📱 The Love Netherlands app is here — now on iPhoneDownload Love Netherlands on the App Store

Dutch-Indonesian Heritage Across Netherlands

Dutch-Indonesian Heritage Across Netherlands
Love Netherlands

Aug 20, 2026

Dutch-Indonesian Heritage Across Netherlands

Discover archives and sites that honour your Indo family story.

Love Netherlands

Dear Netherlands,

Amsterdam in April has a particular kind of quiet. The tulips are out in the park. The café terraces are full by ten. Somewhere in the Jordaan a church bell is telling the hour, and a barge is gliding past, and a child is learning to cycle without training wheels. This is the version of the Netherlands you came for.

Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe free and never miss an edition →

If the daily newsletter brings you closer to the Netherlands, our Sunday Premium Edition takes you deeper into it. Every Sunday you’ll receive travel deep dives, curated itineraries, regional stories, and hidden gems you won’t find anywhere else.

Upgrade for less than the price of a pint and see the Netherlands in a completely new way.

Tracing Your Dutch-Indonesian Roots: A Heritage Guide for the Indo Diaspora

Photo via Love Netherlands

In today’s email:

  • Tracing Your Dutch-Indonesian Roots: A Heritage Guide for the Indo Diaspora
  • At The Café — Café Papeneiland — The Café on the Corner Bill Clinton Loved
  • Around The Web — Best Time to Visit the Netherlands: A Month-by-Month Guide (2026), Discover Your North Holland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History, Discover Your Gelderland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History + more
  • From Love Netherlands — Maastricht, Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026)
  • Dutch Food You Will Love — Kroket — The Older, Stranger Cousin of Bitterballen

Tracing Your Dutch-Indonesian Roots: A Heritage Guide for the Indo Diaspora

👉 Read the full story

Your opa spoke Dutch at home. Your grandmother cooked rijsttafel every Sunday. You grew up hearing stories about a place across the ocean. Now you want to find out more about where your family really came from. If you have Dutch-Indonesian roots, you are part of a large and proud community. Millions of people around the world share this heritage. Many are now searching for their family history. The good news is that the Netherlands holds many of the answers. Who Are the Indo Community? The Indo community has a long and complex history. “Indo” refers to people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent. It also refers to Dutch people born in the former Dutch East Indies. Today, there are around 600,000 people of Indo heritage living in the Netherlands. Millions more live in Australia, the United States, Canada, and South Africa. The Dutch East Indies is now known as Indonesia. It was a Dutch…

👉 Read the full story

Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.

“Want deep dives into the Netherlands every Sunday? Our Premium readers already have their next edition waiting.”

At The Café

Café Papeneiland — The Café on the Corner Bill Clinton Loved

Café Papeneiland sits at the corner of the Prinsengracht and the Brouwersgracht, in a 17th-century building so charmingly crooked that the Delft tiles inside lean slightly to one side. It’s been a café since 1642. Bill Clinton stopped in once, ate a slice of apple pie, and the café has never quite let it go — there’s a small framed photo behind the bar. The apple pie really is the order: thick, warm, just enough cinnamon, served with whipped cream that doesn’t come from a can. Sit by the window upstairs and watch the canal boats turn the corner below.

👉 Visit the café

Around The Web

Love Netherlands
Best Time to Visit the Netherlands: A Month-by-Month Guide (2026)

The best time to visit the Netherlands depends entirely on what you want from your trip. If you dream of cycling past tulip fields under a warm spring sky, April is your month. If…

👉 Read the full story

Love Netherlands
Discover Your North Holland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History

North Holland is the province that shaped the world. For two centuries, merchants from Amsterdam, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, and Alkmaar sailed to every corner of the globe. They built the…

👉 Read the full story

Love Netherlands
Discover Your Gelderland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History

Gelderland is the largest province in the Netherlands. It stretches from the Rhine and Waal rivers in the south to the great Veluwe forests in the heart of the country. For…

👉 Read the full story

Love Netherlands
Rotterdam Food Guide: Where to Eat, Drink and Explore the Market Scene (2026)

