• Get around
• See
• Do
• Buy
• Eat
• Drink
• Music
• Sleep
• Get out

Hilversum is a city in North-Holland, located in a region of woods and heath, about 30 km southeast of Amsterdam.

Hilversum grew from a village to a small city, largely because it became the center of Dutch broadcasting. Media and related sectors dominate the economy, and influence the type of people who live in the area. Incomes in the region - known as Het Gooi - are well above national average.

[edit] Get in

[edit] By train

Hilversum is an Intercity station and therefore has great train connections with the surrounding towns. It's even possible to take a direct train from and to Berlin.

• To Amsterdam, usually from platform 5
• To Amsterdam/Zuid, Schiphol, Almere and Leiden, usually from platform 4.
• To Amersfoort, usually from platform 2 or 3.
• To Utrecht, usually from platform 1 or 2.

The main station is a five minutes walk from the center.

[edit] By car

You can reach Hilversum from the A27 highway from Utrecht and from the A1 highway from Amsterdam. The city rings are often congested and parking options in the centre are fairly limited.

[edit] By bus

Some regional busses run from Utrecht Central station, but they will travel much slower than the train.

[edit] Get around

There is a limited local bus network in Hilversum, centred on Hilversum station. Also, there are three train stations in Hilversum. Hilversum Sportpark in the south, the central station Hilversum and Hilversum Noord opposite the Media Park and the Beeld and Geluid Experience. The stations are about 1500 meters apart.

[edit] See

• Hilversum City Hall, which is created by the famous architect Dudok in 1935. This building has been recreated in Japan, because of the original architecture. Every Sunday at 14.00 one can visit city hall (admission €3,40) and climb the 40 meter tall tower (separate admission €1.13). Scattered around the city are more buildings of Dudok, such as schools, a cemetary and houses. The tourist office has a special city walking or cycle tour to visit these buildings.

[edit] Do

• Beeld en Geluid Experience Dutch Audiovisual archives. [1]

• Museum Hilversum shows the art and history of Hilversum after 1850. [2]

• Pinetum Arboretum Blijdesteijn is part of the University of Amsterdam and has a large conifer, sequoia and rhododendron collection. [3]

[edit] Buy

[edit] Eat

• On the little side streets of the Groest there are plenty of little restaurants.

Thai Food: Chiang Mai, Havenstraat 20 in Hilversum, The Netherlands, phone 035-6248191 - Good Thai food with all the usual dishes including some with rabbit and turkey. Reasonably priced and good service.

Ice Cream: IJssalon De Jong, Havenstraat 93, 1211 KJ Hilversum Tel.: 035 6246295 Must try flavour: apple and cinamon. Het IJscafé, Emmastraat 2, 1211 NG Hilversum Tel.: 035 6241788. Must try flavour: stroopwafel

Tapas: Las Tapas, Havenstraat 18B, 1211 KL HILVERSUM T: 035 622 08 48 http://www.lastapas.nl/ Restaurant was full which is always a good sign. Menu is in Dutch so we were unable to read it well. The wait staff all spoke English and were really friendly. We told them our food preferences and they ordered for us. We ended up with 4 dishes per person which was more than enough. The good ones were the garlic bread, artichoke and feta salad, garlic prawns, sautéed mushrooms, bruschetta with feta and pinenuts. The bill was very reasonable for all the food and the sangria. Definitely worth a visit. Be warned, they only accept cash.

Indian: Surya, Langestraat 126 1211 HC Hilversum Tel.: 035 6319420 http://www.suryarestaurant.nl Staff were friendly, food was as good as I've had anywhere else, portions were big, price was ok but more on the expensive side than the cheap side. Gulab Jamin were good.

Chinese: Royal Mandarin, Emmastraat 9 1211 NE Hilversum Tel.: 035 6400801 http://www.royalmandarin.nl Staff were really friendly, we were given 2 starters free of charge, good peking duck, pretty expensive, also takeaway.

Pizza: Restaurant Lorenza, Langestraat 134, 1211 HC Hilversum Tel.: 035 6241037 Takeaway pizza is really good. Hawaiian pizza had strips of prosciutto instead of shredded ham, base was thin. 2 pizzas cost €19

[edit] Drink

[edit] Music

[edit] Sleep

[edit] Get out