call them harbors or havens because this was a harbor town, very important in the old days of trade and commerce.

This next bridge is just in front of City Hall, the Statehouse with its grand neoclassical facade. Soon it passes Grote Kerk, the big church.

From the boat you get a great view, looking up the side of this impressive Gothic structure, the largest church in the city. Construction began in the 13th century as a Catholic church, became Protestant in the Reformation in 1572. The tower is 79 meters tall, making it one of the highest in the Netherlands, with four large clocks on top.

Next, we leave the narrow waterway of the harbor and enter into the broad river, the Oude Maas. There are many cargo and passenger boats on this busy river, including the Waterbus that will take you to Rotterdam on a one hour boat ride.

The boat tour stays in the wide river for a short while and then goes back into another harbor, Nieuwe Haven. This harbor now functions as a marina for mostly pleasure boats but was a very important commercial harbor in the past. Passing beneath the Lange IJzeren Brug (Long Iron Bridge), with a middle part that opens and 25-meter sections on each side.

The leisurely ride through this small boat harbor offers a serene, picturesque experience. As you glide through the calm waters, you're surrounded by a vibrant tapestry of colors, reflections in the calm water, a backdrop of historic buildings and people in the street, sleek lines of yachts, hulls of sailboats, creating a visually stunning scene. The quiet hum of life at the marina invites you to slow down and take in the surroundings, savoring a moment of peace and tranquility.

As we go under the Roobrug bridge, we enter the other section of this inner harbor called Wolwevershaven. You'll see Straatman, a dock used to lift ships partly out of the water so that they could be repaired. Built in 1928, it's still in operation today, making it a living monument.

This part of the harbor still has quite a few cargo ships, which continue the maritime trade that has been happening here for 800 years. As mentioned earlier, several major rivers entered the Netherlands through Dordrecht. Therefore, trade goods from throughout Europe had to come through Dordrecht to get into the Netherlands. Now we've left the harbor and come out to the point where the three large rivers converge: the Oude Maas, the Merwede and the Noord.

Our tour boat then leaves the river and heads back into the harbor where we started the journey. It's called Wijnhaven (Wine Harbor), named for one of the many products that came through here. Other goods included grains, metals, fabrics, and timber, which were taken off the cargo boats in the old days, onto the dock, counted up and then taxed.

It was a system called the Staple, where Dordrecht was considered the Staple of the country. This enabled Dordrecht to collect taxes on all of these goods coming through the city. Imagine if Amazon had to send all of its packages through your house before reaching their destination, allowing you to take a profit from each item. This is what Dordrecht was doing, collecting a fee to let the goods go through.

In the old days, the timber industry was very important here. Large trees from the Black Forest or Swiss Alps came down the Rhine as loosely bound rafts, which were broken up at Dordrecht and sawn into lumber by many windmills that fringed the town. The planks were then used to build ships and houses, further adding to the great wealth of Dordrecht.

In typical Dutch fashion, some people live on the boats in the marina. There are 70 permanent berths, some with large, comfortable sailboats, others with houseboats. The boat returns to the dock on Wijnhaven, ending the ride where it began.

Departure

This has been a long, productive, and wonderful day. We started early in the morning at Rotterdam, took the boat down to Kinderdijk to see the windmills, and then continued our visit to Dordt, all in one day.

You might spend a couple of nights here for a more leisurely, in-depth visit. They've got a whole bunch of different hotels of varying qualities, some of them very old and with modern facilities—that would be nice, too. Here we are presenting this as a round-trip day trip from home base in Rotterdam to Kinderdijk and Dordt.

Now it's time to get to the train station for the ride back to Rotterdam, which only takes 16 minutes. The Dutch train system is superb and so easy to use. You tap in with a credit card, you tap out when you get off, then walk or take a tram to navigate through Rotterdam back to your hotel to rest up and get ready for another big day tomorrow.

Dordrecht map, showing walking routes and locations:

Tourist Information Office

The following information is from the VVV Tourist Information website, an excellent place to find information. The site has much more information than the summary we present here, well worth visiting!

Enjoy 1000 monuments, characteristic streets, culture, water and National Park de Biesbosch. In Dordrecht you can enjoy shopping, admire art in museums or visit one of the many cozy restaurants and bars. You can see Dordrecht as an undiscovered pearl. It's not for nothing that The Times included the city in a list of 30 European undiscovered destinations! Many also know the well-known saying: The closer Dordt…, but often they have no idea of ​​the city and have not even visited it before.

