Best Free Things to Do in Groningen That Cost Absolutely Nothing
Words by
Emma de Vries
How to Spend a Full Week in Groningen Without Spending a Cent
I have lived in Groningen for over a decade, and the thing that still surprises people is how much of this city you can enjoy without opening your wallet. The "best free things to do in Groningen" are not consolation prizes for people who cannot afford a museum ticket, they are the real beating heart of this place. I have wandered through every canal-side walk, climbed every tower I was legally allowed to climb, and spent hundreds of afternoons in parks watching students play Frisbee while grandmothers from Oosterparkbuurt walk their dogs. If you are serious about "budget travel Groningen" done right, this guide will walk you through the specific streets, courtyards, and spots where the city gives itself away for nothing at all.
Groningen was a medieval trading city that grew fat on Hanseatic commerce, and that wealth left behind a streetscape that is essentially an open-air museum if you know where to look. The Grote Markt, the Prinsentuin, the canal walks along the inner ring, these are not secondary attractions. They are where Groningers actually spend their Saturday afternoons. You just have to know when to show up and what to look for, and I will tell you both.
Walking the Inner Canal Ring
The binnenvaart, the canal that wraps around the old city center, is the first thing I show anyone who visits me. Start near the A-Kerk on the Van der Akerkhof and walk south along the eastern bank, and you will pass under a series of bridges that have been in roughly the same position since the 1600s. The water is usually still enough to mirror the gabled brick houses, and on a weekday morning around eight o'clock you will often have the whole path to yourself. I used to walk this route to work for two years when I lived on the Nieuwe Kijk in 't Jatstraat, and I never once got tired of it.
Best section for photos: The stretch between the Oosterpoortbrug and the A-Kerk, especially when the horse-chestnut trees are in bloom in May.
What to look for: The anchor hooks embedded in the stone walls along the canal were used by rope-makers in the 1700s. Most people walk right past them.
The downside: In summer, the eastern bank gets direct sun and zero shade between ten in the morning and four in the afternoon, so bring water. I learned this the hard way in July 2022 when I walked the full loop in one go and arrived home properly dizzy.
Free sightseeing Groningen does not get better than this. You are looking at architecture funded by golden-age merchant money, and it has not cost you a single cent.
My local tip is to finish the walk at the southern end where the canal opens up near the Europaweg crossing. There is a small bench tucked behind the Noorderplantsoen side that almost nobody uses because it is not visible from the main path. I have sat there on autumn evenings watching the rowers from the Groninger Studenten Rowing Club Nereus come in, oars dripping, arguing cheerfully in Frisian-accented Dutch.
The Prinsentuin and the Rector's Garden
Tucked behind the Prinsenhof building on the Martinikerkhof, the Prinsentuin is a Renaissance garden that has been open to the public for as long as anyone I know can remember. It is a compact, geometric space laid out in the Dutch Renaissance style with clipped hedges, a central lawn, and a long pergola covered in grape vines. The garden dates from around 1626 and was originally the private garden of the Prince-Bishop of Münster, which tells you something about the complicated history of Catholic and Protestant power in the north of the Netherlands.
What to do: Walk every path. The garden is small enough five minutes could cover it, but I always spend twenty because the rose beds in the northern corner are genuinely extraordinary in June. Sit on the bench near the sundial if you want to read in total quiet.
Best time: Late afternoon on a weekday, when the light falls across the hedges in long golden strips and only a handful of other people are around. Saturday mornings bring families with small children, which is lovely but louder.
Insider detail: The sundial at the center was donated by the University of Groningen in 1964. If you read the Latin inscription (and your Latin is better than mine, which is barely functional), it references the concept of time as a gift which feels surprisingly moving when you are sitting there doing absolutely nothing.
The Prinsentuin connects to Groningen's identity as a university city in a way that most visitors never realize. The garden has hosted readings, intimate graduation celebrations, and the occasional protest sit-in over the years. It is not just a pretty square of grass, it is a civic space that the university and the city have shared for four centuries.
