Gelderland · Netherlands
Where to stay in Nijmegen
Nijmegen is a city in Gelderland, Netherlands, home to about 177,000 people. This guide covers 3 hotels in Nijmegen, with about 329 rooms between them.
- Places to stay in this guide
- 3
- Best months
- May to September
- Nearest airport
- NRN33 km · Weeze (Niederrhein) Airport
- Currency
- EUReuro
- Time zone
- Europe/Amsterdam
- Language
- Dutch
About
About Nijmegen
Nijmegen is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands and the first to be recognized as such in Roman times.
With about 160,000 inhabitants, Nijmegen is a relatively large city in the southeast of the Netherlands. It's the main town in the Arnhem-Nijmegen metropolitan area (pop. 736,000 in 2011) and a major stronghold of the Dutch socialist and 'green' parties. The town's written history goes back to the first century BC, when a Roman military settlement was established at this place. The local hill provide good views over the surrounding valleys and the rivers Rhine and Waal that pass by here. A village grew around the Roman stronghold. In the year 98 it gained Roman city rights.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Nijmegen
See
Nijmegen is widely considered to be the oldest city in the Netherlands, celebrating her 2000th birthday in 2005. Not a whole lot of very old buildings are left in town: first the Americans carpet-bombed it in February 1944, later the Germans shelled it for about 5 months after the liberation in September 1944, and finally there were a lot of very rigorous city planners in the 1950s, 60s and 70s who finished what the Americans and Germans started. There are still a few noteworthy sights, however. Valkhof hill downtown features a Carolingian chapel (ninth century AD) and a small remainder of an imperial castle that was demolished in 1798. From Valkhof hill walk west through the Burchtstraat.
- Valkhof Museum
- St. Stevenskerk
- Nationaal Fietsmuseum Velorama
- Aunt Hannie Movie and TV series museum
- Africa Museum
Do
- Gebroeders van Lymborchfestival
- Guided city tour
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Places to stay in Nijmegen
3 places to stay from the chains this guide covers, each linked to its own website.
| Place to stay | Rooms |
|---|---|
| Hotel Cuijk - Nijmegen hotel | 157 |
| Hotel De Molenhoek - Nijmegen hotel | 56 |
| Hotel Nijmegen - Lent hotel | 116 |
Schematic: the city centre in orange, each place to stay as a dot, distance rings in kilometres.
Where to stay
Which part of Nijmegen to stay in
Nijmegen has many hotels, although budget options are remarkably limited. The opposite is true for high-end lodging. Finding a place to sleep during the summer festival and the four day's marches is absolutely impossible. Everything will be booked full months in advance. To give you an idea; during these days the population of Nijmegen swells from 160,000 to 1,800,000. It goes to the extent of people needing accommodation because they're walking the marches being taken into private people's homes and sleeping in sporting arenas. However, during the festival many trains and buses run around the clock, giving the opportunity to find a place to stay outside the city.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
More hotels in Nijmegen
1 hotel within 25 km of the centre, as recorded in Wikidata. Each name links to its encyclopedia article where there is one.
| Hotel | Opened | From centre |
|---|---|---|
| Sanadome Hotel & Spa | 1995 | 3.7 km |
When to go
The best time to visit Nijmegen
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Nijmegen are May to September. August is the warmest month, with average highs of 24 °C; December is the wettest, with about 78 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Nijmegen: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Weeze (Niederrhein) Airport (NRN), about 33 km from the city centre in a straight line; Eindhoven Airport (EIN, 56 km) and Düsseldorf Airport (DUS, 88 km) are also within reach.
Getting in
Airport Weeze (NRN), located 45 km southeast of town just across the border with Germany, between the villages of Weeze (Germany) and Nieuw-Bergen (Netherlands) (the airport itself is in Germany). Although Ryanair (the major airline serving the airport) advertises it as Düsseldorf-Weeze, Düsseldorf is not anywhere near the airport. The city of Düsseldorf is 100 km (60 miles) to the southeast of the airport, making Nijmegen the closest major city to the airport. Weeze serves about 30 destinations, across Europe and Northern Africa.
Getting around
Nijmegen is very bike-friendly, and the old downtown area is compact (every place in the downtown area can be reached within 20 minutes from the Central Station by foot) Commuter trains serve the neighbourhoods of Lent, Dukenburg and Heyendaal (the campus area), as well as the nearby town of Wijchen. The regional bus company, RRReis, connects every neighbourhood in Nijmegen to the city center with city buses. RRReis also runs regional buses into the suburbs as well as towns outside the city.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
NRN · Weeze (Niederrhein) Airport
EIN · Eindhoven Airport
DUS · Düsseldorf Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Nijmegen
Eat
If you love pizza, you'll find yourself well-catered for. Many pizza-restaurants are specialized in take-away/delivery, but there are several nice options if you'd like to sit down. Most of the establishments also offer other Italian dishes. Being a student town (roughly 21,000 students in a population of 160,000) there are plenty of relatively cheap restaurants ("eetcafés") to be found. Look for them in the Van Welderenstraat and on Kelfkensbos. Fast Food is also widely available in the city center, with numerous snackbars often offering traditional Dutch snacks, but also Turkish dishes.
Drink
Downtown Nijmegen and the neighborhoods just next to it are positively swarming with pubs and cafés.
Stay safe
Nijmegen is a perfectly calm and quiet city; as it lacks the hustle and bustle of urban behemoths like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the city is safe overall. Some drunkards and vagrants might linger around the different train stations (especially Centraal) and the city center on weekends, but there's an ample police presence and locals will defend you if you're threatened. The Waal River might be the backbone of Nijmegen, but it is not a lazy river, and it sees a lot of maritime traffic year round. Avoid swimming too far into the river.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Nijmegen: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Nijmegen?
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Nijmegen are May to September. August is the warmest month, with average highs of 24 °C; December is the wettest, with about 78 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Nijmegen?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Weeze (Niederrhein) Airport (NRN), about 33 km from the city centre in a straight line; Eindhoven Airport (EIN, 56 km) and Düsseldorf Airport (DUS, 88 km) are also within reach.
What currency is used in Nijmegen?
euro (EUR).
Nearby
Destinations near Nijmegen
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.