Netherlands · Provincie Zuid-Holland · The Hague
Laak, The Hague — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Laak is one of the eight districts of The Hague, in the southeast by Rijswijk, made of Laakkwartier, Spoorwijk, and the old industrial Binckhorst.
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Where to stay in Laak
Where visitors usually base themselves, and why.
Laak holds few hotels. It is where people live and work, not where visitors usually book a room, so come here for lower rents and fast tram and rail links rather than for sights on the doorstep. Across Laakkwartier and Spoorwijk the feel is plain and workaday.
The Binckhorst end is changing fast, old workshops giving way to new flats and a handful of bars, though it still reads as a building site in places. Anyone set on the city's museums or the beach will do better in the centre or out at Scheveningen.
Things to do in and around The Hague
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Museums & Galleries
3- Gallery Prince Willem V Heritage
- Museum Maluku Heritage
- Mauritshuis
Churches & Religious Sites
7- Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk Heritage
- Nieuwe Kerk Heritage
- Kloosterkerk Heritage
- Sint-Jacobus de Meerderekerk Heritage
- Elandstraatkerk Heritage
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- Teresia van Avilakerk Heritage
- H.H. Jacobus- en Augustinuskerk Heritage
Castles & Historic Sites
1- Binckhorst Castle Heritage
Parks & Gardens
1- Drievliet
Landmarks & Notable Places
3- Huis Schuylenburch Heritage
- Torentje
- Maurits Tower
worth knowingacross 5 categories in and around The Hague
About Laak
What are the main landmarks in Laak?
Laak's own landmark is Binckhorst Castle, a moated manor house in the Binckhorst whose oldest parts go back centuries, now ringed by workshops and new building. Beyond that, the district has few sights. The famous museums that carry The Hague's name, the Mauritshuis, Panorama Mesdag and the Escher Museum, sit in the centre to the northwest, not in Laak.
For a day among paintings you ride out of the district. What Laak offers instead is the plain street life of Laakkwartier and Spoorwijk.
What is the history of Laak?
The name Laak comes from a small watercourse, the Laak, that long served as the boundary between The Hague and Rijswijk. For centuries this was open polder on the city's edge. Laakkwartier and Spoorwijk were laid out as residential quarters in the early twentieth century, when The Hague spilled south across the old boundary.
Industry came with the water. Around 1900 the Laakkanaal and its side harbours were dug for factories, and most of that industrial quarter is now a Haagse Hogeschool campus and homes with student flats.
Where is Laak?
The district sits between The Hague's centre and the Rijswijk border, framed by rail lines running down to Hollands Spoor station and out toward Delft. Its two residential grids, Laakkwartier and Spoorwijk, lie on either side of the Laakkanaal, while the Trekvliet canal edges the Binckhorst. Escamp is the neighbour to the southwest, Haagse Hout to the north. Water and track set its bounds.
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More areas in The Hague
Updated October 2026