One of the easiest ways to discover Leeuwarden is simply to walk. The historic centre is compact, the train station is close to everything, and some of the most interesting places aren't attractions you need to enter at all. They are courtyards hidden behind gates, pieces of street art, historic buildings, canals, and little details you notice between one destination and the next.

My walk actually started before I had decided exactly where I was going. I arrived in Leeuwarden by train and, just outside the station, found a dispenser with free city maps. I took one, and that map became my companion for the day.

Some places I knew I wanted to see. Others I discovered because something on the map caught my attention, or because I saw something interesting while walking and decided to follow it.

This route is based on that day. You can follow it as a complete walking route, but I wouldn't rush it. Stop for photographs, enter the places that interest you, and allow yourself to deviate when you see something worth exploring.

Before you start

The route begins at Leeuwarden Centraal Station and can be done entirely on foot. If you're arriving early in the morning, don't worry that the museums aren't open yet. There is plenty to explore outdoors, and I actually loved seeing parts of Leeuwarden before the city became busier.

I'd give yourself most of a day for this route if you want to visit the Fries Museum, stop for breakfast or lunch, and explore without constantly checking the time.

Start at Leeuwarden Centraal — and take a map

Before heading into the city, look for the map dispenser outside Leeuwarden Centraal Station. This was such a small detail, but I loved it.

Instead of immediately opening Google Maps on my phone, I picked up a physical map and used it throughout the day. It showed me what was around me while still leaving enough room to wander and change direction whenever something looked interesting. If the dispenser is still there when you visit, take one. And then start walking.

Museumhaven

My first destination was Museumhaven, Leeuwarden's historic harbour. This is a particularly good place to start if you arrive before the museums open because there is nothing to wait for. You can simply walk along the water and see the historic ships moored in the canal.

It also immediately gave me something I would continue to find throughout the day: Leeuwarden's relationship with water.

From here, rather than heading directly towards the major attractions, I started looking for something completely different.

Look for Leeuwarden's street art

One of my biggest surprises in Leeuwarden was its street art. I first came across the Color Blind mural depicting a male dancer, and from there I found myself walking through quiet little streets, discovering more works along the way.

It was still very early in the morning, and some of those streets were empty. Empty enough that at one point I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to keep walking through them alone.

But visually, this became one of my favourite discoveries of the day.

And I had only seen a small part of it. Leeuwarden has an entire street-art scene hidden among its historic buildings, with murals, painted doors and smaller works tucked into unexpected corners. There is even a dedicated walking route through the city centre for finding them.

I wouldn't try to complete the entire street-art route as part of this walk. Instead, keep your eyes open while moving through the city.

If I return to Leeuwarden, this is something I would specifically make more time for.

Walk through the Prinsentuin

From the streets, I continued towards Prinsentuin. The historic park sits beside the water, with mature trees, paths, and views across the marina. This is where I'd deliberately slow down.

When you're exploring a city in one day, it's very easy to turn the entire experience into a list of things you need to see. But not every stop needs an objective.

Walk beside the water. Look at the boats. Sit for a few minutes if the weather allows.

In my case, it was still early enough that there was no reason to rush towards the museums anyway. So I didn't.

Stop for breakfast

After walking through Museumhaven, searching for street art and exploring Prinsentuin, this is a good moment to stop for breakfast. By now, Leeuwarden is beginning to wake up, and the museums are getting closer to opening.

It also means that instead of arriving early and waiting outside a museum, you've already spent part of the morning exploring the city.

From here, head back towards Wilhelminaplein.

Yes, this means retracing your direction slightly, but I think the trade-off is worth it. I'd much rather use the quiet early hours for outdoor places than design the entire route around the shortest possible walking distance.

Ah, for breakfast I went to Fer, but don't limit your route; go wherever you find along the way.

Visit the Fries Museum

Once it's open, make the Fries Museum one of the major stops of your day.

If you're visiting Friesland for the first time, the museum gives you context for much of what you'll encounter outside: the region's history, art, culture and identity.

This isn't somewhere I'd rush through just because you're following a walking route. If museums are important to you, give it proper time.

I also liked being able to look over Wilhelminaplein from inside the museum. There is something about seeing a place from above after you've already walked through it that changes your sense of the city.

Once you're finished, it's time to walk back into the historic centre.

Stop at De Waag

As you make your way along Nieuwestad, look for De Waag, Leeuwarden's historic weigh house.

