Interesting facts: Leiden boasts 88 bridges criss-crossing its canals – more than Amsterdam. Each one gives you a new angle on the city’s story. The city also boasts 28 kilometres of canals, many, many monuments, 13 museums and the oldest university in the Netherlands.

Tradition Meets Festivity: The Heart of Leiden

Sinterklaas Sails In

Forget red-suited Santa, in the Netherlands, the holiday season begins with Sinterklaas, who arrives not on a sleigh, but on a boat. On 15 November 2025, Leiden’s children (and plenty of grown-ups) will line the canals to welcome the Saint as he sails into town with his helpers, parading through the historic centre in a swirl of music, sweets and excitement.

The date is not random: the arrival is always the first Saturday after St Martin’s Day (11 November). From then until 5 December, families celebrate with small gifts, poems and sweets like pepernoten.

Interesting fact: Dutch children place their shoes by the fireplace (or radiator these days!) with a carrot for Sinterklaas’ horse. By morning, the carrot has magically turned into sweets or toys.

👉 Learn more: Sinterklaas Leiden

Winter Wonder Weeks

From late November, Leiden transforms into a glowing winter postcard. The floating ice rink on the Nieuwe Rijn is the city’s jewel – imagine skating under fairy lights with merchant houses reflected in the water. Add in nostalgic funfairs, markets and the House of Sinterklaas, and you have a holiday season that balances tradition with twinkling charm.

Programme & rink info: Visit Leiden; Floating Ice Rink (opens 6 Dec 2025).

Culture with Character

Naturalis Biodiversity Center – Home of “Trix”

Science feels larger than life at Naturalis, one of Europe’s leading biodiversity centres. Its rock-star resident is “Trix”, a 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton discovered in Montana and named after former Queen Beatrix. Trix is one of the most complete T. rex specimens ever found and now struts her stuff in Leiden as a permanent exhibit.

But Naturalis is much more than dinosaurs. Its award-winning architecture houses spectacular galleries on evolution, geology, and climate, making it a space where families, researchers and day-trippers mingle.

Interesting fact: The Naturalis collection contains over 42 million objects, from butterflies to meteorites – one of the largest natural history collections in the world.

👉 Explore: Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Music in Ancient Stone

For spine-tingling atmosphere, nothing beats a concert at Pieterskerk, Leiden’s 900-year-old Gothic church. This December (20 Dec 2025), its vaulted ceilings will echo with Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium. Close your eyes, and you can almost feel centuries of voices layering over the present.

👉 Programme & Tickets: Pieterskerk Agenda

Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities)

“Discovering Ancient Egypt” opens 16 Oct 2025 – nearly 500 objects, including coffins, statues and papyri, return to Leiden after a global tour.

Details & tickets: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

Museum De Lakenhal

“Masterful Mystery – On Rembrandt’s Enigmatic Contemporary” runs until 8 March 2026, spotlighting the mysterious Master I.S., with works shown alongside Leiden greats like Rembrandt and Jan Lievens.

Info & tickets: Museum De Lakenhal

Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (Science & Medicine)

“Unseen: Inequality in Medicine” continues to 8 Mar 2026, a critically noted look at bias in medical history (with a robust events programme).

Exhibition page & coverage: Rijksmuseum Boerhaave

Old Observatory & Hortus Botanicus

The Old Observatory runs monthly Evening at the Observatory sessions (lecture + telescope viewing) and the Plants & Planets visitor-centre exhibition; it sits within the Hortus, Europe’s oldest academic botanical garden.

More info: Old Observatory – Universiteit Leiden

Festivals Worth the Journey

Leidens Ontzet (2–3 Oct 2025)

The city’s biggest annual celebration: parades, funfair, market stalls and music commemorating the 1574 liberation. Leiden’s Ontzet is not just about free herring and white bread though! Highlights included the Taptoe parade (parade of light) on 2 October and city-wide festivities on 3 October.

More info: https://3october.nl/international/

Leiden International Film Festival (LIFF): 9–19 Oct 2025

Eleven days of premieres, special screenings and late-night parties across Leiden’s indie cinemas. Book early, this is one of the Netherlands’ key film festivals.

More info/tickets: https://www.liff.nl/en/

Christmas and Beyond: The festive season continues with Winter Wonder Weeks and musical highlights across the city.

A City That Balances Work and Wonder

For Atterbury Europe, Leiden is a place where big business decisions meet small pleasures: a strategy session in the morning, a canal cruise by heated boat in the afternoon, and perhaps a concert in a 14th-century church at night. With direct Intercity trains from Amsterdam Centraal (34–37 minutes), it’s the perfect side-trip for partners, colleagues or families.

Leiden’s charm is that it never tries too hard. It doesn’t need to – between the history, the student vibe, and the sheer joy of festivals like Ontzet and Sinterklaas, it already has everything you need for a memorable city escape.

With trains every few minutes and late weekend services, it’s the most effortless add-on to an Amsterdam business trip. Come and experience all that Leiden has to offer. Jump onto a train today!

Direct NS Intercity trains run from Amsterdam Centraal to Leiden Centraal in ~34–37 minutes, all day and late into the evening on weekends.

Plan and book on NS: https://www.ns.nl/en/routes/amsterdam-to-leiden.

Handy Travel Tip: As dates, programmes and tickets can change – always check the official links before you go!