Museums in Arnhem: open air, water and war

Start looking for museums in Arnhem and you soon end up at the Netherlands Open Air Museum. There you spend a whole day walking past farmhouses, mills and workshops. Arnhem has more, though. In Sonsbeek Park, a museum about water is housed in an old watermill. On a royal estate, Bronbeek tells the story of the Dutch East Indies. The city also still carries the marks of the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. Below you read what each museum offers and what lies close by.

The Netherlands Open Air Museum is the largest museum in Arnhem and the only one where you spend the whole day outside. Its park of about 44 hectares is full of farmhouses, mills and workshops brought from all over the country, and a historic tram runs through it in high season. Indoors, the Canon of the Netherlands tells Dutch history in ten large sets, a good start and a good place when it rains. In low season the park stays open but the historic buildings close. From Arnhem station, city bus 3 brings you close, and holders of a Museumkaart get in free.

The other museums in the city are smaller and easier to fit into half a day. At the Nederlands Watermuseum in Sonsbeek Park you open the locks yourself, which makes it a favourite with families. It is within walking distance of the station. Museum Bronbeek lies on an estate on the east side of the city, on the Velperweg, where veterans still live. It is a quiet place with a big story about colonial history. The Arnhems Oorlogsmuseum 40-45, on the edge of the city, shows in an old village school how the war affected this region.

Many visitors come to Arnhem because of September 1944, when the battle for the Rhine bridge was fought here. You can follow that story across three places. Start at the Arnhems Oorlogsmuseum 40-45, then travel to Oosterbeek, just outside the city. There the Airborne Museum is housed in the villa that served as headquarters during the battle. End in the city centre at the John Frost Bridge, the bridge the fighting was about. Together they give you a clear picture of what happened, from the wider region to one single crossing.

North of Arnhem lies the Veluwe, a large area of woods and heath. Deep inside De Hoge Veluwe National Park you find the Kröller-Müller Museum, with a large group of paintings by Vincent van Gogh and a sculpture garden of 25 hectares. You buy a combined ticket for the park and the museum, and you should allow about three hours for the museum and garden alone. Combining it with the Open Air Museum on the same day is too much. Give each one its own day.

This list covers the museums within the municipality of Arnhem. Oosterbeek and the Veluwe are not included; you find them above or on the map.

• Arnhems Oorlogsmuseum 40-45 (in Dutch)History
• Museum Bronbeek (in Dutch)History
• Nederlands Watermuseum (in Dutch)Science
• Netherlands Open Air MuseumHeritage