‘A web of canals and cobbled streets’: a city break in Haarlem in the Netherlands

A short ride from Amsterdam, this laid-back city has great museums, cosy bars and a new exhibition featuring the works of Rembrandt and local artist Frans Hals this winter It’s only 15 minutes away from the Dutch capital by train, but Haarlem feels a million miles from Amsterdam, and perhaps provides a more typical glimpse of the Netherlands than trailing around the well-worn tourist trail of Van Gogh, coffee shops and red lights.

An attractive city of cobbled streets, gabled houses and canals, Haarlem is, as the Dutch would say, a gezellig sort of place – cosy, convivial, and full of intriguing nooks and corners. I’ve been coming here for years, and it seems odd that Haarlem is not better known, at least to UK visitors. This winter there’s the added draw of an exhibition devoted to the works of a local boy, the 17th-century painter Frans Hals, and his better-known contemporary Rembrandt in the…