Things to Do in Arnhem and the Veluwe

The best things to do in Arnhem and the Veluwe are cycling through De Hoge Veluwe National Park on its free white bikes, seeing the Van Goghs at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the middle of the park, spending a day at Burgers' Zoo or the Netherlands Open Air Museum on Arnhem's northern edge, following the 1944 Battle of Arnhem from the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek to the John Frost Bridge, and visiting the royal palace of Het Loo in Apeldoorn. All of it sits within about half an hour of Arnhem, on the southern edge of the Veluwe, one of the largest stretches of forest and heath in the Netherlands.

This guide takes the sights one by one with the practical details (hours, tickets, how to get in), then puts them together into realistic day plans. If you only have one day, the short answer is: Hoge Veluwe and the Kröller-Müller in the morning, Arnhem and the bridge in the afternoon.

The free white bicycles waiting at a Hoge Veluwe entrance. Image: Richard Broekhuijzen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

De Hoge Veluwe National Park

De Hoge Veluwe is the reason most people come. It covers about 55 square kilometres of heath, drifting sand dunes and woodland between Arnhem, Ede and Apeldoorn, on the Veluwe, the largest terminal moraine in the Netherlands: a ridge of sand and gravel pushed up by the ice sheets. Businessman Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller established it as their private estate in 1909, and in 1935 it passed to a foundation. It is still one of only two privately owned national parks in the country and the only one that charges an entrance fee.

The best way round is by bike. The park keeps around 2,000 free white bicycles at its entrances and the central Park Pavilion, so you can park, pick one up and ride the network of cycle paths across the heath and the sand drifts. Much of the park is closed to cars.

The drifting sands of the Hoge Veluwe, one of the park's most unexpected landscapes. Image: , CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The park's wildlife is the other draw. Red deer, roe deer, wild boar and a few mouflon live here, and a small pack of wolves has settled in the park too. There are three wildlife observation posts and five game pastures, and the park's own advice is to visit them at the end of the day, when the animals come out to feed. Four bird hides, built next to small drinking pools, are easy to reach by car, bike or on foot. In September and October the red deer rut, and the roaring of the stags across the heath is one of the Veluwe's great autumn sounds.

A red deer stag on the Hoge Veluwe. Image: Henk Monster, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Inside the park, the Jachthuis Sint Hubertus is a hunting lodge designed for the Kröller-Müllers by the architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage, with a tower reflected in its lake. Museonder, at the visitor centre, is a museum about what lies under and on the Veluwe: its geology, soil and wildlife.

Jachthuis Sint Hubertus, Berlage's hunting lodge for the Kröller-Müllers. Image: Mieke van Opheusden, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Practical info: Three entrances: Schaarsbergen (closest to Arnhem), Hoenderloo and Otterlo. In October the park is open 09:00 to 19:00, and from November to March 09:00 to 18:00, with last entry one hour before closing; summer evenings run as late as 22:00 in June and July. Adult park admission is €13.85, and taking a car into the park costs €9.80 (€4.90 to park outside an entrance). The Park Pavilion has a restaurant and shop. Best time: August and early September for the heather in flower, September and October for the deer rut, any season for cycling.

Kröller-Müller Museum

The Kröller-Müller is the museum Helene Kröller-Müller built for the collection she assembled in the early 20th century, and it sits in the middle of the national park at Otterlo. It holds one of the world's great Van Gogh collections, including Café Terrace at Night, alongside work by Mondriaan, Charley Toorop and many other modern artists. From 15 September 2026 to 3 January 2027 the exhibition Van Gogh, All Our Paintings shows every Van Gogh painting the museum owns together, for the first time since 1984, so autumn 2026 is an unusually good moment to go.

Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night (1888), one of the best-known paintings in the Kröller-Müller collection. Image: Vincent van Gogh, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Behind the museum is one of the largest sculpture gardens in Europe, with about 200 works set among the trees and lawns, from Marino Marini and Marta Pan to Christo's 56 Barrels. Allow at least half a day for the museum and garden together.

Practical info: Houtkampweg 6, Otterlo, inside the national park. Open Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays, 10:00 to 17:00. The museum ticket is separate from the park ticket, and you need both. The Otterlo entrance is the closest, or ride a white bike from the Park Pavilion.

Burgers' Zoo

Burgers' Zoo on the northern edge of Arnhem was founded in 1913 by Johan Burgers and now covers 45 hectares. It is built around large indoor and outdoor ecosystems rather than cages: Burgers' Bush, a 1.5-hectare indoor tropical rainforest; Burgers' Desert; Burgers' Ocean, an aquarium of eight million litres of seawater; the Mangrove hall, opened in 2017; Rimba, a South-East Asian forest opened in 2008; and the Safari, a large open plain shared by several species. Because so much of it is indoors and heated, it works well on a rainy day or in winter.

Practical info: Antoon van Hooffplein 1, Arnhem. Open every day of the year from 09:00: until 25 October 2026 it closes at 18:00, and through the winter season (end of October to end of March) at 17:00. Plan a full day. See also the Safari and Mangrove pages.

