All the necessary things about what makes Tilburg so special that it needs your visit. You read it all in the different little blog posts on our own website. So here in this blogpost is the answer to the question ‘What to do in Tilburg?’  Here we make -especially for you- a new and updated post with the highlights, the must-sees to get you going. Bed and Breakfast Tilburg Gust van Dijk is the perfect base to enjoy Tilburg city, a festival, concert in 013, the musea, or even the Efteling of safari Park Beekse Bergen, the brewery of the Trappisten.

First of all, now you are here. This blogpost is written by B&B Tilburg Gust van Dijk, to explain to you that Tilburg has this special geographic position. Tilburg forms the heart of the Brabant city star; Breda, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven and Turnhout – which are accordingly each all about 35 km from Tilburg and form a diamond around Tilburg: A star with four points. Within this area you find beautiful nature reserves:’Loonse en Drunense Duinen’. ‘t Brabantse land’ and the well-known main attractions as theme parks such as the ‘Efteling’ and ‘Safaripark de Beekse Bergen‘. The pleasing country side as ‘Guus Meeuwis’ sings: “The Brabant country to which you pledge your heart”. Did you visit these towns yet? Did you visit Tilburg? On top of that Brabant is great for bike-rides

Indeed, we know it is not easy to get a spot in the ranking of search engine boss Google as a small and special B&B due to all the advertising violence. If Booking does not dominate the ranking of the accommodation offer, with its advertisements, then it is crowded with those other collection sites or the full daughters companies of Booking, such as Tripadvisor or B&BNederland. As a result, none of this leads to our website unfortunately and you don’t get this nice information about the attractive highlights of Tilburg and its surroundings.

A small and special place

As a small place and unique B&B with your own website, you quickly find yourself under pressure. Consequently many colleagues have either surrendered to Booking or have thrown in the towel. Only a few bravely stand their ground. Yes, it’s kind of like ‘Asterix and Obelix’, this little village in the South. You and Gust know, we have to put some extra efforts in, to get here.

Now you found us, so let yourself be surprised by the relaxed atmosphere in Tilburg, and what we call ‘the good life’,
In addition in Tilburg, all ‘signs’ are set to enjoyment: the cozy cafes with their terraces, the restaurants that know how to present every cuisine. From star restaurant to eatery with city food: Fusion, French Bistro, Italian, Greek, Argentinian, Oriental or Turkish and Afghan. Do you want to prick a fork, Tilburg has it all. From a hotspot as the Piushaven to Monarh in the Reeshof. King Willem II had already discovered it, and it is still true. Tilburg is pretty much the Sidney of the Netherlands. Okay, no beach – not yet – but, it is the true birthplace of the Naked Toes Flip Flops.

This is the front-view of our place B&B Tilburg Gust van Dijk. If you look close, it’s a bit like a happy face. As to see on the map above, Tilburg is centrally located in Brabant, and if you don’t happen to come for a long weekend to visit the Efteling or one of the great music festivals such as ‘Best Kept Secret’, then there are at least nine more reasons to visit to Tilburg. We take you along the highlights.

013: Going to a concert in music-venue 013, the pop temple of the South. This special purpose built concert hall really receives all the big names from the current music world. Main attraction of Tilburg we would say. No, no stadium concerts where you can’t really see who is playing at the stage, but concert hall performances in this specially equipped building to engage you closer to the performing artists. Arranges your stay at a three minutes walk from this venue. Do you want to read more about 013 (only in Dutch)? Be our guest and you’re convinced this is the best place to see your favourite band perform.

Contemporary art: the Museum De Pont, Park, as well as the European Ceramic Workcenter, or Kunstpodium-T… numerous places that as a result will bring you completely up to date on what matters in the visual arts of the moment. And yes, in Tilburg there is also impressive street art and the huge art maze such as “Doloris The Meta Maza”. After a stunning tour through the maze you can enjoy a suitable snack or your favorite cocktail on top, in the Rooftop bar with an impressive view over the city.

Living the Good life: The atmosphere of the good life? There are plenty of cozy cafes and restaurants, with tasty snacks and good food: Check out the Spoorzone, Oude Markt, Korte Heuvel, or Piushaven? On a sunny afternoon, chose RAW in the spoorzone, and catch the afternoon sun.
For the sweet tooth among you, treat yourself on a traditional pastry at ‘Van Vlerken’, for example, where you feel like a time traveller flashed to the 1960s. Or take an organically responsible ice cream at Softy’s on the Oude Markt. In this pink ice cream parlor they make ‘traditional and organic’ soft ice cream with surprising flavor combinations.

