Sep 20, 2026
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Retire in the Netherlands
American expats are discovering why The Hague, Maastricht, and beyond offer the perfect Dutch encore.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
There are two kinds of mornings in the Dutch spring. The kind where you cycle to the market and come home with warm cheese and rye bread and a handful of wild tulips. And the kind where it rains sideways for an hour, then the sun comes out and everything looks like a Vermeer. Today, if you’re lucky, is one of those mornings.
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Photo: Shutterstock
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In today’s email:
- Best Places to Retire in the Netherlands for Americans (2026)
- At The Café — Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
- Around The Web — The Love Netherlands Guide № 005: Dutch Cycling Culture, Discover Your Dutch Roots in New Zealand: A Heritage Guide for Dutch-New Zealanders, Volendam Day Trip from Amsterdam: Your Complete 2026 Guide + more
- From Love Netherlands — How to Plan a Dutch Heritage Trip to Your Ancestral Town
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Boerenkaas — The Farmhouse Cheese With a Protected Name
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Best Places to Retire in the Netherlands for Americans (2026)
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The best places to retire in the Netherlands share a quality that is hard to define precisely but easy to recognise: a certain ease of daily life. Wide cycle paths connect everything worth reaching. Cafés stay open late and start early. Neighbours greet each other. Trains run on time. For Americans weighing a retirement move to Europe, the Netherlands offers something no other country quite matches — a deeply international culture wrapped in a genuinely Dutch way of life. The question is simply: which city suits you best? Love the Netherlands? Join our free newsletter for hidden Dutch gems → inlovewithnetherlands.com/subscribe Why Americans Choose the Netherlands for Retirement The Netherlands ranks among the most English-proficient non-native countries in the world. Walk into a supermarket, a doctor’s surgery, or a local council office in almost any Dutch city and you will receive a…
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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.
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At The Café
Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
Café ‘T Mandje on the Zeedijk opened in 1927, run by Bet van Beeren — one of the first openly lesbian bar owners in the world. The bar’s interior is preserved exactly as Bet left it: dozens of cut-off ties pinned to the ceiling (her custom for any man who got too rowdy), framed photos of regulars from the 1930s onwards, and the same long wooden bar her customers leaned on for half a century. It’s still a working café and an active part of LGBTQ history. Stop in for a beer, take in the ceiling, and read the small museum corner near the door.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
Your great-grandmother left a small Dutch town in the 1890s. She packed a single trunk and sailed to a new world. She never went back. You have her photograph. You have her name. You have the name of the town she left behind. Now you want to go. A Dutch heritage trip connects you with something larger than travel. You are not just visiting a country. You are returning to a place that shaped who you are. This guide walks you through every step —…
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Boerenkaas — The Farmhouse Cheese With a Protected Name
Boerenkaas is the protected designation for cheese made on a Dutch farm with raw milk from that farm’s own cows, by the farmer themselves, with no industrial shortcuts. It tastes nothing like the supermarket Gouda. Younger wheels are creamy and sweet; aged ones develop deep crystalline cracks and a flavour that lingers for minutes. Every Friday, in Alkmaar’s old Waagplein cheese market, you’ll see boerenkaas being weighed on antique scales — a pageant for tourists and a real trade for cheesemakers. Pair it with apple, walnut and a glass of jenever.
👉 Read the full story
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Also From Our Family
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