Escort Den Haag: ministries, embassies, the sea

In the middle of town, the Binnenhof complex, for centuries the stage of Dutch politics, looks out over the Hofvijver. The Mauritshuis, where Girl with a Pearl Earring hangs, is its next-door neighbour. Up north, the Peace Palace is home to the International Court of Justice, surrounded by streets of embassies and ambassadors' residences.

Lange Voorhout is the elegant boulevard of old townhouses and linden trees. The World Forum hosts summits and conferences. At the end of the tram line, Scheveningen has the pier, the boulevard and the North Sea.

Two main stations serve the city, Den Haag Centraal and Hollands Spoor, and trams connect the centre, the embassy district and the coast late into the evening.

Three zones. The centre, near Den Haag Centraal and the government quarter, is full of business hotels that stay busy all week. The embassy district around the Peace Palace holds quieter, upscale addresses. Scheveningen has the seafront hotels, with balconies facing the water and a very different mood once the sun goes down.

When a summit or a big international conference is on, rooms near the World Forum fill quickly. Book your evening earlier in those weeks too.

Guests here in an official capacity tend to care about discretion more than anyone. That needs no special request. It is how every booking already runs.

Den Haag Centraal is about 50 minutes from Amsterdam Centraal by intercity, running via Schiphol and Leiden. By car the A4 takes roughly an hour in normal traffic, and far longer in the evening rush.

This is a proper trip, so the notice is longer. Book ahead where you can, earlier in the evening rather than at 01:00, and send an exact address. For Scheveningen, allow for the extra stretch out to the coast. You get a firm arrival estimate in the chat before you commit to anything.

Den Haag has two main stations and they are not interchangeable. Centraal sits next to the ministries and the business towers. Hollands Spoor is further south, closer to the old town bars. Intercity trains from Amsterdam stop at one or the other, so check which before you tell the desk where you are.

Getting to the coast is a tram job. Lines run from both stations out through the embassy quarter to Scheveningen, twenty minutes or so to the boulevard. A taxi does it in fifteen at night. The harbour end of Scheveningen is a separate stop from the beach end, and the walk between them is longer than it looks on a map.

After midnight the trams thin out and the night train toward Amsterdam runs about once an hour. Plan the return before the evening begins.

Den Haag fills and empties with the parliamentary year and the conference circuit. When a summit comes to town, security zones close streets around the government quarter and the World Forum, and roads to the coast can be sealed for hours. Nobody announces it to us in advance. Check the news, then message the desk earlier than you normally would.

Summer belongs to Scheveningen. Beach pavilions go up in spring and come down in autumn, and on hot evenings the boulevard traffic crawls. From October the coast is quiet, the wind picks up, and the city centre becomes the place to be after dark.

Inside the old centre, the streets around the Grote Kerk hold most of the late bars. That is the corner that stays awake.

Two versions. The city version: dinner near Lange Voorhout, a quiet bar, back to the hotel before tomorrow's meetings. The sea version: a walk along the Scheveningen boulevard, wind off the water, a late drink with the waves audible from the room.

Season changes the seaside completely. Summer means beach clubs, crowds on the boulevard and slow traffic on the coast road. Winter empties it, and a room looking out on a grey North Sea has its own kind of appeal.

For the formal version, Sonya is calm and thoughtful, a ballet lover with understated evening elegance. For the seaside, Roxi is vivacious and playful, a surfer at heart. Everyone else is on the girls page.

Also on the line: Rotterdam is a short train ride further south, and Schiphol sits on the route back to Amsterdam. Rates start from €180 per hour.