Let us know your experiences living in Amersfoort.

Guest23Guest27 February 2022 00:13:20

Hi,
My husband and I (retired) live half the year in NL - Heemstede - and half in New Zealand. We鈥檝e also lives in the US and Germany and travelled widely. We鈥檙e聽 thinking of moving from Heemstede, close to Haarlem, to Amersfoort, but are concerned we won鈥檛 be able to meet like-minded people.聽 I am a member of the very active American Women鈥檚 Club of Amsterdam. (AWCA) and love their book group. I鈥檓 a retired English teacher and teach refugees here in New Zealand. My husband is a scientist. We both speak fluent Dutch.
I鈥檓 worried that Amersfoort is too 鈥榩rovincial鈥� and conservative. Again, here in NZ we are members of various groups concerned about climate change and would love to get involved in similar groups in Amersfoort, if there are any!
Please let us know your experiences living in Amersfoort.
Kind regards,
Lyn

gracesaribay Active member

Member since 10 January 2022

gracesaribayActive member27 February 2022 05:39:48

Hi Lyn,

Amersfoort is one of the nicest and beautiful city in The Netherlands. It might not be a very big city like Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag or Rotterdam but its a fine city actually. And it's really near amsterdam and utrecht and not 鈥渢oo provincial鈥� unlike gelderland. I dont know how much do you know about netherlands but i think you have to explore all the cities first before you get worry about something. Even if you decided to live in Amsterdam there are still people that not 鈥渓ike-minded鈥� that you might encounter with. Living somewhere in the middle of the netherlands isn鈥檛 a bad decision. And i think wherever you and your husband settles, you can always find a nice organization to join and enjoy with. Good luck!

Grace

Guest23 Guest

Guest23Guest27 February 2022 07:36:51

Hi Grace,
Thanks for your advice. We have lived in Heemstede in the west of NL for over 40 years so know a lot about the country. My concern is the move from the west, where there are many ex-pats to the east, where there might not be so many. What I鈥檇 really like to know is who I can contact in Amersfoort who can give me the rundown on living there as a non-Dutch person: specific information on groups active there, social networks etc.
Hope you can help or put me in touch with someone who can.
Kind regards,
Lyn

Cynic UK/Netherlands Expert

Member since 15 September 2015

CynicUK/Netherlands Expert27 February 2022 10:25:46

8078

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

We lived further east in Enschede; in the 40 years we've been associated with the area, I've never heard of any "Engelse of American Verenigings"; met plenty of English speaking expats, but we seem to have integrated or married into Dutch society.

Personally, I would encourage all expats to learn Dutch and integrate into society.

Guest23 Guest

Guest23Guest27 February 2022 18:26:53

Thanks, Cynic.
In fact we are very well integrated in Heemstede, but there is a large international community and I like that. I just want to hear what other non-Dutch people think of living in Amersfoort, that鈥檚 all.