https://expatnetherlandshub.com/categories/daily-life/Recent content in Daily-Life on Expat Netherlands HubHugoen-usFri, 10 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/kings-day-guide-expats-2026/Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/kings-day-guide-expats-2026/The first time I experienced King’s Day in the Netherlands, I had no idea what I was walking into. I stepped out of my front door in Amsterdam at 9 in the morning, and the entire city had already turned orange. There were people selling toys from blankets on the pavement, children belting out Dutch songs on makeshift stages, and boats so densely packed on the canals that I genuinely could not see the water.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-dutch-phone-plans-expats-2026/Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-dutch-phone-plans-expats-2026/When I first moved to the Netherlands from the UK, sorting out a phone plan felt oddly stressful. The supermarket shelves had SIM cards from about eight different brands, none of which I recognised, and the Dutch websites were not exactly welcoming to someone still learning what goedkoop meant. Ten years on, I know this market well. I’ve tried most of the major providers, switched plans more times than I care to admit, and helped dozens of newly arrived expats pick the right option for their situation.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-internet-providers-netherlands-expats-2026/Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-internet-providers-netherlands-expats-2026/Let me tell you about the worst internet decision I made in my first year in the Netherlands. I had just moved into a lovely flat in an older part of Amsterdam — solid brick walls, high ceilings, the full Dutch period-building experience. A colleague recommended Ziggo. It was a bit cheaper, they said, and really fast. So I signed a two-year contract, paid the installation fee, and waited for my modem to arrive.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/exchange-driving-license-netherlands-2026/Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/exchange-driving-license-netherlands-2026/When I arrived in the Netherlands from the UK, I made the mistake of assuming my British driving licence would simply work here — forever, no questions asked. I was wrong, and I found out the hard way when a friend mentioned, almost in passing, that the 185-day clock had already started ticking. I had six weeks left to sort it out. That sprint to the gemeente, gathering documents at the last minute, deciphering Dutch government websites — none of it needed to happen.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/international-schools-netherlands-2026/Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/international-schools-netherlands-2026/Choosing a school is the decision that keeps my expat parent clients up at night more than anything else – even more than housing. I get it. IB or British curriculum? Is it worth paying twenty thousand euros a year? Will my child be okay switching mid-year? Having gone through international schooling myself as a half-British, half-Dutch kid, and now advising families on this decision regularly, I know how much it matters.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/cycling-netherlands-expat-guide-2026/Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/cycling-netherlands-expat-guide-2026/My Dutch mother cycles everywhere in any weather without a second thought. When I moved here from the UK, I thought I could do the same. My first ride through Amsterdam rush hour nearly ended me – three near-misses, a wrong turn into a tram lane, and the discovery that hand signals are not optional. A decade later, I cannot imagine life without my bike. Here is everything I have learned about cycling in the Netherlands so your transition is smoother than mine.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/register-car-netherlands-expat-2026/Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/register-car-netherlands-expat-2026/A client of mine — I’ll call her Priya — moved from India to Utrecht with her husband and two young children. They had a car in mind: a three-year-old diesel hatchback they were going to ship over from the UK where they had been living previously. Simple enough, she thought. Then she discovered BPM tax. The bill from the Belastingdienst was nearly €4,800. She had not budgeted for it. She had not even known it existed.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-grocery-delivery-netherlands-2026/Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-grocery-delivery-netherlands-2026/In my first week in the Netherlands, I tried to carry four bags of groceries up three flights of those impossibly steep Dutch stairs. Never again. That is when I discovered the wonderful world of Dutch grocery delivery, and honestly, it has been one of the small luxuries that makes expat life easier. I have tested every major service over the years, and here is my comparison to help you find the one that fits your shopping habits.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/best-prepaid-sim-card-netherlands-2026/Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/best-prepaid-sim-card-netherlands-2026/Your first week in the Netherlands and you need a working phone number — for DigiD, for your bank, for everything. Finding the best prepaid SIM card in the Netherlands is one of those logistical tasks that sounds minor until you are standing in an unfamiliar city, trying to handle Dutch government websites without mobile data. I have been there, and I have helped dozens of expat clients sort this out.