Netherlands Open Air Museum

A short distance from the zoo, the Netherlands Open Air Museum (Nederlands Openluchtmuseum) has collected real buildings from all over the country since it was founded in 1912: farmhouses, windmills, workshops and houses, moved and rebuilt in about 44 hectares of woodland. There are demonstrations of papermaking, brewing and other old crafts, and a heritage tram line of 1.75 km carries visitors round the park in historic trams from Amsterdam, Arnhem, Rotterdam and The Hague.

The Veluwe paper mill, one of the working mills rebuilt at the Open Air Museum. Image: Romaine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Practical info: Hoeferlaan 4, Arnhem. The museum runs seasons: in recent winters it held a winter fair from early December to mid-January, and in the quiet weeks of late winter the historic buildings closed while the park stayed open. Check the museum's website for the current season and hours before you go. Allow a full day with children.

The Battle of Arnhem: Oosterbeek and the John Frost Bridge

In September 1944 Arnhem was the furthest target of Operation Market Garden, the Allied attempt to seize a string of bridges and cross the Rhine into Germany. British and Polish airborne troops landed on the heaths west of the city. A force of about 740 men under John Frost reached the northern end of the Arnhem road bridge and held it against German armour for about four days, but the rest of the division was surrounded at Oosterbeek and the survivors were evacuated across the river.

The Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek is in the villa that served as the British divisional headquarters during the battle. Its permanent exhibition tells the battle day by day, from the parachute drops on the heath to the evacuation across the Rhine, and the Airborne Experience in the basement recreates the fighting. The Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, where many of the airborne soldiers are buried, is also in Oosterbeek.

The Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek, the British headquarters during the battle. Image: Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The bridge Frost's men held was destroyed by Allied bombers on 7 October 1944. Its replacement, built in the same style, opened in 1948 and was renamed the John Frost Bridge (John Frostbrug) on 17 December 1977. The museum's second site, Airborne at the Bridge, is beside it on the Rhine quay. If the bridge looks familiar from the film A Bridge Too Far, it isn't: the 1977 film was shot at Deventer, where a similar bridge crosses the IJssel.

The John Frost Bridge over the Lower Rhine in Arnhem, rebuilt in 1948. Image: Michielverbeek, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Practical info: Airborne Museum Hartenstein, Utrechtseweg 232, Oosterbeek; open daily 10:00 to 17:00; adult tickets €16, booked online only. Airborne at the Bridge is at Rijnkade 150, Arnhem. The battle is commemorated every September with events in Arnhem and Oosterbeek.

Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn

At the northern edge of this part of the Veluwe, Apeldoorn is home to Paleis Het Loo, the hunting palace built in 1684–1686 for the stadtholder William III and Mary II, later joint monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland. Its formal Baroque gardens, laid out with perfect symmetry, were restored from 1970 in time for the palace's 300th anniversary in 1984. After a long renovation the palace reopened in April 2023 with more than 5,000 square metres of new underground museum space, and it now shows the story of the House of Orange alongside its period rooms.

The restored Baroque gardens of Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn. Image: Roger Veringmeier, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Practical info: Paleis Het Loo is in Apeldoorn, about 30 km north of Arnhem. It is usually open 10:00 to 17:00 and closed on Mondays except public holidays; book tickets online.

More of the Veluwe Near Arnhem

• Posbank (Veluwezoom National Park): the viewpoint east of Arnhem near Rheden, with rolling heath that turns purple in August. Good for walks and a classic stop for cyclists.
• Park Sonsbeek: Arnhem's big landscape park, a walk from the city centre, with ponds, lawns and old trees.
• Museum Arnhem: modern and contemporary art on a hill above the Rhine.
• Hoenderloo: the village at the park's eastern entrance, a quiet base with cycle routes straight into the Hoge Veluwe.

Park Sonsbeek, Arnhem's landscape park close to the city centre. Image: Luc.T from Buggenhout, België, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Planning Your Visit

Getting there and around. Arnhem Centraal is a main stop on the Dutch rail network, with direct trains from Amsterdam and Utrecht and international trains towards Germany. Burgers' Zoo and the Open Air Museum are on the northern edge of the city, and the Schaarsbergen entrance of the Hoge Veluwe is a short drive further on. Inside the park, use the white bikes. A car makes it easiest to combine the park, Oosterbeek and Apeldoorn in a day or two, and the whole region is crossed by signposted cycle routes.

When to go. August and September for the heather, September and October for the deer rut and the Battle of Arnhem commemorations, December for winter events at the Open Air Museum. Burgers' Zoo and the Kröller-Müller are good in any weather.

One day: Hoge Veluwe in the morning (enter at Otterlo, cycle to the Kröller-Müller, see the museum and sculpture garden), then drive to Arnhem for the John Frost Bridge and Airborne at the Bridge in the late afternoon.

Two days: day one as above, adding the Jachthuis and a wildlife observation post at the end of the day. Day two at Burgers' Zoo or the Open Air Museum, with the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek on the way out of town.

Three days or more: add Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn and an evening on the Posbank. Our Veluwe highlights itinerary puts the region's sights into a complete route.