Buildings remind you how important physical marketplaces once were to Dutch cities. Goods brought into the city for sale had to be officially weighed, making the weigh house part of Leeuwarden's commercial infrastructure.

Today it sits right in the middle of the modern city, surrounded by shops, cafés, bicycles and everyday life.

It's an easy stop, but one that becomes much more interesting once you understand why the building is there.

Find Het Friese Paard

While continuing through the centre, look for Het Friese Paard, the bronze sculpture of a Friesian horse. The Friesian horse is closely associated with Friesland and has become one of the region's most recognizable symbols. It's across the street from De Waag.

Visit the Grote Jacobijnerkerk

Continue through the historic centre towards the Grote or Jacobijnerkerk.

The church's history reaches back to the Dominican monastery established here during the Middle Ages, and the building later became closely connected with the Frisian branch of the House of Nassau. This is where another layer of Leeuwarden starts to appear.

The city may feel geographically removed from the places we usually associate with Dutch royal and political history, but Leeuwarden has its own important connection with the Nassau family. And you'll encounter much more of that later in this walk.

Look for Leeuwarden's hidden courtyards

One of my favourite discoveries in Leeuwarden was its gasthuizen. These historic complexes can be surprisingly easy to miss because much of what makes them special is hidden from the street.

Boshuizengasthuis

The Boshuizengasthuis is built around a peaceful courtyard. You move through an entrance from the city, and suddenly everything changes as you find yourself inside an enclosed little world.

These complexes also tell another part of Dutch urban history: charitable housing created for people who needed support, particularly older residents. Take a few minutes here rather than treating it simply as another photograph.

You can go in, with respect to the neighbours who still live there. I decided not to take photos on the interior, only to the gate.

Nieuw Sint Anthony Gasthuis

Continue towards the Nieuw Sint Anthony Gasthuis, where you'll find another beautiful example of this tradition of courtyard housing. Pay attention to the Julianavleugel, or Juliana Wing, with its distinctive architecture.

Rather than visiting only monumental churches and civic buildings, places like these show another side of the city: how people lived and how welfare and community were organized.

Architecturally, they're also beautiful places to photograph, with brick façades, gardens, symmetry and small details that you might never notice from the main shopping streets.

Nieuwe Stadsweeshuis and Natuurmuseum Fryslân

Right across from the Nieuw Sint Anthony Gasthuis is another historic institution. The building that now houses Natuurmuseum Fryslân was once Leeuwarden's city orphanage, the Nieuwe Stadsweeshuis.

Even if the natural-history museum itself isn't part of your plans, stop to look at the building. If you have time and the museum interests you, you can also go inside. At the time of writing, Natuurmuseum Fryslân is hosting Mummie Mysteries, an exhibition exploring both deliberately mummified animals from ancient Egypt and animals naturally mummified in Friesland, running until 22 November 2026.

Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden and the Wall of Connection

Continue towards Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden. On the front of the building, look for the Wall of Connection.

The 23-metre-long artwork contains thousands of small DNA tubes and was created as a community art project in connection with Leeuwarden-Fryslân's year as European Capital of Culture in 2018. This isn't a stop that requires a lot of time.

From here, you're very close to Leeuwarden's most recognizable landmark.

Find the Oldehove: Leeuwarden's leaning tower

You don't have to look very hard for the Oldehove. The unfinished church tower has become one of Leeuwarden's most recognizable landmarks, partly because it leans.

Construction began in 1529, with ambitions for a new church and a tower that would rise higher than Utrecht's Dom and Groningen's Martinitoren. But the soft ground had other plans.

The tower began leaning while it was still being built. The builders tried to compensate by continuing vertically on top of the leaning structure, which is why the Oldehove isn't only tilted; it's slightly curved. Construction was eventually abandoned in 1533.

What I didn't know before arriving was that 2026 is a restoration year. The Oldehove was completely surrounded by scaffolding and a protective covering during my visit, while restoration work was being carried out. You can still visit and climb the tower during much of the restoration period, but I decided not to. If I'm going to climb Leeuwarden's most famous landmark, I want to experience the tower when I can see it properly too.

So instead of being a disappointment, finding the Oldehove wrapped up gave me a very good reason to return to Leeuwarden.

Find Maria Louise and her extraordinary family tree

Before leaving Oldehoofsterkerkhof, look around.Close to the Oldehove is one of the pieces of public art that fascinated me most during the day.

A large ceramic tableau depicts Maria Louise of Hesse-Kassel and her husband Johan Willem Friso, accompanied by an extraordinary genealogical tree showing their connections to European royal families.

