The MapitOut tool makes it easy to familiarise yourself with the region before moving to the Netherlands. By mapping out travel time between your work, children’s schools and other key locations, you’ll find your ideal location to live, work and feel at home in. For more inspiration, read the interviews with our internationals.
You can acces the Welcome to NL MapitOut Tool below:
Start with any location you may already know. If you already know the address of your office, this is a good example. You could also start with the address of a friend or family member, or a landmark you intend to regularly visit such as a certain train station. Enter this location as the “from” address.
Next, think about your preferred mode of transport and the time you’d like to spend travelling between this address and home. For example, if you’d like to live a 30-minute walk from your workplace, enter “30 minutes” and “walking”. Many residents in the Netherlands opt for the convenience of cycling to a train station or metro stop. To explore this option, enter “public transport & cycling”. When you click “go”, the tool will highlight the geographic area that you can reach in this timeframe. You might be surprised to discover how compact and easily accessible the Netherlands is.
You can continue adding locations and the time you’d like to spend travelling to create a visual representation of your daily routine. Clicking on "show overlapping area" reveals the area that meets your requirements, and might be a good place to search for potential homes.
The “points of interest” function allows you to search for schools in the region. Select primary or secondary level and all schools or international only. It’s worth noting that an increasing number of newcomers’ classes and international classes (bridge classes) help international arrivals to learn Dutch and settle into the local education system, while some schools are even moving towards bilingual education. Check the availability of schools in different parts of the region to get an idea of which areas are most convenient for your family.
