Destination Guide for Netherlands

There are over 1,000 windmills, 6 million clogs made per year and 9 billion flower bulbs exported – that’s a staggering 80% of all flower bulbs in the world. You can even buy clogs with flowers and windmills on them.

Contrary to popular belief, very few people in the Netherlands actually wear clogs these days – it’s usually just the tourists. Good news if you can read this. Dutch is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. It’s similar to English, as well as German and Scandinavian languages. And the grammar is much simpler.

To make it even easier, the Dutch often drop English words and phrases into the middle of their sentences. That’s not surprising considering that nine in ten Dutch people speak English. The Netherlands has the highest levels of English language proficiency in the world.

The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild maritime climate, with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.

Ice days—maximum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)—usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)—occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be 10 cm (4 in) above ground instead of 150 cm (59 in), one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April, but sometimes occurs in May or October too.

Germany is Europe’s economic powerhouse, so it’s no surprise that many expats arrive here to pursue job opportunities in one of the major cities. However, with world class universities, which in most cases offer free tuition, it’s also the perfect place to come as an international student to complete your studies. Finally, with some cities offering pleasingly low costs of living with excellent amenities and infrastructure, retiring in Germany is also an increasingly popular choice for foreigners.

Whether you’re retiring, going to work, temporarily relocating, or moving to Germany for good, it’s helpful to have a picture of what life there will cost as an expat.