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Visit Leiden
Indoors on a rainy day in a Leiden café by the window

Rain in Leiden? Then it is actually a good day

Leiden is built for bad weather: thirteen museums within a square kilometre, covered tour boats, brown cafés with steamed-up windows and a door to duck into everywhere.

Staying inside all day

  • Naturalis: the largest natural history museum in the Netherlands, easily half a day.
  • National Museum of Antiquities: Egypt, mummies and the Temple of Taffeh.
  • Museum De Lakenhal: Leiden masters, including early Rembrandt.
  • Rijksmuseum Boerhaave: the history of science, surprisingly good with children.
  • Wereldmuseum Leiden: world cultures in a 19th-century building.

Outside but dry

  • A covered canal cruise: the canals are at their best in the rain.
  • The Hortus botanicus with its tropical glasshouses and Winter Garden.
  • The covered market and the shopping streets around Haarlemmerstraat.
  • The university library and Leiden's bookshops.

And then a café

Finish in a brown café on the Nieuwe Rijn or Pieterskerkhof: apple pie, a local beer and a view of rain rippling the water. Expect a short shower — Dutch weather usually turns within the hour.

Frequently asked questions

What can you do in Leiden when it rains?
Choose from thirteen museums, a covered canal cruise, the tropical glasshouses of the Hortus, or the shopping streets and cafés — all within walking distance.
How many museums does Leiden have?
Thirteen, five of them national museums. That gives Leiden the highest museum density in the Netherlands.