If you come on a Sunday between May and September, you may catch one of the free chamber music recitals held at the rear of the Prinsenhof building. They are not always well advertised, but the sound carries beautifully into the garden. I stumbled into one by accident in 2019 and stood listening for a full hour without moving.
Climbing the Martinikerk Tower (Martinitoren)
I need to be precise about costs here because this one trips people up. The Martinikerk, the medieval church on the Grote Markt, frequently offers free entry to the church nave itself, though the schedule rotates and you should check locally on the day you visit. The tower, however, does normally require a small fee for climbing. What I want to focus on here is the experience at the base and the surrounds, which costs nothing and is arguably the most powerful free-stop in the entire city.
Stand on the Vismarkt side of the Martinikerk and look at the brickwork up close. The current church dates from the 15th century, but the tower's history stretches back even further and it has been struck by lightning, damaged by siege, and partially collapsed at various points. The whole structure is slightly crooked. Yes, the Martinitoren genuinely leans, Pisa-style, by roughly one metre at the top. You can see it if you stand at the right angle on the Grote Markt looking northward.
What to look for: The carvings above the southern entrance depict biblical scenes mixed with agricultural motifs that reflect Groningen's identity as a city built on grain trade. Zoom in with your phone camera if you cannot see them from street level.
Best time: Early on a weekday, maybe eight or nine in the morning, when the Grote Markt is mostly empty and you can hear the bells ringing across the square without traffic noise drowning them out. The bells ring in the mornings and on Saturdays, and if you have never heard a carillon from inside a square, it physically resonates in your chest.
Local connection: The Martinitoren is so central to Groningen's identity that locals use it as a landmark in jokes and sayings. Every native Groninger knows the tower, and many will tell you it is Groningen's version of the Eiffel Tower, delivered with a completely straight face that never quite lets you in on whether they are joking.
My insider tip is to walk the full perimeter of the church along the pedestrian path that runs around it. The eastern side opens onto a narrow lane with an almost claustrophobic feel, pressed right against the old wall. Very few tourists find this side, and it gives you a sense of scale that the wide-open Grote Markt never can.
The Noorderplantsoen
The Noorderplantsoen is a long, narrow English-style garden park that runs along the Noorderbinnervaart just north of the city center. It was designed in the 1880s by the Belgian garden architect Louis Zocher, and it is the park where Groningers actually go to relax, walk their dogs, jog, or sit on the grass eating takeaway from the nearby takeaway shops on the Oosterstraat.
What to do: Buy nothing, bring a book, and find a spot near the water. In late spring and summer, the hostas along the canal bank are enormous. In autumn, the beeches turn a colour that makes you want to call someone you have not spoken to yet. The outdoor theatre sometimes hosts free performances during the summer months (which I will cover separately), and listening to music drifting across the grass at dusk is one of those things that makes you quietly grateful to live here, or to be visiting here.
Best time: Weekday afternoons between May and September. Weekends are fine but significantly busier, and the benches near the eastern entrance fill up fast with families and groups of students after about noon.
Genuine complaint I have: The public toilets at the Noorderplantsoen are limited and can be in rough shape by late afternoon on busy summer weekends. There is a reason most longtime visitors have a specific nearby café they duck into instead.
The park connects to Groningen's 19th-century expansion beyond the old canal ring. When the city needed green space for a growing professional class, the Noorderplantsoen was the answer, and its design reflects the era's obsession with English garden pedagogy as a moral and aesthetic project. You are walking through someone's very specific Victorian-era idea of what social harmony should look like in shrub form.
My insider tip is the small, mostly forgotten statue near the northern end of the park close to the Der Aa-kerk side. It is a memorial to something most people cannot identify on sight, and even I had to look it up. Walk to it deliberately rather than hoping to notice it.
The Groninger Museum's Outdoor Collection and Surrounds
I will not pretend the Groninger Museum itself is free, because the interior galleries charge admission and it is worth the money. But the area surrounding the museum, including the canal walk along the Museumplein and the modern art installations positioned in the public outdoor spaces, is completely free to experience. The museum sits on its own small island called the Praamgracht and is connected to the mainland by a long pedestrian walkway designed by Alessandro Mendini.
