Rotterdam: Europe's hottest design destination

Everything you need to know about Amsterdam's sister city from sustainable architecture to Michelin-star grub

3 May 2022

Urban industrial port turned futuristic architectural playground, Rotterdam is entering a new era. Nearly entirely flattened during World War II, this sprawling metropolis has been in a constant state of renewal since the 1940s, and newness is intrinsic to the city's identity. After teetering at the grittier end of ‘up-and-coming’ for more than a decade, the city is now emerging as an international hub for sustainable innovation and cutting-edge design.

Now the first stop on the new Eurostar route to Amsterdam, Rotterdam is easier than ever to explore. The city is the antithesis to its more northerly neighbour, and its diversity excites those visitors who come for the warehouse food markets, concept shops and bold architecture. Dubbed the Dutch Brooklyn, Rotterdam offers a fresh alternative to charming, time-locked Amsterdam. Here you’re more likely to find art students on skateboards than tourists taking selfies.

MarkthalOssip van Duivenbode

Cranes, cargo ships and concrete dominate the Rotterdam skyline. It’s a place of industry that can feel grey and bleak on one block, yet vital and electrifying on the next; therein lies its magic. Here are the best things to do in Rotterdam, Europe’s hottest design destination.

Ludo MAGNOUX / Martin MENDEZ
The best Rotterdam hotels
Hotel âme
It wasn’t too long ago that an overnight stay in Rotterdam meant booking a bland business hotel or a past-its-prime historical number. In the past few years, though, fresh boutique hotels have cropped up all over town—and âme, with its Scandi-Japanese design and third-wave coffee-shop vibe, is the smartest of the bunch. Regardless of type, the room designs are universally austere, with subtly plastered walls and palettes of taupe and beige. Black steel fixtures furnish the bathrooms, while linen bedspreads and curtains add a tactile touch. You’ll have to venture out for meals, but given the hotel’s plum position on the Eendrachtsplein, finding excellent restaurants within walking distance is a breeze. Chris Schalkx
Peek into the landmark Hotel New York even if you’re not a guest. Formerly the Holland-America Line office, this was once the spot from which thousands of European emigrants set sail in search of a better life across the Atlantic. There’s usually a good atmosphere here and the spacious suites have views over the river Maas. Just along the pier and also in Kop van Zuid district is the new, hip and colourful Room Mate Bruno (pictured above), which draws a young crowd of creatives sitting with laptops in the hotel’s shared workspaces.
Willem Melssen
For a more intimate experience, try the smart Suite Hotel Pincoffs (pictured above), set within the old customs house, one of Rotterdam’s few remaining pre-war buildings. Dutch hotel group Citizen M opened its Rotterdam outpost in 2013 – an affordable option in a central position in the Oude Haven (old port), with floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows giving views on to the Maas. In the same maritime area, Mainport is Rotterdam’s top wellness hotel with an eighth-floor spa with Finnish sauna, steam room and hammam. The Dutch tend to go nude at the spa so if you’d rather stay clothed opt for the swimming pool instead.
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Things to do in Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and one of the busiest in the world; get a feel for just how vast it really is by visiting the Euromast tower, which gives a bird’s-eye view from 185 metres up. If you’d prefer to get closer to the action, Spido runs 75-minute harbour tours by boat.
The best park is Kralingse Bos, complete with a lake where you can rent dinky sailing boats and swim in the summer (beware of the naturist section). There are also lots of inviting restaurants and cafés with tables spilling out to the water’s edge. Try De Tuin van de Vier Windstreken for a typically Dutch brunch: bread with sprinkles, ham, cheese and boiled eggs.
Romain Laprade
The best restaurants and cafés in Rotterdam
Once Europe’s largest red-light district, the Katendrecht has been transformed in recent years and is now the city’s foodie centre. Deliplein square feels almost Parisian with tables spilling out onto the pavements. Bistrot du Bac completes the experience serving up oysters, snails and steak tartare. There are lots of good cafés here too: Nine Bar for rocket-fuel coffee and cookies; Sajoer for zingy detox juices and Kopi Soesoe for brunch through to evening beer with live music to go with it. If you’re with friends and looking for somewhere to host a special dinner, Posse’s private-dining cabin is a quirky and romantic space that seats up to 10. The area is also home of the Fenix Food Factory (pictured below), a waterfront warehouse-turned-street food market with an in-house brewery, Kaapse Brouwers. Anyone with a sweet tooth must sample the Dutch speciality at Stroop Rotterdam where the stroopwafels are pressed on-site and served piping hot with oozing caramel middles.

