15 Things to Do in Maastricht: Sights, Caves and Squares

The things to do in Maastricht are the Vrijthof and its two great churches, the Dominicanen bookshop in a Gothic church of 1294, the caves and forts under the Sint-Pietersberg, the Bonnefanten museum, and the small streets of Wyck and the Stokstraat quarter. Most of them sit inside a centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes.

Maastricht sits in the far south of the Netherlands, closer to Liège and Aachen than to Amsterdam, and it does not feel much like the rest of the country. Belgians drive over for the day to shop, and a lot of them never get past the shopping streets, which is a waste of a city that has a Roman layer, a Romanesque layer, a medieval wall and a cave system under the hill on its southern edge.

The city divides itself into eight districts, and three of them cover almost everything a first visit needs: the city centre around the Vrijthof, Wyck on the far bank of the Maas, and the Stokstraat quarter between them. The list below is ordered the way a walk works rather than by importance.

Things to do in Maastricht: sights and activities

The 15 things to do in Maastricht are listed below, starting on the Wyck side of the river and working back into the old centre.

1. Shopping in Maastricht: de Rechtstraat

Cross the Sint-Servaasbrug into Wyck and shop the Rechtstraat rather than the chains on the other side. Maastricht is known as a shopping city, but the crowd stays on the centre bank, and the Rechtstraat is the better street.

It is short and it has no big-name stores. What it has is small boutiques, independent retailers and a handful of good places to eat, which is the opposite of what most people cross a border to find.

2. The Saint Servatius Bridge

The Sint-Servaasbrug is the oldest bridge in the Netherlands, a 13th-century stone crossing that still carries pedestrians and cyclists over the Maas. It is the single most photographed thing in Maastricht and the shot everybody misses is the one from the Stenenwal.

Walk to the Stenenwal on the Wyck bank and the bridge lines up with the old centre behind it. Late afternoon light comes from behind you there, which is the practical reason that view works and the ones from the bridge itself do not.

3. ‘t Bassin marina

‘t Bassin is a 19th-century inland harbour five minutes north of the old centre, and summer is when to walk it. The restaurants, shops and bars are built into the old wharf cellars around the water, and they put their terraces out as soon as the weather allows.

In winter the terraces come in and the water stays. Roughly 70 boats moor here year round, so the walk is worth doing in January as well, just faster.

4. Mosae Forum

Mosae Forum is the open-air shopping centre with the chain stores, and it exists for one purpose: if you came to Maastricht to shop the brands, they are here in one block. H&M and the rest are on this side.

Skip it otherwise. The boutiques spread through the centre and along the Rechtstraat are the reason to shop in this city rather than any other.

5. Dominicanen Bookstore

Boekhandel Dominicanen is a bookshop inside a Dominican church consecrated in 1294, and it is worth going in whether or not you buy anything. CNN put it on a list of the world’s coolest bookstores in 2015, and it has been on every similar list since.

The building is considered the first Gothic church in the Low Countries. It lost its religious function two centuries ago and served since then as, among other things, a snake house and a bicycle store. Since 2006 it has held the bookshop, with a coffee bar in the choir and a podium used for lectures, debates and exhibitions. The shelving is a steel structure that climbs three levels up the nave, so you read the vaulting at eye height, which is the actual point of the place.

6. The town hall of Maastricht

Maastricht’s town hall is a free-standing 17th-century block with a small tower, sitting alone in the middle of the Markt. You can go inside, but the outside is the reason it is on this list.

The building is not large. It reads as monumental because it stands on its own in an open square, which is unusual for a Dutch town hall and makes the market that surrounds it on Wednesday and Friday mornings feel bigger than it is.

7. Vrijthof

The Vrijthof is Maastricht’s main square and the one to sit on. Café terraces run down one whole side, and the monuments around it include the Sint-Janskerk with its red-painted tower, the Sint-Servaasbasiliek beside it, the Generaalshuis city palace and the former head post office.

The square works as a place to do nothing and as a venue. Carnival takes it over in February, TEFAF fills the city in March, André Rieu plays open-air concerts here across several nights each July, and the Christmas market covers it in December. Check what is on before you book a hotel, because those weeks price differently from the rest of the year.

8. Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek, the Star of the Sea

The Basilica of Our Lady is the Romanesque church in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouweplein, and it is the one with the Star of the Sea. Its westwork is a solid wall of stone with almost no windows, which makes it look more like a fortress than a church from the square.

Sterre der Zee, Star of the Sea, is a 15th-century statue of Mary kept in a side chapel that is open to anyone walking in. The chapel is dark, lined with candles and busy at all hours, and it is a genuinely different experience from touring a church. The basilica also has a treasury.

Do not confuse this church with the Sint-Servaasbasiliek, which is a separate building on the Vrijthof with its own treasury and its own patron. Several guides run the two together.

