If you’ve been looking into studying at The Hague University of Applied Sciences you have probably looked into the available housing and have probably come across the extremely helpful and descriptive (..sarcasm) DUWO website. DUWO is in charge of the student accommodations here, but the website is sort of tricky to navigate and not very helpful to exchange students who are trying to figure out the most suitable place to live. SO I will try to help you out by giving you a little description and some pros and cons of each location.

1. The Red Tower (Stamkartplein) — I’ve never actually been in this tower, but i do know that it is connected to the school, which is very nice since The Netherlands can be a very windy and rainy place. Also, this tower houses more than just exchange students, so you would have the opportunity to meet many more dutch students than you would in other buildings. One drawback of living here is that you have to pay for laundry and i wouldn’t consider it cheap ( 2.50 Euros to wash + 2.50 Euros to dry). Not to mention the washer and dryers are much smaller here so you’ll be doing more loads.

2. Waldorpstraat–This is the newest building and it has 3 and 4 bedroom flats and is also really close to campus, about a 5 minute walk. It’s located across from the Mega Store, which is convenient since thats where the grocery store and other stores are located. There are two towers at Waldorpstraat, but one is just for exchange students, so you won’t get to experience living with any regular Dutch students. Like the red tower, you’ll be spending a lot of money just to do laundry if you live here.

3. Amsterdamse Veerkade– This is where I live. I picked this apartment because it was located in the city center. There are both positive and negatives aspects to living right in the center of the city. The pros would definitely be that you are near all of the shopping, restaurants, bars, etc. and people are always out and about on the streets. I also have my own washer, so I don’t have to pay for each load. However, I have no dryer so I had to buy a drying rack. The biggest con to living here is that I have to walk a mile to get to school every day and even farther if I want to go to Waldorpstraat, which is where most people hang out. It is also kind of scary walking back to my place at night when its dark out, which can be as early as 5:30 in the winter. I think the biggest con living here is how outdated the apartments are– the website says they were built in the 90’s, but the appliances seem like they are from the 70’s if you ask me.  Despite the cons, I still enjoy living here.

So to sum it up, if you want to be closer to campus live in the red tower or waldorpstraat and if you want to be near the restaurants, shopping, and bars live at Amsterdamse Veerkade. All of the places are livable, it just depends on personal preference and I don’t think DUWO does a very good job describing the properties so I hope this helps a little 🙂

P.S. Nothing to do with housing, but here are some pictures from my trip to Sicily! It was beautiful.