Amaly
More diverse than most Dutch cities (nearly half the population was born outside of the Netherlands), Rotterdam has a wide variety of excellent international cooking. Tucked around the back of the Markthal on a scruffy street corner, visit local favourite Hinoki Noodle Soup, which doesn’t look like much from the outside, but always has a queue for the steamy bowls of ramen and fried-chicken dumplings. Nearby, the Pannekoekstraat is full of independent restaurants, cafés and delis – a lunchtime highlight is Panzero, a specialist in Puglian street food: order a panzerotti stuffed with mozzarella and sweet peppers. For the city’s best wood-fired pizzas head to Old Scuola and get the American diner experience at By Jarmusch with its all-day menu of pancakes and maple syrup, and bottomless filter coffee.
Rotterdam is also pulling in world-class chefs. You’ll need to book at Héroine, where the regulars sip cocktails on slick aluminium bar stools before sitting down for the set tasting menu. Wine aficionados should visit the Michelin-starred Fitzgerald where the extensive list features more than 1,000 bottles of wine and Champagne. The very best Japanese plates in the city are found at Yama (pictured above) where you choose either a five or seven-course set menu of daily-changing small plates with sake pairings. You’ll need to book up to two months ahead. As you might expect for a port city there’s also exceptional seafood, the best of which is found at Zeezout, which has pulled in diners for 20 years, with a menu that includes a delicious Rotterdam paella with turbot, octopus, vongole, chorizo and crispy chicken skin.
Titia Hahne
Shopping in Rotterdam
The coolest block in town centres around the offices of MVRDV, the architecture practice behind the city’s Markthal. Start at Groos (pictured above), a hipster design store where you can pick up About Blanks notebooks or printed UNU tote bags made by Rotterdam residents. Continue around the corner to the Goudsesingel where brands blur the lines between workshop-studio-office-shop, so you feel as though you’re right there at the design level.
Titia Hahne
Stop at Rook for slick road bikes, Evernow (pictured above) for houseplants and chic homewares, Vico for eco-friendly sneakers and Lou-La for trinket bowls of jingly jewellery as well as children’s and womenswear. Van Oldenbarneveltstraat is a wide avenue for more established names such as Dutch concept store Hutspot (also in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven), Susan Bijl for neon backpacks, and fashion boutiques such as Nen Xavier.

