Welcome to Maastricht!

Whoopp, it’s finally time to pack your bags and move into your new hometown! We hope you’re feeling excited for everything that is to come with this new adventure. In this blog, we’ll sharesome tips on planning your journey to Maastricht and what you should expect upon your arrival. 

If you’re coming from far away, you should probably start looking into flights (if you haven’t started yet). Technically the closest airport to the city is the Maastricht/Aachen airport which is around 30 minutes away from the city. However, the likelihood that you would be arriving at this airport is probably quite low since it’s tiny, and therefore, there’s not too many flights departing from or arriving there. The more common nearby airports used by international students are in Eindhoven, Brussels (There’s two: Brussels National and Charleroi), Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. From all of these, you can travel by public transport to Maastricht super easily. You can check out our page for more information on this. 

If you’re going to stay in Maastricht for a few years, you might have quite a bit of stuff with you. Even though it’s not ideal to take all your bags with you on the train, it is possible. However, be prepared to sweat a little on the way 😀

When you arrive in Maastricht, you can easily take a taxi from in front of the train station. There are a lot of black cars with blue plates, and those are the official taxis that will bring you to your new home. Uber has recently been introduced in Maas,i but the taxis are also trustworthy, and to avoid hassle, we would recommend you to use them! 

Obviously, if you’re arriving in Maastricht by car, lucky you! Just pack your bags into the car and drive right in front of your door, easy peasy. 

Okay, so now you’ve arrived, and you’re wondering what on earth you should do. Well, we think  it’s best to start off with getting exploring!

The first couple of days can be quite exciting (but honestly also exhausting) trying to find your way around town and familiarising yourself with the environment. But even though it may seem tricky to remember all the narrow roads, it’s nothing to worry about, you’ll learn the routes in a couple of days! 

In order to get best accustomed to the Dutch way of life, we would recommend getting a bike and exploring the surrounding areas. Maybe you want to go and watch a sunset at St. Pieter’s (if it’s not raining) or cycle by the river Maas and have a picnic on the river bank. It’s a very handy city to get around by bike, we can guarantee biking will get you to your destination faster than by bus. 

If you’re in Maastricht in time for INKOM, we would highly recommend joining! INKOM is a good way to get to know other students in town. It’s a week full of fun activities and parties and you’ll get to see the city in a new light. If you don’t want to join INKOM, you can have a chiller time wandering around the city center, sitting at one of the cute cafés and sipping a coffee while people-watching. Is there any better way to spend the day? 

We hope that these tips will help you on your wonderful journey in this beautiful Dutch town! Remember to take your time getting to know the city and try out all the fun things Maastricht has to offer (for tips on places to visit and food to eat, check out our city map!)