Rotterdam Walking Tour: History & Culture

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Rotterdam

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Discover Rotterdam’s highlights and hidden gems with a personal photographer. Capture memories at iconic spots and receive high-res photos the next day.

Duration: 3 hours

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

Santa Claus (Beeld) - The Santa Claus statue by Paul McCarthy, initially unwanted, now stands proudly in the city. It has become an icon that many people from Rotterdam cherish, and here’s why.
Depot Boymans Van Beuningen - The mirrored Art Depot of Boijmans van Beuningen, along with other sites in the Museum District, offers insights into…

Santa Claus (Beeld) - The Santa Claus statue by Paul McCarthy, initially unwanted, now stands proudly in the city. It has become an icon that many people from Rotterdam cherish, and here’s why.
Depot Boymans Van Beuningen - The mirrored Art Depot of Boijmans van Beuningen, along with other sites in the Museum District, offers insights into all the museums and the Land of Hoboken.
Nieuwe Werk - Het Scheepvaartkwartier (Shipping Quarter) is a hidden gem in the outer city center, unknown to many Rotterdammers. Here, you can experience the expansive and open atmosphere of this beautiful harbor city! From the river Maas, you can view Hotel New York, Steam Ship Rotterdam, and Erasmusbrug.
Erasmusbrug - The Erasmus Bridge, a large white structure crossing the river Meuse (Maas), connects the north to the south. It is a city icon, and here you will learn about the Second World War, the invasion, and the bombing of Rotterdam.
Maritime Museum Rotterdam - In the Maritime District, you will find many century-old boats, the last of their kind. Walking through this open-air museum feels like stepping back in time!
The Destroyed City - This is one of Rotterdam’s most significant statues related to the Second World War, located at Square 1940, rich in meaning and history.
Witte Huis - The White House is a historical icon that was once the tallest office tower in Europe!
Old Harbour - The old harbor is one of the oldest in The Netherlands and exudes charm! From here, enjoy a great view of the cube houses, which we will explore up close at our next stop!
Markthal - After visiting the market square, the tour concludes inside The Markthal. This venue has made Rotterdam even more famous and is a modern indoor market filled with food and colors! It’s also known as our modern Sistine Chapel, and you’ll discover why!
Kubuswoningen - The cube houses are among the city’s most famous attractions. You will learn about their purpose, design, and architecture. Walk through the ‘concrete forest’ on the way to the market square.

What's Included

Architecture: Old, Current and Future building styles and plans
Suggestions where to eat in Markthal (Market hall)
Photo spot suggestions
Snacks
Small group of max. 15 people
History: From harbor to WWII and rebuilding
Professional Local guide, from Rotterdam

Additional Information

Explore Rotterdam with a local guide on this walking tour, showcasing both renowned landmarks and lesser-known treasures. Delve into the city’s rich history, from its origins in the 1200s and the devastating WWII bombings, to its post-war revival, major port, architecture, culture, and more.

Highlights include: Cube Houses, Markthal, Old Harbor,…

Location

Oude Binnenweg 137

Oude Binnenweg

The meeting point is at Eendrachtsplein / Oude Binnenweg 137: in front of the Santa Claus statue. The guide will have a YELLOW Rottourdam umbrella. You can reach this location by tram (4, 6, 8,) and metro (A/B/C). From Cruise Terminal tram 5 or 3, or Metro D/E.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

5.0

(71 Ratings)

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Debbie_c

Apr 7, 2025

A must! - Wonderful narrative in a positive funny manner. Lots of interesting stories about past and present. Highly recommend

Review provided by Viator

Fabiocolasanti

Apr 6, 2025

A tour worth taking - My wife and I booked a guided walking tour of Rotterdam from Trip Advisor on Tuesday April, 1 2025. The tour was called “Rotterdam Highlights & Hidden Gems Walking Tour with Dutch Local” and our guide was Yoreh. We were very satisfied with our experience and warmly recommend this activity to other visitors of Rotterdam. My wife and I are almost “professional” tourists. We have been in retirement for many years and our page of the website of the Bonvoy fidelity club tells us that we have more than 1300 nights spent in hotels of the group. Clearly, we have also taken many guided tours in different parts of the world. We were a small group, seven persons, thing that certainly helped. But the main reason of the success of this experience was the work that had obviously gone into the organization and preparation of the tour and the personal capacities of Yoreh. He conducted the tour with the help of many large ad hoc pictures that he carried with him and that he used at almost all the places where he halted for his explanations. We were particularly impressed by the enlargement of the picture of his family, with a 6/7 year old Yoreh, in front of the hotel New York in 1994. The tour had been planned well and a time had been foreseen for rest and toilets. The whole tour was closer to three hours than to the two advertised ones. But the most important feature of the tour, was an element difficult to specify and measure: we had all the time the impression that Yoreh was giving us the amount of information that was necessary to understand the point he was making without the excess of small details that sometime you get from guides who appear to need to show off their knowledge of the subject matter. We had considered preparing our own tour with the help of our guidebook and of the material available on the internet. After the tour we are happy to have booked it. We would have certainly missed many of the items Yoreh showed us and we would have never been able to profit from his knowledge of many practical issues, from where best to cross a wide street to where to go in some intricate places (e.g. the cube houses). Lest this review seems an artificial one, we want still to mention a point of substance where we do not agree with Yoreh. He appeared very proud of the Rotterdam skyline with many high-rise buildings. We understand the need to densify the population in certain parts of the urban areas of the Netherlands, but we consider the increase in the number of buildings of more than nine or ten floor a negative development. We say this on the basis of aesthetic and security considerations. In any case, we could not consider for a second the possibility of living on a high floor (at present we live in an apartment on the fourth floor of a 1924 building in Brussels).