Titia Hahne
The coolest bars in Rotterdam
If you’re in town when there’s a big game on, Panenka Bar screens the big matches, while providing a cosy and welcoming atmosphere that will keep non-sports fans happy too. Enjoy drinks in the sun on the top deck at Vessel 11 before heading downstairs for live music and dancing. It’s also the dock for the Hot Tug – wood-fired hot tubs to bob about in with a group of friends and a drink. Later in the evening, the mescal bar at Mexican Alfredo’s Taqueria (pictured above) has a hopping terrace at the back that stays open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights.
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Rotterdam architecture
You’ll likely arrive by train into the monumental Centraal Station, completed in 2014. Wide platforms, high-glass ceilings and a vast wood-panelled ticket hall carry an air of contemporary sophistication. Step outside and look back at the façade with its modernist typography and great diagonal sweep, like the bow of a ship, that points towards the city centre. Explore on foot: from the station, head south down the Westersingel canal before dipping off east into the aptly named Cool District in the centre.
The Dutch are advocates of mixed-use architecture, evident in the Markthal where the football-pitch-sized floor space serves as a buzzing food market, and the horseshoe-shaped surround is filled with affordable housing and office space. Be sure to visit at dusk or after dark when the interior comes alive with Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam’s epic mural, Horn of Plenty, lighting up the vast interior with giant fruits, flowers, seeds and insects.
Across the road is Piet Blom’s Cube Houses (pictured above). It’s almost as if the architect twisted the two-up, two-down like a Rubik’s Cube to create these extraordinary homes. You can take a look around one for just £2.50: it’s a surreal experience and quite a relief to step back outside again into the beehive-like courtyard, which fosters a neighbourly community in an otherwise bleak landscape.
Bridges are another architectural highlight. Most famous is the Erasmus Bridge that connects the north and south sides of the city. Nicknamed The Swan thanks to its 139-metre-high pylon, it’s a dramatic sight and even more so when the southern section is raised like a drawbridge allowing larger ships to pass by. More recently, the bright yellow Luchtsingel Bridge was designed for pedestrians as the first crowdfunded public infrastructure in the world.
Aad Hoogendoorn
Art and design in Rotterdam
A walk down Witte de Withstraat with its cocktail and beer bars and independent shops is a must for any visitor. It’s also an artistic enclave with colourful graffiti and street art at every corner, and a scattering of bricks-and-mortar contemporary galleries, including the famous Witte de With (pictured above).
Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room dominates the entrance to the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Find paintings by big-name artists such as Cezanne and Rothko and an interesting sculpture garden too. Nearby is the Kunsthal that shows a rolling series of exhibitions: 2018 saw a celebration of Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf; up next is Surf Tribe, a series of black and white photographs from Belgian photographer Stephan Vanfleteren’s (13 October 2018–13 January 2019). The building, designed by famed architect Rem Koolhaas, is as interesting as a space in its own right with a different façade on each side.
Ossip van Duivenbode
Sustainability in Rotterdam
Sustainability is at the forefront of the architectural agenda, and the world’s eyes are on Rotterdam, where innovation is ingrained into the DNA. Exciting projects include the recent Smog Free Tower, which vacuums up pollutive particles and pumps out clean air, and the Windwheel, which will open as a major landmark by 2025. A contemporary take on the traditional Dutch windmill, the huge project will use cutting-edge technology to generate more energy than it uses while serving as a hotel with space for housing, offices, a cruise terminal and a futuristic ferris wheel with mobile touch-screen cabins that will take you under the water in air-tight pods.
Getting about in Rotterdam
Just like Amsterdam, Rotterdam’s primary means of getting about is on two wheels. Rent a bicycle with the city’s bike-hire scheme called Donkey Republic, and explore the streets like the locals, either by the day, or hop on and off. The zippy water taxis are another fun way to get about costing about £4 (per person) to cross from the north to the south side of the river.
Getting to Rotterdam
British Airways (britishairways.com) has direct flights from London City to Rotterdam airport (50 mins). The direct Eurostar (eurostar.com) from London St Pancras to Rotterdam Centraal takes three hours; the return takes four hours with a change in Brussels.
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Titia Hahne
Mexican sharing plates at Alfredo's Taqueria.
Femke Poort
Millennial pink and palm prints at Evernow.
Willem Melssen
Suite Hotel Pincoffs is set within one of Rotterdam’s few remaining pre-war buildings.
Hutspot, www.hutspot.com
Dutch concept store Hutspot.

Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Mirror Room by Yayoi Kusama at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Romain Laprade
Héroine Restaurant & Bar, which is so popular you're advised to book months ahead.

TopicsGuides Europe Netherlands Rotterdam

The best Rotterdam hotels

Things to do in Rotterdam

The best restaurants and cafés in Rotterdam

Shopping in Rotterdam

The coolest bars in Rotterdam

Rotterdam architecture

Getting to Rotterdam