What to look for: The exterior architecture alone justifies the walk over. The building is a fragmented, multicolored design by Mendini, Philippe Starck, and others, and each pavilion looks like it was designed by a different person with a different personality, which is essentially what happened. Walk slowly and look up. The public benches along the canal in front of the museum face outward toward the inner spire of the city, and the view is unusual in a way that photographs never capture properly.
Best time: Sunday mornings, when the museum area is quiet and the light reflects off the water onto the multicolored facades. By Sunday afternoon, families and dog-walkers flood the path and you lose the contemplative quality.
What most people skip: The small courtyard area on the far (eastern) side of the museum island behind the main building. There are seating areas and occasional rotating art pieces visible from the public path that have nothing to do with the paid exhibition inside.
The Groninger Museum connects to Groningen's ongoing argument with itself about what kind of city it wants to be. Some people love the building. Some people genuinely hate it. Everyone has an opinion, and Groninger does not suffer architectural indifference, should tell you everything about the Groningen character.
My insider tip is to walk the eastern bank of the canal from the museum toward the Gedempte Zuiderdiep, a short walk that takes you past some of the most interesting modern residential architecture in the city. Many of these buildings won awards, and the whole stretch feels like a design exhibition that admission charges forgot to levied on.
Exploring the Viaductweg Area and Street Art in Zernike
The Zernike campus of the University of Groningen, located on the northern outskirts of the city along the Antonius Deusinglaan, is not where most tourists think to go. But the area around the campus and the pedestrian/cycling paths connecting it to the Broerstraat and beyond contain some of the best street art in Groningen. Over the past decade, the city and student organizations have commissioned murals on the university buildings and underpasses, and the quality is strikingly high.
What to see: Walk the cycling tunnel under the Eikenlaan near the campus. The walls inside are covered in commissioned murals that rotate periodically, so what you see in 2025 may not be what someone saw in 2023. The underpass near the Harmonie building of the university also has a mural of note.
Best time: Midday is ideal, because the cycling tunnels need ambient light and the reflective surfaces work best in full daylight. Evening visits are not recommended because the tunnels feel isolated after dark.
What most people do not know: The Zernike campus was built on land that was agricultural until the 1960s, and before that, part of it was used as a military training ground during the Second World War. Some older Groningers still refer to remnants of that era they remember from childhood, though visible traces are almost gone.
Free attractions Groningen has to offer rarely get spoken about in the context of street art, but this area deliberately punches above its weight. The commissions are part of a broader city policy to integrate art into infrastructure, which started gaining real momentum around 2010.
My insider tip is to rent a bike (I know this technically costs money, but bike rental is cheap and can be done through the city's system) and ride from Zernike south along the dedicated bike highways toward the center. You will pass through a slice of Groningen's spatial planning philosophy. The city was one of the first in the world to deliberately prioritize cycling over cars in urban design, and the infrastructure between Zernike and the Grote Markt is a living example of that commitment.
The Oude Kerk (Hoftuin) Courtyard Walk
The Hoftuin, the courtyard associated with the former Oude Kerk (Old Church) on the Hoofdstraat between the Folkingestraat and the Vlamstraat, is one of those "free things to do in Groningen" that I show people and they react with genuine surprise that it exists. The courtyard is a walled, tranquil space with old trees and benches, and it is open to the public during most daylight hours.
What to do: Walk the perimeter and then sit. That is it. The point is the silence and the sense of impermanence in a city. The Oude Kerk itself was largely demolished in the 19th century, and only fragments of its original structure remain visible in the current building on the site. The courtyard is what remains of a much larger church complex, and walking it gives you a physical sense of scale that the exterior of the building never communicates.
Best time: Lunch hour on a weekday, when office workers from the nearby Vismarkt-Grote Markt commercial area drift in with their sandwiches. It is the closest thing Groningen has to a secret lunch garden, though I have just ruined that by writing about it.
