Ever since Palace Noordeinde in Den Haag opened its doors in 2016 I receive questions about the summer opening and how to get tickets. Keep your eyes open towards the end of June, as only then it thus far has been announced when exactly the palace and the royal stables open their doors for the summer. The ticket sale usually starts quickly afterwards, and starts early in the morning (about 9am). Only in 2019 it was possible thus far to visit both the palace and the royal stables on one day.
Visits to the Noordeinde Palace (and the stables) are unique, as actually staff tells the visitors about their work, the palace and its inhabitants. And they know a lot of details too. Furthermore there are a few items with a theme on display each year, there are uniforms, tables are being laid differently too.
The Noordeinde Palace
The palace is open on four Saturdays a year. The dates can change yearly and depend on the summer holidays of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. As the palace is not really huge and is a working palace, where the royal couple and people working for the court have their offices and working spaces, it is impossible to open the palace more often.
- 23 July 2016 and the three Saturdays afterwards. The ticket sale started on 30 June at 9am. Sold were sold out at 4pm.
- 15 July 2017 and the three Saturdays afterwards. The ticket sale started on 30 June. Sold out again within a day.
- 28 July 2018 and the three Saturdays afterwards. The ticket sale started on 28 June. Sold out within a day once again.
- 3 August 2019 and the three Saturdays afterwards. The ticket sale started on 4 July. Tickets sold out within a day.
The royal stables
The royal stables are close to Palace Noordeinde and are part of the palace area. Here you can find horses, carriages and cars. The tickets don’t sell out that quickly and usually you can still get tickets days beforehand.
- 26 July 2016 and the four weeks afterwards, four days a week (16 afternoons).
- 18-21 July, 25-28 July, 1-4 August 2016 from Tuesday to Friday (12 afternoons).
- Three weeks from 1 August 2018, from Wednesday to Friday (9 afternoons).
- 2 August 2019, each Friday and Saturday for four weeks (8 afternoons).
Ticket sale
The tickets are only 6 Euro each, and the proceeds are being used to cover a part of the costs for the opening. There are no combi tickets, so you have to order each seperately. Order the one for the palace first, as these are sold out quickest. Getting tickets for the stables is much easier. To order tickets you need to give your full first names and your surname(s) as they appear on your passport. This also counts for eventual other people you order for. You can order for four persons in total for the palace, for twelve people for the stables. Children until the age of 4 are free, but still need a ticket with their name on it. These tickets also don’t count in the amount of tickets you can order.
If you want to visit both locations – only possible since 2019 – you should take care that there is at least 1,5 hours between the starting times of your tickets. A usual visit to the palace at least takes one hour, if not more.
You can order the tickets on this website: https://tickets.paleis-noordeinde.nl/ The website is available in Dutch and English. A warning, by times the website might be very busy and it could be hard sometimes to get through to order tickets. Keep on trying. I know people who tried very hard in the previous years, but only managed this year to get tickets.
Don’t forget to bring your passport to your visit as you will need to identify yourself!
Booklets
When you visit you receive a booklet about the palace and the royal stables for free, which is also available in English. Furthermore there is a booklet about the palace and the stables for children and a quiz about the royal stables for children, also these are available in English. It is newly printed each year I think, and the booklet has a foreword by King Willem-Alexander himself.
There are no souvenirs on sale, but as the palace and the stables are in the middle of the city, shops are close by.
Tip
The school holidays of the children of the royal couple in 2020 again starts rather late in July, so I guess as a foreigner booking a stay in The Hague or The Netherlands, or a few long weekends off in the first weeks of August might be a good idea when you really want to see it.
There is by the way no guarantee that the palace and the stables will be open in the future too, but I would be surprised if they would close their doors again anytime soon, given the fact that especially the palace is really popular and the tickets (10.000 a year) thus far sell out quickly.
The palace and stables on Google Street View.
If you have any more questions, let me know and I will try to answer.