Beer: As the history goes, in Tilburg the monks started out to brew beer to help the poor textile-mill workers to a beter health condition. The surface water was so polluted it was not suitable for drinking, so it was better to drink beer which was free of germs and bacteria. So to the inhabitants of Tilburg beer has a positive history. In contemporary times a number of microbrewery’s just popped up in Tilburg. To become a part of this, taste the beers of micro-breweries such as the Stadsbrouwerij 013 at the Piushaven, or the LOC Brewery in the Spoorzone. Or of course those of the Trappist Monastery, the now well-known La Trappe special beers with high fermentation. Beer is so important to us that we even create complete events around it like the MOUT Bierfestival that returns this year from 18 to 21 May to the Tilburg Spoorpark.

If you think big and beer, you have to be at this event: Brew@theZoo. Brew@theZoo is held at Safari Park Beekse Bergen. Consequently after last year’s success with an even larger range. Visitors to this second edition can taste more than 200 beers from more than 50 top breweries on 23 and 24 June. There will be beer sommeliers who can tell you everything about the beer and much more.

More Tilburg beers? Then visit Tilburg during the Beer festival T-drinks on June 25, 2023, on the Heuvel. After all as you see, ‘beer’ is an important ingredient in the Tilburg lifestyle. Not only during Carnaval, or in the Summer, we even have an October Beer Fest in Tilburg!

If you can’t wait, or your visit does not fit in to this calendar, no worries. The best place to tast as many beers as you could imagine is Cafe Kandinsky in Tilburg. At Kandinsky they serve over 200 types of beers.

And on top of this, this list is not yet completed or new beer related events will pop-up in Tilburg.

Nice weather: Tilburg has a special microclimate. Compared to the surroundings, it is here in Tilburg -which is on higher grounds than the surrounding countryside- soon a bit sunnier, drier and also warmer. Which create great opportunity to pay a visit to the city parks. Parks: Spoor-park, Tivoli-park, Wilhemina-park or the Lei-park or the Oude Warande, which still has the original shape of a ‘star forest’ or hunting forest.

History 1: Textile Industry Tilburg was put on the map by the textile industry associated with the city at the beginning of the last century. In between 1880 and 1920 Tilburg grew from a collection of villages (herdgangen) into an industrial complex with factories that mainly processed sheep’s wool. In Tilburg you can still find traces of this in various places. For example, museum De Pont is located in a former wool spinning mill. So is the former wool blanket factory ‘De AaBe’ now a shopping arcade. In several places in the city the old factory chimneys still tower into the sky. This history is clearly explained in the Dutch Textile Museum, which also pays attention to contemporary developments in textile design and is what we call a working museum which still produces special textiles.

History 2: Willem II, King Willem II (The Hague 1792 – Tilburg 1849) who found residence in Tilburg after the battle of Waterloo and found peace and relaxation here to recover from the battles fought on the battlefield “Here I breathe freely and I feel happy”, said King Willem II at his garden house on the Koningshoeven close to Tilburg. That happiness, that unleashed Tilburg with the king is still around. From 1831 Willem II regularly stayed in the city. His statue stands proudly on the Heuvel. The local soccer team bears his name and in the center is the Oriental-looking palace specially built for him, which is also referred to as ‘town hall’. At the moment, the forecourt is being redesigned as a park and studies are being carried out on how to allow the ‘palace’ to play again a new role in Tilburg.
For those specially interested in this history and King Willem II, there is a walking tour to stroll along places connected to this special history of this connection between Tilburg and William.

The Lochal: During a day trip to Tilburg, a visit to the LocHal (formerly the locomotive hall) in the Spoorzone is definitely worth a visit. After an extensive renovation, this building was named “World Building of the Year” in 2019. Or the most beautiful building in the world. Yes, it has become an impressive whole that will surprise you. In this former National Railway workshop, where, as the name suggests, locomotives were refurbished. The industrial complex from 1932 has been converted into a multifunctional building of glass and steel that is suitable for today and houses the best library in the Netherlands (awarded in 2020), the provincial art and culture center, various exhibition spaces, and conference / meeting rooms. Located close to the station, it is rightly called the living room of Tilburg

Piushaven: In 2023 this inner port will exist 100 years, so yes, especially after the redevelopments of recent years, this is also one of the ‘must-see’ pearls of Tilburg. The ‘Piushaven‘ attracts many visitors who stay with their boat for one or two days. In addition, the port is the berth of a number of ships from the ‘brown fleet’, old inland vessels that used to provide transport across the canals to and from Tilburg. Now it has all been redeveloped into an inner-city area for a pleasant stay and stroll along.

Look, this is just a small overview of what Tilburg has to offer for a day out. Of course there are still many small and larger places that I have not paid any attention to in this brief overview, but there is plenty to discover in Tilburg. I thought earlier that there were at least 100 reasons to visit Tilburg, well, there are actually 1001. Tilburg is the perfect destination. So what are you waiting for?

Planning your visit to Tilburg? Looking for a special event or festival in Tilburg or close surroundings, please take a look on our Festival & Event Overview. Come and stay with us.