Working in Den Bosch, living in.....you tell me :)

Antonio1982 Member

Member since 31 March 2017

Antonio1982Member31 March 2017 19:19:23

Hi Everyone,

Awesome website
New member here, thank you for having me

I was just offered a job in Den Bosch that would start in June, and I'm thinking of taking it.
But I have no idea where to live if I move to the Netherlands so....I've done my "static research", now I was hoping to hear your honest opinions, real people opinions, about it

About me: 35yrs, male, single, no kids and no debt, like to drink dance eat out socialize and generally meet new people/have fun. Need to get back to the gym. I work a lot but when I don't work, I like to enjoy life. Salary will be 3,000 euro net/month. As a "reference point" if you are familiar with Belgium cities/lifestyles/culture/approach, I preferred Antwerp over Brussels. I prefer gothic & characteristic architecture to modern architecture.

I'm ruling out cities with less than 100,000 people, all the others ones are possibly interesting for me

So...which city in the Netherlands do you think I should live? I'll have a company car so communting costs are not a problem (but commuting time may be, I don't want to spend 4 hours each day in the car just to go to-from work).

I'm hoping to hear from you, if you care to help me out, please tell me your honest, brutal opinion about which city you see as the best fit for me. Please comment with:

(1) City name
(2) rent cost for a decent studio and/or 1br apartment near/in city center (but where I can park my car)
(3) social life/ fun quality/quantity
(4) commuting time by car to den bosch
(5) culture and people
(6) gothic/characteristic or moder look/feel/architecture?
(7) can a foreigner that doesn't speak dutch not feel entirely alone and have some fun on his free time?
(8) giving a score of 1 to 10, how well do you think i can live with 3,000 euro net/month in this city?

Many, many thanks!

Antonio

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Cynic UK/Netherlands Expert

Member since 15 September 2015

CynicUK/Netherlands Expert31 March 2017 20:52:42

8085

Hi Antonio and welcome to the Forum.

There's an on-line app that will answer a lot of your questions regarding costs; if you follow this link, it will take you there.

As regarding where to live; Den Bosch itself isn't that bad; especially when you consider that commuting in Holland by car is a real pain in the ass - traffic jams everywhere; then you can sacrifice your company car in favour of an allowance and then cycle to and from work (like everyone else does). To find another city with the sort of population you're looking for maybe Tilburg; it has a Uni, so will have lots of young people stuff around; 30 minutes by car with no traffic, 15 minutes by train. To be honest, I've never seen any "Gothic" style cities in Holland; my advice is to use Google to drive around the various cities.

As for speaking Dutch; my opinion is that it's really important if you want to make the most of life there; life around you is in Dutch. Most Dutch speak English (to varying degrees), but official life (like the Town Hall, tax office) - it's all in Dutch.

Hope this helps a bit.

Best of luck in your journey.