Just arrived
Guides for newcomers
Short guides for a first stretch in Leeuwarden. The first-month pages follow the gemeente. Rooms, nights and food only repeat what a university, the gemeente or the place itself publishes.
Shops, cafés, groceries and gyms are on a separate list. Open the places directory
Nightlife guide
What is on this weekend is the weekend list: parties, clubs and live music, refreshed on Thursday at 18:00. We do not publish drink prices.
- Neushoorn ↗
Ruiterskwartier 41, 8911 BP
Pop venue at Ruiterskwartier 41. Their own page says the café is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 16:00.
- De Koperen Tuin ↗
Prinsentuin 1, 8911 DE
Grand café in the Prinsentuin, at Prinsentuin 1. Lunch, drinks and groups. Not a club.
- Podium Asteriks ↗
Zwettestraat 30a, 8912 AV
Independent podium. Their site gives Zwettestraat 30a as the address.
Places the weekend desk already lists
See this weekendFinding a room
Most students arrange their own room. Campus Fryslân says to start four or five months before a September start. NHL Stenden says three or four, and to check whether gas, electricity and wifi are in the rent.
Where to look
StudentStay is NHL Stenden’s official partner, beside the Leeuwarden campus. You can book one or two semesters. Places go online on 1 April (September intake) and 1 November (February intake) at 14:00 Dutch time. EU students who reserve before 10 May or 25 November, and non-EU students before 1 July or 12 December, have a room guarantee through them. First-year Global Politics & Sustainability students at Campus Fryslân are offered housing and get the steps after admission.
Markt 058 is furnished studios at Lange Marktstraat, opposite the station. Not an NHL Stenden partner. On the university’s housing page the rent starts at €410.79 a month, including service costs, with housing benefit mentioned as possible.
Xior lists student housing in Leeuwarden, including Tesselschadestraat and Ritsumastraat. Not an NHL Stenden partner.
Kamernet, Pararius, Funda (rent), Huurwoningen and HousingAnywhere list rooms in the city. NHL Stenden and Campus Fryslân both name Kamernet and Pararius. Some sites charge before you can message a landlord. Campus Fryslân says to use a free trial week, then cancel.
Both universities point at Facebook groups, including Leeuwarden Housing Market, Kamer Leeuwarden and Studentenkamers in Leeuwarden. The full lists are on their housing pages. We are not linking the groups themselves.
Elkien is a social landlord with a desk at Slauerhoffweg 11 in Leeuwarden. Social housing is a waiting list. It is not a room for the month you arrive.
What it costs
Campus Fryslân, citing Kamernet 2026, puts an average student room in Leeuwarden around €460 a month, against about €660 nationally. NHL Stenden publishes these StudentStay bands: shared dorm with your own facilities €510–€600; a room in a shared apartment €650–€850; a studio €950–€1,200; an apartment with a separate bedroom €1,100–€1,460. They add that housing benefit may apply: up to €295 a month at 18–20, and up to €523 from 21, depending on income, rent and your situation. Those amounts can change. You need DigiD to apply.
Register and avoid a scam
Register at the address where you actually live. That is how the BSN works. Campus Fryslân says: if you cannot register there, treat it as a red flag.
From Campus Fryslân: see the room, in person or on video, before you sign. Do not pay rent or a deposit until there is a written contract and you have checked the room is real. If you send a passport scan, cover the BSN. Do not go to a viewing alone if you feel unsure.
Figures above are copied from the linked pages, checked in October 2026. A landlord or the gemeente outranks this page.
Your first month in Leeuwarden
Last check: September 2026
Almost everyone here will ask for a BSN. The bank, school, your boss, even DigiD. So book the gemeente first. They give you the number that same visit. Then make a DigiD. Then sort the bins and a huisarts.
If you stay longer than four months, you finish this in Leeuwarden. If you stay shorter, it is a different desk, and with an Iranian passport you have to go to Breda or Venlo.
BSN, if you stay more than four months
Within five days of arriving you have to go to the gemeente yourself and register. It is free. They give you the BSN in that same meeting, and you can start the rest from there.
Address: Oldehoofsterkerkhof 2, postcode 8911 DH. Burgerzaken will not help you without an appointment. The dates you see online are the real slots. If you study at NHL Stenden, the school usually emails you a booking link. The walk-in hours in that building are for passport and driving-licence renewals, not for this first registration.
Town hall is open Monday to Friday 08:30 to 17:00, Thursdays until 19:30. If you have a pram or a wheelchair, use the Oldehoofsterkerkhof side. The Nieuwestad side is only stairs. Phone 14 058. WhatsApp 06 433 65 223.
