Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn

Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn is the largest seventeenth century palace of the House of Orange. Stadtholder William III and his wife Mary had it built between 1684 and 1686, at the edge of the Veluwe. For almost three centuries the Dutch royal family stayed here, until Queen Wilhelmina died in 1962. Since 1984 it has been a museum. You walk through rooms filled with the family's own furniture, paintings and objects. Outside, a baroque garden of clipped beds and fountains waits. Here is what to see and how to plan your day.

What you see inside Het Loo Palace

Inside, you see how the royal family lived, worked and received guests. The rooms are furnished with original furniture, paintings and objects of the House of Orange, spanning several generations. The palace app includes an audio guide that you listen to as you follow one of the visitor routes. A permanent presentation tells the history of the family itself, and temporary exhibitions change through the year. It feels less like a row of grand rooms and more like a walk through the history of the Dutch monarchy, from a seventeenth century stadtholder to a twentieth century queen.

The baroque gardens

The gardens belong to the palace as much as the rooms do. The original Great Garden was designed by Claude Desgots, a nephew of the French garden architect André Le Nôtre. In the eighteenth century the formal layout made way for an English landscape garden. From the 1970s onwards the old baroque garden was restored, with symmetrical paths, clipped beds, fountains and statues, as the first residents intended. There is no separate garden ticket, because your palace ticket includes the gardens and you walk into them straight from the palace.

A museum below ground and the royal stables

The palace closed for a long renovation and gained an underground extension of more than 5,000 square metres, designed by KAAN Architecten. The renewed museum opened in April 2023. From the entrance building you first reach the stables square, with the stables and coach houses on your left. Here you see carriages and sleighs of the royal family, and in Prince Hendrik's garage you see how the court swapped horses for cars. The palace itself is about ten minutes on foot from the stables square, and a shuttle bus runs between the entrance building and the palace.

Plan your visit to Het Loo Palace

The museum recommends buying tickets online in advance, so you are certain of getting in. Allow about four hours for a full visit, or about three hours if you follow one palace route and visit the roof. The Museumkaart, the Dutch annual museum pass, is valid here. By public transport, take the train to Apeldoorn, about an hour from Amsterdam Centraal, then bus 102 or 112 from platform H at the bus station next to the train station. The entrance and car park are on the Amersfoortseweg, and parking is paid. The Veluwe has more to see: the Kröller-Müller Museum sits in the national park nearby.

Frequently asked questions about Het Loo Palace

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