Things to Do in Arnhem: A City Rebuilt After a Famous Failure

The John Frost Bridge across the Rhine is named after the officer whose battalion held the northern end for four days. The bridge you see is a reconstruction; the original was destroyed. Standing on it is the point, not the architecture.

The Airborne Museum at Hartenstein, in Oosterbeek just west of the city, occupies the hotel that served as British divisional headquarters during the battle. It is the serious account of what happened, and it is worth the trip out.

The surrounding war cemeteries are quiet and carefully kept. If you go, go with the time to do it properly.

The great church on the Markt was gutted in the fighting and rebuilt over decades. Its tower has a glass balcony that projects out over the city – you stand on a transparent floor high above the street, which is either the best view in Gelderland or an immediate no, depending on your relationship with heights.

Arnhem is not flat, which is unusual for a Dutch city, and Sonsbeek is where you notice. It is a landscape park of slopes, ponds, small waterfalls and long views, a few minutes from the station, and it is free.

The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum is a collection of historical buildings moved here from across the country and reassembled – farms, windmills, a canal-side street, workshops with people working in them. It sounds dutiful and it is not; it is the single most engaging thing to do in Arnhem with children, and it takes most of a day.

Half an hour north, the Hoge Veluwe National Park is heath, forest and sand drift with free white bicycles at the entrances for anyone to ride. Inside it, the Kröller-Müller Museum holds one of the largest Van Gogh collections in the world and a sculpture garden that runs into the woods.

This is a full day in itself and arguably the best day out in the eastern Netherlands. Do not try to combine it with the city.

Arnhem has a fashion and design school, and the streets around the Klarendal district reflect it – small studios and independent shops rather than chains. The centre around the Korenmarkt is where the evening happens.

Be honest about the post-war rebuilding: parts of the centre are functional rather than beautiful. The city's appeal is its setting, its parks and its edges rather than a picture-postcard old town.

One full day: city centre, the bridge, the Eusebius tower and Sonsbeek, ending at the Korenmarkt. Two days: add the Open Air Museum or the Hoge Veluwe, not both.

If you would rather explore the centre as a group with something to solve, an outdoor city game covers the same ground with questions attached – the how it works page explains the format and the locations page shows what is running.

Yes, particularly if you are interested in the 1944 battle, or if you want a Dutch city with hills, parks and a national park on its doorstep rather than another canal centre.

The Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 and the bridge over the Rhine, the Open Air Museum, and its proximity to the Hoge Veluwe and the Kröller-Müller Museum.

A day for the city. Two if you want the Open Air Museum or the Hoge Veluwe as well – each of those is a day on its own.

By train: about an hour from Amsterdam and Utrecht. The station is a short walk from the centre, and buses run to the Open Air Museum and the national park.

Very. The Open Air Museum and Burgers' Zoo are both genuinely designed for them, and Sonsbeek is a park with hills to run down.

The centre is compact and the parks absorb any number of people. For larger bookings, our groups and companies page covers the practical side, and there is more on choosing a format by size in our piece on group activities.

Ask us anything through the contact page.