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/dutch-supermarkets-guide-expats-2026/Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/dutch-supermarkets-guide-expats-2026/The first time I walked into a Dutch supermarket on my own, I came out with two bags of groceries and a mild identity crisis. The bonuskaart lady at the checkout asked me something I did not understand. I smiled and nodded. She asked again, more slowly, still in Dutch. I handed her my debit card. She sighed gently and moved on. I later discovered she was asking whether I had a loyalty card.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/buying-second-hand-netherlands-guide-2026/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/buying-second-hand-netherlands-guide-2026/I furnished my first Dutch apartment almost entirely second-hand. It was not out of necessity — I could have bought new — but because the quality of second-hand goods in the Netherlands is genuinely impressive, and the prices are a fraction of IKEA. My dining table came from Marktplaats for €40. My bike came from a neighbour’s Facebook post for €90. My kitchen equipment came from a kringloopwinkel on a Saturday morning.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/car-insurance-netherlands-expats-2026/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/car-insurance-netherlands-expats-2026/When I arrived in the Netherlands and bought my first car here, I spent about two hours on an insurance comparison website trying to figure out what WA, WA+, and allrisk actually meant, why my UK no-claims history was being treated with mild suspicion, and whether the price I was looking at was reasonable or completely excessive. No one had warned me that Dutch car insurance had its own vocabulary, its own no-claims ladder system, and its own quirks around how foreign driving history is recognised.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/lonely-expat-netherlands-guide-2026/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/lonely-expat-netherlands-guide-2026/I want to start this piece with something I do not say often enough in my work: moving to the Netherlands and feeling genuinely lonely — sometimes devastatingly so — is one of the most common experiences I hear about from expat clients, and one of the least talked about. People come here for exciting jobs, for partners, for new starts. They often find a beautiful country, a well-functioning society, and a peculiar, growing sense that something is missing.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/dutch-trains-guide-expats-2026/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/dutch-trains-guide-expats-2026/I use Dutch trains almost every day. They are genuinely one of the better parts of living in the Netherlands — frequent, fast between major cities, and covering the entire country. The Netherlands is compact enough that the furthest major city (Groningen from Amsterdam) is 2 hours by direct train. Getting the most out of the system does require knowing how it works: the OV-chipkaart, subscription options, which train type to take, and what the ticket machines are actually asking you (they default to Dutch).https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/dutch-utilities-explained-expats-2026/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/dutch-utilities-explained-expats-2026/The first utility bill I received in the Netherlands made no sense to me. It had three different organisations listed on it, a column of acronyms (ODE, SDE+, VFT), and an amount that I could not reconcile with anything I understood about how much gas and electricity I was using. I eventually asked a Dutch colleague to explain it over lunch. Ten years later, the Dutch utility system feels completely familiar.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/single-expat-netherlands-guide-2026/Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/blog/single-expat-netherlands-guide-2026/I moved to the Netherlands alone, with no existing friends here and no partner. I was in my early thirties, had just taken a new job, and knew exactly one person in Amsterdam — a former colleague I had met twice at a conference. Two years later, I had a social life I was proud of, a good apartment, and a sense that the Netherlands was genuinely my home. Getting there was not instant, and there were hard weeks.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-food-delivery-apps-netherlands-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-food-delivery-apps-netherlands-2026/Food delivery in the Netherlands has changed a lot in the past few years. Deliveroo has gone. Gorillas has gone. Getir has gone. The quick-commerce boom of 2020–2022 went through a shakeout, and what remains in 2026 is a leaner, more stable market. Which is actually better for you as an expat. The apps that survived are the ones that figured out how to be sustainable, and that generally means better service.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/dutch-customs-birthday-traditions-expats-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/dutch-customs-birthday-traditions-expats-2026/My first Dutch birthday party was a revelation. I arrived at a friend’s house, was handed a glass of juice, and guided toward a ring of chairs in the living room. I spent the next two hours in the circle, rotating between conversations, watching the birthday boy circulate with an enormous tray of pre-sliced cake. Before I left, I dutifully congratulated his parents, his sister, and I believe also a confused-looking neighbour.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/dutch-food-culture-expats-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/dutch-food-culture-expats-2026/One of the first things that strikes most expats in the Netherlands is the apparent lack of a food culture. The Dutch are not, by reputation, a nation obsessed with cuisine. There is no Dutch equivalent of the Italian culinary identity, the French gastronomic tradition, or the Spanish obsession with meal time as a social institution. My first Dutch lunch was bread with cheese. My second Dutch lunch was also bread with cheese.