Detail tourists miss: The memorial plaque on the western wall references the Napoleonic era, when the church was used as a military warehouse. The plaque is a small rectangle of brass that almost nobody reads, but it connects this quiet courtyard directly to the French occupation of the Netherlands.
The Hoftuin is a perfect example of budget travel Groningen done intelligently: you are reading the layered history of a city through a space you pay nothing to enter. I have taken friends there who planned to spend for an hour in the city center and ended up lingering for the rest of the afternoon.
My insider tip is to look down as well as up. Some of the cobblestones in the courtyard look newer than others. The older ones are original to the church complex and have been worn smooth by centuries of footsteps, including, presumably, footsteps that predate the Reformation.
Attending Free Events at the Eurosonic Noorderslag Public Program and STAD
Eurosonic Noorderslag, the major music industry festival held every January, includes a large and partially free component called the public program, which features free performances at various venues across the city center. The performances in public squares and non-ticketed venues draw huge crowds and completely transform the normally calm winter streets into something electric.
What to do: Check the schedule during the festival week in January and show up early for the free sets at the outdoor stages and the non-ticketed indoor venues. The Grote Markt and Vismarkt stages are free to access, and the quality of music, much of it from emerging European artists, is extraordinarily high.
What most people do not know: The festival has been running since 1996 and has launched the careers of several major European acts. GroningerNoorderslag essentially invented a model that many other European cities have since copied.
A lesser-known recurring event is the free programming at STAD, the cultural and arts platform in the city center. They host free talks, screenings, and community gatherings throughout the year, and while they are not always well-publicized outside of local social media channels, they are worth seeking out.
My insider tip for festival season is that the small free stages often feature artists who later become headliners. In 2023, I saw a band at a free outdoor stage that I had never heard of. Six months later, they were playing sold-out shows across the Netherlands. Free events in this city have a funny way of repaying your attention.
The broader point is that Groningen takes its cultural access seriously. "Free attractions Groningen" is not just about physical places, it is also about a civic philosophy that public culture should be open to everyone. That philosophy is alive in these programs and shows no signs of going anywhere.
Exploring the Folkingestraat and Korenbeurs Historic Commercial Walk
The Folkingestraat is a street in the center of Groningen that has been a commercial thoroughfare since the medieval period. It runs south from the Vismarkt toward the Folkingestraat's intersection with the Oosterstraat and is lined with a mixture of independent shops, cafés, and buildings that date to various points between the 17th and 20th centuries. Walking it costs nothing, and you get a concentrated dose of Groningen's commercial history.
What to see: The Korenbeurs, the historic grain exchange building, is visible from the western side of the Folkingestraat. It was the place where farmers and merchants traded grain (back when Groningen's wealth was built almost literally on grain), and its façade is a modest but historically important piece of commercial architecture. Look for the distinctive gable design and the date-stones embedded in the brickwork.
Best time: Weekday mornings before ten, when the light is soft and the delivery trucks are still parked along the street. The glow from the older brick façades in early morning light is genuinely beautiful, and the contrast with the modern storefront signage tells the story of a city that has never stopped reinventing itself.
What most people skip: The small side alley connecting the Folkingestraat to the Grote Markt, sometimes called the "steeg" by locals, contains some of the oldest surviving brickwork in the central commercial area. It is only about forty meters long, and I estimate maybe one in twenty people walking the Folkingestreates down it.
Free sightseeing Groningen gets a lot of attention for the postcard landmarks, but the Folkingestraat is where you see the city's actual commercial DNA on display. The street has been a place for trade for something like 600 years, and the bones of that history are visible in every façade if you slow down enough to look.
My local tip is to notice that the Folkingestraat gets busier and more chaotic after about eleven, and by lunch hour on a Saturday it is genuinely hard to walk quickly. If you want the contemplative version of this street, come early. If you want the energy of Groningen in full commercial swing, come at noon on a Saturday. Both experiences are free, and both are authentic.
