Make yourself at home in Brabant
City and countryside embrace one another in North Brabant. The benefits of the rich Brabant soil are enjoyed from the farmyards right up to the city centre, and businesses demonstrate that the good life involves something to eat, drink, wear and experience.
Breda for outdoor enthusiasts
The beautiful medieval city centre of Breda contains the equally beautiful story of the city, told by today’s creative persons and impact makers. The Explore Creative Breda walking tour leads you past businesses that are hard at work in sustainable and creative ways. From a beer with a message at the Frontaal Brewing Company to navigating the canals in an electric boat. The route understandably leads to STEK, where businesses have realized their dreams on vacant lots, thereby making the city even more beautiful. The city is surrounded by the Barony of Breda, with miles of greenery in all directions. The Mastbos and the Markdal nature reserves have borders along the city centre. The cycle route ‘Barony: city and countryside’ leads to the impressive vineyard of the 750-year-old convent Sint-Catharinadal (Saint Catherine Convent). The nearby wine bar, the Blauwe Camer (Blue Room), serves the good life in style.
The green heart of ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Would you like to sleep on a boat made of recycled cardboard or drink sustainable whisky on a farm? The Brabant capital city, also called Den Bosch, inspires enjoyment in a way that feels good and is good. The gastronomic heart of the city beats in the Korte Putstraat. This is the street of terraces in the Netherlands – less than a hundred metres long but with ninety doors. On the former industrial site called the Tramkade, you can stay overnight in the Wikkelboat, which is made of corrugated cardboard. And at Van Aken restaurant, you can pull up a Piet Hein Eek chair for a no-waste and no-nonsense seasonal dish. Rent an e-chopper for a drive through the Bossche Broek nature reserve or stop just outside the city at the Heische Hoeve venue. The former pig farm was transformed into a farm restaurant with one of the most sustainable whisky distilleries in the world.
Idiosyncratic and modern Tilburg
Tilburg does everything just a little bit differently. Businesses, students, cyclists, foodies and artists meet up in the green area in and around the city where Tilburg’s contrasts meet in a unique manner. Such as in the Piushaven (Pius Harbour): once the industrial epicentre, now the culinary boulevard. Choose a terrace on the quay, get into a canoe or get on board at Stadsbrouwerij013. The Van Gogh National Park walking tour in Tilburg goes from the harbour to the green hamlet Moerenburg, where all expectations concerning a park can be thrown out. There are sheep grazing next to a sewerage pumping station and iron art works to be admired next to a historic farm. The outskirts of Tilburg have many green gems for enjoying a tasty bite along with a good story. The Koningshoeven Abbey offers a traditional and ecological brewed Trappist beer; the first Bio-maker in the Netherlands to treat its waste water and reuse it in the production process.
Green innovation in Eindhoven
In Eindhoven, sustainability is taken to the next level. Not surprising in the city that is known as the most inventive in the world. High-tech and innovation play a leading role here in a way that you will amaze you. The eye-catcher is Strijp-S, recognisable from afar because of the Trudotoren or Trudo Tower, the first vertical forest in the Netherlands. Up until the nineties, Philips products rolled off the assembly line at Strijp-S. Now the area is a podium for innovative businesses with concept stores, vintage boutiques and catering in old factory buildings. Eindhoven is known far and wide for the Dutch Design Week, where designers and visitors are challenged to reflect on designs for the future. This year the event takes place from 21 to 29 October, with exhibitions and festivities at more than a hundred locations in the city.
Local and tasty
Nowhere else does the Brabant gastronomic heart, the innovative spirit and the will to do good come together so beautifully as in the rich gastronomic culture that focuses on tasty local dishes. Food routes in the region bring connoisseurs past inspiring farm businesses. An example of this is the cycle route around Nuenen called the ‘Brabant Bodem’, which is nature-inclusive dairy farming and a combination of forestry and agriculture. The route goes straight through the Van Gogh National Park with landscapes that inspired Vincent van Gogh’s most beautiful works. More food routes and unique addresses for enjoying good food can be found here.
Tips from Locals
What must you not miss in North Brabant? Our locals know the area better than anyone else and can give you the best tips.