Rijnsweerd
Utrecht's office district east of the ring: provincial government, glass blocks, mature green, and rates that collapse every weekend.
Glass and brick office buildings behind mature trees on the Archimedeslaan in Rijnsweerd, Utrecht
Why people stay in Rijnsweerd
Rijnsweerd is where Utrecht keeps its desks. Between the A27 motorway and the city's eastern edge, along the Archimedeslaan, Pythagoraslaan and Herculesplein, sit the Provinciehuis of Utrecht province, insurers, consultancies, the Kromhout Kazerne defence complex and a great deal of glass and brown brick from the 1980s and 1990s, set back among mature trees. It has almost no shops, no old street pattern and no reason to visit for its own sake — and yet it is one of the smartest value plays in the city, for one reason.
That reason is Monday-to-Thursday pricing. Business hotels and serviced apartments here fill with consultants and civil servants during the week and empty completely at the weekend, so a room that costs €140 on a Tuesday can be €72 on a Saturday, ten minutes by bike from the Wilhelminapark and twenty from the Oudegracht. If your Utrecht trip is Friday to Sunday, this is where the arithmetic is on your side. If it is Tuesday to Thursday, the same rooms are the worst value in the city and you should look at Wittevrouwen instead.
At nine in the evening Rijnsweerd is empty in a way that some people find restful and others find eerie: lit car parks, security desks, a jogger, the motorway humming behind the tree belt. Nothing is open. The nearest food is a hotel restaurant or a bicycle ride into Utrecht Oost, where the Burgemeester Reigerstraat and Nachtegaalstraat have proper restaurants and bars until 22:00 and later. Buy breakfast supplies before you arrive; there is no supermarket you can reach on foot in five minutes.
Where Rijnsweerd earns real credit is as a launch pad. Cross the Voorveldse Polder north on foot and you are in the fields; go south and you reach Amelisweerd's beech and oak woods along the Kromme Rijn in ten minutes by bike; get on the A28 or the bus and you are in Zeist, De Bilt and the Utrechtse Heuvelrug within a quarter of an hour. Utrecht Science Park, with the botanical gardens and Fort Hoofddijk, is the next stop east. For a car-borne trip that pairs city and forest, few Utrecht addresses work better.
Book on or just off the Archimedeslaan and the Herculesplein, which is where the hotels and serviced apartments actually are and where the bus stops sit; from there you are 800 metres from the Wilhelminapark's edge and about 3 km from the Oudegracht. The green western fringe, facing Utrecht Oost, is quieter and prettier than the motorway side. Expect €120 to €170 midweek and €72 to €100 Friday to Sunday, with genuine bargains in July and August when business travel dies. Avoid rooms on the A27 side of any building, where the motorway noise is constant with the window open, and avoid arriving on a Sunday evening expecting to eat locally. Free or cheap parking is standard, which is the other reason to choose this district.
Things to do in Rijnsweerd
South of Rijnsweerd, across the A27 on the cycle bridge, the Amelisweerd estates spread along the Kromme Rijn: 200-year-old beeches, hollow lanes, a walled kitchen garden and the Theehuis Rhijnauwen for pancakes. Free, open all day, about 10 minutes by bike from the Archimedeslaan and easily a three-hour wander.
The Utrecht Provinciehuis on the Archimedeslaan and the office ensembles around Herculesplein are a compressed lesson in Dutch corporate architecture from 1980 to now, including some very good landscaping between the blocks. Walk it on a Sunday morning when the car parks are empty and you have the courtyards and water features to yourself.
North of the Archimedeslaan, the Voorveldse Polder is grazed meadow with ditches, a birding hide and footpaths that continue into De Bilt. Twenty-five minutes on foot gets you from office glass to lapwings and skylarks. Best in the early evening; wear something waterproof underfoot after rain, since the paths are unsurfaced.
Ten minutes east by bike, the university's Botanische Tuinen at Budapestlaan wrap around Fort Hoofddijk with a rock garden built into the fort's earthworks, a pinetum, tropical glasshouses and a butterfly house. Entry is around €11, open daily in season and closed in deep winter. Combine with the campus architecture on the Heidelberglaan.
From the stops on the Archimedeslaan, buses head east to Zeist in around 15 to 20 minutes, with Slot Zeist's baroque avenues and the forests of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug at the far end. It is the quickest jump from office district to national park anywhere in Utrecht, and cheap on a day ticket of about €8.
Head west for 10 minutes and you hit the Wilhelminapark's lake and plane trees, then the Maliebaan, a 17th-century double avenue that runs straight back towards the old city. It is Utrecht's classic morning run: about 6 km out and back from Rijnsweerd, entirely on gravel and protected lanes.
What to see
Hotels near Rijnsweerd
No hotels are listed in Rijnsweerd yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Every hotel we cover in Rijnsweerd
Getting around Rijnsweerd
From Schiphol, intercity to Utrecht Centraal, 35 minutes, about €11.20; from the station's bus platforms take one of the frequent buses towards Utrecht Science Park, which stop at Rijnsweerd Noord and Rijnsweerd Zuid on the Archimedeslaan in roughly 12 to 15 minutes. Tram 20, 21 and 22 serve the Science Park rather than Rijnsweerd itself, so the bus is your line. Cycling is 3 to 4 km to the Oudegracht, about 15 minutes via the Maliebaan. Drivers exit the A27 at the Rijnsweerd junction and park free or cheaply at most buildings, plus there is a large P+R at Utrecht Science Park nearby.
Questions about Rijnsweerd
Substantially. The hotels here run on business demand, so Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights are often 30 to 50 percent below the midweek rate, and July and August are soft throughout. A double that lists at €150 on a Wednesday in October can be €80 two days later. Midweek in conference season it is the wrong district to shop in.
You can, in about 35 to 40 minutes via the Wilhelminapark and the Maliebaan, and it is a pleasant walk under old trees rather than a slog. Most people cycle it in 15 minutes instead. Buses to Utrecht Centraal take 12 to 15 minutes and run every few minutes in the daytime, dropping to roughly every 20 minutes late evening.
Realistically, in your hotel or somewhere else. The district has canteens that shut with the offices and almost nothing open after 19:00. Ride or bus 10 minutes west to the Burgemeester Reigerstraat and Nachtegaalstraat in Utrecht Oost for proper restaurants until about 22:00, or into the Binnenstad for later. Stock up on breakfast items on your way in.
One of the best inside the city. You are on the A27 and A28 immediately, buses reach Zeist in 15 to 20 minutes, and Amelisweerd's woods start 10 minutes away by bike. Doorn, Driebergen and the national park's heath and forest are within half an hour by car, so you can combine museum mornings with afternoon walks without changing hotels.
