Holiday rentals in Rotterdam

After being almost completely destroyed during World War II, Rotterdam has reinvented itself as a city of glass and concrete. Its distinctive, even avant-garde, architecture include the futuristic main train station, whose angular entrance juts out of the surrounding square; the curvaceous Markthal, featuring a brightly painted ceiling; and the Art Nouveau Witte Huis. For a modern city, a bustling modern city life: Rotterdam’s streets are lined with trendy restaurants and cafes, and the urbane buzz lasts long into the night, migrating from upscale cocktail bars to dance clubs.

You can get a 360-degree view of the city skyline from the top of the 185-meter tall Euromast Tower, which more daring visitors can even zipline or abseil down. You can also search out pockets of Rotterdam with surviving historical sites, such as Delfshaven, where brick houses with step-peaked facades line narrow canals. And if you’re visiting in the spring, no trip to Rotterdam would be complete without venturing into the surrounding villages to wander amid multicoloured tulip fields and iconic windmills.

Each season in Rotterdam has something unique to offer. Summers bring beautiful, sunny weather and long days, giving you plenty of daylight hours to explore town. The shoulder seasons of spring and autumn offer slightly cooler weather but with emptier streets. If you’re visiting Rotterdam in April, perhaps you’ll come across Kings Day, when throngs of people dressed in orange celebrate in the streets, which are alive with music and open-air markets.

During the winter, Rotterdam’s daylight hours are very short and rather gray and drizzly, so warm, waterproof clothing is a must. In December, the town of Dorecht, just 15 minutes from Rotterdam by train, hosts a three-day Christmas market featuring hundreds of stalls selling handcrafted gifts, sweets, and spicy mulled wine.

Cube Houses

Rotterdam’s oddly shaped Cube Houses, located in the Stadsdriehoek neighborhood, almost feel like they may topple over. The individual, bright-yellow apartments in this residential complex appear to be balanced precariously on the corner of one cube, and the front of each cube protrudes sharply over the street. If you want to know more about what they look like from inside, visit the small on-site museum.

Santa Claus

While many cities mount Santa displays during the winter holidays, Rotterdam’s Santa Claus statue has a unique twist. This jolly-looking bronze statue stands proudly in Schouwburgplein square, holding a bulbous Christmas tree in his outstretched hand. While there is some controversy as to whether or not it was the artist’s intent for the statue to appear so crude, it has become one of Rotterdam’s most famous pieces of public art.

Delfshaven

One of the few Rotterdam neighbourhoods left unscathed at the end of World War II, Delfshaven’s streets, on the east side of town, are lined with canals and the quintessential tall, narrow brick buildings with steep gabled roofs that you find throughout the Netherlands. This historic borough is also home to the beautiful Pilgrim Fathers’ Church, with an enormous bell-shaped gable, where the pilgrims congregated for the last time before heading to North America.