Rotterdam is the food capital of the Netherlands — and that surprises almost everyone who hears it. Amsterdam gets the attention, but Rotterdam’s rebuilt, experimental character…

👉 Read the full story

Love Netherlands
Tracing Your Family in Drenthe: A Heritage Travel Plan

Your great-grandparents may have farmed the same plot of land for generations. Their children may have sat in the same village church. Their surnames may still appear on graves in…

👉 Read the full story

From Love Netherlands

Maastricht, Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026)

Maastricht stands apart from every other city in the Netherlands. Tucked into the country’s southern tip, squeezed between Belgium and Germany, it has more Roman ruins than Amsterdam, more Michelin stars per resident than almost anywhere else in the country, and a carnival so wild it shuts the city for three days every February. If you have been treating the Netherlands as a quick Amsterdam weekend, Maastricht will quietly make you rethink that…

👉 Read the full story

Maastricht, Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026)

Photo via Love Netherlands

Dutch Food You Will Love

Kroket — The Older, Stranger Cousin of Bitterballen

A kroket is a finger-shaped roll of crumbed and deep-fried beef ragout — the same filling as bitterballen, but in a single satisfying portion the size of a thick chip. You eat it slid into a soft white roll with a smear of mustard, called a broodje kroket, and it’s the Dutch lunch counter’s defining order. The most famous come from automat-style FEBO walls in Amsterdam, where you slot a few coins in and pull a hot kroket out of a glass-fronted cabinet. There’s no shame in it — half the city has eaten one before a tram home.

👉 Read the full story


Know Someone Who Loves the Netherlands?

If you’re enjoying this letter, the best thing you could do is forward it to one friend who’d love the Netherlands too. This newsletter grows by word of mouth alone — every single subscriber came from someone sending it to someone else. Thank you for being one of the first.

Our daily newsletter is free and always will be. But for less than the price of a pint, you can upgrade to our Sunday Premium Edition, which gives you access to our travel deep dives, curated itineraries, and regional stories. Consider buying us a stroopwafel — it’s the Dutch way to say thank you.

Also From Our Family

Love Ireland too? Over 64,000 readers wake up each morning to the Love Ireland newsletter — loveireland.substack.com

Or Scotland? Join 43,000 Scotland lovers — lovescotland.substack.com

You’re reading Love Netherlands — a free letter about canal towns, hidden villages, and Dutch stories, delivered Monday to Friday.

inlovewithnetherlands.com · Unsubscribe

© 2026 Love Netherlands · Part of the Love To Visit LLC family

Tours & experiences you might love

Amsterdam Free tour World War II and Anne Frank
Amsterdam Free tour World War II and Anne Frank
From $6 · Selling fast
Book now →
Amsterdam Highlights and Hidden Gems Walking Tour with Fun Guide
Amsterdam Highlights and Hidden Gems Walking Tour with Fun Guide
From $42 · Selling fast
Book now →
Amsterdam: Private Tour to Keukenhof and Flower-Farm with Ticket
Amsterdam: Private Tour to Keukenhof and Flower-Farm with Ticket
From $459 · Selling fast
Book now →
Explore Amsterdam in 75 Minutes – Pedicab Rickshaw City tour
Explore Amsterdam in 75 Minutes – Pedicab Rickshaw City tour
From $129 · Selling fast
Book now →

Powered by Viator. Some links are affiliate links — we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Other newsletters you might like

Love Castles

Apart from the fascinating and rich history of castles, people love to visit them for their majestic beauty. From the imposing stone walls to the beautiful architecture, there is something captivating about these grand structures.

Subscribe

Love Scotland

Love Scotland is a newsletter and website that is dedicated to the promotion of Scotland as a travel destination. Everything great about Scotland.

Subscribe

Love Spain

Love Spain — in your inbox. Iconic cities, hidden pueblos and the best places to visit in Spain. One short email, every day.

Subscribe

Love South Africa

South Africa as a travel destination. The Rainbow nation full of wonderful gems to visit. Going on Safari in the Kruger National Park, visiting the beautiful beaches of Cape Town, indulge in the South African culture and heritage.

Subscribe

Newsletters via the One Two Three Send network.  ·  Want your newsletter featured here? Click here