©Baarssen Fokke/Alamy Stock Photo

Gelderland

The largest Dutch province, Gelderland embraces a lush green landscape of vast heathlands, forests, corn fields and meandering dykes. During WWII, its capital, Arnhem, was heavily bombed and its river bridges destroyed during the disastrous Operation Market Garden, but the town has since risen from the ashes to become a sparky, modern place with appealing museums and parks.

To the north lies the serene Hoge Veluwe National Park, home to one the country's best art museums and sculpture parks, and a myriad of nature-rich cycling and walking trails. In the south of the province, practically within spitting distance of the border with Germany, big city Nijmegen on the banks of the Waal River honours its distant Roman origins and buzzes with creative energy thanks to its notable student population.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Gelderland.

  • Park

    Hoge Veluwe National Park

    A visit to Hoge Veluwe easily fills an entire day. Highlights include scenic cycling and hiking through pine forests and past unexpected open-drift sand dunes, and gorging on Van Gogh masterpieces in world-class Kröller-Müller Museum in the centre of the park. Eye-popping contemporary art installations and sculptures pepper the museum's extensive tree-shaded grounds. Ticket booths at the three entrances – Schaarsbergen (south), Hoenderloo (east) and Otterlo (west, the busiest of the three) – have basic information and invaluable park maps (€2.50).

  • Museum

    Kröller-Müller Museum

    Nestled between trees, this striking museum has works by some of the greatest painters of several centuries, from Bruyn the Elder to Picasso. Its Van Gogh collection rivals that of the artist's namesake museum in Amsterdam: the world's second-largest, it includes the dark Weavers (1884), The Potato Eaters (1884) and Place du Forum (1888), painted in southern France, among many more, all arranged chronologically to trace the artist's development as a painter. Impressionists include Renoir, Sisley, Monet and Manet.

  • Museum

    National Liberation Museum 1944–45

    An essential for anyone keen to learn about the region's WWII history, the National Liberation Museum is divided into three parts. The introductory, red-walled section analyses the rise of Fascism after WWI and subsequent occupation from September 1939 until June 1944. The blue-walled section, forming the bulk of the museum, relives the liberation (1944–45), while the final, green-walled section looks at the region post-WWII. When the promised, brand-new museum building opens in 2020 more hi-tech displays will be included in the mix.

  • Museum

    Airborne Museum Hartenstein

    Inside a 19th-century, primrose-yellow mansion used by both the British and the Germans as HQ during Operation Market Garden, this much-visited museum does a good job of laying out this disastrous mission and putting it into context. A bunker running beneath the cafe terrace is the atmospheric venue for the Airborne Experience, a dramatic, subterranean maze simulating a night scene from the Battle of Arnhem (17–26 September 1944) using B&W footage from the 1946 film Theirs is the Glory.

  • Palace

    Paleis Het Loo

    This dazzling palace, 3.5km north of downtown Apeldoorn, was built in 1685 for William III, and Queen Wilhelmina lived here until 1962. Until 2021 its furnished interior – the royal bed chambers, the collection of regal paintings, the lavish dining room from 1686 – is closed for extension work costing €123.2 million. But the splendid stables (1907–09) and coach house, magnificent 17th-century gardens with their symmetrically planted flowerbeds and allusive statuary, and palace rooftop offering a bird's eye view of the entire estate all remain open.

  • Historic Site

    John Frostbrug

    The modern and busy replacement for the infamous ' bridge too far ' may not look too dramatic, but its symbolic value is immense. This would have been the last of the 14 bridges over the Rhine that British paratroops had to cross during WWII's infamous Operation Market Garden.

  • Cultural Centre

    Honigcomplex

    No address reflects the city's youthful zest more than this soup factory-turned-entrepreneurial hub, 1.5km west of Grote Markt by the river. Until 2022 the gargantuan industrial space is open to creatives. Among the 140 companies to already move in are coffee roaster Blommers; microbreweries Oersoep and Bloom; Galerie Bart showcasing the work of young upcoming Dutch artists; a designer furniture shop; and a chocolate bar/

  • Museum

    Nederlands Openluchtmuseum

    The village-sized open-air museum, 7km north of the train station, showcases a nationwide collection of buildings and artefacts, with everything from farmhouses and stagecoaches to working windmills. Volunteers in period costumes demonstrate traditional skills like spinning and weaving flax, milling flour, forging iron with the blacksmith, farmhouse cooking and even brewing (yes, the museum has its own brewery). Buy cheaper tickets (€17.50/14.50) in advance online.

  • Square

    Grote Markt

    Thankfully, Nijmegen's sweeping market square was among the few parts of the old town to survive WWII. Open-air markets are still held here each week on Saturday and Monday, while ornate Dutch Renaissance De Waagh – built in 1612 – is now a popular cafe. In the middle of the square is the statue of a repentant Mariken van Nieumeghen, a maiden from late medieval Dutch literature who was seduced by Moenen ('the devil') and spent seven years living in sin.