Our visit to Breda was fantastic, and I highly recommend it if you are looking at going somewhere in The Netherlands where tourists do not usually flock. Our friend, Kristel, lives there so it provided us with the perfect excuse to visit a place we had never heard of. We stayed with our friends but there are plenty of cheap accommodation options around the city. The best activity to do is rent a bike and cycle around, it’s the easiest and quickest way to check out all the sites. There is a lot of street art scattered throughout the city which is fun to spot, down alleyways and under bridges.
Breda has a lovely little historical city centre with the Grote Kerk (Large Church) being the main attraction. You can stop for a drink in the square to soak up the atmosphere and the nearby Begijnhof and Valkenberg city park are both lovely to cycle through as well.
We spent a lot of time drinking various dutch beers, there were many dubbels and tripels consumed, and we both agreed that these were some of the best beers we had ever had. We started at Frontaal Brewery, which is a fantastic place to settle in for a few drinks. We then moved on to De Bruine Pij, which is a cafe/bar that we loved, and it was here that we discovered the wonderful dutch bitterballen. These deep-fried gravy balls are to die for and we could not get enough. We had a fantastic time exploring the nightlife of Breda – just a tip if you are there over the weekend, definitely make a dinner reservation as the restaurants were very busy.
Just outside of Breda is the lovely Mastbos Forest, where you can go for a stroll to dust off from the night before. There are a few small lakes and plenty of walking paths. We found this a welcome sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Overall, our time in Breda was such a joy, we loved being the only foreigners in bars and restaurants and our lovely friends showed us such a good time. Cost wise, it is not too expensive, we spent a lot more on food as we treated our friends to a dinner out in lieu of accommodation costs.
Here is a breakdown of our costs for 2 people for 1 day:
