Groningen
Discover Groningen
Groningen is a lively student city in the Northern Netherlands. It is the capital of a province with the same name and home to about 217,000 inhabitants (2023), making it the largest city in the north. A university town with some 50,000 students gives the city its famous vibe; a pleasant youthful atmosphere, some fine historic heritage and with plenty of things to do. Archaeologists have found traces of habitation from the Neolithic and the later Iron Age. The city appeared in writing in the year 1040 as "Villa Cruoninga", apparently already a place of some significance. The city has a rich history, which can be seen clearly from the Medieval buildings in the downtown area.
What to Experience in Groningen
Taste of Groningen...
A typical 'Groninger' specialty is Groninger worst, a sausage made from raw minced pork which is then air dried. You can buy this sausage in every supermarket and butchery. When visiting a snackbar, you should try a eierbal. The eierbal is a ball-shaped croquette, filled with veal and a whole egg. The eierbal is seen as the Groninger variant of the Dutch croquette. The Netherlands is known for its cheese. Groningen has some typical Dutch cheese stores: Groningen continues the 'simple and straightforward' cuisine that the Netherlands is known for. Nevertheless the centre of Groningen has many nice little cafes or restaurants where you can eat. As befits a real university city, there are plenty of cafe-restaurants where you can eat for about €15. Groningen's reputation as a university town is borne out in its nightlife, which is comprehensive, with numerous options for drinking and clubbing. There are also several places to play pool/billiards. Most bars have the standard Dutch beers, but more and more international, especially Belgian, beers are beginning to have a presence. Bars in the down town area do not have fixed closing hours. Theoretically they can stay open for 24 hours a day, which a few bars do. The largest nightlife area in Groningen is the Poelestraat area, located southeast of the Grote Markt. Here you'll find a lot of clubs and bars. The busiest nights are Thursday to Friday (student night) and Saturday to Sunday.
Climate
The temperate climate is pleasant in Groningen, without extremes due to its coastal climate. Due to its location in the north of the Netherlands, during winter the average temperatures of this city are slightly lower than the average of the rest of the Netherlands. Snow and freezing temperatures are common in the winter but rarely last more than a few days. 30°C in the summer is not exceptional. Most average daytime highs in summer are around 22°C. Daylight hours run from 05:15 - 22:00 in the summer months to 08:45 - 16:15 in the winter. Groningen is served by 53.129236.586651 Groningen Airport Eelde, (GRQ ), Machlaan 14a Eelde, ☏ +31 50 3097070. The airport of Groningen offers two flights per week from Gdansk (Wizz Air), and various other scheduled flights from selected cities and holiday destinations in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Canary Islands and Turkey.
Essential Information
Getting There
Multiple OptionsGroningen is served by 53.129236.586651 Groningen Airport Eelde, (GRQ ), Machlaan 14a Eelde, ☏ +31 50 3097070. The airport of Groningen offers two flights per week from Gdansk (Wizz Air), and various other scheduled flights from selected cities and holiday destinations in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Canary Islands and Turkey. The Brussels, Munich and Copenhagen flights are operated by Nordica, in cooperation with Star Alliance members such as SAS, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. Therefore, many destinations are reachable from Groningen with a transfer at Copenhagen Airport, Munich Airport or Brussels Airport. Groningen is also easily reached by direct train (2.5 hr) from Schiphol Airport, which has far more direct connections than Groningen Airport. By Dutch standards, it's a fairly long way from the major destinations in the western Netherlands. Getting here, however, is not hard. Groningen has three train stations, the main station (53.2105566....
Getting Around & Staying
Getting Around
Like most cities in the Netherlands, Groningen's historic city center is surrounded by a canal, the diepenring. Most of the sights are within this area, and the Central Station is 50 m outside it, and the museum built in it. Within the diepenring, traffic is very restricted; Groningen's centre is designed to be as traffic-free as possible, and it is very difficult to drive and park within this area. Even resident parking permits are strictly rationed. However, the central area is compact and can be easily crossed on foot or with a bicycle. Further out, Groningen has a loosely connected ring road, consisting of several N-roads forming a rather square ring shape around the centre. The city sprawls somewhat and crosses this ring in places, but most of the population live within this area. Cycling is the best way to travel around. Getting from any place in Groningen to the centre will take at most 20 minutes. This makes the bike a fast, cheap and easy way to travel in Groningen.
Where to Stay
As it is a fairly popular city trip destination among the Dutch, Groningen has plenty of choices for places to stay. There are no real top-end hotels however, so if you're out for luxury, you'll have to resort to some of the better mid-range places. Still, there are several very nice, historic hotels as well as a range of semi-modern and modern mid-range options. Travellers minding their budgets will find that accommodation here is relatively cheap. In case of medical emergency, Groningen is well-served by a wide variety of hospitals and other medical facilities. The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) is the main hospital. It is one of the largest hospitals in the world, offering supraregional tertiary care to the northern part of the Netherlands. The Martini Hospital is the second hospital, located in the south of the city. As of July 2022, Groningen has 5G from all Dutch carriers.
Money & Budget
Groningen is the largest place to go for shopping in the region, and offers a wide range of large and small stores, including international and national chains and a good number of small speciality shops. With some exceptions, shops close at 18:00 on weekdays and Saturday and Sunday at 17:00. Thursday is "buying-evening", on this day a lot of shops are open until 21:00. In downtown almost all shops are open on Sundays, but not before noon. Supermarkets are generally open from 08:00-22:00. All streets within the central canal ring are low traffic due to restrictions - but watch out for cyclists, who don't often pay attention to pedestrian crossings.
Safety Information
Glimpses of Groningen
Hoge & Lage der A in Groningen, The Netherlands
Netherlands Groningen
View to a canal with boats, street with old buildings, made during golden hour.
black concrete building during night time
A row of bikes parked next to each other on a street
A view of a beautiful, historic building.
Some Colorsfull houses at reitdiephaven
Martinitoren as seen from the Forum.
brown and gray concrete building under cloudy sky during daytime
silhouette of person standing on top of building during night time
Hoge & Lage der A in Groningen, The Netherlands
Netherlands Groningen
View to a canal with boats, street with old buildings, made during golden hour.