You have to go in person. If a partner or child is registering with you, they come too.
The gemeente site still asks people born outside the Netherlands for a birth certificate, and sometimes for legalised papers. If you have an Iranian passport, you do not need that right now because of the situation in Iran. They do not ask for a shenasnameh, and you do not need to legalise anything. Your original passport and a copy of your proof of address are enough.
What to bring
- Original passport
- A copy of your proof of address: rental contract, or a letter from the person you live with
- If someone is registering with you, their passport too
If you stay under four months
Under four months you do not register as a resident in Leeuwarden. You still get a BSN, but on your address in Iran, through RNI. Book within five days. No appointment, no help.
An EU passport can still do RNI here in Leeuwarden. With an Iranian passport, from 1 January 2026, only Breda and Venlo do this. Fill the online form first and keep the QR code.
For the RNI desk
- QR code from the online RNI form
- Original passport
- Proof of your address in Iran, for example a bank print or a bill
DigiD
DigiD is the key to almost every government job: tax, benefits, DUO, insurance, the gemeente site. Do not apply until the gemeente has your street. They post the letter to that address, not to your email.
You need: the BSN, that postcode and house number, a phone that gets SMS, and an email. It is yours. Do not apply for a roommate.
Go to digid.nl, put in BSN, date of birth and address, and pick a username and password. You need that password later to activate, so write it down. Within five working days a white envelope arrives. The code inside starts with A. You have 21 days to enter it. Then install the DigiD app.
If five working days pass and nothing comes, first ask the gemeente if the address is right. Then request a new code on the site.
Bins and the waste card
Omrin collects the waste in Leeuwarden. That Afvalwijzer site the rest of the Netherlands uses does not work here. Put your postcode and house number in the Omrin calendar or their app so you know when to put the bin out.
If you live in the centre or in an apartment, residual waste and food waste sit underground and open with a card called a milieupas. Houses outside the centre usually have three bins: residual, food, paper. Put them at the curb before 07:30. In the centre you have until 08:00.
A thing a lot of people get wrong: do not separate plastic, cans and milk cartons here. They go in residual waste. Omrin's plant sorts them. Paper, glass and clothes have their own bins. The app shows the nearest one. Do not leave a bag next to a full container. They fine that.
After the gemeente has your address, get a free milieupas from Omrin. Without it the underground container and the sorting centre at Greunsweg 86 will not open. Book a slot before you go there. The card belongs to the house. Leave it when you move.
Doctor and insurance
Once you have the BSN, find a huisarts near your house and put your name on their list. Search on ZorgkaartNederland. You go to that doctor first. The hospital is for when it is really urgent, or when that doctor sends you.
If your life is in danger, call 112. Night or weekend that cannot wait until morning: Dokterswacht Friesland, 085 082 08 20. Their address is Borniastraat 40. Do not walk in. Call first. Bring your passport, BSN and the names of any medicine you take.
Insurance here is tied to work, not to a student card. If you only study, you usually cannot take Dutch public insurance. You need private international cover. If you have a paid job or a paid internship, you usually have to take Dutch basic insurance. If a letter arrives from somewhere called CAK, call them that day. Do not ignore it. They fine people.
Cheap eats
Four places in the centre. Each address is from that place’s own site. We are not printing menu prices or a student deal.
- Falafel Mouni ↗
Peperstraat 1, 8911 HZ
Falafel, kapsalon and fries.
- Brongers Cafetaria Zus & Zo ↗
Nieuwestad 37, 8911 CH
Snackbar on the Nieuwestad.
- Garden of Asia ↗
Voorstreek 51, 8911 JJ
Chinese-Indonesian restaurant on the Voorstreek.
- Minato ↗
Vrouwenpoort 1, 8911 DD
Sushi, grill and wok, by the Oldehove. Their site does not publish a cheap menu, so this is not a budget claim.
The market
The gemeente’s current stall page puts the Friday goods market on Wilhelminaplein, and the Saturday goods market on the Waagplein and the south side of the Nieuwestad. Wilhelminaplein is the Friday market, not the regular Saturday one. When the Saturday square is taken, the market moves to the Wirdumerdijk, the Ruiterskwartier, and sometimes Wilhelminaplein. There is no goods market on public holidays, King’s Day or Liberation Day. Clock times are not on that page, so we are not printing any.
If a price is not on the place’s own site, it is not on this page.
We are a student news desk, not the gemeente. If the person at the counter tells you something else, they are right.
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