9. Helpoort

The Helpoort is the oldest surviving city gate in the Netherlands, built around 1229 as part of Maastricht’s first ring of walls. It is free, and you can either go up into it or simply walk through it.

Walking through is the better move. The gate takes you out of the old centre into the Jekerkwartier and the city park along the Maas, with a surviving stretch of medieval wall running alongside, which is the clearest picture of the medieval city you get anywhere in Maastricht.

10. Blanche Dael

Blanche Dael has been roasting coffee in Maastricht since 1878 and is the oldest coffee roastery and tea house in Limburg. It runs tours of the working roastery that take you through the whole process from bean to cup, with tastings of several coffees and teas.

The shop sells house blends under names in the local dialect, including a Mestreechter Mocca, and the company also runs the Coffeelovers cafés, one of which is inside the Dominicanen bookshop. That means you can do points 5 and 10 on this list in the same building.

11. Bonnefanten Museum

The Bonnefanten is Maastricht’s museum of visual art, holding old master paintings and medieval sculpture alongside a contemporary collection. It stands on the Céramique bank of the Maas and you cannot miss it: Aldo Rossi’s rocket-shaped zinc tower sticks out of the roof and is visible from the city park across the water.

The old and the new are hung in separate wings, so it works as two shorter visits rather than one long one. It is a ten-minute walk from the centre over the Hoge Brug footbridge.

12. Sint-Servaasbasiliek and its treasury

The Basilica of Saint Servatius on the Vrijthof is built over the grave of Servatius, the first bishop in the Low Countries, and it has been a pilgrimage church for more than a thousand years. Its treasury holds the reliquaries, including the shrine of Saint Servatius.

Servatius is also why Maastricht holds the Heiligdomsvaart, a pilgrimage that shows the relics publicly and happens only once every seven years. The basilica and the treasury have their own opening times and their own admission, separate from the Sint-Janskerk next door, whose red tower you can climb on weekdays and Saturdays, reaching the first gallery at about 43 m (141 ft) for the view over the square.

13. The caves and forts under the Sint-Pietersberg

Book a guided tour of the Maastricht Underground, because the marl caves and the fort on the Sint-Pietersberg are the city’s most unusual attraction and none of them can be entered alone. The network splits into four sites: the Grotten Noord, the Grotten Zonneberg, Fort Sint Pieter and the casemates under the old walls.

Each site tells a different story. The Grotten Noord held the Rijksbewaarplaats, the vault where the Netherlands hid its most important paintings during the Second World War. The Grotten Zonneberg contains a full-size replica of Rembrandt’s Night Watch, painted on the cave wall. Fort Sint Pieter is an 18th-century hilltop fortress with the widest view over the city and the Maas valley. The casemates are the defensive tunnels dug under the ramparts.

Tours are guided and capped at small groups, so book ahead in summer. Bring a jacket: the caves sit at around 10°C (50°F) whatever the weather is doing outside.

14. The Sint-Pietersberg and the Jekerkwartier

Walk out through the Jekerkwartier and up the Sint-Pietersberg for the one thing Maastricht has that no other Dutch city does: a hill. The Jeker quarter is the quietest part of the old centre, with the Jeker stream running through walled gardens, the university buildings, and the city park following the old rampart.

Keep going south and the streets give out into the slope of the Sint-Pietersberg, with chalk grassland, a vineyard on the lower slope and the fort at the top. The whole walk from the Helpoort to the fort takes about 45 minutes at a normal pace.

15. Wyck and the Stokstraat quarter

Spend an evening in Wyck and an afternoon in the Stokstraat quarter, because they are the two most attractive quarters of Maastricht and they do different things. Wyck, on the east bank, is where the independent shops, the wine bars and the small restaurants are. The Stokstraat quarter, on the west bank between the Maas and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouweplein, is the restored 18th-century merchant district and the most expensive shopping in the city.

The two are five minutes apart across the Sint-Servaasbrug. Doing both in one day is the shortest way to understand why Maastricht does not feel like the Netherlands.

Where to stay in Maastricht

Stay in Wyck if you are arriving by train and in the city centre if you are not, because Wyck is the district around the station and the centre is ten minutes further on foot. Maastricht is small enough that neither choice is wrong.

I spent a night at what was then the Designhotel Maastricht, at Stationsstraat 40, two minutes from Maastricht Centraal. The hotel is still there and still good, but it now trades as the Leonardo Boutique Hotel Maastricht City Center, so search that name rather than the old one. The room I had, a “Modern Medium”, was L-shaped with the bath standing in the middle of the floor, a rain shower and a separate massage head, a duvet rather than sheets, air conditioning, free wifi throughout and an unusual number of power sockets. There is no hotel car park, but there is public parking nearby.

One correction to anything you read about that hotel elsewhere: Brasserie FLO, the French brasserie attached to it, has closed permanently. Breakfast and dinner arrangements have changed with it, so do not book the hotel for the restaurant.