That is why we always say: just wait until you walk around and notice how you can really enjoy Dordrecht!

Think of walking and cycling routes through and outside the center, discovering Dordrecht from the water and special tips for the whole family! Time for a short discovery tour through the oldest city in Holland.

VVV Dordrecht is a warm bath for visitors and residents. Do you want to know what there is to do in Dordrecht or are you looking for real Dordrecht products? The employees are ready to tell you everything about Dordrecht and they are also well informed about all activities. Not only do they know everything about events and highlights of the city, but they also give tips on accommodation options. In addition, you can get city walks here and also cycling routes in the Biesbosch.

Rent your bicycle or e-bike at the VVV

There is an extensive cycle route network of 325 kilometers in the vicinity of Dordrecht. So rent an (electric) bicycle at the VVV and discover historic Dordrecht, the green Biesbosch or the beautiful polders on your own.

VVV Dordrecht rents out Unisex bicycles for € 12.50 per day. If you prefer to get on an electric bike, that is also possible for € 26 per day. Please contact the VVV in advance to avoid disappointment!

On the road through Dordrecht

Dordrecht is beautiful with all its monuments, historic city center and special shops. The Rondje Dordt takes you past the most beautiful places in historic Dordrecht. Stroll along the harbors with the many monuments. Along the way you can visit a museum, go shopping or enjoy a cup of coffee on a terrace. The route is 5 km and you can walk using the walking booklet or follow the signposts with 'Rondje Dordt' .

Take a walk through Dordrecht with your smartphone in hand. In the izi-Travel app you will find various routes through the city center of Dordrecht. While walking you will receive (spoken) information and photos of the sights along the way.

Take a walk with a guide from the VVV

Of course you can discover all the beauty that Dordrecht has to offer yourself, but also consider taking a walk on Saturday morning with one of our experienced guides. They tell you the nicest anecdotes and the most beautiful stories that you probably haven't heard before. For example, do you know why people from Dordrecht are also called 'Sheep Heads'? And did you know that Dordrecht is the oldest city in Holland?

No? You will learn it all during this pleasant and educational walk, which starts at the VVV at Spuiboulevard 99.

Register quickly at the Dordrecht Official Tourist Information site.

Entry tours of Discover Dordrecht

Discover Dordrecht offers surprising and interactive tours through Dordrecht. With the enthusiastic team of guides you will discover the most beautiful stories about Dordrecht. Each tour has its own theme such as Hidden Pearls, Art in Dordrecht and Wine, Gin & Beer. Tailor-made walks and on set dates are possible.

Discover the city with Dordrecht Tours

Discover Dordrecht and its surroundings in an original way with the e-city mobile from Dordrecht Tours. Take a 100% electric tour through the city center of Dordrecht along and with an explanation of all the sights. The city center of Dordrecht has more than 1000 monuments. A tour to the Biesbosch and in the Drechtsteden is also possible.

City Tours are available every day of the week, including team outings, weddings, children's parties and shuttle services. The e-city mobile is suitable for 20 people and can be rented per hour and per day

Boat Dordrecht

Bootje Dordrecht provides boat trips for groups of up to 7 people. Boat trips through the historic harbor area of ​​Dordrecht or through the Biesbosch. Trips with open registration or by reservation possible.

Hotel	Website	Email
De Watertoren	https://hoteldewatertoren.nl/	info@hoteldewatertoren.nl
Hotel de Arendshoeve	http://www.arendshoeve.nl/	info@arendshoeve.nl
Hotel Dordrecht	https://www.hoteldordrecht.nl/en	info@hoteldordrecht.nl
Postillion Hotel Dordrecht	https://www.postillionhotels.com/nl-nl/hotels/postillion-hotel-dordrecht	hotel.dordrecht@postillionhotels.com
Stadshotel Steegoversloot	https://www.stadshotelsteegoversloot.nl/	info@stadshotelsteegoversloot.nl
Van der Valk Hotel Dordrecht	http://www.vandervalkhoteldordrecht.nl/	dordrecht@valk.nl
Villa Augustus	http://www.villa-augustus.nl/new/index-flash.html	info@villa-augustus.nl