Can Amsterdam keep up with the demand for international school places? Amity’s new senior school is a step in the right direction. Time flies when you are a parent and before you know it your children are senior school age. Almost half of all expats in the Netherlands are now staying for longer than five years and the parents among them face a competitive market when seeking places for their children in an international secondary school. Boomtowns like Amstelveen, near... More >

Kristen in Clogland is a blog about an Aussie discovering the Netherlands, travel and adjusting to life in another country. Our family has a big change on the horizon. This time it’s not an international move, it’s a change of schools. Not just your average school move. Our two kids will be moving from the international school system to the Dutch education system. This is no small change, it was an extremely difficult decision for us to make and we... More >

So, you’ve got the job, you’ve found a new place to live and you are ready to get stuck into a new challenge. But what about internet, gas and electricity – those tedious but everyday essentials which can easily get forgotten? In the Netherlands, you have a myriad of gas, electricity and internet companies to chose from, all offering you what they say are great deals, green energy and super-fast download times. It takes a lot of time and effort... More >

The school bell goes, and the long, long weeks of summer holiday stretch ahead. Great news for kids, but what about the parents who need to juggle work, households and – eventually – the inevitable complaint of ‘I’m bored!’? One option is summer camp. For children from 4 to 12, who can’t go away for a whole week at overnight camp, there is still a great variety of day long multi-activity and themed programmes filled with activities and field trips... More >

You might think you can go it alone without an estate agent, but selling a house is about more than simply putting a ‘te koop’ label on your home and waiting for the offers to flood in. In today’s housing market you need to all the help you can get to avoid the sharks and reel in the maximum profits. ‘A photo of a grey street with a grey sky and untidy garden is not exactly going to get the... More >

Video arcades were all but extinct by the end of the 20th century, but they’ve managed to bounce back in recent years. Here in the Netherlands, you can find retrocades, arcades, barcades, pinball parlors, clubs, hotels, and museums devoted to the best games of the past, present, and future. De TonTon Club – Amsterdam (various locations) This small chain of cafes/barcades in Amsterdam was among the first in the recent string of video game centres to pop up in the... More >

Radio is back and the number of podcasts out there has been growing steadily for years. The Netherlands is no exception and while there are plenty of Dutch-language podcasts, there are also plenty of English-language ones as well. Here’s a roundup of podcasts, in English, about the Netherlands. DutchNews.nl jumped on the podcasting bandwagon years ago and Molly Quell, Gordon Darroch and Paul Peeters take you through the week’s news and, most importantly, the week’s ophefs. The podcast is released... More >

Want to learn Dutch? Find a house? Experience Dutch culture, find a job, make connections, or solve immigration and tax issues? Or just want to have a fun day? You can do it all at the I am not a tourist Expat Fair & Feel Good Market in Eindhoven in June. This year makes it four in a row for the I am not a tourist Expat Fair Eindhoven, organised with the Holland Expat Center South and the event is... More >

You will have noticed the sharp jump in your energy costs at the beginning this year – but even without the tax increase that helped push up bills, the cost of gas and electricity in the Netherlands is far above the EU average. Research by energy provider comparison website Energievergelijk.nl has shown that consumer prices for electricity and gas in the Netherlands are far above the average prices in the EU. The energy site used data from the Household Energy... More >

Ana V. Martins is a Portuguese actress turned content creative & social media wizard. Her blog Amsterdive is a project with both a personal accent and a cultural one which, she says, explores her own relationship with Amsterdam, and the Netherlands while focusing on arts and culture, creativity, sustainability and self-development. When, at the first Amsterdive meet-up, I got prompted to write about the downsides of living in Amsterdam, I thought it was an unusual request. My readers know all... More >

After fighting the Dutch healthcare system for six years until she died on New Year’s Eve, Adrienne Cullen and her husband Peter Cluskey were totally at one about why so many bad things happen in hospitals in the Netherlands. It’s because, says Peter, the regulation of the hospitals is based on trust. Hospitals need strict regulation not because they are filled with people with malign intent towards patients – though such people do exist – but because they are enormous,... More >

The first of the blockbuster Rembrandt shows closes this month, so head for the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam to catch up on his social network while you can. Elsewhere, there are several English language theatre shows to enjoy, as well as some classic design in Rotterdam. Come as you are Tiny waists and (hence) corsets are on show at the Amsterdam Museum where the 18th and 19th century costume collection is given an airing. What are these clothes telling us... More >

If you are in the Netherlands at the moment, you cannot fail to have noticed it. Yes, King’s Day 2019 is about to hit and the orange tat is everywhere. Here at DutchNews.nl opinion about King’s Day is divided. Some of us have been collecting our clutter to sell for months, some of us have a 24-hour feest ahead of us and some of us are even leaving the country to get away from it all. All you need is... More >