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/restaurants-food-scene-expats-netherlands-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/restaurants-food-scene-expats-netherlands-2026/I expected to struggle with the food when I moved to the Netherlands. Dutch cuisine does not have the international reputation of French, Italian, or even Scandinavian cooking. My expectations were low. Within a few months, I was eating some of the best Indonesian food of my life, discovering that Dutch street food is genuinely excellent, and adjusting to the peculiar rhythm of Dutch restaurant life — earlier, more relaxed, and ultimately more enjoyable than I had anticipated.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/moving-to-netherlands-with-kids-school-guide-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/moving-to-netherlands-with-kids-school-guide-2026/The question I get asked most often by expat families, by a significant margin, is: “What do I do about schools?” It comes before the housing questions. It comes before the visa questions. It comes before the banking questions. Parents want to know that their children will be okay, that their education will not suffer, and that the disruption of an international move will not set them back. I have helped dozens of families work through this, and I want to give you the honest answer: Dutch schooling is good, the international options are excellent but competitive, and the critical mistakes are almost always about timing — specifically, people leaving school applications too late.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/shopping-guide-netherlands-expats-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/shopping-guide-netherlands-expats-2026/The first thing I bought in the Netherlands — before I even had a bed delivered — was a box of stroopwafels and a set of tea towels from HEMA. Standing in the queue at the Amsterdam Centraal branch with my two purchases, I felt an irrational but powerful sense of arrival. HEMA does that to people. It is inescapably Dutch, warm, slightly chaotic, and somehow exactly what you need.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/tv-streaming-entertainment-netherlands-expats-2026/Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/tv-streaming-entertainment-netherlands-expats-2026/The first evening I spent in my new Amsterdam apartment, I tried to watch something familiar while surrounded by boxes. My UK streaming apps were geo-blocked. Dutch Netflix had different content than I was used to. I eventually found a Dutch quiz show I could not understand a word of and gave up. That was ten years ago, and I have had time to figure it all out since. Here is the complete practical guide to TV, streaming, and entertainment in the Netherlands for expats — what is available, what is not, how to fill the gaps, and a few things that might actually make you enjoy Dutch television.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-internet-providers-netherlands-2026/Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-internet-providers-netherlands-2026/One of the few things that genuinely impressed me when I moved to the Netherlands was the internet speed. Coming from the UK, where buffering was a way of life, Dutch fiber felt like magic. But actually choosing a provider? That part was confusing – Dutch-only websites, unclear bundles, and conflicting advice from colleagues. After a decade of switching providers and helping clients set up their connections, here is my comparison of the 6 best options in 2026.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/legal/digid-guide-expats-2026/Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/legal/digid-guide-expats-2026/The first time someone asked me “Do you have a DigiD?” I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Turns out, it is the key to basically everything official in the Netherlands – taxes, health insurance, subsidies, you name it. I put off setting mine up for weeks and regretted it immediately. Do not make my mistake. Here is how to get your DigiD sorted quickly and painlessly.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/ov-chipkaart-guide-expats-2026/Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/ov-chipkaart-guide-expats-2026/The first time I tried to use Dutch public transport, I tapped my anonymous OV-chipkaart, got on the train, and promptly forgot to check out. That little mistake cost me twenty euros in “boarding fare.” I have since become a public transport expert out of pure self-defense. After ten years of trains, trams, buses, and the glorious OV-fiets, I know every trick to save money and avoid the pitfalls. Here is everything you need to know.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-vpn-netherlands-expats-2026/Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-vpn-netherlands-expats-2026/The day I moved to the Netherlands and tried to watch BBC iPlayer, I got that dreaded “not available in your region” message. Ten years on, I still use a VPN almost daily – for streaming British telly, accessing my UK bank account without getting flagged, and protecting my data on cafe WiFi. It is one of those expat basics nobody tells you about until you need it. Here are the VPNs I actually recommend to my clients in 2026.https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-sim-card-netherlands-expats-2026/Sun, 01 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100https://expatnetherlandshub.com/guides/daily-life/best-sim-card-netherlands-expats-2026/The first thing I learned about Dutch social life is that everything happens on WhatsApp. Your street has a WhatsApp group. Your building has a WhatsApp group. Your kid’s school has three WhatsApp groups. So getting a Dutch phone number is genuinely one of the first things you need to sort out. I have used several providers over the years and helped countless clients pick the right one, so here is my no-nonsense comparison for 2026.