Maria Louise lived in Leeuwarden, and the building behind the artwork, Princessehof, was once her city palace. The tableau contains 2,160 ceramic tiles and replaced an earlier painted mural. The permanent ceramic version was installed in 2021. What stopped me wasn't only the scale of the artwork, but the genealogy itself.

Standing there looking at all those names, you begin to understand just how connected this woman who lived in Leeuwarden became to royal dynasties across Europe.

And find one more woman behind the Oldehove

Before you leave the square, walk behind the tower. About ten metres behind the Oldehove, on Torenstraat, there's another artwork depicting a woman at a window.

The mural is called Hou Alde hou!, created by LJ van Tuinen in 2021, and it refers to an old folk tale explaining how the Oldehove got its name.

According to the story, a tower came floating across the old Middelzee on a piece of land. An elderly woman sitting on the shore saw it approaching and called out “Hou, âlde! hou!”, essentially telling the old thing to stop.

The tower settled where it stands today and, according to the legend, the Oldehove got its name from her call.

Walk along the canals

From here, don't immediately choose the shortest route to your next destination; we are in the Netherlands, so follow the water.

Cross the bridges. Look at the houseboats. Watch the reflections. Take whichever street gives you the better view.

Some of my favourite photographs from Leeuwarden aren't of monuments at all. They're simply boats beneath trees, reflections in the water and everyday views of the city.

These stretches between the named attractions are part of the route too.

Visit Blokhuispoort

Make Blokhuispoort one of your final major stops. The complex was formerly a prison and has since been transformed into a cultural and creative space.

What I particularly like is that the building hasn't lost its identity in the process. You can still read its former function through the architecture while seeing how the space has been adapted for completely different uses. Give yourself time to walk around rather than photographing only the exterior.

Photographing Blokhuispoort also gave me one of those small interactions that stays with you after a trip. I wanted a photograph of the entire building from across the street, but the road in front of it was busy. Every time I tried to get the shot, another car would appear. Then something lovely started happening.

Drivers noticed what I was trying to do and stopped before entering my frame, waiting while I took the photograph. A couple of them even checked with me afterwards: “Did you get it?” before continuing.

I did get the picture: it's the first one you see here. I actually took several because I was waiting for the person in the frame to move on, but he seemed to be looking for directions and stayed there for a while. So instead of waiting any longer, I crossed the street, walked past him, and found another angle. That's the second photograph you see here.

Finish by wandering

Eventually, you'll need to make your way back towards Leeuwarden Centraal. But I wouldn't immediately open Google Maps. Wander the beautiful streets, find cute stores and get a little lost, knowing there are signs everywhere to help you find your way back.

This way, you leave feeling that you've seen more than Leeuwarden's landmarks. You've also had a glimpse of everyday life in the city. And I think that's ultimately how Leeuwarden worked best for me: not as a checklist, but as a place small enough to explore through curiosity.

How long does this Leeuwarden walking route take?

You could walk between these locations considerably faster than I did, but still give yourself most of a day if you want to follow the route at a relaxed pace, particularly if you're visiting the Fries Museum, stopping for breakfast or lunch and taking photographs along the way.

If you have only a few hours, concentrate on the outdoor sections and historic centre. Museumhaven, the street art, Prinsentuin, the gasthuizen, Oldehove, the canals and Blokhuispoort can all give you a very good introduction to Leeuwarden without spending hours inside museums.

And if you're arriving early, use it to your advantage. The quiet morning was when I found some of the places I remember most.

Do you need a guided tour of Leeuwarden?

Not necessarily. I enjoyed discovering Leeuwarden independently because it gave me the freedom to stop whenever something caught my attention. A physical city map was enough to give my day some structure without dictating every turn.

There are also dedicated self-guided routes through Leeuwarden, including routes focused specifically on its street art, if you prefer having a more defined path to follow.

For a first visit, I'd choose according to how you like to travel. Follow a structured route if you want to know exactly where you're going.

Or take a map, give yourself a day, and allow yourself to get distracted.

Do you want to know more about Leeuwarden?

If you're still deciding what you want to see, start with my 15 Things to Do in Leeuwarden guide.

And if you're wondering how to put everything together into a complete day, I'll also be sharing One Day in Leeuwarden: A Day Trip from Amsterdam by Train.

Until the next trip. Or do you want to know more about Leeuwarden?

Joanna

Your Vacation Photographer in Amsterdam