Kijkduin: Dunes, Landscape Art and History

If you’re looking for a hotel in Kijkduin, you can start by choosing your destination based on your interests: are you mainly interested in dunes and outdoor activities, landscape art or history? In Kijkduin, these interests are reflected in different places and features: from the dunes to an immersive work of art and traces of the Second World War.

Dunes, Cycling Route and Coastal Protection

Kijkduin’s extensive dunes are used for walking. For cyclists, Kijkduin lies on the LF1, a long-distance cycle route along the North Sea. Walking in the dunes and being on a long-distance cycle route offer different ways to explore the area: one focuses on the landscape itself, the other on its connection to a regional route.

Between Kijkduin and Monster lies the Sand Motor, an innovative form of coastal protection that also provides space for recreation and nature. It adds another perspective to the themes of activity and landscape: coastal protection, recreation and nature come together in this coastal project.

Landscape Art You Can Walk Through

Hemels Gewelf in Kijkduin is a large-scale landscape artwork by James Turrell. The installation is an elliptical earthwork measuring 40 by 30 metres. Visitors can enter the work through a six-metre-long tunnel. Its dimensions and entrance describe different aspects of the same work: the ellipse defines its landscape form, while the tunnel provides a way in. If you’re interested in art in the landscape, these two features offer practical points of reference for your visit.

Recreational Landscape and Historical Heritage

The Puinduinen on Machiel Vrijenhoeklaan is a recreational area created from demolition rubble in the 1950s and 1960s. Its history connects its present-day recreational use with the area’s origins. For travellers interested in how a landscape has developed, as well as in nature and outdoor activities, this place offers a distinct perspective.

The Widerstandsnest 67 HL in Kijkduin is part of the built heritage of the Second World War. The complex has about 130 metres of tunnels and six bunkers. Part of it lies beneath the dunes near Kijkduin’s beach promenade. Its partial location and structural features set it apart from the Puinduinen: here, the focus is on a historic structure with tunnels and bunkers; there, on a recreational area created from demolition rubble.

The tunnel details refer to different places and scales: at Hemels Gewelf, a six-metre-long tunnel provides access; at the Widerstandsnest, about 130 metres of tunnels are part of a complex with six bunkers. This makes it possible to distinguish walk-through landscape art from the built heritage of the Second World War as two separate themes.

More to Discover in Kijkduin

The Jutterskeet in Kijkduin displays found objects. You can also borrow a net there for fishing in the sea. If you need this activity for your plans, check in advance whether the net is currently available to borrow. The exhibition and net lending appeal to different interests: you can focus on the objects on display or include fishing as a possible activity.

Discover more destinations: Geuzenkwartier, Centrum, Haagse Hout, Scheveningen, Vissershaven.

Return to the main travel overview: The Hague.