Rotterdam has an awesome street art scene and while I’d already spotted some works on my previous trips to the city, I never actively went in search for them. So during my latest weekend in Rotterdam, I decided to download the Rotterdam Street Art app from Rewriters.
Rewriters app for street art in Rotterdam
Rewriters is a collective that supports street art artists through special projects and by opening walls on which it’s legal to create street art. They’ve created an app, available both for Android and iOs, that guides you along dozens of street art works in Rotterdam.
But not only that, it only provides information about each piece and its artists and even provides information about street art that has disappeared, for example, because of construction works.
What’s cool is that you can download the entire route to use it offline and that you can also start anywhere in the city. The app will pinpoint the work closest to you and then all you need to do is get there and the app will start tracking your steps along the route automatically.
Whenever you reach a new piece of street art, a pop-up appears with information about that piece. Pretty cool!
You can listen to the information or turn the sound off – which is what I did – and simply read about the piece. The app is available in both Dutch and English.
I found it very easy to use. The only thing that bothered me a bit is that the map part of the app would sometimes shrink to half the size of the screen and I didn’t really work out how to get it to take up the whole screen again. At first, I thought I had to tap it, then I thought I had to double-tap it, but I’m still not sure :D Either way, it worked perfectly fine for guiding me to the different murals.
I think walking the whole route would take up the best part of the day. I spent a few hours doing the southwest part, where lots of works are concentrated in an area.
What I thought was cool is that the app allows you to take a street art tour of Rotterdam at your own pace. While you’re walking from mural to mural, you also get to see a ton of the city and you can always walk onto a street that looks interesting, stop for a coffee or pop into a cute store.
Obviously, not all of the street art in Rotterdam is listed in the app. In there you find the works that Rewriters considers highlights, but they’ve also marked other pieces with a green exclamation mark so you can go and have a look at those as well.
Download the Rotterdam street art app
It only costs 99 cents and is frequently updated.
On the Google Play Store.
On iTunes.
Where to stay in Rotterdam
I spent two nights at Hostel Room. Now, I normally don’t stay in hostels anymore, but I definitely don’t mind if they have nice private rooms with a balcony and an en suite bathroom like my Clocktower Room at Hostel Room did!
Let me show you:
The hostel entrance is just a few meters from the tram 7 tram stop, a few minutes from the tram 8 tram stop, and about 10 minutes walking to metro lines D and E. It’s located in a quiet area and a great base for exploring the city.
How to get to Rotterdam
If you’re coming from abroad, you can fly into Amsterdam Schiphol and take a direct train to Rotterdam. Alternatively, you can also travel by train directly to Rotterdam. Thalys offers the fastest option, especially from Belgium.
Click here for train options and prices.
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I was invited by Rotterdam Tourism to visit the city again. What I did there and what I wrote about it, was entirely up to me.
Luciano says
Very cool! I always considered graffiti beneficial to most buildings and places – especially when the art is as beautiful as this in Rotterdam. It really injects more life into the city, doesn’t it?
And a great idea to have an app dedicated to that! Hopefully more and more cities will get something similar to show you the lesser known attractions of a city.
Sofie says
I think so too!
Yeah the app is a great initiative and a good alternative if you don’t like going on guided tours :-)