Picnicking, Paddling and Promenading
4.5
4.5
Date of visit: July 2025
I have experience of challenges around: moving around
Overall Rating
Excellent
We visited this beautiful, clean beach for the second time this year and it was just as lovely as the first time we visited. It’s an ideal place for a day out, particularly if you are visiting The Hague during a heatwave (as we were). I really loved the atmosphere here, it was so lovely to see families of all ages safely out at night and what made it even more special was that wheelchair users can access two concrete ramps down to the high water-line of the sea; from my own experience, this is unusual in the UK and I think that we have a lot to learn from The Netherlands' example. There are many cafes and bars along the promenade/boulevard which is wheelchair accessible; one end of the beach is much busier than the other. Scheveningen beach used to be a popular destination for people recovering from T. B. as well as for Dutch artists; Van Gogh painted it. One of his paintings of a stormy day there still has the sand grains on the canvas! There is also an immersive 19th Century Mesdag painting in the Museum ‘Panorama Mesdag’ nearby but as the museum is only partially accessible for powerchairs and the panorama itself can’t be accessed by powerchairs, I didn’t go. If you want to be actually in the sea or closer to it, you can also hire beach wheelchairs and walkers so it seems like they have really thought about disabled people having the full beach experience and that means a lot. I think that you should allow a few hours for your visit; we had a great time picnicking and paddling, watching the gorgeous orange sunset, in fact, none of us could believe that it was so late; it didn’t start to get dark until 10.30! I will definitely be coming back next time I'm in The Hague.
Disabled Access In and Around
Good
See above (excuse the pun)! Access was easy on the pathways but the sand is soft although the beach wheelchairs and walkers would solve that.
Parking & Transport
Good
There are accessible trams to the beach (9 and 11) and also 11 disabled parking spaces close to the beach; there is a few minutes wheeling from the tram stops.
Accessible Toilets
Good
I thought that they were really good for a beach. On the North Boulevard, at the bike garage there is a Changing Places type of disabled toilet with an accessible shower although, sorry, I didn’t manage to visit there. There are also charging points there which I think are for wheelchairs and equipment as well as for charging electric bikes; this is also where you can hire the beach wheelchairs.
