Three days in Maastricht: a bookshop in a Gothic church, and a hill you walk inside

Two nights on the Maas in the far south, where the Netherlands starts eating like Belgium.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Maastricht
Places
7 across 3 days
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap

Maastricht is two and a half hours from Amsterdam and does not feel like the same country. It sits in a narrow finger of land between Belgium and Germany, speaks its own dialect, celebrates carnival properly, and eats better than anywhere else in the Netherlands.

It is also, along with Nijmegen, the oldest city here. The Romans bridged the Maas at this point, the medieval town grew rich on it, and the streets still bend the way they did before anyone planned them. Two Romanesque churches, a Spanish era wall and a hill full of quarried tunnels are all inside a half hour walk.

Three days is the right length: an afternoon in the old centre, a full day underground and along the wall, and a last morning with a basilica and a modern art museum on the way to the station.

Highlights

  • The Vrijthof at cafe hour, with two enormous churches on one side of it
  • A bookshop in a 13th century Dominican church, with the shelves stacked three storeys up the nave
  • Guided tunnels under the hill south of town, where the Night Watch spent part of the Second World War
  • A 13th century town wall you can walk along, with the country's oldest city gate still standing in it
  • Limburg vlaai, hot fries with too much mayonnaise, and Belgian beer lists everywhere

Where to stay

Maastricht, two nights

Stay on the west bank in the old centre, ideally in the Jekerkwartier or near the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein, and everything here is on foot. The Wyck quarter on the station side is the alternative: quieter, full of good restaurants and five minutes from the train.

About 122,000 people live here, a large share of them students at the university, which keeps the terraces busy out of season and the prices lower than the west of the country.

Day by day

Day 1 in Maastricht

The Vrijthof, St Servaas and the church that sells books

The first afternoon is a square, a basilica and a bookshop, in that order, all within four hundred metres.

The Vrijthof is the city's front room: cafe terraces down one side, two churches down the other, and a festival on it most months of the year. St Servatius, the first bishop in these lands, is buried under the larger one, which is why a town of this size ended up with a basilica of that scale.

  1. 15:00

    Vrijthof

    Architecture

    The big square at the centre of everything, with terraces on the north side that catch the afternoon sun and two churches filling the west. Sit down, order something, and look at the buildings for half an hour before doing anything else.

  2. 16:15

    St Servaas (Servatius) Basilica

    Visit

    Built over the grave of Saint Servatius, who died here in the 4th century, and rebuilt in stone around the year 1000. The Romanesque west work and the cloister are the parts to look at, and the treasury holds medieval reliquaries worth the extra ticket.

  3. 18:00

    Coffeelovers Dominicanen

    Visit

    A 13th century Dominican church turned into a bookshop, with a steel bookcase three storeys high running up the nave and a cafe in the choir. Free to walk into, and the best twenty minutes in the city if the weather is poor.

  4. 19:30

    Dinner in the old town

    Eat

    The streets between the Vrijthof and the Markt are thick with places. Book at the weekend; this city eats out properly.

With more time: The Markt, two minutes north, holds general markets on Wednesday and Friday mornings and has the 17th century town hall in the middle of it. In the evening the small bars off the Vrijthof carry Belgian beer lists that run to three figures.

Day 2 in Maastricht

Under the Sint Pietersberg, then the old wall

The hill south of the city is not solid. Centuries of quarrying soft marlstone left a labyrinth under it, and people have sheltered in it from every siege and air raid since. During the Second World War the Rijksmuseum sent its paintings here, the Night Watch included, into a purpose built vault.

Come back up into daylight and walk the wall home. The southern edge of the old town still has its 13th century defences, and the Jekerkwartier behind them is the prettiest quarter in Maastricht, with a working water mill in the middle of it.

  1. 10:00

    Saint Pietersberg Caves

    Visit

    Over twenty thousand passages cut out of the marlstone, with charcoal drawings, inscriptions and the wartime vault. You go in with a guide only, and coming out into the sun afterwards is part of it. Check which departures are in English.

  2. 13:00

    Bisschopsmolen

    Other

    A working water mill on the Jeker that still grinds spelt for the bakery attached to it. Lunch here is bread from the wheel outside the window and a slice of vlaai, the flat Limburg fruit pie.

  3. 15:00

    Town wall

    Visit

    The 13th century town wall along the south side of the centre, with the Helpoort, the oldest surviving city gate in the Netherlands, still standing in it. Walk the path on top and come down into the park by the river.

