What your favourite Dutch city says about you

You can take the person out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the person, apparently. So the question remains: what does your favourite Dutch city tell us about you? 

Here are some hot takes on what your personality probably looks like based on how you answered that question…

🥳 Amsterdam? You love to go HAM

The world is your oyster, and you want to be in the centre of it all — the spectacle, the thrill, the drug-fuelled disaster. Your only fear? Leading a life that’s half lived. 🥱

Or, maybe Amsterdam is automatically your favourite because you don’t know the Netherlands that well. 

READ MORE | 33 best things to do in Amsterdam in 2023 [UPDATED]

In which case…are you wearing chunky white socks with sandals, khaki shorts, and an unironic Hawaiian shirt? Because your inner American dad tourist is showing. 

😎 Like to chill in Rotterdam? You’ve got street cred

We all know you could throw a really good punch, okay? You don’t have to spread your legs that wide apart while walking, as your fanny pack flaps around, to convince us of your swagger. 

Rest assured, when you unzip that Adidas tracksuit to reveal a white wife-beater beneath, nobody wants to cross you. 😰

READ MORE | Rotterdam is the coolest city — and these epic pics prove it

If you’re not quite a speed dealer, perhaps you’re an up-and-coming entrepreneur with a passion for design — but an equally good punch. After all, Rotterdam is new, modern, and sleek. Plus, it has a Taco Bell for crying out loud. 

😊 Utrecht obsessed? You know what’s best 

The milk in your latte is plant-based, your carbon footprint is small — and so is your cosy, humble apartment, strewn with fairy lights, dreamcatchers, and your own pottery attempts. 🌱

You’ll swap in an intimidating Amsterdam shebang for a glass of Chardonnay with book club friends at a pub terrace in a heartbeat. 

Oh Utrecht, comfy, safe, inner child-healing Utrecht. You visited for your arts degree and stayed for the crystal shops. 🔮

✨ Soft spot for The Hague? This is where the magic happens 

Forget Amsterdam. You know this is the nation’s most multi-polar hub. The hidden nooks and crannies, underground pool bars, passwords granting you free entry to basement raves — they’re all seared into your skull. 

Also, you can throw on a crusty, outdated shirt from any thrift shop but instantly make it look cool and seem wearable for the rest of us (which, sadly, it so often isn’t). 

READ MORE | 11 of the best free things to do in The Hague

Still, you don’t like feeling too cooped up or claustrophobic (whether it be in a relationship or a city). You’re relieved the place isn’t landlocked, with the beach just around the corner. It’s basically L.A., okay? 🏝

😍 Heart-eyes for Eindhoven? Your mind is…open 

Ah yes, the men/women behind the curtain; people don’t know you’re one of the few building the tech of the Netherlands (and the wider world!). 😶‍🌫️

No one understands you… but you’re the ones working in the trenches who get the job done, saving the rest of the country from the claws of Russian hackers. 

Little known fact: Eindhoven is one of the economic engines delivering 14% of the national GDP, as well as the centre of all innovation design. 

So as much as everyone else wants to underrate it, it’s the nucleus that runs the Netherlands (in your eyes, anyway), and you should be appreciated more, goshdarnit. 😤

🤑 If it’s Haarlem, you’re rich enough to own a garden 

It’s not Amsterdam, no. It’s Amsterdam’s confident, more suburban little sister…who also happens to be spoiled rotten. 👸

There are diamonds draped around your delicate wrists that monochrome blazer was hand-tailored at the boutique, and the only food passing through your glossy lips is professionally prepared. 💎

If you say you don’t want to hang out with these fancy schmancy brunchaholics, it just means you can’t afford it — boohoo babe. 

READ MORE | What your favourite Dutch supermarket says about you

🌼 Living for Leiden? You are en“Leiden”ed 

Your Pinterest board is filled with all things vintage and quaint, and visiting Disneyland at least once a year is a must. 

How has no one heard of Leiden, the idyllic, dreamy city that might as well be Amsterdam in your eyes? It’s just so precious and tiny…if a little cramped, which means you keep bumping into the former flames you’re avoiding. 😬

But when you open the lace white curtains of a Leiden townhouse in the morning, you hear the birds twittering, sigh wistfully, and decide you wouldn’t change it for the world. 🕊

💻 Fond of Delft? You may have invented Yelp

You’re single yet unwilling to mingle. Making accidental eye contact with strangers on trains terrifies you — plus, it distracts you from the several multi-millionaire dollar companies you’ve been running since your 20s. In short, you’re a genius. 

A city like Delft, where parts of the architecture resembles the cold, clinical building blocks makes you feel like you’re in a video game. And since you’re quite possibly a Discord moderator, that is your safe space. It’s also the best place for you to focus on developing your latest app. ⌚️

Are you a hit on the dating market? Maybe not. But the stock market is gonna be sorry they underestimated you. 😈

👶 Groningen? You’re young, fun, and overrun… with students

Since one-fourth of this city’s population is just uni students, if you’re obsessed with it, you either are a young person or just really love spending time with young people (*cough* creep). 

Unsupervised younglings giving each other stick-and-poke tattoos and getting high on every street corner gives you a rebellious ‘home alone’ energy kick. 🥳

When spending time with whipper-snappers isn’t breathing new life into your creaky bones, you also frequent lesser-known concerts and comedy gigs (some of which you’re glad actual adults aren’t around to witness). 

Whether you’re introverted, extroverted, or just plain neurotic, there’s probably one Dutch city you keep gravitating towards — a bit like a moth to a flame. You can’t stop going there, and why would you? 💅

Were these city stereotypes accurate or way off base? Sound off in the comments below!