When to Go / What to Know
The best months for free things to do in Groningen are May through September, when the parks, courtyards, and canal walks are at their most pleasant and the outdoor cultural programming is in full swing. January is worth a trip if you want the Eurosonic Noorderslag free program, but be prepared for genuine cold. Groningen in January regularly drops below freezing, and the wind coming off the flat farmland to the south has a bite that will go straight through any jacket you thought was warm enough.
Parking in Groningen is not free, and there is no honest way to pretend otherwise. If you are arriving by car, use the park-and-ride facilities on the city edges and bike or bus in. The city center is designed for cycling, not cars, and driving into the binnenstad in search of free parking is a fool's errand that will cost you time instead of money. The principal bike rental option through the city's bike-share system, cost per day, which is the honest solution.Bring a rain jacket in any season. I have lived here for over twelve years and the rain is not occasional, it is structural. Waterproof layers are the single best investment a visitor to Groningen can make, more important than comfortable shoes, and I say this as someone who has been soaked through in every month including July.
If you are planning "budget travel Groningen" as a multi-day visit, buy a regional travel pass for buses if you do not want to cycle. The buses connect the city center to the Noord town and the western neighborhoods efficiently, and the pass will save you from buying individual tickets repeatedly. Most walking distances within the canal ring are manageable, everything in the core historic center is roughly fifteen minutes' walk from the Grote Markt at most.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the most popular attractions in Groningen require advance ticket booking, especially during peak season?
The Groninger Museum advises booking online in advance during July and August, as timed-entry slots can sell out 2-3 days ahead. The Martinitoren does not require advance booking for the tower climb, but queues of 20-30 minutes are common on summer weekends. Free public programming at the Prinsentuin or the Noorderplantsoen outdoor theatre does not require tickets. Eurosonic Noorderslag's free stages require no advance booking, but free non-ticketed indoor shows fill on a first-come, first-served basis, arriving 30-45 minutes early.
Is Groningen expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.
A mid-tier daily budget in Groningen runs approximately EUR 70-90 per person excluding accommodation. A sit-down lunch averages EUR 14-18, dinner at a casual restaurant EUR 20-28. Bus tickets within the city cost roughly EUR 2.50 per ride or about EUR 7 for a day pass. The Groninger Museum charges around EUR 15 for adult admission. Many parks, churches, courtyards, and outdoor spaces remain completely free. Students and anyone under 25 can access significant discounts at most museums and cultural venues.
Is it possible to walk between the main sightseeing spots in Groningen, or is local transport necessary?
The vast majority of central Groningen's main landmarks are within a 15-20 minute walk of the Grote Markt. The Martinikerk, Prinsentuin, Folkingestraat, inner canal ring, and Hoftuin are all within the canal ring or immediately adjacent. The Groninger Museum is about a 12-minute walk or a 5-minute bike ride from the Grote Markt across the canal. The Noorderplantsoen is roughly a 15-minute walk north or a short bus ride. The Zernike campus area is the notable exception, by bike or bus from the center.
What are the best free or low-cost tourist places in Groningen that are genuinely worth the visit?
The Prinsentuin Renaissance garden, the Hoftuin courtyard, the inner canal ring walkway, and the Noorderplantsoen park are all genuinely free and worth several hours of your time. The exterior of the Groninger Museum and the surrounding canal walk are free and architecturally significant. Street art around the Zernike campus cycling tunnels is free and impressive. The Folkingestreates and Korenbeurs area offer free historic commercial architecture viewing of real quality.
How many days are needed to see the major tourist attractions in Groningen without feeling rushed?
Three full days is the minimum to cover the Grote Markt, Martinikerk, canal ring, Prinsentuin, Groninger Museum, Folkingestraat, and Noorderplantsoen without rushing. Four to five days allows time for the Zernike campus area, specific courtyards, free seasonal events, and a slower pace. Groningen is compact, one of the reasons so many free attractions are within walking distance of each other. Two days is possible but will feel compressed, especially if you want to sit on benches and do nothing, which is honestly one of the best free things to do in Groningen.
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