With more time: The river walk from the old stone bridge south to the park is half an hour and passes most of the wall. For more of the same hill, the caves have a second entrance on the far side with a longer tour, and a fort on top from 1701.

Day 3 in Maastricht

The Star of the Sea and the Bonnefanten

The second basilica is the better one, and quieter than the first. It stands on a small square of plane trees and cafe tables, and its side chapel is stacked with hundreds of burning candles left by people asking for something.

Then cross the bridge towards the station and finish at the modern art museum, which is on the way out and has a rocket for a roof.

  1. 09:30

    Onze Lieve Vrouwebasiliek

    Religious

    An 11th and 12th century Romanesque church with a fortress-like west front, known as the Star of the Sea after the Virgin's old title. The candle chapel by the entrance is free and is the part people remember. The treasury and the crypt are worth the small fee.

  2. 11:00

    Bonnefantenmuseum

    Culture

    Limburg's main art museum, in an Aldo Rossi building of 1995 with a zinc dome shaped like a rocket. Old Masters downstairs, Sol LeWitt and contemporary work upstairs, and a long staircase that is an exhibit in itself. Ten minutes from the station.

  3. 13:00

    Last fries before the train

    Eat

    A paper cone of fries with sauce, eaten on the bridge, is the correct way to leave this city.

With more time: With a later train, Wyck on the station side is full of small shops and cafes and takes an hour to walk properly, and the treaty that created the European Union was signed in the provincial government building further down the river, in 1992.

Before you go

Getting there and getting around

Direct intercity trains from Amsterdam take around 150 minutes through Utrecht and Eindhoven, so this is a place to arrive at and stay rather than a day trip. Liège in Belgium is half an hour further south, which makes Maastricht a sensible stop between the Netherlands and Brussels or Cologne.

The station is on the east bank and the old town is on the west, five minutes apart across the Sint Servaasbrug. Nothing in these three days needs a bus, and a bike is only worth it for the river path and the hill.

Book the caves

The tunnels under the Sint Pietersberg can only be entered on a guided tour, and the English language departures are far fewer than the Dutch ones. Check the timetable before you fix the second day, and book ahead in school holidays.

It is ten degrees down there in every season, and the floors are damp. A jacket and shoes with grip are the whole packing list.

Eating

The local habit of a long lunch is worth adopting here. Vlaai, the flat fruit pie every bakery in Limburg makes, is sold everywhere and is genuinely good. Fries come with a dozen sauces and one correct answer.

Beer lists lean Belgian, which the border twenty minutes away explains. In summer the terraces on the Vrijthof and the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein take the whole afternoon if you let them.

When to go

Carnival, in the week before Lent, turns the entire city into a costumed street party and is either exactly what you want or the worst possible timing. Book far ahead either way.

The other date to know is TEFAF in March, the world's biggest art and antiques fair, which fills every hotel room in the province.

Maastricht is the corner of the Netherlands that behaves like Belgium: long lunches, dark bars, hills, a dialect and a carnival. It is also small enough that three days leaves you with favourite streets rather than a checklist.

Take the border seriously as an invitation. Liège, Aachen and the hills of southern Limburg are all closer to this city than Amsterdam is, and any of them turns a short stop into a proper trip.

Or make it a longer trip

These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

Is Maastricht worth the trip from Amsterdam?
Yes, but not as a day trip. Two and a half hours each way makes it a two night stop, and it is the only Dutch city that feels southern European. Pair it with Liège, Aachen or Cologne rather than turning straight round.
Do I need to book the caves?
Book if you want an English tour, and always in the school holidays. Entry is with a guide only, tours run to a fixed timetable, and the two systems under the hill have different entrances and different departure times.
What should I eat?
Vlaai, the flat Limburg fruit pie, at a bakery rather than a chain. Fries with sauce from a friture. A long lunch with a Belgian beer. Southern Limburg also carries a surprising number of Michelin stars for a province this small, if you want to spend properly one evening.
Is three days too many?
Not with the caves in the middle. If you want a fourth day, the countryside south of the city has castles, vineyards and the only real hills in the Netherlands, and the Belgian and German borders are both a short bus ride away.
When is carnival?
The week before Lent, so late February or early March depending on the year. The city dresses up, the bars overflow and normal sightseeing stops entirely. Book months ahead or avoid it deliberately.