5km (3 miles) NW of the Hague center
A chic beach resort with a notoriously hard-to-pronounce name, Scheveningen (Skhay-ven-ing-uhn) sports a cast of upscale restaurants, accommodations in all price ranges, designer boutiques, and abundant nighttime entertainment. Visitors often stay at Scheveningen, and make the 10-minute drive or tram ride into the Hague. Until early in the 19th century, this was a sleepy fishing village set amid the dunes on the North Sea coast. But as its beaches began to attract vacation crowds, Scheveningen evolved into an internationally known watering hole, and it's now a part of the Hague. The magnificent and beautifully restored 19th-century waterfront Kurhaus Hotel still draws celebrities from around the globe. Gamblers flock to the resort's casino, where tuxedoed croupiers ply their craft nightly.
Fun fact: the name Scheveningenis so difficult to say that during World War II the Dutch underground used it as a code name for identification -- the Germans just couldn't get it right.