Rooms in the centre and in Wyck run at similar rates, and both fill first during Carnival, TEFAF and the July concerts. Widening the search past the two central districts is what actually saves money in those weeks. Booking.com lists hotels and guesthouses across the Netherlands including the Céramique bank and the villages on the Belgian side of the border, which are about fifteen minutes out.

How to get to Maastricht

Take the train. Maastricht Centraal sits in Wyck, a ten-minute walk from the Vrijthof, with intercity services north to Eindhoven, Utrecht and Amsterdam, and a cross-border line south into Belgium.

Liège is the key connection if you are coming from the south or from an international train. Maastricht to Liège-Guillemins takes about 50 minutes and runs frequently through the day, and Brussels is one change at Liège from there. Omio compares trains, buses and flights across Europe if you want to see the through-fares rather than book each leg.

Driving is straightforward and parking is not. The historic centre is heavily restricted, so use one of the park and ride sites on the ring and come in on foot or by bus, which the city itself recommends.

Long-distance coaches are the cheap option and Maastricht is on the main routes between Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne and Aachen. FlixBus runs services across the Netherlands including the German and Belgian border cities, and the journey from Brussels is comparable to the train once you count the change at Liège.

When to visit Maastricht

Come between May and September for the terraces and in December for the Christmas market, and avoid the two weeks either side of TEFAF unless you are going to it. Maastricht is a small city with a big events calendar, and the calendar decides what a hotel room costs.

The fixed points in the year are Carnival in February, when the whole city stops for three days; TEFAF, the European Fine Art Fair, in March; André Rieu’s open-air concerts on the Vrijthof across several nights in July; Preuvenemint, the food festival on the Vrijthof, in late August; and the Christmas market in December. Any of them is a reason to come. All of them are a reason to book early.

Outside those weeks, late spring and early autumn are the easy months. The terraces are open, the caves are cool rather than cold, and the Sint-Pietersberg walk is comfortable in a way it is not in August.

Is Maastricht worth visiting?

Yes, and a day is not enough for it. Maastricht holds the oldest bridge and the oldest city gate in the Netherlands, two basilicas with their own treasuries, a cave system that hid the national art collection during the war, and a hill, which is more than most Dutch cities of 120,000 people can claim.

Two nights is the right length. That gives you the centre and the Vrijthof on one day, and Wyck, the Bonnefanten and the Sint-Pietersberg caves on the other, with an evening on a terrace at each end. Our guide to the Netherlands covers the other cities if you are building a longer trip through the country.

One detour is worth planning a date around rather than fitting in, because it runs for about eight weeks a year and nothing else in the Dutch calendar is that tightly fixed. That is Keukenhof in Lisse, a two-hour train ride north of here, open in spring only.

Don’t forget travel insurance

Plan for the best, prepare for the worst. Travel insurance covers you if part of your trip is cancelled, if you get sick or hurt abroad, and sometimes even if your electronics break or get stolen. I make sure I am covered on every trip I take.

Maastricht is an easy destination, but it is also a border city, and a day that starts in the Netherlands can end in Belgium or Germany without you planning it. Cover that works across all three is worth having rather than a single-country policy. Check out SafetyWing. Their plans are flexible enough to sign up for while you are already travelling, they were the first travel insurance to cover COVID, and when I got COVID they reimbursed my expenses without a fuss.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below come from a weekend in Maastricht and from rechecking every venue on this page against its own site, which is how two of them turned out to have changed names or closed.

1. Book the Maastricht Underground before you travel. None of the four sites can be entered alone, every visit is a guided tour, and a regular tour takes 14 people, so summer dates go early. Take a jacket whatever the forecast says, because the marl caves sit at around 10°C (50°F) all year.
2. Search for the Leonardo Boutique Hotel Maastricht City Center, not the Designhotel. It is the same building at Stationsstraat 40, two minutes from Maastricht Centraal, under a new name. Brasserie FLO, the French brasserie attached to it, has closed permanently, so do not book the hotel for the restaurant, and note that there is no hotel car park, only public parking nearby.
3. Keep the two basilicas apart when you plan. The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek on the Onze-Lieve-Vrouweplein holds the Sterre der Zee statue; the Sint-Servaasbasiliek on the Vrijthof holds the shrine of Saint Servatius. They are separate churches in separate squares with separate treasuries and separate admission, and plenty of guides run the two together.
4. Save the Sint-Janskerk tower for a weekday or a Saturday. The red tower beside the Sint-Servaasbasiliek is open to climb on weekdays and Saturdays, and the first gallery at about 43 m (141 ft) is the view worth the stairs. A Sunday on the Vrijthof gets you the square but not the climb.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-person notes in this post come from her own weekend in Maastricht, including the night she spent at the hotel on the Stationsstraat. The team covers the Netherlands for independent travellers, including the city walks, the museums, the trains from Belgium and the hotels worth booking, and updates this page when names, opening times and events change.