The historic Old Harbour is the oldest harbour in Rotterdam. Nowadays it’s one of the most popular nightlife areas in Rotterdam with its many restaurants, bars and terraces.

Historic ships
The view of the historic ships give the 14th century harbour a unique atmosphere. You can see many of these ships in the harbour and there’s even a small shipyard, where people are renovating the ships.

The harbour is surrounded by historic buildings but also by modern architecture. On one side you can see the famous modern Cube Houses and on the other side historic mercantile houses, which are some of the oldest buildings in Rotterdam.

White house
One of the highlights in this area is the magnificent White House, Europe's first skyscraper. The 43 meters high building was built in 1898 and was the tallest office building in Europe for many years. The White House has been inspired by Manhattan's skyscrapers after a visit to New York by one of the developers and it has been built in Art Nouveau style. Visitors to the building to could take a lift to the viewing platform at the top of the building, which was a novelty during that time. Nowadays there's a nice café located at the ground floor of the White House, where you can have a drink or a bite. The name of the café is Café Het Bolwerk.

Nightlife
But there are many more cafés, bars and restaurants in this area: most of them are located just opposite the White House so that you can enjoy a lovely view at the Old Harbour and White House. At night the historic harbour comes to live when many people are going to enjoy the nightlife. Especially at Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday the harbour gets crowded with lots of students. On a sunny day all the terraces are full till late at night!

The Old Harbour and White House are very close to the Blaak area and the Cube Houses, so it's worth to combine your visit with a visit to the Blaak area.